Ignore, Read, Buy rating?

When you just want to know if a book is worth buying or not, a 5 star rating may not be clear enough to make that decision. I am considering a Ignore/Read/Buy rating. Since not everything worth reading is worth taking up valuable shelf space.

Bleh: ok but...
Read: worth reading
Buy: worth reading again
Keep/Hoard: force all your friends to read it; buy all versions of the books; buy any related goods

I'll have to mull over the wording. I'm having a problem because there are a lot of books that I'm on the fence about for Buy vs. Hoard, and Read vs. Buy. Maybe I'll have to stick to the 5 star rating afterall. 4 categories is not much simpler than 5!

Hoard titles:
* Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
* Slam Dunk (スラムダンク)
* Here is Greenwood (ここはグリーンウッド)
* Tokyo Crazy Paradise (東京クレイジーパラダイス)

Buy titles:
* Skip Beat (スキップビート)
* End of the Century Darling and New End of the Century Darling (yes, my translation could use some work) (世紀末ダーリン、新世紀末ダーリン)
* The Wizard's Daughter (魔法使いの娘)
* Beauty Pop (ビューティーポップ)

Read titles:
* Menkui! (メンクイ！) The title roughly means someone who likes only attractive people, so I guess it's like the English expression "Anything for a pretty face"
* Whistle! (more for the Japanese study than anything else)

Here is Greenwood ISBNs 1-7

English publication version to date (there should be 11 volumes). From the publisher Viz's web site. The page for "Here is Greenwood" exists but the link looks likely to change at any moment. Overstock.com currently carries 6, 7, and some others that cannot be identified yet as Viz has not put up the ISBN numbers yet. As always, check the ISBNs to make sure you're ordering what you want to order.

Here is Greenwood Vol. 1
MSRP: $9.99
Length: 208 pages
ISBN: 1-59116-604-7
In stores: Nov. 8, 2004

Here is Greenwood Vol. 2
MSRP: $9.99
Length: 216 pages
ISBN: 1-59116-605-5
In stores: Jan. 11, 2005

Here is Greenwood Vol. 3
MSRP: $9.99
Length: 216 pages
ISBN: 1-59116-606-3
In stores: Mar. 15, 2005

Here is Greenwood Vol. 4
MSRP: $9.99
Length: 232 pages
ISBN: 1-59116-779-5
In stores: May. 16, 2005

Here is Greenwood Vol. 5
MSRP: $9.99
Length: 216 pages
ISBN: 1-59116-844-9
In stores: Jul. 12, 2005

Here is Greenwood Vol. 6
MSRP: $9.99
Length: 216 pages
ISBN: 1-59116-985-2
In stores: Sep. 26, 2005

Here is Greenwood Vol. 7
MSRP: $9.99
Length: 216 pages
ISBN: 1-4215-0071-X
In stores: Nov. 8, 2005

Here is Greenwood Vol. 8 is apparently expected to ship Jan. 10, 2006.

Slam Dunk English translations

North American readers may know that the first 5 volumes of Slam Dunk were published by Gutsoon in 2003 or so. Gutsoon has since folded and I don't know if another publisher has picked up the rest of the series.

However, there is hope for English consumers! Because the Singapore publisher Chuang Yi is almost finished printing their translation of the story. At the moment they're at book 29 or 30, so just 1 or 2 books left.

How can you get these books? A good question. Kinokuniya in Japan has the books, but I don't know if Kinokuniya in the U.S. does. I've seen the books on Ebay, although the publisher no longer appears interested in shipping internationally. But hey, at least the books exist.