Hiya Natively-ers,
I just looked over at my bookshelf and felt what I can only describe as a crushing sense of shame… My TBR pile is crazy!!! I have books I don’t even remember buying any more.
I haven’t read a lot this year (medical issues. did read all of きみが死ぬまで恋をしたい | L21 in hospital though, it’s fantastic), but I cannot keep going on like this, so this will be my accountability thread.
Here is my image of shame for the physical books (going to focus on traditionally published books, so covered up the doujin even though there’s a couple I still haven’t read). Red dot above the book means I haven’t read it, orange means I either started reading it and just kinda stopped (the one on the left) or DNF’d it (the one on the right).
I’m going to focus on novels because those are the ones bringing me more shame, but I should also finish https://learnnatively.com/book/3d6835e511/ (digital), which I’m 75% through.
TBR List
Now Reading:
- 小説 とんがり帽子のアトリエ スペシャルストーリーズ KCデラックス | L30 (digital)
Untouched:
- Read Real Japanese Essays: Contemporary Writings by Popular Authors (physical)
- Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text - Revised Edition (physical)
- Short Stories in Japanese: New Penguin Parallel Text (physical)
- チヨ子 (physical)
- 江ノ島は猫の島である ~猫を眺める青空カフェである~ | L30 (physical)
- 終焉ノ栞 | L26 Vol 3 & 4 (physical)
- 銀河鉄道の夜 | L34 (physical, digital)
- ミカグラ学園組曲 | L33?? all 8 volumes (digital, but on DMM books because of their viral sale a while back, which majorly sucks as a platform. I also own vol 3&6 physically)
- ミモザの告白 | L28 vol 4 & 5 (physical)
- 平浦ファミリズム | L30?? (digital & audiobook)
“Now Reading” (Haven’t touched in a long time):
- 吸血鬼と愉快な仲間たち | L30?? (physical)
Tbh I have zero interest in reading the first three at the moment, although I have read the first essay by Murakami from the essay collection before and quite liked it.
RULES:
- Read at least 3 (non-manga) things from my TBR before the end of the year
- I’m counting 小説 とんがり帽子のアトリエ スペシャルストーリーズ KCデラックス | L30 because I’m only like 10-20 pages in
- My Natively wishlist has 39 books on it. I can buy a couple of volumes of manga (I need to place an order for 光が死んだ夏 7 | L27 , which is the only manga I collect physically), but nothing else until I’ve read 3 books from my TBR.
If I can read 3 before the end of the year, I will treat myself to 𝓪 𝓯𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓭:
The (shaky) Plan:
- Finish 小説 とんがり帽子のアトリエ スペシャルストーリーズ KCデラックス | L30 . It’s short at 118 pages and so almost feels like cheating haha
- Bite the bullet and read ミモザの告白 4 | L28 . I haven’t touched vol 4 and 5 despite owning them since July 2024 because I love the series so much I didn’t want it to end. If I survive I’ll read volume 5 too, if not:
- 終焉ノ栞詩 欠落-Re:code- | L26 . This series is very nostalgic for me and very easy. Unfortunately E-ki is the most annoying narrator alive so I simply never kept reading once the series switched from the present day group to the past group.
- チヨ子 | L28 is also an option, I keep forgetting I own this but the first short story is really interesting
So that’s 118 + 310 + 396 pages if I read both volumes of mimokoku, for a total of 896 pages, or 118 + 310 + 205 for a total of 633 pages if I read the third shuuenpro LN instead. I’m a bit out of practice, but I know my reading speed was about 1 page per 2 minutes, so that’s about 30 hours for option A or 21 hours for option B. So about an hour a day. Totally doable. That’s about how much I used to read a day.
I dunno how to end this first post and writing this is eating into my possible reading time now, but I will do this, for the 𝓯𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓭. And also to get my reading habits back on track, but mostly for the 𝓯𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓭.
It was really good, I made sure to message her to say what my favourite bits were. I really love giving love to my twitter mutuals haha, one of the only motivators I have for improving my stagnant language skills atm.