Way back in February of last year, I decided to sign myself up for someone’s 2013 Manga Reading Challenge. Setting a lofty goal of 250 volumes with a minimum of 80 series of multi-volume length for myself, I kicked off the Challenge full of optimism and spirit, determined to read and write about as much manga as could get my hands on.
Well, it only takes a quick glance at my 2013 Manga Reading Challenge category to see how quickly that dream went down the drain. Truth be told, I forgot about my goal a couple weeks into the Challenge and settled for reading whatever seemed interesting with the Challenge acting only as a bit of motivation to keep reading. With my list starting out at a generous mere 100 completed series at the start of the Challenge and ending up at its current size of 168, I, to no one’s surprise, ended up falling a bit short of my series goal…and probably horrifically short on my volume goal. That said, if anything, I would say the Challenge ended up being a great success.
I originally took up the Challenge because I wanted to read more manga, to get back into something that I had been sorely neglecting for a while. And I did exactly that. Because of that I also (re)learned some things about how my reading habits have developed over the years. To name a few:
– I realized that I enjoy reading a surprising amount of BL, a genre I suspect I’ve simply swapped shoujo out for (90% OF WHAT I READ IS FLUFF I SWEAR).
– Despite my best efforts to grow out of shoujo, my affection for it still plays a large part in what I choose to read though I now recognize a lot of its flaws. As a result, I’ve discovered some absolutely lovely series (Horimiya, Last Game and Daytime Shooting Star) that make me all warm and fuzzy on the inside (save for you and your stinking painful love triangle, Daytime Shooting Star), soliciting many a goofy smile and “D’awww”.
– I ended up getting sucked into Attack on Titan (I still haven’t gotten past episode one of the anime LOL) and have become one of those people who anxiously await each new chapter (desperately hoping for some answers to the seemingly endless number of questions). Note: The reason this mentioned is because I never thought I’d actually ever read Attack on Titan…or get as into as I did.
– I’ve actually managed to catch up on a number of series…and quickly discovered how crappy the wait in-between chapters can be. Among them, the ones I look forward to the most are Akagami no Shirayukihime, Akame ga Kill, Iris Zero (this was a pleasant surprise), and Saezuru Tori wa Habatakana.
To be honest, I don’t think I even read any of the “serious” series I was planning to when I originally started. I know that doesn’t sound too successful but let me explain. I think I mentioned this a post or two ago but I’ve discovered rather quickly that regardless of my aspirations, I’m not an overly serious person. I should probably read manga with more substance to them and poo-poo all the fluff and mindless cheese I read, but I love that stuff. I’ll get to the serious stuff eventually, but for now, I’m really quite happy to read my fluffy BL, shoujo and shounen.
I may not have completed my goals, but I had a blast this past year rediscovering manga. Though I’m not dumb enough to set up another silly manga goal for 2014 (I’m replacing it with a silly anime related project or two instead), I’ll definitely keep trying to grow my Read list bit by bit and keep finding series I love. Who knows, maybe one day, far in the distant future, I’ll finally get to 200+? (… a girl can dream).
Amateur Rambling 