Out of the loop once again

Yesterday I was in my local Borders Express (formerly known as Waldenbooks) looking for Widdershins, the latest by Charles de Lint, and I noticed that there were six or seven entire wall bays (each wall bay being the equivalent of a large floor to ceiling bookcase) devoted entirely to Manga, Japanese anime.

Last I knew, mall bookstores tended to trade mostly in genre fiction mass market paperbacks. Years and years ago I worked in a B Dalton (the mall subsidiary of Barnes & Noble). Our most popular sellers were paperback romance novels. Ladies of varying ages would come in on an almost weekly basis and buy stacks of them.

With the rising popularity of science fiction and mystery, I was perfectly willing to add them to the list. Manga is not something I would think of being allotted that much wall space anywhere other than a comic book and/or gaming shop. I guess it makes sense, though, because Manga has a large teenage audience, especially since the Pokemon rage, and malls are notorious as destinations for teenagers.

I guess I'll file it under the "learn something new every day" category.