January reading list

Somehow this turned into a major manga month.  How could I have only read three books in a month?  Hmm.  Actually I started two that I didn’t bother to finish.  Must do better in February!

Manga/Graphic Novels
Death Note 3 – This was my “decide whether to stop or not” volume.  I figured I’d stop reading this title (the whole two geniuses with forced logic always being right thing was bugging me) but with the twist at the end (not telling!) I think the next volume might be interesting.
Hands Off! 5
MeruPuri 3
Prince of Tennis 11
Tokyo Boys & Girls 3
Ultra Maniac 4
Whistle! 9
Saiyuki 1-9 and Saiyuki Reload 1-2 – This one was on my list of things to read/watch someday.  I picked up the first volume of anime at the used store and didn’t make it through much.  I wasn’t fond of the art.  I got the first volume of manga for Christmas and I ended up liking it much more than the anime.  Volume 2 made me like the main characters even more, what with the mysterious back story hints.  The villains are actually more sympathetic than the heroes.  I love that.   I’m going to keep going with the manga, I think.  I’m now addicted to this manga. 
Jazz 1
Midori Days 3
Ouran High School Host Club 4 – Talked about it briefly in another post, but let me just add that I really missed the use of the word “blib” during the crying scenes in this volume.  For some reason it really cracks me up.  Blib.  heh heh.
Shinobu Kokoro – Yaoi with ninjas! This is a standalone volume divided into three different sets/groups of stories.  The first two chapters with the pervy ninja master who trains his clueless young student for a very “special” mission were a bit silly, I thought.  (Ninjas cosplaying with school uniforms!)  A second set of ninjas explore love and loyalty while on a mission and the third set of stories were the tamest, but sweetest, I thought.  A snow spirit (Miyuki) rescues a boy named Futuba from a storm and reveals he’s been watching over him for years.  As summer comes and the snow spirit weakens, Futaba must deal with his sudden loneliness. 
W Juliet 8
Ghost Hunt 2 – I had picked up the first one and thought it was okay, but not worth buying.  I borrowed volume 2 and it was actually much better.  The ghost story in this one was pretty good – kind of creepy, really.  If I had paid money for it I wouldn’t have been disappointed.  The basic premise of the series is a high school girl goes to work for a paranormal investigator that she met when he came to check out poltergeist activity at her school (vol 1). 
Nightmare Before Christmas (manga vers.) – I should have just rewatched the movie instead.  I didn’t really like this one at all.
Samurai Deeper Kyo 1-2
DearS 1-2
Wallflower 6
Gunslinger Girl 1-2
Decendents of Darkness 9
Here is Greenwood 8
Dazzle 1
Sengoku Nights 1
Land of the Blindfolded 6
Squee by Jhonen Vasquez (reread)
Dramacon 1 – This was one of my “read for free” choices and it totally backfired!  I think I wasn’t even halfway through before I told myself that I really needed to own this book.  In fact I bopped around the store for the rest of the afternoon telling anyone that I thought might care that they had to read Dramacon too.  Only one person took me up on it, though. heh.  And later she called me a bad, bad influence, so I think she went out and bought it herself after reading it, too.  (except I haven’t actually bought mine yet – oops!)  I really liked the art, and the story was wonderful.  It had a great mix of drama, humour, and goofiness.  I checked out the artist’s webpage and it looks like she has a couple of other online comics as well, but there’s no word yet on when Tokyopop will be releasing the second volume. (awwww!)   A word of caution if you haven’t read Dramacon yet – the author’s site has a link to a preview of the book, but it’s pretty far into the story.  There were Major spoilers revealed and I’m glad I didn’t see the preview before reading the book.  It would have really made a difference in how much I enjoyed it.  Geez, Tokyopop! Ah! Here’s a really abbreviated version of the story: a young writer attends her first anime/comic (?) convention with her boyfriend to debut an amateur comic they created together.  Her boyfriend turns out to be a flirtatious jerk who can’t keep his eyes off of other girls.  She ends up meeting a mysterious, snotty young man and starts to fall for him…  Wackiness and drama ensues.  Go and read it!
Earthian 1
Monster 1
Beauty is the Beast 1 (reread)
Kizuna 5
Pretty Maniacs 2
Oh My Goddess 21
Tramps Like Us 8
Crossroad 2
Tenshi na Jai! 2
Sequence

Books
Anyone But You – Jennifer Crusie
Size 12 is Not Fat – Meg Cabot
Carpe Demon – Julie Kenner