Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 1 follows the protagonist Myne, who in her previous life was Urano Motosu who loved books to death. She finds herself in a fantasy society that is much behind what the current world is. The biggest thing for Myne books is that they are a luxury item for the nobility. The other big thing working against Myne is that she is quite sickly. As such, Myne finds just her everyday living conditions much worse than when she was Urano.
Truth be told, isekais themselves don’t make great use of the isekai theme. Even the majority of the best ones are great fantasy series that just happen to be isekai. This series makes great use of the isekai theme, as Myne being sickly means she needs to use her knowledge from her previous life just to get by. As in the series, she is alongside Lutz and aims to become a merchant. Of course, Myne’s knowledge of her previous life is her biggest strength, and she makes great use of it. Myne with her condition, has to use her wits to find out how to survive with her new family.
The world-building in Part 1 is very solid. It gets deeper later in the series, but part 1 focuses more on the commoners side of the story. This series is closer to a slice of life than an action series. But the stakes are very much here despite it not being an action series.
Art-wise, the manga here is good. I would say if you have watched the anime, I would recommend the manga if you aren’t too keen on reading the novels. As both pacing and the visual storytelling are much better executed than the anime, if I were to compare.
Ascendance of a Bookworm is simply one series that one should experience if you are into anime, manga, and light novels. It is one of the best isekai stories, period.