I forgot to post these as well.
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Cute manga (top right), but what’s with the socks…?
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I had to buy socks lol.
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I’m up to date again.
A bit annoying that two volumes are missing their obi (bought new from Amazon.co.jp). Looked it up online and the two missing lines are:
６巻：
今日も
世界はひろがっていく。
１３巻：
そして
今日も、
日々は続く。
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You reading with the book club, then? 
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I guess so, now that I have the book! 
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My vol 2 is missing its jacket. I definitely kinda regret buying that one (at a Half Price Books) instead of ordering it online, but that would have required much more waiting in order to read it. This was very, very early in my JP-reading journey, so I didn’t have very many books yet at all, and I’m not sure any manga at that point.
I’m probably gonna replace it eventually, tbh, since I doubt there’s anyone selling just the jacket. Probably throw it on a CDJapan order when I’m just a few hundred yen away from a coupon minimum.
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I have a bunch of manga from Amazon Japan. Some of the Obis’ were torn, so I just threw them out. I thought it was just like packaging. Is it a collector’s thing to have them all?
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I think they’re primarily a marketing tool originally – the publisher can use the obi to advertise a movie tiein or somebody’s quote about the book or a prize it won. I tend to leave them on the books unless they’re actually torn, because why not. And sometimes (as with these Yotsuba ones) they’re a nice looking matching set. Books in the second hand market may or may not still have their obi – of the 15 volumes I’ve bought so far this trip from bookoff 2 still had the obi. (But I buy from Bookoff’s cheap section so these are the books least likely to still have them.) So presumably some Japanese book buyers keep the obi on and some discard it.
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I like it when the obi is part of telling the story. For me it’s enjoyable to see how Japanese authors paint with words under tight constraints – saying something about the story in one line that both grabs your attention and sets the mood for the work. I think the よつばと！ obi are some of the best I’ve seen; effortlessly reminding you what this whole series was all about and how to best enjoy it.
Couple more examples of this kind of obi:
となりの猫と恋知らず | L24 is a 初恋 series about two clueless people who want to know more about each other. I thought the obi did a good job of expressing that in just a few words.
ヤニ吸う is a story about two adults sharing smokebreaks together. The obi captures a lot of what’s hiding beneath the surface.
Sometimes with reprints the same “now an anime” obi repeats for a dozen volumes (薬屋, フリーレン, Spy x Family). Might as well toss those away – they’re not in this “obi as its own storytelling format” thing I’m trying to highlight here. 
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I also never keep the obis. Actually before 5 minutes ago when I opened this thread I didn’t know what they were called and hadn’t even considered that some people might want to keep them.
That said the examples here look much nicer than the garish flashy marketing ones I’m used to.
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I find that trying to read a book with an obi on it is kind of annoying, so I generally take it off and put it aside while I’m reading, but I usually put it back on again afterwards. Unless I put it in a safe place, in which case it’s probably still there.
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i use them as bookmarks mostly
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Just finished the latest volume of スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり, great catch with the obi!
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i also take of the obi when reading, but i also take of the dustcover because it’s just annoying to have this part of a book that is not really attached and also I might rip it… but I do the same with western hardback dustcovers…
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me too - this:
I threw the first few away because they were annoying while reading. Then my Japanese friend told me that some people really prize keeping the obi and after that I keep them all “in a safe place” and ceremoniously put them back on after I’m done reading.
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Oh wow, I feel responsible for this now!
Well you’ve got a fair few more than I have now 
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Japanese to Japanese dictionary.
Shinmeikai kokugo jiten. Mine here is 7th edition.
Second hand, JPY 1300 in BookOff, Nagano, just bought it a few days ago during my trip there.
Why “Japanese to Japanese” ? I remember when I still learned English in my sec and high school time, more than 30 years ago, I liked reading the entries in the English to English dictionary, even though I didn’t understand most of the words and meanings, but it helped me with my reading and strengthen what I had learned at the time.
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That’s probably a good dictionary for that – it has a reputation for slightly eccentric and more interesting definitions. Check out 恋愛 and 読書 for example…
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