Summer Reading · 5:44am Jun 29th, 2014
Hey everyone. For those of you who know, it's summer time now and for me that means one thing: time for me to go all Twilight Sparkle on some books. Over the past couple of months I've read Bioshock: Rapture (the prequel story to the Bioshock video games), I finished reading Game of Thrones, and I read a few manga that I picked up at Portcon last weekend. Right now I'm currently reading what is becoming one of the saddest books I've read since I first read the Harry Potter books as a little kid. It's a light novel (a light novel for those of you not in the know is a a form of Japanese novel normally targeted at kids and teens) called Ballad of a Shinigami (A Shinigami is a Japanese God of Death).
Basically it's a book made up of different short stories revolving around a young girl Shinigami, told from the view points of the people she meets when it's time for her to escort someone to the afterlife. The first story was just alright, but the second one...well, let's just say the second one made me choke up more than a bit. I don't know if anyone else out there has read this story (or any of however many sequels there are), but if you like sad/dramatic, anime style short stories (and don't mind those stories that revolve around death), then I recommend it.
Another light novel that I plan on reading just as soon as I'm finished with Ballad of a Shinigami is one that I am very excited for (because I've seen the first season of he anime, and I love the anime): Spice & Wolf. For those of you who haven't seen the anime, read the manga, or light novels (which actually came out before the manga or the anime), Spice & Wolf is the story of Kraft Lawrence, a traveling merchant who suddenly finds himself in the company of Holo the Wisewolf, a wolf who can take on the form of a human woman. While I first thought the anime was going to be boring, what with it's in depth talk of business and what not, I actually found it quite enjoyable, so I decided to pick up the novel series that inspired the show.
After that, who knows. I might finish reading Spiral (which is the sequel to Ring, the Japanese novel about people dying seven days after watching a mysterious video tape...you know, like in the movie that it inspired), or finish reading Waiting for Spring, which was written by an old co-worker of mine, of I might pick up one of the books that I literally have piled up in a corner of my room (I could also try to be like all the other people my age, and read something written for grown ups). All I know is that when it comes to reading, the sky's the limit.
Speaking of which, is anyone else reading any good books this summer?
On an unrelated note, before anyone asks, yes, the next chapter of The Marvelous Misadventures of Shining Armor and the CMC is coming along. I'm actually rather enjoying this part of the story, although I am having a bit of a difficult time writing Cadence (that's right, I'm still insisting on spelling it with an e). I'm also trying to decide if I should continue with my original plan and make it one big chapter like I'd been doing, of split it up into two shorter chapters similar to the earlier parts of the story. I guess I'll keep writing it, and see how I like it when it's done. Alright, that's it for me, g'night ya'll.
No insult intended, but Shinigami no Ballad always felt like an inferior knock-off of Shigofumi to me.
Do you know if the light novels are better than the anime?
(I'm a big reader but rarely get the opportunity to try light novels so I ran across both as anime instead. I tried both but never really got beyond the second or third episode of SnB (can't remember which) while Shigofumi held me to the end. They have a similar concept and Shigofumi began as a light novel too, but the plot of Shigofumi is that the main character is delivering last letters from the deceased.)
I don't want to reveal more about the plot but I will say that Shigofumi is probably the only story I've encountered where, in the beginning, I felt nothing about the tragedy in each episode but, as the "main" character slowly got drawn into the mortal events, becoming more "main" and actually starting to have an emotional involvement, so did I. Quite cleverly done, to be honest, and only 13 episodes.
I've actually never heard of Shingofumi, but is does sound interesting, so I'll probably check it out. As for Shinigami no Ballad, I think it's alright, although now I'm interested in seeing the show so I can compare them.