Happy Thursday, book friends! I mentioned recently that my husband and I brought home another several boxes of books from my parents’ basement. I’ve really been enjoying going through them and remembering my younger self and her reading habits.

This time around, I was particularly delighted to unearth the Fruits Basket manga I collected obsessively across many a teenage trip to Borders (RIP). I am pretty sure this series is what initially got me interested in manga. A friend introduced me to the Fruits Basket anime, which I adored, but felt ended too soon. Then I learned that the manga tells a longer and more complete story, so naturally I had to read them all!

I can’t really remember what other manga I read at the time, as I mostly read them quickly and as borrowed copies from the library (they were expensive compared with other paperbacks at the time). I eventually sort of drifted away from reading manga, for whatever reason, but this series has a fond place in my heart. Now that they’re here in the house, I am going to reread them and probably finally complete the collection. A few more books came out after I stopped collecting, so I’ve never read all the way to the end!