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Sunday, December 22, 2019

Librarian gifts: Ascendance of a bookworm

My previous suggestion (Desk Set) was released in 1957 and my final one is just finishing its run now, but I have to admit that Desk Set has a more rounded and contemporary view of librarians than does Ascendance of a Bookworm. However, I thought I should throw in something very new, and it will appeal to fans of cute Japanese anime. Myne (our heroine) has just achieved her ambition of becoming a librarian (because she LOVES BOOKS) when she gets killed by an earthquake (or more specifically, is buried under a load of books during an earthquake). She wakes up, however - to discover she has been reincarnated as a young girl in a vaguely mediaeval alternate world (this anime is an example of the isekai genre of anime). To her distress she discovers that her new family has no books, and indeed that making her own books might be the only way to get a book, since only rich people can afford them.
The episodes so far are about her persistent attempts to make paper (which in turn, she realises, means learning how to make the tools needed to make paper), to learn to read in a new language etc. and to gradually learn the truth about the mysterious fevers that attack her ...
I think you'll know by now whether this is the type of thing you or any librarian friends would be keen on. It is particularly slow moving at the start, but it gives time for character development and - anyway, I'm still watching it 12 episodes in (the final ones are streamed at Christmas).
If you were giving this as a gift what you would you would actually be giving is a subscription to Crunchyroll (which would be a good gift for someone who likes anime anyway, as it streams lots of anime series). Otherwise you can watch it for free, the main disadvantage being that each episode would be interrupted numerous times by adverts (you also have delayed access to each episode). It streams here https://www.crunchyroll.com/en-gb/ascendance-of-a-bookworm and below is the trailer ("I'll stop at nothing to become a librarian!).

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