The BookWalker Freebies Thread

[rodan]

I’ve developed a (bad?) habit of looking for free-to-keep books on bookwalker regularly, and I noticed the first two volumes of ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 are currently free until the 27th.

A very pleasant slice of life series about an android coffee shop proprietor, it’s never been officially translated into English. Has a soft spot in my heart as well since a tweet about it is what directly made me realize I could try learning Japanese.

Anyway - if I’d known about bookwalker at the time (and known about the freebies) maybe I wouldn’t have gotten into the habit of filling my apartment with imported books although the physical editions are cool…

[rodan]

The first volume of ボーイズ・ラン・ザ・ライオット is free to keep right now on bookwalker.

I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve seen it mentioned on the forum recently (e.g. here), in a way that made me very much want to read it, so I thought I’d mention it in case that was true for other people too!
There’s also a handful of other free stuff related to the manga periodical ヤングマガジン, but I don’t see anything that pops out as something I’ve read or heard about, so I can’t vouch for any of it yet.

Also I didn’t notice since I already have it (but haven’t read it yet…), but a manga often mentioned as a good beginner starting place, Flying Witch, has a couple volumes free right now as well.

[faerily]

Thanks for posting!! I picked up Boys Run the Riot and Flying Witch because of this post!!

[Aislin]

Oh, thank you for Boys Run the Riot!

I also got interested in it after seeing it mentioned on the forum, but wasn’t sold after browsing through the sample. Still added it to the wishlist under “maybe?”. So this is a perfect chance
(it’s free for Kindle too)

[vonnutje]

“Purchased” the first volume(s) of Tokyo Revengers, Tonikaku Kawaii and Shadows house for free ^^ Also have purchased fruits basket, but that one will expire next week unfortunately Going to try to read it this weekend for as far as I can get!

[Candygaming]

the first 17 books of この音(おと)止(と)まれ。it’s aviable until 13.07. I highly recommend the series, and it is a great way to get enough material if you plan to read a lot this summer. (looking at you guys Read every day challenge - Summer 2021 )

この音とまれ！【期間限定無料】 1

[rodan]

There’s a bunch of free-to-keep stuff as part of a promotion with a “想像の斜め上を行く” theme centered around that one manga where The Joker is a single parent raising Batman as a baby. (which is itself sadly not free)

I don’t have anything specifically to recommend from it, I just think that’s a funny reason for a sale.
(And it seems like a nice pile of free weird stuff)

Oh, also a different campaign with some cool stuff like Vinland Saga (which I’ve read some of in English and can definitely recommend) and 波よ聞いてくれ (which I’ve read some of in English and definitely want to try in Japanese some time since it seemed heavily laden with cultural references)

Also, another campaign. Seems like there’s a lot today.

[saga]

I found a lot of promising-looking series! Thanks for the heads-up about all the campaigns, @rodan !

[CoffeeFuel]

Thank you so much! Didn’t expect to see Kino no Tabi there. It’s definitely too early for me to attempt it, but what a nice find~!

[rodan]

As long as you’re aware it’s the manga adaptation not the light novel (which is here), I’m happy!

(I’ve got a physical edition of that same volume after confusing those when I meant to get the light novel some years ago…)

Speaking of manga adaptations of light novels, I happened to notice two different (this and this) 本好きの下克上 manga series appear to have a volume free for a few more days – hard for me to spot because the titles are so long… but I’ve sometimes suspected there’s people on this forum who like that novel series so perhaps these would be of interest to them or others.

[vonnutje]

I feel your pain… I bought 5 volumes of the manga from ひげをする instead of the LN Don’t want to have the series twice so the manga will have to do for now. Luckily reading manga is way easier for me right now, a novel would be near impossible xD

[VikingSchism]

Thanks for pointing out Vinland Saga - read at least the content of the first three volumes in English so should be nice to visit in Japanese (though I don’t think I’ll be ready for it for a good while). Also picked up Inuyashiki which I’ve heard about before and been interested in reading - skimming through the first chapter it looks like it might be doable (though I guess I’d need to see how it gets later on)

Also managed to find this interesting-looking sentai-themed manga, which is something I’ll have to give a go (can’t seem to find any info on it in English, and looks like it’s a fairly new series). Unfortunately that is only a limited sample so I’ll probably need to get the full volume when I get to it. Has furigana at least, so that makes looking things up much easier while my kanji-knowledge is still fairly low

[VEX7]

Hey, thanks everyone for keeping this thread fairly active! I would not have known about BookWalker otherwise, and it’s going to be nice to have a decent source of free Japanese literature to practice with.

[matthewsa]

Glad to see this thread active again. I hope @curiousjp is doing alright. I appreciated their posts and found lots (almost too much) to read.

[rodan]

I don’t actually know why (I don’t see a specific promotion), but the first volume of おとなになっても by 志村貴子, the author of 放浪息子 (Wandering Son) is free right now until July 11. This was on my wishlist and I know there’s plenty of other people on the forum who like Wandering Son (and I think one might even have recommended me this series…) so this was a nice one to see!

Also, there’s some free stuff related to the women’s manga magazine BE・LOVE (promotion page / free stuff page). Nothing I can personally vouch for, but they may catch your eye.

I’m happy to hear people are glad to see this thread still active! I know I would have found it very useful if I had noticed it when it was new, and putting books in people’s hands is always a nice feeling!

If you wanted a bunch of shojo-ish (?) manga specifically with people’s names in the titles, you’re in luck because that’s the theme of this set.

[rodan]

Happy 文月, here’s some free bookwalker stuff I noticed:

Some first volumes of a bunch of stuff here including Attack on Titan, Blue Period, Cells at Work, Saint Young Men, What Did You Eat Yesterday, Space Brothers, Heavenly Delusion, and a bunch of other stuff I’m probably not doing justice by not mentioning.

The first three volumes (out of a whopping 131 and counting) of venerable boxing manga はじめの一歩.
For a bit there I thought it also had timed freebies for a whole 60 volumes, but they seem to only be 40 page previews! What’s the point of that?

Any interest in an 80s wrestling comic, @fallynleaf ?

ベアゲルター was on my checklist but I don’t remember why. I think it just looked cool, and I don’t know anything else about it.

There’s some cool-looking shojo-ish stuff here too, just check the page count before you get too excited, as the 分冊版s are a little less generous when they’re free.

[sycamore]

Thanks so much for sharing this - I picked up the first two vols of Your Lie in april I now have enough free content from bookwalker that it could probably keep me going for a year…if I could stop getting distracted by other things!

[vonnutje]

Hajime no Ippo is really good if you are a little bit into sports manga ^^ read the first 1000+ chapter of it already, maybe it’s time to read some more (in english) soon…

[jordpuls]

Oh wow! I already grabbed lots of cool stuff thanks to your tips!

Just wanted to specially point out that in this freebies batch there’s also the first issue of Witch Hat Atelier, とんがり帽子のアトリエ, which seems very interesting!!

[rodan]

It’s definitely very interesting, and I recommend it heartily!

Watch out for a couple things though: it’s only a 50 page sample, and you’ve only got 'til July 15 to read it!

The freebies that look really exciting but have a catch or two can be frustratingly confusing (I was confused by the 60 はじめの一歩 volumes just the other day). Here the tip-offs are:

1. 【期間限定 試し読み増量版】 ~“limited time, extra large sample edition” in the title
2. It’s in a separate listing from the main series
3. Time limits here for how long the listing will be on sale and readable:
   
4. The approximate page count here (the full volume has 213 listed):
   

Which is all to say 50 pages of the first Witch Hat Atelier is still cool! If you don’t have a massive 積ん読 backlog like me the time limits are less limiting, and an extra sample for free isn’t anything to sneeze at!

I just remember the slight disappointment when I found the site being excited at the boundless full volumes for free on display before realizing it was at least a little more bounded than I realized

So hopefully the above tips can help make sure everyone knows what they’re getting!