#most doujinshi paper fare better than manga pages

[eatingfireflies]

You know, back when I started buying mdimileth doujinshi, I looked up how people were storing their books (on shelves? Boxes? Standing up? Stacked on top of each other?) and there are some hardcore advice from the English-speaking side. People who would never let anything but archival material touch their books. I never actually bought any archival material (even my anipocas are stored in your old popcorn sleeves) but there was a general agreement that you should make sure you bag and board (make sure it's an acid-free board!!1!) your doujinshi and never let them see the light of day.

Okay the last is an exaggeration, but sunlight is obvs also an enemy of printed materials. And the goal is to make sure to protect your collection as much as possible.

Like I mentioned before, I use opp book sleeves. The ones that open up and do nothing to protect the actual pages from even the most benign dust particles. They're like 40 microns thick. I only use them because my fingers are always sweaty.

And this was a decision I had to make because the pressure of keeping my books pristine and free of any kind of blemish was driving me nuts. I was seriously considering buying multiple copies* just to make sure one of them is the most beautiful copy ever

* I stopped doing this. Especially now in the reichuri fandom where the mail order battles are fierce as all fuck, multiple copies mean one person not getting any at all and I try to avoid that. At any rate, there are too many reichuri books to even buy multiple copies unless you're hella rich.

I do keep my mdimileth doujinshi in boxes because I have no other place to keep them. Everything else is in shelves, out there in the wild (my room), where I can look at them and pull them out to read whenever I want to.

Cliche as it might sound, I needed to remind myself that I can't take it with me when I die. And also when I die, it's all going to become paper trash that people won't know how to deal with.

Some doujinshi end up being worth more than what you paid for them new (for example, I own a ShuAke 再録 that sells for ten thousands of yen at Surugaya but which I bought for like a ¥1k from torasan). But that's in Japan where there are 2ndhand shops that deal with these things. I don't live in Japan and my books only hold value to the people who already value them. Besides, even the value of that ShuAke book would depreciate with time because of the waning demand.

Which isn't to say that I think archiving is not worthwhile, it's just not good for my mental health 😂 I need to allow myself to enjoy the books for what they are (things to read) and not as a part of a collection. And they do look nice on my shelves!