This feature is called “Books Revisited” because the titles are typically out for a while before we get to them.
In 2007, Daniel Pink spent two months researching the manga industry in Japan. Fast forward a year, and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need was published.
We want to tell you about it because upon finishing the last page, we thought of about ten people to whom we’d like to give this book. It’s what great non-fiction in 2010 should be: concise, insightful and from the heart. Yes, non-fiction from the heart!
We aren’t completely sure of Pink’s motivations — is he an avid manga reader? does he love comics in general? — yet a career advice book presented as manga is certainly novel. Plus he accesses his experience in Japan and uses it to interesting effect. That he’s the first writer of a manga-inspired professional development book suggests the idea may be born from the heart, rather than the product of a trend.
Listen to what Pink reveals about Johnny Bunko on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show”:
We could repeat in this post the six (6) main themes the author outlines in his text. However, we’d be doing our readers (all 4 of you!) a disservice. Viewing each page comprises an emotional experience of processing the ideas presented, to the extent that you’ll likely retain them long after you’ve put the book down.
Have you read it? What do you think?