I went into this with no expectations because the first experience I had with it was the anime which I think didn’t do the series justice. For some reason it decides to start with a scene from after part 1, and moves at a breakneck pace, skipping much of what made the series great to me. The animation quality was also quite mediocre leaving me to write it off as yet another wish fulfillment isekai where the protagonist using their knowledge of their original world to become a god. However, as I was getting into audiobooks, I noted that this was one of the titles available and decided to give it another try. Somewhere through the second volume I fell in love with the series.

Unfortunately the presence of some isekai only vocab really threw off my understanding of some parts, for example, the fruit they extracted the oil from, paru, the bird and the pasta sauce and toronbe. Was I supposed to know what these things were or was I to just assume that they were just supposed to be likened to something present in our world. The paru pancakes in particular got me because I could not imagine how a fruit could be squeezed dry and made into birdfeed which could be sweetened and made edible.Consequently, I explored the different adaptations such as the light novel illustrations, the manga and also gave the anime another shot. While I never quite managed to get a satisfactory answer for my question, I did find that the manga had a cute art style with an okay pacing which supplemented my understanding of the going ons in the light novel. Incidentally I binged the manga to the end of part one and at time of writing am only about two-thirds done with the second volume.

My enjoyment of the series can mainly be attributed to Urano’s character development and Myne’s struggles. I also like the time the author takes to describe each process with detail and how we are slowly introduced with characters and concepts rather than have to sit through an information dump only to forget it all later. It shows a level of care and thought put into writing the story that many others in the isekai genre forgo in favour of being carried by the audience’s understanding of the genre.

I chose to describe the character development as Urano’s specifically, because much of her motivations and desires stem from her time as Urano. It is the time spent living as Myne that causes her growth, making Myne a much more rounded character. At the start of the series we are introduced to Urano, a bookworm that would read any and every book from any field. Her obsession is implied in the range of subjects demonstrating how well read she was, combined with how she died and her death wish. To her books were her everything and she had eyes for nothing else.

The light novel goes into more detail into her character, describing the events of a day in her life before her death. We are introduced to Urano as a character who spends every minute of her waking life with her nose buried in a book, reliant on a childhood friend to keep her out of danger. An added advantage of setting up this scene is that it subverts our expectations of her dying in a typical isekai truck or accident scenario thanks to the protection of her guardian. Now that I think about it its probably a parallel to how Lutz fulfill the same role. Anyway, we also learn of how she’s finally managed to get a job as a librarian after graduation, something her mother is very relieved about, providing us with a brief view into how her family viewed her as well as their relationship. Ultimately her death is caused by an earthquake sending her library of books crashing down upon her in a freak accident of her own design and in cruel irony, in a manner that twisted her ideal way to go as to be buried in books.

In the middle of one of the volumes, during the first worst fever if I remember correctly, there was also a rather out of place scene that took place back in her original world. In it she is overseas with her family, and out with her brother(?). Honestly I’m not too sure on the details because this section was cut out of the manga. He deposits her at the library in order to make time for himself to do some sightseeing, knowing that Urano would have no interest in it. He requests for her not to leave before closing time to which she replies that there’s no way she would give up on the time to be surrounded by books. He goes back to find her at closing time, only to discover that she is not there waiting outside the library. In a panic he contacts their mother who joins in the search, with one of the likely places being a bookstore they passed by on the way to the library. They go as far as calling the police to help in the search. In the end it turns out she was still in the library, unaware that it had closed showing how deeply immersed she was in her books. The only reason she changed her behavior after the incident was because she was threatened with her books at stake as a result.

These incidents show aim to emphasize how single minded Urano was in her obsession of books, having eyes for nothing else. In contrast, Myne faces many challenges and is forced to get help from many different people becoming far more involved in the task of living and interacting with people. Where she never offered to help out with chores in the past, she now attempts to contribute to the family’s needs despite being incompetent. She values her relationship with Lutz greatly and also her family, putting up a fight to stay with them despite her freedom and life at stake.

Often what sets good isekai stories apart are the struggles the characters face and how realistic and believable they are. Myne’s difficulties adjusting to life in this new world isn’t because she’s being shunned by the world for some random reason, nor is it a demon lord that will never appear until the series gets cancelled. Instead all her struggles are things she can tackle with varying levels of effort, with solutions that the audience can accept.

For small struggles such as the poor living conditions arising from the difference in technology and culture, she made efforts to correcting by contributing to household chores such as cleaning and cooking. In doing so she was able to personally ensure that cleanliness standards and food preparation her up to her standards.

For her long term and underlying goal of surrounding herself with books, she makes gradual steps towards by experimenting and failing, slowly making preparations to push for a big change in the world. While isekai stories with similar settings often have their protagonists pumping out new inventions like its nothing, Myne is severely limited by factors such as the wealth of her family and what’s actually possible in the confines of her new world. In the first volume she starts out exploring and learning about the world to come to the conclusion that books are extremely rare and even writing is out of her family’s reach. She proceeds to spend the rest of the volume testing out many methods of creating any writable surface and writing implements within the means of a small child. Even after successfully making paper in the second book, the road to her goal is still long, with inventions such as the printing press and public literacy being goals that could easily take the series decades or even generations to achieve. I’m quite fond of how Mushoku Tensei is content with jumping years, only focusing on the turning points and events thereafter because things take time to happen. From the feel I’m getting, Ascendance of a Bookworm also appears to be a similarly paced story.

The series also manages to include a soft magic system which feels promising yet not overpowered nor a tool for poor writing. Having the consuming being a curse caused by Myne having too much mana has a lot of potential setting up a challenge for her to overcome, yet a huge boon to her if she could control it in the future. Magic is also treated in high reverence, with the magical contracts needing to be carefully managed and no one simply throwing around spells willy-nilly.