Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: 本好きの下剋上～司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません～

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Information

Type: Light Novel

Volumes: 33

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Finished

Published: Jan 25, 2015 to Dec 9, 2023

Genre: Fantasy

Themes: Isekai, Reincarnation

Serialization: None

Authors: Shiina, You (Art), Kazuki, Miya (Story)

Statistics

Score: 8.75¹ (scored by 4,356 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #44²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1321

Members: 14,722

Favorites: 1,004

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8.75

Ranked #44Popularity #1321Members 14,722

Light NovelShiina, You (Art), Kazuki, Miya (Story)

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Volumes: /33

Chapters: /?

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Synopsis

Urano Motosu's lifelong dream to become a librarian comes true. Luck is not on her side, however, as a plethora of books falls on her during an earthquake. On the verge of death, she begs God to be reborn surrounded by nothing but books.

Her wish is fulfilled, albeit not how she expected: Urano is reincarnated as Myne—a sickly five-year-old child with an ardent desire to read—in another world where the upper class controls knowledge, and only the privileged have access to written works. As a commoner, Myne is distraught that she will never be able to find what she is yearning for.

To obtain books, Myne decides she should make them herself. Currently, she is but a kid thrust into an unknown place—but nothing will not stop Myne from achieving her goal.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen began as a web novel on Shousetsuka ni Narou on September 23, 2013. TO Books has released a revised and illustrated version of the series since January 25, 2015 under its TO Books Ranobe label. On Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!'s ranking in the best book category, the series placed fifth in 2017; first in 2018 and 2019; second in 2020 and 2021; and third in 2022.

The series has been published digitally in English as Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll do Anything to Become a Librarian! by J-Novel Club since May 20, 2019, and in print since September 3, 2019.

The light novel has been adapted into drama CDs by TO Books since September 9, 2017.

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Related Manga

Alternative version:	Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen Dai 1-bu - Hon ga Nai nara Tsukureba Ii!, Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen Dai 2-bu - Hon no Tame nara Miko ni Naru!, Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen Dai 3-bu - Ryouchi ni Hon wo Hirogeyou!, Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen Dai 4-bu - Kizokuin no Toshokan wo Sukuitai!
Other:	Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen - Koushiki Comic Anthology
Adaptation:	Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen, Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen OVA, Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen 2nd Season, Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen 3rd Season, Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen - Ryoushu no Youjo
Side story:	Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen - Tanpenshuu, Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen - Kizokuin Gaiden

More characters
Characters

Myne

Main

Ferdinand

Supporting

Benno

Supporting

Lutz

Supporting

Sylvester

Supporting

Tuuli

Supporting

Gunther

Supporting

Hartmut

Supporting

Angelica

Supporting

Frida

Supporting

Reviews

Apr 4, 2020

pheonix-ix

Recommended

Preliminary (677/? eps)

This is a review of the first 5 books (official translation) and the rest of webnovel version.

Side note: I spell Main "Myne" because it's easier to read especially for those who are unfamiliar with Ascendance of the Bookworm. Fun fact: the name Main is a reference to the city of Mainz, Germany.

tl;dr
The best things about Ascendance of the Bookworm is worldbuilding and relationship between people. There are lots of people and names in Ascendance of the Bookworm, but each person feels different and memorable (well of course there are some minor that are forgettable). The author takes full advantage of Myne being from another world ... as she brings not only her knowledge of our world but also common sense and values. The fantasy part of the world feels fulfilling as the novel continues to build this new world, explores its culture, and uncovers its history. The story in general feels quite upbeat and peaceful, but the author never fails to remind the readers of the cruelty and selfishness of the people and, many times, the very world itself.
Unfortunately, because of how detailed Ascendance of the Bookworm is, I can't seem to enjoy many other fantasy/isekai since I'm now starting to nitpick small details e.g. unnaturally high literacy level of laypeople (e.g. written store sign), omission of necessity like toilet and tax, random items that are out of place like drinking straw in medieval-era-esque fantasy (yes, I saw one in a fantasy manga, lol).

World-building
Ascendance of the Bookworm builds not only the world, but also the tales of the gods, the myths and relationships between the gods, as well as how those gods and tales are weaved into culture and history itself. One thing that I really like about Ascendance of the Bookworm is that Myne, being a person from another world, is constantly challenged with things she doesn't know about the world and how her "common sense" and values are not quite a common sense in this fantasy world. The values of people of the world vary greatly depending on their status and occupation. If you think about it, that's how it's supposed to be, but most isekai/fantasy doesn't even touch upon the difference between modern world's culture/common sense and this new isekai/fantasy world, let alone people of different classes. The author takes advantage of Myne's "uncommon sense" to emphasize the difference in the new world.

Relationship between people
This is a rather interesting aspect of the novel. I don't think it's wrong to say that the entirety of Ascendance of the Bookworm is built to illustrate relationship between people.
Friendship, familial love, parental love, passion, loyalty, trust.

Then, in part 2, Myne who becomes a blue miko apprentice, is pushed to an entirely different world and sees the difference in relationship.
For instance, commoners (and we) celebrate a birth of a child, but for orphans, a birth of a child is something to be loathed. It's another mouth to feed, another person to take care of, and the end of grey miko's life as a servant (who is now sent back to the orphanage, most likely permanently).

Part 3 onward shows yet another different world: the world of nobility. The world introduces yet another new set of relationship like territorial conflict and political marriage. At the same time, the author also shows how the relationship between nobles differs from commoners. For example, since raising a noble costs a lot of money, nobles of lower status often choose, without hesitation, to raise only children who have higher potential, even if that means leaving their other children to die.

Another fun fact: Ascendance of the Bookworm is one of a few fantasy novel I read that people get PTSD (another example is Goblin Slayer). Considering how common fantasy with monster killing (and people too) and stuff like that, you'd think PTSD is common (about 10-30% of real life veterans have PTSD at some point).

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Jan 17, 2020

MissTortoise

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (677/? eps)

**THIS IS A WEBNOVEL REVIEW**

Some background: Honzuki no Gekokujou is a web novel originally published in Japanese online for free. It was completed in 2017, but the Japanese light novel releases are ongoing, and the English official light novel translations are even further behind.
Being aware of this, know that I cannot comment on the specific prose, imagery, etc. of the light novels, and this review deals primarily with themes, characters, and story arcs.
**THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN VERY MINOR SPOILERS (VAGUE&PREDICTABLE PLOT POINTS) FOR THE ENTIRE COMPLETED WEBNOVEL**

------

Seeing as the number is right there to the top-right, there is no point in putting it ...

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Apr 7, 2020

Makka-Pakka

Not Recommended

Preliminary (50/? eps)

I have no idea why this has as of this review, a high score. the pros are few and the cons are many.
Pros:
It's like a less boring documentary about paper, I guess.
and that's the pros, let's move on to the con.
Cons:
The protagonist behaves like a child despite being 20 years old. i think child is way to nice because even the other children in the story behave better than her. She doesn't really give a shit about her family despite them taking care of her and being extremely poor. the only thing you'll hear is moaning and complaining. She throws temper tantrums and is ...

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WIT Studio Adapts Part 3 of 'Honzuki no Gekokujou' Light Novel

Publishing company TO Books announced on their official X (formely Twitter) an anime adaptation of Miya Kazuki's Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa...read more

Dec 6, 2023 2:42 PM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (44 comments)

'Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!' 2023 Rankings Revealed

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Nov 30, 2022 6:15 AM by Snow | Discuss (30 comments)

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Poll: Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen Chapter 31 Discussion NiQ1 - Apr 16	0 replies	by NiQ1 »» Yesterday, 12:18 AM
Poll: Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen Chapter 30 Discussion NiQ1 - Apr 16	0 replies	by NiQ1 »» Yesterday, 12:13 AM
Volume 30 (Part 5 Volume 9) Discussion abystoma2 - Mar 26	1 replies	by hayato_bun »» Mar 26, 10:59 AM
Volume 28 (Part 5 Volume 7) abystoma2 - Dec 9, 2023	1 replies	by NiQ1 »» Dec 11, 2023 4:00 PM
Part 3 will be receiving an anime adaptation Knighthammer619 - Dec 6, 2023	10 replies	by NiQ1 »» Dec 11, 2023 3:53 PM

Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen
Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll do Anything to Become a Librarian!
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Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen
Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll do Anything to Become a Librarian!
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