I did that when I first started reading Japanese, but I realized I was damaging the spine from the oil on my fingers. Now I just remove the obi and keep the cover on when reading. (And yes, I keep the obi and put it back on the book when I’m done.)
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my physical books all get paper covers for reading (usually made from some left over wrapping paper), but I don’t want to damage the cover they come in. Bonus: It also hides what I am reading from the public eye and thus avoids curious stares and/or questions. 
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Half my physical manga have high school girls that look like middle school girls on the cover. What could possibly go wrong…
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Same! Also, sometimes I think the Obis look cool, haha. I keep a box of obi I’ve collected (Japanese books are so rare to find here - much less ones with obi!)
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Oddly enough that’s actually what I like about them… You get like a little glimpse of whatever was going on in the novel/manga/anime world when that particular edition was released… Or occasionally it’s stuff I might actually be interested in
It’s like how the resale value of action figures drops without their original box, even tho it serves very little purpose… Or various other collectibles I imagine
(Well, they can be a little helpful for certain figures when you have to move houses/apartments)
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Picked up ガイコツ書店員本田さん① at Half Price Books yesterday! It was $5, which is right around list price, which is fairly cheap for JP books there; it’s not uncommon to see them 2x or even 3x or 4x list price; I guess foreign-language books are considered “rare.” They also had the first vol of テニプリ for ~list price, but it looked like someone had dropped food on every single page, so I put it back. This one’s in perfect condition aside from some sticker residue or whatnot on the front of the jacket I had to remove with packing tape (out of Goo Gone)
This has been on my wishlist for forever but I forgot it was a manga lol I think it’s the only one about books/bookshops that’s not a novel
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Ooh, nice find!!
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CDJapan order arrived!
Man, 理由 is chonky. It’s kinda funny that it came with a bookmark that reads “朝日文庫 ポケット文化の最前線” because uh, I know “pocket paperback” is just what the format is called, but I don’t think this one will exactly be fitting in any pockets lmao. It’s definitely the thickest JP book I own. And then I think 太宰を拾った日 is the thinnest novel, at only 140 pages (though it may be more like a short story duology).
素数とバレーボール I bought. simply because it’s called “Prime Numbers and Volleyball.” Apparently it’s the 2022で一番癒され小説. I thought it was some sort of mystery. Either way, I hope it’s good.
Anyway, I kept exactly one of the obi, and it was the one from 君には届かない。⑧ because it has the information that it’s got both a TV drama and an audio drama, and I am absolutely going to forget that otherwise.
haul
- 悲嘆の門 (上・中・下)
- 素数とバレーボール
- 牛肉と馬鈴薯・酒中日記
- 文豪ストレイドッグス 太宰を拾った日
- 理由
- 君には届かない。⑧・公式アンソロジーコミック
- given ⑧・➈
- 文豪ストレイドッグス①
- ONE PUNCH MAN①
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that cover of given 9 looks super nice… 
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I only paid 37 yen more for 146 books… 
Lots of sets, they’ve been arriving in several boxes over the past couple of days. 
Even I am thinking I may have a problem. 
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Man, where the heck to you keep them all? I suppose it could save on furniture, I suppose; just pile all the books in the shapes of chairs and such. 
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The dream! 
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Reminds me of my freshman year of college. This one guy kept stealing the yellow pages from the front desk until he had enough to build a chair.
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Thats cool.
I looked at sets but they all seemed to be BL.
Could have been looking in the wrong spot though?
Any sort of romance isn’t my thing except for a few exceptions.
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Huh, you’re right… Perhaps non-BL sets sell out quickly? They’re usually really good value.
Although it’s mostly BL, there are other some other sets available. I expect more would come up if you just search “set”, but there will probably be a lot of unrelated stuff in there, too. And not everything is displayed on the English site, some things you can only purchase through the Japanese site.
It might take a bit of digging, but hopefully you can find some bargains! 
ETA: I noticed that there’s still free shipping even though the event has ended. Not that I’m looking for an excuse to buy more, but… 
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Thanks! I’ll keep an eye out for good sets
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yahoo auction with a proxy is really good value for buying sets, usually. If there is something specific you are looking for.
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Suruga-ya haul came this week!! Now I’m just short 1 暁のヨナ volume! Didn’t realize how large the 4-koma stuff (New Game! and Bocchi the Rock) is. Also the paper & print quality is great! Accidentally got both types of Nausica editions (OG and film-to-manga)
List of everything
- NEW GAME! (series) | L24 complete series
- 暁のヨナ
- 花とゆめ 22号(2023年) | L30??
- 暁のヨナ (series) | L27 17-23 (vol 20 has the special art book on the side)
- Cyntia - 暁の華 (2nd OP for 暁のヨナ | L26 )
- 女性向け一般同人誌 - うちの腹へりたちを満腹にするレシピ!
- ぼっち・ざ・ろっく! (series) | L28 4-6
- 風の谷のナウシカ
- 風の谷のナウシカ (コミック) 1 | L35 (OG version, pre-dates Ghibli movie)
- 風の谷のナウシカ〈下〉 徳間アニメ絵本2 | L20?? (film to manga version)
- Fate / Type Moon
- TAKE MOON 武梨えり TYPE-MOON作品集 特別版 | L24??
- カーニバル・ファンタズム | L27
- CP 3 special edition = S3, EX, Prototype Material, and Melty Blood Actress Again
- マンガで分かる! Fate/Grand Order (series) | L24?? complete series
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I’m excited for you to discover this for the first time! Those are the exact reasons I buy most of my Kirara 4-koma manga physically! I just checked and I own 68 volumes physically and I buy more every year. (I do buy digital copies when there are good sales, but it’s not the same.)
By the way, if you think that’s good, they are starting to publish “complete” editions of their most popular manga. These versions are B5 (original magazine size) instead of A5 and include all the original color pages (popular series get the first two pages in some chapters in color in the magazine, but these are converted to black and white in the normal volumes). Here’s a comparison if you’re curious. This is ご注文はうさぎですか, but they recently started on New Game as well.
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