In case anyone needs a book “from someone else’s card”, チーズスイートホーム（１） is free now. I’m not sure whether it’s free until 31 Jan or 6 Feb though as the main page seems to indicate 6 Feb while the small coupon on the book’s page indicated 31 Jan.
14 Likes
I’m a few days late, having finished this on Friday, but no matter: next bingo square down is audiobook!
最弱テイマーはゴミ拾いの旅を始めました。 | L24 is filling that square; by the end I actually felt like I was doing an okay job following along except for one or two sections. The book didn’t fully capture me as a piece of entertainment, but it was good listening practice. What to read next… maybe the no ratings square. I have a book I’ve been meaning to get to that would fill that square nicely.
18 Likes
First square! Crammed this manga just to be able to say I finished a book in January, since I probably won’t finish the novel I’m working on for another couple months.
Number in title: 十二秘色のパレット 第1巻 | L22, “The Palette of 12 Secret Colours”. This is technically a re-read from several years ago, and I already had it rated and reviewed from back then, but since I deleted and re-wrote my review, I’m still giving this square one bonus⭐for being the first to review it on Natively.
This series is one that I loved and read several times in English as a teenager, so it holds a special place in my heart. It follows Cello, an inhabitant of a tropical island with the world’s most dazzling birds, who is training to master the Secret Colours, the magical ability to steal colour from one object and transfer it to another. She stinks at it, which often puts her in the care of her school’s colour-correcting “doctor”, Guell – as well as making them both the unwitting target of smugglers who would use her to get to the island’s valuable birds. I recommend it if the premise sounds charming and you’re looking for a fluffy, low-stakes read, but perhaps not if you’re only looking for content to practice with in your level range.
–
And a little reminder for Storygraph users that you can also log your bingo reads in this Storygraph challenge!
19 Likes
New entry!
Title I am curious about: 闇祓 | L29
I guess it could count as “one word title” as well, which I will keep in mind.
Previous stuff
- Language related: 日本人の心がわかる日本語 | L25
- Uncommon genre (as far as I am concerned): 源氏物語 1 | L41
- 2nd volume: 追放悪役令嬢の旦那様2 | L27
- Unknown premise: 追放悪役令嬢の旦那様 | L27
- No review/grading/rating: 双子王子の継母になりまして嫌われ悪女ですが、そんなことより義息子たちが可愛すぎて困ります~ ベリーズファンタジー | L29
16 Likes
And if it wasn’t for my random ratings and grading you would have those too. (On the tone of “and I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling kids and their talking dog”… I say not even following the same sentence structure)
9 Likes
It seems like you also snuck in and rated/graded 赤毛のアン after I started it, to rob me of my bonus stars when I eventually finish 
I can’t believe I have my own Bingo Scooby-Doo villain!
12 Likes
Oh yeah, it seems I did finish it literally one day after you started reading it Ahem I mean, it was my plan all along and you fell for it!
Quick, what else are you currently reading?
逆転裁判4アンソロジーコミック | L24?? Hmm, never mind, you are probably safe with that one.
12 Likes
5 Likes
Second space down with 100円ショップ店員が異世界トリップした結果。 | L25 for number in title. It could have also gone into uncommon genre since this is my first fantasy and my first isekai in Japanese (it’s technically my first isekai book read ever unless you count something like The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which case I’ve probably read hundreds of them ), but seeing as those books are uncommon because of difficulty and not interest, I feel like that’s not entirely within the sprit of that square. 
I should really darkmode my bingo card since that’s how I view the forums anyway
Past Squares
Second Volume: 放課後、恋した。 2 | L18
15 Likes
next square done, “One word title” with BIBLIOMANIA | L26.
mangas are quick to read, but I have a few novels planned for the next couple squares that I want to focus on, so updates to my card will probably slow down for now.
previous squares
Unusual genre to me: さびしすぎてレズ風俗に行きましたレポ | L34
Features cats: おじさまと猫 1 | L17
Keep hearing about it: シメジシミュレーション 1 | L27
Unknown premise: ごぜほたる | L31
17 Likes
Completed
New topic to me 劇場版アニメ名探偵コナン から紅の恋歌
Keep hearing about 名探偵コナン から紅の恋歌
Unknown premise 名探偵コナン 絶海の探偵
No review on Natively 劇場版アニメ名探偵コナン 絶海の探偵
Someone’s card チーズスイートホーム（１）
New Natively level to me 指輪
One-word title 野ばら
New genre to me 野ばら Tadoku illustrated version
Ongoing
Ongoing:
Language related Pimsleur Japanese Level 1
Favorite color cover 小学館ジュニア文庫 名探偵コナン 灰原哀セレクション 裏切りの代償
MC retired age+ イベンチュア-KURUSHIMA BOOK-
This bingo game is the only reason why I read those short stories. Not a genre that I like and the stories are too short to make me like any of those characters.
Chi’s sweet home was enjoyable because Chi is such a cute kitty. 
I will be filling up the rest of the card slowly after this as there are more novels in my TBR. Those that I really want to read.
12 Likes
Not sure if any of these may be interesting for single word titles if you still need suggestions, just the ones I can think of from what I have:
Books:
Zoo (single book that is also presented as split into book 1 & 2)
Another
神様
ひと
こころ
海
キッチン
Manga:
龍眼, (not sure if this will count as it has the kanji reading written after it in Katakana and is 2 words in English.)
Zoo and Another are Horror iirc, 神様 is a little bit whimsical though I’ve only read the first story, ひと, こころ, 海 and キッチン I have no idea about and then 龍眼 is along the lines of things like Godeater or other post-apocalyptical-infected style content.
9 Likes
Thank you 
I’ve completed my One-Word Title square but I’m sure there are more ppl who need suggestions for this square.
6 Likes
Finally I finished my second bingo book: Curious title - 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱. I liked it the more the more pages I read from it; starting at three stars for the first hundred pages, over to four stars during the second hundred, up to five stars in last hundred pages.
The book broke several records for me:
a) Its difficulty was with an average of just 8.0 look-ups per page surprisingly low compared to the other mid level 30 books I read so far. Why? Probably because the book has the most everyday vocab of all my “around L35“ books. Or maybe it just isn’t L35 at all 
.
Nonetheless it has some long meandering sentences, physical and philosophical speculations which might make it difficult to understand even if the vocab was not that strange.
b) It had one fully fledged no-look-up page, which so far only books with look-ups below 8 had. But otoh about 95% of the book had even less than an average of 8.0 look-ups per page, just one complicated scene heaved it above eight;
and c) I managed to read over 20 pages per day and finished it in just two weeks, also a novelty in this difficulty class. But this may only show how interested I was to read what came next.
Edit: and the book mentions Fermat‘s last theorem. As it seems, it is popular in Japan, maybe because two Japanese mathematicians published a proposition that finally led to its proof, even if they themselves didn’t even see the connection at their time.
16 Likes
End of January update - 2 new squares:
New ones:
- 昴とスーさん 1巻 | L22 Category: unusual genre for me. I’ve never read a slice of life manga, and this also has other elements I don’t want to spoil that I’ve not approached yet. I left the first review if anyone is interested, I definitely recommend.
- しろくまカフェbis 3 | L19 Category: favorite color cover (I love green and blue!). The cute world of panda, polar bear, and penguin can always brighten my day
Previous squares
- January:
- Category: Read a book and its adaptation
- I read シャドーハウス Vol 1 (Shadows House) and watched the first 2 anime episodes that perfectly cover Volume 1. It was great - definitely recommend!
18 Likes
Finished 時をかける少女 for the Science Fiction prompt
Though I definitely don't feel like it is Lv 23 for me
It seemed way harder for me than the Lv 24 books and even some of the higher level books like Zoo. What I read I enjoyed but there were large parts I feel I didn’t understand enough to actually fully understand what was going on at points and the short end chapters were kind of confusing even though I understood most of what was going on (still trying to figure out what the Cow was doing) and I think I missed a massive plot point in all the parts I didn’t understand. It will be one I will need to re-read once I’m more comfortable with higher level books.
Still in the process of reading 彗星とさいごの竜 (for Recommended to me prompt - almost half way through so hopefully finish in the next few days or so) and 竜のかわいい七つの for Unknown Premise prompt, though they have been a bigger struggle than expected so it has been slower going.
Everything on my bingo card seems to kind of ramp up in difficulty from here but after 彗星とさいごの竜, I’ll be looking to go over また、同じ夢を見ていた for the Past bookclub prompt. Hopefully the bookclub comments and the audiobook will help me to work through it.
20 Likes
For information, my gradings would put it somewhere between level 30 and level 33. My gradings were from when the site was very new, though, and I read the non-furigana version, so it’s possible that the text was made simpler for the children version, but there’s no way it is level 23.
Looking at the level of stuff that I’d consider equivalent (for example コーヒーが冷めないうちに | L26 or 世界から猫が消えたなら | L27), maybe somewhere between lvl 26 and 28.
12 Likes
I have it graded it easier than ペンギン・ハイウェイ | L27, また、同じ夢を見ていた | L24, and about the same as 最弱テイマーはゴミ拾いの旅を始めました。 | L24 all of which I read within a few months of each other so I trust those ratings. For me personally I had a little bit of struggle with vocab (especially at the end when the sci-fi elements just kinda fall out all at once), but I felt like I was following the story quite well until then. I read all 4 of those books along to audio, so they’re all a fair comparison that way too. Out of the group, I think ペンギン・ハイウェイ was by far the hardest for me, probably followed by また、同じ夢を見ていた. Something about precocious child narrators really ups the difficulty, imo
9 Likes
I’m only comparing the first few pages of both books (using the ebook preview), but ペンギン・ハイウェイ seems easier to me, especially in terms of vocabulary. I haven’t read it, so it may get harder later on, though.
(In any case, I certainly would not have been able to read 時をかける少女 back in the days where stuff around lv 23 were my limit, but that’s a me problem I guess)
5 Likes
I think the difficulty for me with ペンギン・ハイウェイ is that the scientific (sci-fi?) elements are core to the plot, where in 時をかける少女 the narrative was more character/situation driven… if that makes sense?
I’m also not an average learner since I started in classrooms in the late 90s, listened to a metric ton of Japanese music in my teens and twenties, and only got to reading (novels–I read a ton of manga) way later in my learning. I’m starting to wonder if I have some like latent abilities from my weird road to where I am now that makes me an outlier when I judge difficulties.
8 Likes
