Reading in Japan || Bunko Paperbacks || Always Doing

[CC] Hey there! I'm Kazen and welcome to Always Doing. This is the first video in a new occasional series detailing the reading life in Japan. Today we dive in the the most popular book format, the bunko (文庫) paperback.

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Friend and follow - I'd love to talk books with you!

[japanesesmiles]

Nice vlog for reading bunko! Thank you very much for sharing video! 😊🇯🇵🌸

[kenteo]

素晴らしい！
きれいに簡単の英語で全て説明して､
外国の愛書人に分かりやすくて､
文庫本の説明を感謝します❗
absolutely eye-opening talk of trivias in bunko-hon Japanese paperback. You've covered everything one needs to know on this ingenious design. Super ♡

[beebacchusvines]

I've always been jealous of Japanese printed books. I love how bold the spines are, especially in the manga. Great video!

[RickGrimes]

I'm looking to buy the 密やかな結晶 book so I was searching for the definition of Paperback bunko to know which format I was to buy. Then I stumbled upon your video and was pleasantly surprised by how informative it is! Lots of great info, very interesting thank you$

[anenthusiasticreader]

I love the look of the bunko paperback and thanks for giving so many details about the formats and paper. Looking forward to more of the series.

[seriela]

This is wonderful! I had no idea of all those details in the book designs in Japan. Though, thinking about it, not surprising when I see the design of their cars, for example. Thanks so much for this, Kazen. I'm excited to learn more.

[Abhishek-fezs]

I wanted to import a Mishima novel from Amazon Japan as a part of my "read difficult books" challenge and I was confused by "paperback bunko" but this video totally cleared it up for me. Thank you very much for posting this!

[BookCave]

Soft pages! I recently got a book with soft pages and it was one of the first things I noticed. It felt so nice. I would love it if that was the norm for the books I read. So excited for this series!

[BookieCharm]

This was super interesting!! I’m super excited for this series. I love books that are this size too. Also Obis are super convenient for books being adapted into shows or movies! Oh wait I see that they just add another cover which works too!

[bookwhimsy]

I already love this series and can’t wait for more videos!

[inhae-yt]

This was so interesting!! I am so excited about this new series 😄. I’ve learned a lot of things thanks to your video! And yeah, Japanese paperbacks are the best thing ever!!

[winanci]

I'm ordering a Japanese book for my reading study, and came across this term, Bunko. Thanks for the video.

[JzB]

Thank you 🙏 for such a fascinating glimpse into Japanese books. Ribbon bookmarks! I like those too. - - Question for another video: are Japanese publishers consolidating like the western publishers? Is there an ‘indie’ publishing tradition? Maybe you could talk about bookshops, comparing and contrasting them to western versions?

[IHeartRomance]

The pamphlet reminds me of those classic Harlequin romance books that have them attached to the middle of the book..

[IHeartRomance]

I remember seeing bunko sized hardbacks that were my grandfather's books before.. I don't know where they are now 😭

Also love that the paperbacks are floppy! No broken spines!!

[BookwormAdventureGirl]

I am new to your channel (and to YouTube). This is soooo interesting. Looking forward to watching more of this series and your other videos. 😊

[jackgude]

Thanks so much for teaching us all about this! Someone on reddit told me to check out Japanese books because they're just so much better than books here in America. Now I really want to learn Japanese just so that I can read things in the objectively correct format...

[RememberedReads]

This is such a great series idea! Fascinating look at the different sizes in particular. Looking forward to hearing more! :)


As an aside, Obis (although they're not called that) are actually pretty common in some non-Anglophone Western publishing. French and Dutch books get those small wrap-arounds announcing awards/adaptations too.

[MrBashfulBun]

This was a great video! I thoroughly enjoyed watching it!

[nicoleisheretolearn]

The bunko format is so cute! I enjoyed this peak into Japanese book conventions/culture; great idea for a series ☺️ And it only just hit me how the title “1Q84” makes much more sense when thinking about it in the Japanese language 😅