Wait, hold the phone.
I was looking at info about 地獄くらやみ花もなき | L30?? to see if I should count it as proper novel or not for my yearly goal (it’s kinda in between, honestly) and I found out it’s the debut work of the author! I got confused by the blurb that mentioned the second book of the author before saying デビュー, which lead me to believe that book was the debut. But no. The page of the award the book got clearly says デビュー作『地獄くらやみ花もなき』.
So that’s it! Not only am I satisfied (enough; still borderline, I think, but I did count stuff like medium in the past) that it is a “real” novel (not LN), it was also added by me, no review, won a prize, and is a debut. It technically has a non-human protagonist too (spoiler: 鬼) but it feels way too close to human to count (although, that gives me the four corners in one, which is fun even though it’s not a bingo).
Yesterday evening I finished another book (I think that’s a first for me to finish two books in one day!) It was あなたも殺人犯になれる, and I’m counting it as “bad cover” as I don’t really have many ugly books, and the cover is weird enough to me.
It would also count as “new to me author” or “participate in a book club” (although I did not properly follow the schedule ).
Even though 火花 | L35 is an Akutagawa prize winner, I am going to put it towards my debut work square. I absolutely loved this book, but I already wrote about it in the Akutagawa thread and in my review so I won’t go on here.
I also finished 月の裏側 | L34, which I will put towards my book club square (even though the book club for this technically wrapped up in 2023…). It took me a really long time to get through this book for some reason, even though it wasn’t bad at all.
I have also decided to start a bingo board for my Korean reading, but I shall hide it behind a dropdown since this is the Japanese forum/Japanese bingo thread.
I finished 쇼코의 미소 | L34?? after months of slowly working my way through it and decided to use it for my prize square, as it was recognized with the 문화체육관광부 우수도서 honor.
I read 소리를 보는 소년 | L25 with the Korean fiction book club and enjoyed it a lot!
I got 당신을 원하는 나에게 1 | L26 from the library so I will be counting it for my “found for free” spot.
Reading in Korean still feels like a bit of a difficult chore for me, so hopefully completing the bingo challenge will help me level up my abilities further.
Title: BLEACH 1, winner of the 2004 Shogakukan Manga Award
Stats: Manga, 192 pages, Natively Level 28
Notes: When I was scrolling manga award recipients to find a book for this category, seeing BLEACH on the list instantly reminded me of how big of a fan of this series I used to be! I was so excited to read it that I didn’t actually look at the Natively level before starting page one - I was not prepared for how difficult the vocab would be at level 28. Though my grammar is strong, I don’t know many words Three weeks and a leisurely attitude toward lookups later, I’ve finally finished this first volume. It definitely made me nostalgic, and I can theorize why it won an award - for a shounen manga, this volume does treat death very kindly - but I think if I get the itch to continue the series I will maybe just watch the anime ahaha (at least until I can significantly increase my vocabulary!)
I just finished El buen arquitecto | L26. This is going to be my random TBR from lucky draw, as I got the prompt of the simplest cover, and you can’t do much simpler than this.
Given how it ended I assume it’s still in progress, but I finished all available volumes so I’m counting it.
After starting it back in 2021 I read three volumes and never finished この男は人生最大の過ちです (series) | L29 - I dropped it thinking it was identical to the drama but @Biblio informed me that wasn’t the case so I finished it out. I think I prefer the manga better, but I suspect the later volumes simply weren’t out at the time the show was made so they had to improvise an ending.
I have 2 books that are the longest on my TBR (according to my order history). However, the oldest one is a bilingual text and I am not sure if I should count that or not… so fellow Bingo players, please have at it, decide my fate.
I just finished No pasó nada | L34. It was nice being able to learn more about the history of Chile and Pinochet’s dictatorship, while still having a nice story to follow outside of that.
I almost went for a bingo with this one, with “book that I added to Natively”, but then I have plenty of those to choose from and not many books that received an award. I’d never heard of the Boccaccio prize, but I’m counting it anyways.
First real (children’s) book in Japanese sped through most of it in a week so I could return it to the library in time. Surprisingly liked it a lot despite it being a children’s book. Did minimal dictionary lookup and still understood the overall story, mostly just missed some descriptive vocab.
this is borderline because I read maybe 60% of it in December and finished in January, but I’m doing a couple of other book clubs right now so will probably swap it out later. Just wanted to include it because I haven’t been finishing much recently…
I’ve been also reading stuff in Chinese, might make a card for that, or combine the two?
Finished FLESH & BLOOD 14 | L35, but I’m unsure on if I want to count it for a bingo square. Here are the possible options:
Book club: there are many other options I can go with; this square fills itself. The original plan was to fill this with 今日からマ王! 魔王誕生編 | L32 or 美しい彼 | L30.
No reviews/gradings/ratings: technically it has gradings, being #14 in a series I’ve graded previously, but all the other qualifiers count. This is also an easy fill, since a good chunk of my library isn’t with many other people afaik.
You could just keep these options in mind and put it somewhere, with the option of rearranging them later or swapping them out for a nicer pick
(Plus, you might perhaps find a stronger candidate for „book club“, I guess )
(I think that’s a first for me to finish two books in one day!) It was あなたも殺人犯になれる, and I’m counting it as “bad cover” as I don’t really have many ugly books, and the cover is weird enough to me.
).
Three weeks and a leisurely attitude toward lookups later, I’ve finally finished this first volume. It definitely made me nostalgic, and I can theorize why it won an award - for a shounen manga, this volume does treat death very kindly - but I think if I get the itch to continue the series I will maybe just watch the anime ahaha (at least until I can significantly increase my vocabulary!) 
sped through most of it in a week so I could return it to the library in time. Surprisingly liked it a lot despite it being a children’s book. Did minimal dictionary lookup and still understood the overall story, mostly just missed some descriptive vocab.
)