It’s 11 in the morning and Jofre and Arnau haven’t taken their eyes off the cartoons for quite some time. Today it’s time to laugh with Mortadel·lo and Filemó, but they have very varied reading in their backpacks for the whole week. “We also really like Naruto”, they say almost in unison. His grandparents smile proudly at such enthusiasm. There are many days when the four come to the Ignasi Iglésias – Can Fabra library to read and stock up on new titles. The center specializes in comics and manga and has, together with the Tecla Sala library of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, one of the richest collections in the province of Barcelona. That’s why the brothers always find something that interests them. But they are not the only ones who have decided to immerse themselves in Japanese comics these months.
Barcelona Libraries report that, in general terms, the books most requested and left this summer in the network of libraries in the Catalan capital are mangoes. The king is K?hei Horikoshi and his My Hero Academia volume series, which has accumulated 185 loans as a whole since the spring. It is closely followed by Guardians of the Night, by Koyoharu Gotouge, and Tokyo Revengers, by Ken Wakui, as well as classics such as Dragon Ball or Detective Conan.
From the Library Service they confirm that the trend is spreading throughout Catalonia: “Manga is the one that has the most demand among the young public”. It would not be surprising if it were repeated in more territories, especially those that have been enjoying anime for years thanks to the autonomous chains, “although each place has its particularity. The thing is, manga has an appeal to kids of all ages. Also for people over 60 years old, but the youngest are the ones who approach it in droves, not only in summer but throughout the year. Of course, in this era the loans multiply mainly for two reasons: because there is more free time and for a matter of purchasing power, since they work for series that can exceed one hundred volumes, as is the case with One Piece. This causes users to buy some books but order the rest, sometimes five at a time, or more, to do marathons, since they tend to be easy reads. By proxy, it is allowed to take up to thirty, but it is not usual”, points out Julián Figueres, Gabriel García Márquez librarian, who helps to sift through the data. His center, which opened just over a year ago in the district of Sant Martí, is dedicated to the work of the Colombian Nobel laureate and to Latin American literature and to the cartoonist Francisco Ibáñez, whose comics are precisely disappearing from all libraries “It always happens but, since his death, things have gotten worse. Something similar is experienced with Milan Kundera. In the list of loans there is a growing interest in returning to his work”.
The ranking of novels, however, is led by Eva Baltasar in Barcelona and her Boulder, the work that led her to be a finalist for this past year’s Booker Prize. She is closely followed by Irene Solà with the editorial success Canto jo i la muntanya balla, which since winning the Anagrama Books Award in 2019 has not stopped succeeding, and has even become a work of theater The list also includes names such as Eva García Sáenz de Urturi, the best-selling author in Spanish this Sant Jordi, who continues to attract readers with her Kraken series; or Julia Navarro and the novel Out of Nowhere, with which she tackles Islamic terrorism from multiple angles.
“For some time there has been a very beautiful phenomenon of women reading. The names mentioned correspond to the most read authors from the spring until now, which tells us that they are also the ones selected by many readers to take in their suitcases this summer. It is a global ranking of novels, which does not separate genres, but they remain the favorites. In addition to them, of course, we must mention Carmen Mola, who is actually a pseudonym, but who continues to encourage people to come to libraries thanks to La bèstia, the book with which she won the Planeta prize”, says Figueres .
All these titles, together with the travel guides and some long-distance classics that are easier to reach with free time, such as the Iliad or The Odyssey, circulate a lot these weeks thanks to interlibrary loan, “a free service and which can take advantage of the entire library network. If you want a book and it’s not in your area, we can send it whenever we have it available, not only in Barcelona but in all of Catalonia”, recalls Lluïsa Pardo from the Sant Andreu facilities, which are not closed this month of August, among other things, due to the high demand for its comic and manga collection. “It is what is most requested”.
Another center that is also busy these days is that of Tecla Sala, in Hospitalet de Llobregat, which has a comic and manga collection that makes it a benchmark. “The fact that we have such a rich fund is something that benefits us all”, applauds deputy director Montserrat Arús, who explains that Japanese comics are also sweeping libraries that are not specialized in this subject. “In the set of libraries in L’Hospitalet, for example, the most borrowed books are Naruto and My Hero Academia”.
This reality has led more than one center to create manga reading clubs. Oriol Estrada, content advisor of the Manga Barcelona salon, coordinates a few of them and celebrates that “in recent times, especially after the pandemic, more have emerged”. The expert also does manga training at the college of librarians. “The centers are very aware of the rise of this phenomenon and more and more librarians are signing up. They know that they are the books that move the most and, in some cases, the ones that dominate the least. That’s why it’s important to know the subject, to offer a good service, and the truth is that there has always been a very good predisposition”.
Which one to start with? “It depends on your tastes. All are a good gateway to reading. The best thing is to let yourself be recommended”, concludes Figueres.
