I’ve been thinking about where I’m going with this blog. When I first started in March, I was very excited to post about two things I love but don’t get to talk about much: used bookstores and comics collections in libraries. But visiting bookstores and libraries right now is difficult, and it’s not likely to become easier and safer any time soon.

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Meanwhile, I’ve aquired a lot of manga since the early weeks of quarantine. At first, it was out-of-print series, stuff that I had overlooked as a youth. Soon, I was moving on to more recent titles targeted at older readers, like BL Metamorphosis and The Way of the House Husband. As my #tbr pile continued to grow, I remembered something:

I like manga. I really, really like reading manga! I like learning about it, and I like writing about it, too.

However, while I certainly have experience writing formally (i.e., academically) about publishing and literature, my past discussions about manga have been much more…casual and meandering.

So now I’m putting that English degree of mine to use and working on two longer posts — one about sports comics, one about portrayals of women professionals in manga — that I’m particularly motivated to share. They’re going to require some extra reading and bit more time, but I’m aiming to get one out by the end of August.

I’m not sure whether I want to pivot this blog entirely in that direction. I still have stuff to say about original English-language comics and still want to talk about local collections. Either way, beyond these two upcoming pieces, I’m feeling fairly confident about my ability to write about manga in a way that ties in with the blog’s original themes.

Anyway, here are some exciting recent additions to the SpiderHouses’ living room library, including some that I hope to write about soon: