I am going with “hardest ever” (even though 人生 was technically harder… but that’s a ~6 pages thing so I won’t count it). I’ll replace it if I come across something even harder… but I doubt it (beyond actively looking for something like that… and I don’t think I will).
I also finished ダンジョン飯. I had the last two volumes sitting on my bookshelf for a while and I just picked them up on a whim yesterday. I’m so sad the series is over, but I really liked the ending. They are technically the latest books I bought too, but, again, I am trying to not overflow my bingo with manga. I’ll use that if I need to. (I’m starting to think that December will involve a lot of shuffling :p)
Next shortest is 銀河鉄道の夜 | L32, I may try that. My spouse brought home a book that was on my TBR (my original candidate for “bad cover” when I was looking for one in my TBR, but I’ll probably just put it down as “don’t remember why I put it in my TBR”; the plot so far doesn’t ring a bell at all), so I started reading it a bit as well, and I randomly started https://learnnatively.com/book/7dddc2a068/ because I saw it on the shelf at the library and it was positively mentioned on the forum. I knew nothing about it, so I got really surprised when it turned out it was fantasy, not SF. I don’t know why I thought it would be SF.
I’ve updated my “read in a single day” to １Ｒ１分３４秒 because it’s more impressive to read 170 pages of novella in a day than 170 pages of manga (or however long a vol of 黒バス is)
This marks the first time I’ve finished something that wasn’t a manga or a short story in a single day
honestly what a waste of time. i rate this book 1 star
Read something where the setting is workplace - まほろ駅前多田便利軒
4 stars
I really love this book and I recommend it if you want to laugh basically it’s about two divorced old men and both are stupid lol Gyoten is my Favorite character and I can’t wait to read book 2 of this series!
I read a ton of Aozora (I do an Aozora challenge each Advent) so that list is far from comprehensive, just my general jumping off points recommendations.
I’m ~130 pages from finishing 黒猫の小夜曲 | L29 which would fill that square, but I’m also reading 不機嫌な果実 | L34 which would fill Longest on TBR so really it’s a toss up which bingo I’ll hit first. My reading mood has been all over the place
Oh awesome, thank you!!
I think I might pick メリイクリスマス by Osamu Dazai.
A long long time ago a Japanese teacher helped us as a class through a short Osamu Dazai story. I remember very little about it, apart from enjoying it, and there being American soldiers in a small post war village.
This one isn’t that story (post-war in my review is a reference to the difficulty of the writing due to reforms in that era), but honestly I’ve been glad to read a solid 90% of the 太宰 that I have so far. His writing scratches an itch.
I dove in head first haha. I use a pop-up dictionary (yomichan? yomitan? whatever it’s called now) but for very old works often my dictionaries won’t have it and I just google it. Sometimes googling weird grammar + 古語 works too. Getting familiar with old kana spellings is something I just did over time by the above method, but @pm215 made a nice cheatsheet of old spellings here for last year’s challenge which you may find helpful!
Edit: For post-war none of that is really necessary, but the farther back I go in history the more it is Also worth noting some works have ‘modernized’ entries with the reformed kana spellings and (I think) modern kanji usage.
I filled in the “book you added to Natively” with ララピポ | L30?? (learnnatively.com). I was expecting to use 俺俺 | L30?? (learnnatively.com) for that, but I’ve somehow stalled on this and two other books I’ve been reading. Audiobooks go faster lately.
I also moved 傲慢と善良 | L32 (learnnatively.com) to bad cover, because I still really really dislike that cover, and I don’t see any other book that would be likely to fill that space. I had a lot of choices for the book club space, but I chose the latest, 蛇にピアス | L30 (learnnatively.com). I’ve also read a couple of adequate candidates for the workplace square, and apparently (it had never crossed my mind before I read @bungakushoujo 's post) one for the non human protagonist, but I’ll wait to see if anything more fitting comes up.
9 books finished (8 on the card) but still no bingo…
I finished 3 books in the last month:
ジャングルから脱出せよ (Survival Jungle Escape Book) - A choose your own adventure book I found that fits the category “Add Book to Natively”. We’re choosing which one to read next if anyone wants to join the club on WK.
とんがり帽子のアトリエ 1 (Witch Hat Atelier 1) Coming in at Natively Level 26 for my “hardest read yet” category.
チョコっとちょこちゃん 1 (Little Miss Chocolate) - winner of “bad cover” - I feel like everything from this publisher looks the same. “Cute little blond girl does x” but it was cute and easy to read. I’m going to attempt reading Vol 2 in one day at the end of the year to complete my card.
Finished, but doesn’t satisfy a bingo square
ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 2 (Zenitendo: Mysterious Sweet Shop 2) - May
Previously posted
I finished 2 books in April:
Slam Dunk 1 - “Award winner” and I started an informal club on WK as I’m totally reading the whole thing!
ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 1 (Zenitendo: Mysterious Sweet Shop 1) - “Book Club” which I throughly enjoyed and I’ll definitely continue this series
I finished 3 books in February
10分で読める伝記 2年生 - (Biographies you can read in 10 min Grade 2) “longest on tbr pile”. I wrote a nostalgic retrospective on my log at WK
Oh noo
).
basically it’s about two divorced old men and both are stupid lol Gyoten is my Favorite character and I can’t wait to read book 2 of this series!
