Countdown to Banana Fish Roundtable!
Calling all fans (and future fans) of Akimi Yoshida’s shojo classic Banana Fish! Coming up later this month, I’ll begin hosting an ongoing Banana Fish roundtable, featuring a number of my favorite manga critics. As with The NANA Project at CSBG, we’ll be discussing two volumes at a time, every two months. Why am I telling you this now? So you have time to track down the books for yourselves!
If you’re not certain about Banana Fish, check out this post for (hopefully) persuasive discussion, including a short preview of the series. If I can’t convince you, maybe Shaenon Garrity can. If you were addicted to S.E. Hinton novels as a teen, you may love Banana Fish. If you’re into current manga series like Wild Adapter or manhwa epics like One Thousand and One Nights or Let Dai, you may love Banana Fish.
Banana Fish is notoriously difficult to find in libraries and brick & mortar bookstores, so if you’re unable to borrow it or pick up a copy locally, here are a few sources I’ve hunted down:
StoriesStore (ebay seller) – has multiple copies of early and mid-volumes available. Combines shipping.
andrew_777 (ebay seller) – has both full series lot and volumes 1-3
AnimeStuffStore (ebay seller) – has multiple copies of many volumes
DeepDiscount.com – selling mainly middle volumes for $7.96 each, free shipping.
Amazon – sells most volumes for $9.95, with most eligible for their 4-for-3 discount (which Michelle Smith informs me would come to $29.97, qualifying for free shipping!)
If you have a great library system, that may be the best option of all.
So grab your books and get ready! Join us later this month for discussion of Banana Fish, volumes one and two!
ETA: See additional suggestions in comments!
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:18 pm
You’re awesome. Looking forward to it.
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Thank you! I am too! I’m quite giddy over it, actually. :D I hope you’ll enjoy!
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March 2nd, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Almost anybody in Northern California should be able to get Banana Fish through Link+.
Link+ is a network of libraries which includes most public libraries in Northern California (as well as a few libraries in Southern California and Nevada). Anybody who has a library card at a Link+ library can request books from other Link+ libraries and have the books arrive in about 4 days (if the books are available).
The relevant link is http://csul.iii.com/
I find Link+ quite easy to use, though like a lot of things, it’s a little less easy the first time.
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Sara, thanks for the info!
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March 20th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Also, for anyone who wants to check out if any local library has the series, it’s very easy to do a search on Worldcat (the World catalog) to see who might own it. Here’s a search for the volumes in English, so click through to see if your library owns it! Even if your own library doesn’t own it, they can usually order it for you (that’s how I read it the first time.)
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
March 20th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Robin, thanks so much!
(I fixed the link for you)
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