Forum - View topicNEWS: USA Today Booklist, April 9-15: Fruits Basket Sets New Record
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Ningensei
 Posts: 333 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Yay! Another person to join the FB discussion!  I avoided it for awhile as well because I was also afraid of spoilers and I was even up to date with the English volumes! Don't worry we are very spoiler concsious and as long as you can resist clicking over the spoilers for yourself, then nothing should be ruined for you! 
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Tohru-kun
 Posts: 1 Location: United States |
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I am really happy to see that Fruits Basket is doing so well and that it is getting the attention that it definitely deserves. Furuba is my favorite manga and it is what made me a manga fan. I eagerly anticipated the release of #16 and I bought it the day after it came out. I have really enjoyed reading it and it was well worth the wait.
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Samurai Drifter
Posts: 13 |
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Wait a second. I'm kind of confused.
What's the difference between two different booklists? The New York TImes bestseller list doesn't even list Fruits Basket in the top 30. Out of curiousity, has manga ever appeared on the New York Times list? And as amazing as it sounds, I'm pretty sure the USA today Booklist is weekly or bi-weekly. Almost all manga on the top 150 drops out of it within a couple of weeks, whereas other "bestsellers" remain on for months or even years. Whether this indicates a staying popularity or a surge of fan activity has yet to be determined. Hell, everything's made it on to the USA Today list, including (but not limited to) Star Trek books, and the D&D handbooks. |
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Tortoiseshell Tabby Girl
 Posts: 153 |
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I am overjoyed that Fruits Basket is doing so well and breaking records.
I don't understand how a manga fan, even if they don't like Fruits Basket, can think that it is sad that Fruits Basket is one of the best-selling manga in America. I think it's always nice to see anime and manga near the tops of the lists in the United States, despite how I might feel about the particular anime or manga that happen to get on those lists.
I'm absolutely ecstatic about how well Fruits Basket is doing over here. It would be fun if Tokyopop could poll Fruits Basket readers to see how diverse the readership might be. I can't say that everything that is very popular deserves its popularity, but Fruits Basket is one extremely popular story that I feel truly deserves its popularity. I think Fruits Basket offers a safe haven for its readers, a place where these people have these serious flaws and problems, but it's okay that they have them and they'll work through them. It really offers comfort and catharsis and makes you feel like you can work on your own problems and accept your own flaws, in my opinion. And who doesn't want to feel accepted? There's a quality among the Sohma family, Tohru and her friends, the students at her school, etc., that makes me feel like I am among family, with all their quirks and personal ways of showing affection. I actually enjoy viewing my own family and friends as the fruits basket that I belong in, that I have been accepted in. There's just something in Fruits Basket that people crave, and I think compassion might be one of those things. I think that Natsuki Takaya's characters are incredibly wonderful in part because, as the writer and artist, she has compassion for her characters, even a character like Akito. If there was one thing I learned in college creative writing classes, it was to have compassion for your own characters. I think that this is important because it allows the reader to feel the salve of compassion and to also, in turn, feel the same compassion for the characters that the author had. I also hope to join the Fruits Basket discussion some day, but it just seems so daunting to join when it's so long already.  It feels like it's too late to join in the discussion, and some people know more spoilers than others, so it seems a little unbalanced between those who know more than others. And there are new topics that are somehow chosen...? Ah, I don't know, maybe I should read the whole thread little by little, so that I can get an idea of the whole picture!
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AstroNerdBoy
 Posts: 413 Location: Denver, CO |
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Yes, with the worst-kept secret on the Net. 
I agree there. Remember when for a short time, they were releasing a volume a month. That worked to improve sales (IMO) but now they are doing the reverse to keep the cash cow alive as long as possible for the books. Anyway, I'm glad to see that a title which TokyoPop treats well is doing so well sales-wise.
OK, it's been YEARS since I worked the bookstore business, but we always believed it to be based on what buyers purchased for the various bookstores. That said, the New York Times states that their best-seller list is based on weekly sales reports from a scientifically selected sample of bookstores throughout the U.S. However, they do also include wholesale stuff from what I've seen, though they supposedly denote titles with large wholesale sales with a cross/plus symbol. The New York Times actual method of how they calculate what a best seller is and isn't is a closely guarded secret. New York Times bestseller list is split up among groups whereas USA Today's are not. USA Today's list is a "weekly updated list of 150 bestselling books based on sales, as reported by a number of booksellers." |
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Ashen Phoenix
 Posts: 2907 |
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first, holy crap  ... cherich that friend of yours, she sounds amazing. secondly, i'm very impressed by your speed-reading, and i applaud your wariness of spoilers (a soul after my own heart) and as fighterholic said, they'll be waiting.
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I will order it through amazon.com shortly though. I was only on Vol. 5 last month, but thanks to a dear friend who spent a fortune mailing me her copies to borrow I am almost all caught up. 
I look forward to being able to participate in the Fruits Basket manga topic soon. I have avoided it so far for fear of spoilers. 
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