Morning Meanderings…. Books For Breakfast

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)

Good morning!  😀

This past Monday on the Monday What Are You reading Meme, Sarah from Puss Reboots mentioned she was having coffee and Manga in the morning.  I don’t know why , but that sounded as good as my morning oatmeal…. maybe even better.

Never one to back down from a personal challenge, I thought maybe this is about the time that I should try Manga.  I have never read it…. honestly… I was not even 100% sure what it was.  😯

So… Tuesday afternoon I made my way to my local library and back to the graphic novel section.  I stood in front of these books feeling incredibly out of place.  Honestly… I was not even sure what I was looking for.  I picked up random titles and thumbed through them…. a couple teenagers passed by me slowly but I continued to pretend I knew what I was doing. 

Were all graphic novels manga? 

Then I seen on a couple books where it actually said Manga! I picked them up and flipped through them…. they looked much like the other graphic novels except I found out a lot about Manga really fast in the front of one of the books:

1.  Manga is (are?) Japanese books written in an almost cartoon or graphic style format.

2.  Manga reads right to left, the opposite of the way that we all learned to read..

First of all, most manga is read from RIGHT TO LEFT, not left to right. Speech bubbles, words and sound effects are also read from right to left.

3.  You start at the back of the book and read forward.

Wow…. a literary workout.

SO…. in honor of my Manga attempt, I am having Manga for breakfast this morning.  COFFEE CUP is at hand and a dose of Manga to start my day…

I will let you know soon how I felt about Manga.  Will it become a breakfast staple?  An occasional treat?  Or will I find it not to my liking? 


Have you read any Manga?  If so, what was it and did you like it? 

36 thoughts on “Morning Meanderings…. Books For Breakfast”

  2. I am very jealous that you are sitting outside in the sun in SHORT SLEEVES in Minnesota! Not happening here in Wisconsin by the lake. On to the topic at hand. I have not read any Manga but my daughter loves to read it. She also loves to draw the characters and will sit for hours getting her pictures just right. Somehow I can’t get into reading a book backwards. It just goes against everything I have ever learned about reading.

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    1. That was my morning shot before work Beth – now that I am home it is a tank top – it just got warmer today 😀 YAY!!!

      I am fascinated with Manga because it is different but do not see myself reading this often.

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    1. I have read a couple Graphic Novels- I think both were suggested by Angie in my book club…. I liked The Arrival by Shaun Tan…. I like that they offer different genres within graphic novels, and some I have seen have a nice story line to them.

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  4. I have tried Manga but I think I picked the wrong books for me. They are extremely popular with teens so I need to familarize myself with it more. I do know the names of various popular manga series but it is good to keep up with it. Good luck! I hope you will enjoy the manga you are reading. It does take some getting used to.

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    1. Our library did not have a lot to choose form and even this one I have is not the first in the series…. its a little odd… a lot comic bookish…..

      perhaps there are other genres – I just need to research more. 🙂

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  5. Probably not my thing, but I didn’t know that you read the book right to left and back of the book forward.

    Might it not give you indigestion, having it for breakfast? LOL

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  6. My 11 and 13 year old daughters are into manga. I have read two books; one I liked and the other I did not. I do struggle a bit with the format; seems a bit choppy for me, but I figure that I will eventually adjust to the style if I continue down the manga path.

    I found that manga are truly stories; not cartoons. Because they are stories, there is a variety of stories and genres out there just like fiction books. I am not huge into manga but it is in my house so I bet I will pick up another book soonish.

    The manga book that I really liked is called Emma. I wish I was able to read the entire series but it is not in my library and at 9.99 for each book, well, I just cannot afford to buy the series either.

    My favorite manga series is Fullmetal Alchemist but I will admit that it is my favorite because of the anime series that I have been fully immersed.

    Good luck with the reading style; if you can adjust to that then remember there are all types of manga out there.

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    1. Thak you – I needed that information. Emma sounds interesting and I am all for stories in this format…. but can not get into comic bookish fantasy sci fi…. ugh…. never could 😀

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    1. It helped me too Ann… when I actively went looking for Manga I wasn’t even sure I was in the right section…. I thought it was like a graphic novel…. and turned out it sort of is…. 😛

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  9. You should certainly let us know how you find it. I haven’t read manga, and am not sure it is for me. But I would love the perfect book to start with!

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  10. I have, and the ones that I really liked were in the Emma Series by Kaoru Mori. The series is about the life of a maid in England.

    Hehe! Now I’m looking closer at the cover of the book in your hand and realizing that it looks like an Emma book! I’m curious now – which book are you reading?

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    1. Its called Time Guardian: never Run Out Of Time Again (hmmm… wonder why I chose it? LOL) Emma is on the back… errr…. front of the book with a page about book four… this one has a maid girl in it… could be her…. I am barely into it. 😛

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  12. My love of reading was actually started with Manga. My friend let me Borrow her book MARS by Fuyumi Soryo I loved it after that I continued reading more and more manga until I realized I needed books that lasted longer and transitioned to YA lol. I still read manga it’s been like 5 years since I started =] I’m curious too what manga book are you reading?

    as always ♥, Carol

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  13. I read manga (a little) actually, I read romance manga despite my absolute hatred for romance novels in print. With manga it’s different I guess 😛

    The only thing that stinks is manga is expensive, and reading them takes less than a day so I take them out of the library instead of buying them. Except the Sailor Moon ones, those I will buy!

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  15. I used to watch a lot of manga with my ex and thoroughly enjoyed it but never really got into reading it until the Mini Challenge from In Spring it is the Dawn.

    Since my tv and games console days of manga i have loved Naruto one of the most commercial mangas and i still love it!

    The only problem i have with graphic novels is they are quite pricey for something that could be considered as just a cartoon.

    I hope you enjoy it 😀

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  17. I would recommend Zodiac PI… she uses astrology to solve mysteries. You can also ask your library about inter-library loans. I get most of my manga from libraries outside of my actually library system.

    For “hardship and triumph” I’d recommend Hope Larson’s graphic novels. She’s a Canadian YA author.

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