Yeah, underdeveloped series pages. So you’re stuck having to leave a review on vol 1 pg instead. There is a feature request about improving those already
I’ve had that happen in the opposite direction too. Ex: マリア様がみてる 1 | L30 and 私の百合はお仕事です! 1 | L27 are both weaker than the rest of the series imo … The thing is the series pages currently show the vol 1 rating as the series rating. So occasionally I’ll boost something if I don’t want it to reflect too negatively, but often I’ll leave it too. Depends partially on other ppl’s ratings.
I do wish we could leave reviews without also rating
Yes, and there’s plenty of those already on the site. Those are some of my favorite reviews tbh. Pretty sure I’ve seen that on Bookmeter or Amazon as well fwiw. The only real consideration is spoiler tags really.
No worries. Also possible I just forgot, or it wasn’t the kanji per se that were unfamiliar for me (I read stuff with antiquated kanji sometimes). More likely I forgot.
Released the year you were born
I found the wikipedia page for manga released on my year of birth and the only two names that I recognized were Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) and Parasyte (寄生獣).
Hesitated between the two. 攻殻機動隊 sounds pretty hard, level 42? (no ratings yet), 402 pages. But if I don’t read it now, when will I read it? That’s why I’m doing this Bingo for, to push myself! So 攻殻機動隊 it was.
And it wasn’t at all what I expected! I think I imagined something darker or in space, but it was lighter than I thought and not in space at all. It’s “in the future” because at the time of writing (the 80s), 2028 was very far away. Now it’s not that far away anymore and the technology they use “in the future” is pretty close to what we have now, so maybe it would have been more impressive to read it at the time of publishing (but I was just born so excuse me if I didn’t). Also another surprise was a p0rnographic scene in the middle of the manga
Only 3 to go now!
I think I will make it to complete the card before the end of the year, but I’m feeling a bit sad to discard things I want to read or say “no” to new clubs so I can focus on my bingo reads. I also don’t want to leave the card unfinished.
I’m thinking that maybe for next year I would like to go the way @Mara did, a reverse bingo, best of both worlds, I can read whatever I want and can fill a bingo card
My strategy is to shoehorn all the book club picks into bingo entries
But this might be a bit tricky with only 3 options left. On the other hand, “latest book you bought” sounds perfect for a book club pick, “from someone else’s bingo card” works if a fellow book club member puts the book on their card, and “Seeking Recommendations” can maybe be twisted into the recommendation that a book club pick represents
ok I know it’s a bit far fetched but you get the idea…
Exactly, it’s becoming a bit harder now.
“latest book you bought” never works for a book club pick because I’ve bought something else by the time we are done or else I should bend it a bit to say that it was the latest thing at the time of starting (just like we do for “Natively level I haven’t read yet” or “first review”)
“from someone else’s bingo card” I actually want to read something that I saw you and someone else comment on
“Seeking Recommendations” I get the idea, but I wanted to maybe ask instead “what’s your favorite Japanese book of all time” and read one from the answers. Because it is fun to discover new stuff, just hard to have time for everything.
Maybe the solution is to improve my reading speed so I can read more
Oooohhh I would love to hear your comments on that one!
That’s a nice question! Now I immediately start wondering what I should answer…
Yeah, I’m also dreaming of that… One of my language partners reads 100 pages per hour, I have no idea how he does it, that’s waaaay faster than when I’m reading in my mother tongue
I do a ranking of my books each year on the bookmeter bookshelves, and so I thought, it can’t be that hard, just pick the best one from each year and then choose the best of the best - but it turns out that it’s not that easy
I think I will provide you with a small collection of my favorite books, with some short explanations so I’m offloading the pain of the choice to you
If you want to know more about a specific book, feel free to ask!
Also, I first thought you may have read a bunch of them already, but I just stalked your profile, and apparently not! In that case, you know what to do
That’s a hard answer; I feel like I haven’t really read that much in Japanese so far, so I’m not drawing from a huge pool of candidates.
Looking at my books, I have a few standout series I’ve read (FLESH & BLOOD | L35 or NO. 6 〔ナンバーシックス〕 | L31 so far), but no single book. Perhaps 告白 | L34 comes closest, but I feel a bit lukewarm stanning it as my favorite ever, even among my current options.
I must say, even doing it in reverse has pushed me to read more adventurously! There are multiple wildcards from my TBR that I pulled to the top because they can fulfill an interesting prompt that I haven’t used yet.
If any of them have strong dialect let me know, I might avoid them, I prefer to read directly in Japanese than to have to translate TO Japanese at the moment xD
I’m honored you would think that I haven’t read that many books yet that are not manga as you probably saw! Around 15 novels/LN
Appreciate the list and the one liners that don’t reveal too much, I love going in blind
I think I might go for this one! Not the first time I hear about it (though they are several others that also look interesting to me too!)
Just checked my Natively wishlist and I’ve had it on it since 2022 (and I don’t have that many things on it)
And very nice if I get more answers, I won’t be reading every book (or else I could make a whole bingo card only for them), but super curious to know which books are favorites!
Blackout is really possible…All non filled in squares are in active reading progress of some form or another with the exception of square 25. That is is a shosetu/lt nvl…but it’s doable by the end of the year (so now 2025 blackout challenge is on!)
5: Finished GLT 少女終末旅行 | L20 - honestly this ended up being one of my favorite reads ever. The artwork is really amazing, creates an atmosphere that draws you in. The introspective, thought provoking, philosophical ideas etc… I loved it. I can see why some people have said they hated it but it’s one of my favorites and I’ll probably reread this again at some point. FINALLY CORNER SQUARE GOT!
7: Originally written in Korean Translated into Japanese 夜画帳 1 | L30 - Have had this physical book for a long time and always wanted to read it but never picked it up. Too many things to read, shiny objects. This book is full color which is really pretty. I’d say it’s somewhere between level 28-31, 29.5 mayhaps. Mostly because it was translated from Korean and with the old timey speech, rare kanji, and keigo… sometimes a little painful. However overall it’s light on text so made it a fun w/o being too challenging. The story read a little like a K-drama which was kind of fun and while there is a little “fine art” it wasn’t necessarily smut like some BL might be. It feels like there is going to be more to the story unfolding in future volumes (at least I’m hoping there is). I will read the rest but for now I must focus on the bingo card or I won’t get my blackout. Looking forward to reading the other 6 volumes.
9: Choose your own Adventure たったひとりのサバイバル・ゲーム! 太平洋を泳ぎぬけ! | L21 - Fun read, must not drown in the ocean…read this with the club and we finished this vol in July.
16: Unusual Non Fiction 僕が夫に出会うまで | L30 - Enjoyed the first 2/3rd or so of this book, I affectionately call gay book. The last 20% or so felt just insanely difficult and a slog. It is targeted towards a Japanese audience and the last part of the book uses a lot of legal terms and goes into some of the hassles that the gay community has to deal with in Japan, marriage, death, etc… which we deal with in many parts of the world but all that legalese in Japanese was a lot to try to read The first 1/2 of the book though was overall a fun read and not too difficult. I thought it was easier than a couple of other things. Some of the stories even if they may be embellished a bit were fun. A good story is a good story. I think people will either love or hate this one. Definitely tugs on all the emotions, overall glad I read it. Knowing what I know now…hmmm Not sure if the last 20% of the book was worth the first 80%. I’ve heard there is now a manga equivalent, but haven’t looked into it. A really nice thing about this book though is there are photos from his childhood as well as a few from the wedding which are pretty neat!
) which gives me
and the technology they use “in the future” is pretty close to what we have now, so maybe it would have been more impressive to read it at the time of publishing (but I was just born so excuse me if I didn’t). Also another surprise was a p0rnographic scene in the middle of the manga 
everyone 
The first 1/2 of the book though was overall a fun read and not too difficult. I thought it was easier than a couple of other things. Some of the stories even if they may be embellished a bit were fun. A good story is a good story. I think people will either love or hate this one. Definitely tugs on all the emotions, overall glad I read it. Knowing what I know now…hmmm Not sure if the last 20% of the book was worth the first 80%. I’ve heard there is now a manga equivalent, but haven’t looked into it. A really nice thing about this book though is there are photos from his childhood as well as a few from the wedding which are pretty neat!
