I’m doing the audiobooks as my chores around the house/driving (I don’t have a commute, so not a ton of this 
) read and having a lot of fun. In addition to being a really good performance, the middle school angst is kept to a minimum, which is a big plus. With 4 main characters there’s not a lot of time for anyone’s individual angst, lol, which I think the series’ strength
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I’ve been thinking about this lately. My impressions of what is difficult and why change a lot the more I read. I wonder if some books are more commonly read by a certain level of learner at a certain stage of their learning, and then the rating gets biased by that. For the most part it all washes out, but there are some edge cases like you mention where, let’s say the grammar is relatively trickier than the vocab, or it’s dense with hard words but has furigana vs a manga that has sparse text but no furigana and some archaic words. A lot of books I am reading now could be rated at either extreme of levels 22-27 depending on whether you’re focusing on vocab, kanji use, or grammar…
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Another good month, but fewer bingos. I’m reaching the part of bingo that will require me to buy more manga. There are 3 spaces left on here that fit books I already have. So I’ll probably vanish for a few months while I finish clearing out my collection.
The best this month were イグナートの花嫁 and 銀の麦畑 1. Magician manga just hits every time for me. It’s so fun and cute. This one has some unique lore too. I like how their magic system works. I’ve read two manga by the イグナートの花嫁 author. This is the better of the two. The desperation and sadness of the MC comes through extremely well. I did also read a manga with an adaptation this month, I just haven’t finished the adaptation.
This month, I impulsively bought and read a lot more digital stuff. Which is good because I need to get used to the digital copy lifestyle, but bad because I found another way to justify buying more books.
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My newest filled bingo slot is the “No Ratings” with 同級生の推し作家に百合妄想がバレた結果 | L28
I really enjoyed this 4-koma comedy series. The main character (July) is a yuri fan that gets found out by another classmate that also (coincidentally) happens to be July’s favorite author.
And when I say “yuri-fan” I mean in the actual meaning of the word fanatic. She’ll call her favorite novel the “yuri bible”
When asked what Yuri is exactly, she starts to delve into philosophy
Even the slightest mention of a Yuri situation can be… dangerous.
Despite being comedic and mostly light-hearted, the vocabulary in the manga can get really … complicated.
This was personally funny to me, but whenever I run into the word 抱く I am always having trouble figuring out the exact meaning, since in many cases various meanings seem to fit. So there’s this scene where July goes through the exact same mental process I go through when trying to figure out what 抱く means in a given sentence:
Also, there’s dogs and cats!
There’s this hilarious scene where she starts teaching various subjects using Yuri analogies. Here’s her explanation of Covalent Bond in chemistry 
The Dunning-Kruger curve for Yuri knowledge:
From a learning perspective, I thought some parts of this manga were pretty hard. Some panels would send me into deep rabbit-holes about japanese yuri memes I had never heard of before.
My personal favorite was キマシ塔. This meme originates in a Yuri anime called Strawberry Panic. In Episode 11 of this show, one of the characters tries to give the main character a surprise and record the audio of her surprised reaction.
The recording in question became a hit not only with the character in question, but also with the japanese audience of the show. So someone in the internet made this ASCII art:
This comes from the same scene, when the character trying to give the surprise sees her target approaching and goes 来ましたわ～(“she’s coming~”).
The internet being the internet, and since the ascii art used Katakana, the タワー part got transformed into 塔 since タワー can be read as the English word Tower.
キマシ塔 is used when someone witnesses a situation where two girls are very close, are cuddling, or something of the sort.
At around volume 3, the manga takes a more serious tone and focuses a lot more on the actual relationship between the main characters, but still sprinkling some comedy here and there. The romance itself wasn’t amazing but it was still fun to read.
I also enjoyed the art quite a bit. It’s always refreshing to read a manga in full color for a change. The chibi versions of the characters were also pretty cute.
Perhaps my only complaint art-wise is the use of over-simplified character models quite often in some sections.
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This updates has broken my perfectly empty horizontals.
New stuff:
Was rec’d to me: 星界の紋章〈1〉帝国の王女 | L40
New topic to me: なぜ働いていると本が読めなくなるのか | L35
Just made it over half!
Previous entries
- Favorite color: 貝に続く場所にて | L42
- New level: 幼女戦記 1 Deus lo vult | L43 (That saves me the trouble of considering whether I count it as a “new level” or not)
- Past book club: 神様たちのお伊勢参り | L26
- Book+adaptation: 魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない ~今日から自由な職人ライフ~ 1 | L29 + 魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない ~Dahliya Wilts No More~1 | L25
- Non-human protagonist: ICO-霧の城- 上 | L30??
- Title I am curious about: 闇祓 | L29
- 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
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I think the way you read books also influences which parts you find difficult. I read extensively, so for me unknown vocab is probably the most difficult part. If I don’t know the vocab I just don’t have the clues to piece together what is going on. Difficult grammar on the other hand is something I barely notice. I can usually get the gist from context, I don’t need to understand every single sentence.
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At long last, I managed to finish my second book this year
It seems that this year will be full of work and not full of reading time, paired with me picking long and/or difficult books 
So my hopes are not high for my progress in this bingo, but we’ll see 
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I’m feeling that as well. 
I’m cheering you on!
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Thanks! 
Likewise!
runs off to crack open book before the first meeting starts
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A single book/manga could be categorized as several squares so it feels like playing mosaic a bit shifting the same book around.
Some squares will not be filled!
I’m playing this like real bingo, whatever I read that fits, goes. But I might manipulate later like “watch adaptation” to check off easy ones; move the mosaic.
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One word title: 理由 | L35
Finally finished 理由. That’s one less book club I have to keep up with. The writing style was interesting, it felt more like a mix of news report/interview than a novel. The story takes ages to get anywhere and you get a lot of unnecessary details which can get frustrating. I still enjoyed it but I think I’m in the minority here.
Previous stuff
Released year of birth: 夏泊殺人岬 | L33
Non-human protagonist: 転生したらドラゴンの卵だった ~最強以外目指さねぇ~ 1 | L30
Cats: https://learnnatively.com/book/763440775f/
Set where I’ve lived: 博多豚骨ラーメンズ | L33
No ratings/gradings/reviews: サクラの守る街 | L32
Title includes a number: https://learnnatively.com/book/c469a95d36/
Retirement age character: メタモルフォーゼの縁側 | L21
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I enjoyed parts of it but it immediately went on my “take to used book store” pile 
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Where do you take your used Japanese books, out of curiosity?
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I can’t answer this without doxxing myself so I suggest instead you check your local used book stores and see if they accept foreign language books.
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Okay, that’s all I wanted to know! Thank you!
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not who you asked but for those interested - in the EU (and maybe UK but I’m not sure?), you can use Momox (e.g., https://www.momox.de/ but there are other local ones, e.g., .es for Spain) to sell used books (and other stuff) and Medimops (e.g., https://www.medimops.de/) to buy. I learned about this from @yukitanuki and it’s fantastic, especially for those of us in smaller towns without much foreign language interest. There are some tricks to searching (for buying - later edit: here I posted some search terms that help with browsing) but ISBN always works. And it’s super convenient for selling. There’s not a ton of Japanese but periodically I search my wish list. And they don’t buy everything, most things they’ll buy for a few euros, but now and then I’ll get a good hit and sell something for 10€ +
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Oh neat trick! I almost gave up on Medimops for Japanese because it is so hard to search (and impossible to browse)
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I finished 십각관의 살인, a very scary read originally from Japan and inspired by And Then There Were None. I also rearranged some books on the board, mostly because I don’t know how I’m going to find another book with a number in the title. And it just happens that 성녀의 구제 is the second book in the Detective Galileo series, and 십각관의 살인 fits even better for revenge than that book did!
What’s next? No idea. I did notice that 불편한 편의점 is actually not too long, and it’s a book I dropped, so I have to read it eventually. Still looking for something from someone else’s bingo that fits my taste…
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Another trick to browse - search for the type of book or publisher because that is included in the record title sometimes. Below are some successful ones organised by number of hits I got when I figured it out. If you figure any others out, I’d love to know!
terms for browsing
hundreds
新潮文庫
講談社文庫
ジャンプコミックス
コミックス
dozens
少年サンデーコミックス
~10
だいわ文庫
単行本
ポプラ文庫
文庫
BUNCH COMICS (if you find something, double check by searching the desired ISBN to make sure it’s really the Japanese version)
愛蔵版コミックス
MFコミックス
Few
ハルタコミックス
ペーパーバック
コミック
角川書店
小学生
オールカラー
事典
廣済堂文庫
ビームコミックス
低学年
none
ハードカバー
And something that always catches me out - visually, after the first few results they show a line of top sellers - but search results continue below this. For some reason that is really not intuitive for me and I often forget to keep scrolling.
It’s astonishing they sell anything with such a rubbish search feature though, I haven’t even figured out a way to get wild cards to work (so titles must match their record exactly until a space or punctuation, so annoying).
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So, I had this idea for something I’m calling “reverse bingo”, and maybe it’s crazy but here goes.
I always get all excited about bingo challenges and the like, but then I always end up just reading what I want to read and none of it seems to fit and I eventually give up on the whole idea. So what if instead of trying to read based on prompts, I tried to create prompts based on what I read? To keep some level of difficulty, I created a board of just numbers. So the order is pre-determined, but I still get to have the fun of filling up a bingo board bit by bit. And the prompts will be based on real prompt suggestions.
Et voilà!
Free square: とんがり帽子のアトリエ 5 | L27
#1 Read a book and consume the adaptation/Join a book club: ひとりぼっちの○○生活 1 | L21
Below, some reference materials.
2025 prompt suggestions
- Set at least 20 years in the past and not written during that time period (fiction or nonfiction is fair here!)
- Cover is primarily composed of your favorite color
- Book you keep hearing about but haven’t read yet
- Has ghost(s)
- Nominated for but failed to win an award
- Has cat(s)
- Plot involves revenge
- Set in a country that is not where the book’s language is spoken (ie, Japanese book set in Britain).
- Main character is retirement age or older
- Science fiction
- book published the year you started learning your target language
- read a book at Natively level you haven’t covered yet (i.e., it doesn’t have to be your hardest book yet, although that would count, it could be a level you skipped over).
- read a book someone else thought you would like
- read something adventure themed
- you learned something new from reading this (a bit harder to plan, as it can only be awarded in retrospect!)
- (4-5 spots that will align to make a bingo) set up a a rainbow bingo on the board (cover is predominantly: red, yellow, blue, green, etc, pick 4-5 for each version of the board).
- The title includes a number
- you share a hobby with the protagonist
- you don’t know the premise (e.g., didn’t read the blurb) before starting the book
- Read a book set somewhere you have lived (or spent a lot of time)
- Read a book and consume an adaptation of it (e.g. a book and it’s film adaptation)
- Read a book about a topic you previously didn’t know about (politics, keigo, sports, etc.)
- Read a book set in the future
- Read a book set in the past
- Read something with a one-word title
- Read something set in a period that’s not modern
- Read something with a title that sounds curious to you
- Read a book about siblings
- Read a book with a non-human protagonist
- Read a book that doesn’t have any ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively
- read something you planned to read in 2024 and either gave up on or replaced with another read for the 2024 bingo
- something from someone else’s bingo card
- ask what to read next in the Seeking Recommendations Thread
- >10 Reviews/Ratings - time to see what the hype is all about, can be tough to choose one if you’ve already read lots of popular titles
- Why is this in my TBR? - for titles in your TBR that you keep skipping over
- The Lonely Genre - choose a book to be the sole representative of a genre, for example: must be the only romance book on your bingo card
- Going in Blind - no knowledge of the concept, only choosing it based on vibes
- I forgot I bought this - similar to “why is this in my TBR?” a book that you forgot you owned
- Shorted title in your TBR
- 2nd volume of a series
- longest in TBR
- non-fiction
- untranslated (at least in a language you can read)
- shortest book in TBR
- Finish a book that you’d previously stopped reading
- Random book - go on Natively, pick your desired level range and book type, and just randomly select and read a book among the results (as long as you can get your hands on it)
- Read a book that is mostly set in a school
- Past book club choice
- Read a book that has been translated from a language besides English
- A genre you don’t usually read
- Low interest book club nomination
- Read a book or volume as soon as it comes out
- Bad cover art
- No humans on the cover
- Protagonist has an animal sidekick/companion
- Audiobook (not sure if this is allowed since it’s a reading challenge, if it’s not feel free to put me in jail)
- Released the year you were born
- Author’s debut work
- Legacy - Last work of an author that has passed away
- Cataclysm - about some kind of disaster ( earthquake, fire, tsunami … )
- Metamorphosis - one (or more) of the characters turn into an animal.
- Disability - One or more of the characters have some sort of disability ( blind, deaf, cannot walk, cannot speak, is missing a limb, … )
- Aliens - Involves creatures or people from outer space
- Meta - A book about a book ( someone is writing a book, or searching for a special book, … )
- Nonfiction about a subject you didn’t know about
- Biography or memoir
- Book involving mythological/fantastical creatures
- Work released >30 years ago
- Read something related to language in some way (other than being a language-learning textbook)
2024 prompt suggestions
- Read something with no reviews/gradings/ratings on Natively
- Read the book that has been in your 積読/TBR pile the longest
- Read an author you’ve never read before
- Read something that has won an award
- Read 1 vol. in a single day
- Read something at a higher Natively level than what you’ve read so far
- Read a book with a bad cover / read a book you bought or wanted to read despite the cover
- Read something that hasn’t been translated into your native language
- Read something with a one character title
- Read a book that takes place, at least partially, at a 神社⛩️
- Read a book where at least one character speaks a dialect
- Read a book with only kanji in the title/no kanji in the title
- Read something published during or after 2020
- Read the lowest-leveled book on your TBR list
- Read the second volume of a series
- Read something written before 1940
- Read something with a food related title
- Read a book suggested by the “what do I read next” megathread
- Read something with no other adaption
- Read something that has a different media adaption
- Read a book chosen randomly from your 積読/TBR pile (eg by lucky draw or an online random choice generator/selection idea list)
- Read a debut (an author’s first book, whether they’ve written more or not)
- Join/Participate in a Book Club
- Read something non fiction
- Read a book with a non human protagonist
- Read something from the free samples/something you can read for free (such as syosetsu, kakuyomu, tonarinoyj, etc)
- Read something where the setting is a workplace (any occupation is ok)
- Read a book published the year you started learning Japanese
- Read something that is historical fiction
- Read the prettiest book you own
- Select a book from your TBR using a qualifier (see omk3’s qualifier list)
- Read something chosen by someone else for you (can be from the forum or IRL people in your life, maybe someone random working in a nearby café )
- Read something suggested by the site you buy content from that you would normally ignore
- Read something wholesome
- Read a book that contains not even a mention of a middle- or high-schooler
- Read a book where the author shares a kana initial with you
- Read something with elderly main characters
- Read something nostalgic
- Read the cheapest (but not free) book you own
- Read a book that you added to Natively
- Finish a series (can be either one you are already reading or you can start a new one)
- Read something spicy
- Read a fiction version of a non fiction book
Hopefully you all find this to be an enjoyable enrichment of the venerated Natively bingo tradition. 
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