Books in 2024

I read 51 new books in 2024 (about the same as in 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.) But slightly differently.

I only read Manga this year.

1. Fullmetal Alchemist (Vol 12 – 27). What started off as a childishly illustrated children’s book evolved into a complex, gripping plot.
2. Attack on Titan (Vol 1 – 34). I read it while I watched the TV Series (reading first, then watching). It started explosively and the pace never let up. I had to take breaks just to breathe and calm my nerves. The sheer imagination and subtlety is brilliant.

It’s hard to decide which is better—the manga (book) or the anime (TV). The TV series translates the book faithfully in plot and in spirit. It helped that I read each chapter first, allowing me to imagine it, and then watch it, which told me what all I missed in the book. I absolutely would not have understood the manga without watching the anime.

This apart, I only read Brandon Sanderson‘s books. Or rather, re-read. All of them, actually 🙂.

Though I enjoyed manga thoroughly, it may not be for everyone because:

1. Firstly, books are not for everyone. Comics even more so. A lot of people feel they’re … childish. That takes some effort to overcome.
2. Manga can be gut wrenching. Nerve racking. Mind bending. You can’t treat them as light reading, like Sanderson, Archer, or Asimov. Read if you have the stomach for To Kill a Mockingbird, A Clockwork Orange, or Catch-22.

We visited Japan this summer and it beautifully complemented this reading experience. I could visualize every scene against the backdrops. I finished Attack on Titan on 4 Jun, just as we reached Japan. I planned to read nothing more for the rest of the year. Nothing could beat the experience.

But in Dec 2024, Wind and Truth was released. I am now half-way through perhaps the only book that can match my manga experience this year.