Some Thoughts on Books I read in 2015 - Part 3

With 2015 coming to a close, it's time to wrap up my thoughts on the books I read this year. As one poster requested, I've made a goodreads account that has most of the books I've read in the past 2-3 years. I'm not gonna go back any further than that to add all the comic books and fiction I've read, as I'm planning on using it as a non-fiction shelf that I can refer to when my memory gets hazy. I don't really intend on writing out reviews there (though I will rate them), as I prefer making these Some Thoughts which gives me more room to post longer, sometimes meandering, posts on whatever came to my mind while reading.

P.S. Sorry to the folks who'd rather see me talk about manga than history. My next Some Thoughts post will be for Sangokushi, and I'll try to talk about it more of as a manga than for its historical aspects.

Merry KFC Day

Happy KFC day, everyone. Here's the new chapter of My-little-prince-can't-be-this-schizophrenic. I like the dual-panel Iwaaki uses to split Alexander's face to convey this point. If only he could release on a monthly basis...

Manga list: Click here

Also, a few days ago, a couple guys and I made a new 50 manga-list on /a/ for fun. As the title reads, its purpose is to highlight some attention to stuff that have gotten scanlated over the past few years and were never included in the much older charts. Excuse some of the more memetic taglines if you're not into that, but I wanted to make it stand out a little more than blandly listing genres. I haven't read all of them myself, so I can't personally vouch for their quality, but at the very least, they should be worth reading. I know shoujo and josei are extremely underrepresented on this list, so if you've read any good shoujo/josei manga that have only just started getting scanlations in the last couple years, please feel free to throw them out in this thread.

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Historie c93:   Sendspace
Manga list: Click here

Some Thoughts on Books I read in 2015 - Part 2

Political maps are deceiving. As a kid, when you look at political maps showing the neat little borders of powerful states in the past, you inevitably wonder why they couldn't expand in a certain direction, or how in the world they were defeated by another state so much smaller than them or sometimes by those who didn't even possess states! One of the reasons I like reading military history is that it helps me fill in these whys. But the military is just one, albeit important, aspect which influenced a state's fortunes. Strong governments and armies ultimately have to have some sort of economic backing, and I'm embarrassed to admit how late it was until I truly understood this. As a teen who was more interested in science than business or economics, I'd be satisfied by simple comments such as "trade flourished" or "economy was prosperous" in pop. history books. I never questioned the details of trade, how exactly governments collected revenue, or financed policies. I think the turning point was when I read a few books about the decline of the Spanish empire. Although there were cultural and demographic factors which also contributed to the empire's decline, Spain's poor economic policies which failed to improve its fiscal soundness and develop its economy unlike England or the Netherlands was what left the strongest impression on me. So now I'm slowly but steadily trying to get into economic history (hence the choice of books in this post) and it's fantastic because I'm starting to see a whole new way of viewing the past. If you're like me and ignored the interplay of economics and political history, I highly encourage you to do so as well.

Sangokushi v56 (complete)

v56 is finally done. Looks like it's gonna be a Feb 2016 finish for Sangokushi since there's still 4 volumes left. Enjoy!

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Sangokushi c400:   Sendspace
Sangokushi v56:   Mega;   Mediafire

All Previous Sangokushi volumes:   Mega;   Mediafire

Sangokushi v55 (complete)

Volume 55 is now complete! If you think the Northern campaigns have been entertaining so far, you haven't seen anything yet. Get ready to see even crazier baits and traps in the coming volumes.

Download:
Sangokushi c391:   Sendspace
Sangokushi v55:   Mega;   Mediafire
All Previous Sangokushi volumes:   Mega;   Mediafire

Sangokushi v54 (complete)

This sly motherfucker

Vol. 54 is now complete! That last chapter was a thing of beauty with Sima Yi putting on an oscar-worthy performance of hiding how much he wants that seal of command, even going so far as to make Cao Zhen worry about the Wu army even though he just told the Wei emperor that that was just a bluff, all in order to make it impossible for Cao Zhen to not hand over the seal. It is interesting to note that this whole part in the original novel is pretty terse on the description so it's quite easy to miss reading between the lines about where Sima Yi's intentions really lie. In Yokoyama's version, however, this is emphasized via the depiction of Sima Yi's smile in the picture above, an extended conversation between Cao Zhen and Sima Yi, and last but not least, the narration on p.201 explicitly saying Sima Yi wanted the seal all along. Of course, one could always make the argument that Sima Yi is genuinely concerned for Cao Zhen but I don't really buy that.

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Sangokushi c382:   Sendspace
Sangokushi v54:   Mega;   Mediafire

All Previous Sangokushi volumes:   Mega;   Mediafire

Historie c92

Finally a new chapter of Historie! These bi-monthly waits are killing me... I'm curious to see where Iwaaki is going with this "stranded cavalryman."

In other news, Iwaaki's side comments in this chapter mentions that he's now starting that new manga project he's been planning for some time now. You can read the news yourself here at this link. Iwaaki is looking forward to how the project will turn out under an artist who's been working with different genre of stories, as will I.

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Historie c92: Sendspace

Some Thoughts on Books I read in 2015 - Part 1

Around the same time last year, I decided to talk about real books for once. I initially wrote it as a change of pace from usual manga topics, but I realized it was a nice way to refresh my memory of books I enjoyed. So I'll do the same for books I've read this year. I was planning to do all of the books in one post, but I just realized I've already wrote almost 4000 words just to talk about 3 books, so I'll stop for now and write another post in November and December. Once again, these are all non-fiction as I get my dosage of fiction from anime, manga, and movies. For book lovers without a good local library, this site is your friend.

*P.S. I've also been thinking of starting a separate history blog, so as to keep these kinds of posts separate from this site, which was intended to be mainly for manga content. If any of you are up for this, or would rather have me keep all of my Some Thoughts posts on this site, let me know.

Sangokushi v53 (complete)

And v53 is now complete. One minor change I'd like to point out is that in the novel, Cao Zhen is willing to give Jiang Wei the benefit of the doubt out of simple eagerness and confidence. In Yoshikawa Eiji's version, and consequently this manga, it's Jiang Wei's famous filial piety that convinces Cao Zhen to give him the benefit of his doubt. If I had to pick, I certainly like this change better as it makes Cao Zhen seem a little less incompetent (historically, he was quite capable and can claim much credit in the first two Northern campaigns). However, this change is only possible because it omits a brief but very clear mention in the original novel that Kongming specifically moved Jiang Wei's mother to Hanzhong during the general withdrawal in the first Northern campaign in the aftermath of the defeat at Jieting.

from v52

As you can see here, both the manga and novel mentions that Kongming evacuated the people of Tianshui, Nanan, and Anding to Hanzhong. So although Yoshikawa eliminated the reference to the relocation of Jiang Wei's mother to set up a more convincing reason as to Cao Zhen's behaviour at the end of v53, the careful reader might then wonder why Kongming was careless enough to leave Jiang Wei's mother behind in soon-to-be Wei territory, even though he relocated many of the other civilians. So B+ for the effort, Yoshikawa Eiji, but not quite good enough, I'd say.

P.S. I'm aware that I'm probably the only English-speaking person who cares about this incredibly minor change between the two versions.

Download

Sangokushi c372:   Sendspace

Sangokushi c373:   Sendspace
Sangokushi v53:   Mega;   Mediafire

All Previous Sangokushi volumes:   Mega;   Mediafire

Sangokushi v52 (complete)

And with chapter 365, the first Northern campaign draws to a disappointing close for Kongming. Although this campaign serves as a build-up for the more protracted showdown between Kongming and Sima Yi later on, you should keep in mind that in history, the only thing Sima Yi actually did was put down Meng Da's revolt. So Cao Zhen, despite getting an unflattering treatment in the novel, can claim most of the credit along with Zhang He for the successful Wei defense.

Download:

Sangokushi c365:   Sendspace

Sangokushi v52:   Mega;   Mediafire (added missing page 2)

All Previous Sangokushi volumes:   Mega;   Mediafire