As long as it is written vertically, anything goes I think
"Transpiction into modern Japanese" is bit misleading because 候 is no longer used in contemporary Japanese but you get the point.My Master’s thesis was related to kuzushiji so I have a lot of specimens at hand lol
I can’t remember what updates I posted on here, and since I never updated my homepost I guess I’ll do a recap of every square so far:
Finish a series: went with 노인의 꿈 두 번째 이야기 | L20 early in the year to get it out of the way
Cats: 하얀 밤의 고양이 | L15
New author: I thought for sure my bingo had a “read in a day” square, but it doesn’t… So 룩 백 | L18 goes into new author!
Non-modern period: this weekend’s readathon allowed to finally finish 시간 고양이 | L27, which I had originally planned to use for either “cats” or “sci-fi”, but since I’ve done cats already and I’m pretty sure I’ll read other sci-fi books this year, this goes here. Set a few decades into the future.
Next book will probably go into the free space since it’s my first short story collection 
Next year, I should use “informal book clubs” for the “past book club choice”.
I found some stuff from my wishlist here, and there are very few comments in these threads:
Just filled in another bingo square
It was a pretty good read. I almost dropped it a few times, but it ended up pulling me in, and I’ll probably continue with volume 2.
Slotting it into creature/lifeform I haven’t seen in real life (and hopefully never will…) — parasitic bees 
I think I’m going to update every 3 books.
Last week was a really bad reading week for me yikes. My pace has not been good. Anyway…
I immediately picked up 방황하는 칼날, which was a smooth read at 99.7% comprehension, if a bit dragging. I liked the ending. Solid 3.5 stars.
I then read 연애의 행방, a “romance” by Higashino Keigo. There was a lot of cheating in it, and a lot of snowboarding. It was quite entertaining and I gave it 4 stars. Someone in my board game club recommended it to me and seemed impressed that I finished it in 3 days.
Then I finished 고독한 용의자 by a new-to-me author from Hong Kong. This book was making big waves in my e-library app and the blurb appealed to me so I bought it in physical last time I was in Korea. Ngl, the book did drag a bit (or maybe I just don’t reach for Korean physical books much) but the last 100 pages were a wild ride. I can tell this author is very talented and his stories are trying to make a point rather than just deliver a shocking twist. I plan to finish reading the other book by him that I made some progress in. This was also a 4 star read.
On the radar: the sci-fi book club book is 75% done. I’m picking 드래곤 라자 as my next physical book, but it’ll probably be a while before I finish it. Next digital book is 가공범 by Higashino Keigo, which will be a buddy read with a few people from this forum / discord.
I read it in Japanese but I agree this book was sooooooo disappointing compared to the authors other book. I was really hyped to read it for more of the scary vibes but it was a real letdown. 
It was actually pretty boring and a little tedious to read.
I’m sorry that you also read that shit book 
it started out promising and it became boring and a chore to read. I’m not sure I even understood what happened at the end, but I did not bother to try. Not sure why the author made the choice to have 3 characters with indistinct voices talking without dialogue markers.
I read it back in the summer of last year and honestly don’t remember anything at all about the plot besides some YouTube stuff because it was so forgettable! That’s how little impact the ending had. 
Unseen lifeform: 魔女犬ボンボン ナコと奇跡の流れ星
Yes, this book has multiple magical creatures that I have not seen nor even read about before! But also, one of the main characters is a corgi puppy, and I have never seen a corgi puppy from close up. I would definitely remember that if I had. 
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Past club | Finish a series | Cats and Dogs | Title doubletake | Fantasy |
| Dropped | Meta | Nonfiction | About language | Non-modern |
| One word title | Someone’s card | Reread | SF | Unseen lifeform |
| Pretty | Ghosts | Mythological | New author | Multiple contributors |
| Queer | Final Boss | Natively Unreviewed | MC hidden identity | Award |
well no bingos…cuz piratey has been taking so much time but finished the last bit of the あとがき today… so first LN square done
still a ways to go… but had to at least update
LN Square No 1 : Completed 4-Apr-2026 
Flesh and Blood Vol 1 
I did enjoy this book but the difficulty was seriously tough… hope my comprehention abilities improve… so this will become more approachable… I do want to at some point continue the series but for now…the future vols are on hold until at least the end of this year … most difficult book ever read though… and done in 3 months… only ~1327 char/day… 
not linked to natively stuff yet - cuz lazy
| B-Square | LNs to read in 2026 | Char Count | Page Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flesh and Blood Vol 1 - COMPLETED | 122099 | 297 |
| 2 | 蒼穹のローレライ 1945シリーズ Vol 1 | 152625 | 338 |
| 3 | 小説 聲の形 下 | 72544 | 256 |
| 4 | 私の夫は冷凍庫に眠っている | 90152 | 262 |
| 5 | ツルネ -風舞高校弓道部- 1 | physical | 268 |
| 6 | No.6 Vol 1 | 68058 | 224 |
| 7 | 怪人二十面相 | 96878 | 245 |
| 8 | 大嫌い彼氏 1 of 3 | 33170 | 91 |
| 9 | ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 2 | 44541 | 160 |
No updates to the Manga card but some stuff is in progress…
Three more books, but falling behind my hopeful pace of 2 per month. I’ll have to put in more effort if I want to fill all the squares 
Mythological/fantastical Creature: 한국환상동물도감/ I loved this book so much. The illustrations were cute, it was broken into sections (yay for the burnt-out version of me) and was overall just so much fun to read. If I had to compare it with something, it’s like a storybook version of a Pokémon handbook…but for mysterious creatures?
Incomplete 2025: 아기 낳는만화 / I started this in 2025 and had to sit it aside after a miscarriage, but I enjoyed it so much that I decided to try reading it again this year. Personally this was a vocab goldmine - the first third of the book gave me all the words I needed for PCOS treatments and OBGYN appointments which was well worth the struggle with Naver in the beginning (the spacing varies between the comic and the dictionary listing for some of the medical terms, so you need to type slow and watch the search bar ). It was also refreshing because the whole comic is focused on the author’s experience as an individual person and doesn’t spiral into any polarization – always either super compassionate discussions or wildly hilarious retrospect on weird symptoms/situations.
Going in blind: 할머니의꽃무늬바지/ When I don’t want to read, I’ll usually pick up any random picture book because 1) sometimes I just need to force myself to start with something even if I can finish it in five minutes and 2) finishing something gives me motivation to put in more effort. To be honest, I thought this was going to be a cute ‘I spent a day with granny’ story but it turned out to be one of those kids’ psychology books – and surprisingly good? (I used to work in a bookstore specializing in these and the ones for kids are, unfortunately, usually complete trash). I felt it earned a spot on the board.
What are other Japanese novel readers doing for the “award winner” square?
I’ve realised I really struggle with literary fiction (like Akutagawa Prize winners) — they tend to bore me, especially when there’s not much plot.
Would something like the #1 ranked title in the yearly 「このライトノベルがすごい！」 publications count? Or are people sticking strictly to more traditional literary awards?
Almost any popular children’s book, light or heavy novel sooner or later gets a prize, e.g. I just checked my planned reads and at least four of them had prizes:
I‘m almost sure there are even more if I check them.
Try having a look at the Honya taishou winners! These are bookseller favorites and they come in a variety of genres, not just literary.
https://learnnatively.com/search/jpn/books/?tags=honya
But yeah, I would say #1 in ___がすごい！ definitely counts as well!
Read my fifth book for the year.
I read 勇者になりたい少女と、勇者になるべき彼女 in the ‘recommended to me’ slot (recommended by 暁のルナ)
Was a fun book and also exactly hit the right difficulty level. The story was both good and cute. Kinda hoped that the romance went a bit further because I’m a sucker for that.. But regardless of that the interactions between the characters were really good 
. I also really liked the ‘gears’ part of the story.
It took me 18 hours to read the book. Which is relatively quick for me. And was able to mine a lot of useful words!
Completed the last of テイルズ・オブ・クレストリア 1-6 (f) today, as well as the 2nd volume of 元戦闘用奴隷ですが、助けてくれた竜人は番だそうです。 2 (f), and volume 5 of ルリドラゴン 1-5 (f)
Running total 44/ 175
Next up: 魔法少女ダンデライオン volume 4 and 光が死んだ夏 1-8 (f)
What did you think of the manga adaption? Did you play any of the game to compare to before the shutdown?
The adaptation is fast paced and unless you know of the skits being mini conversations separate to the actual chapters, it’s a little confusing (they just give insight into the characters interactions). Also, as much as I enjoyed it there are some topics I don’t really want depicted.
Also 6 volumes only covers about 1/3 of the actual story, the rest is online meaning if it’s behind a pay wall, I’m nit getting the other 2/3 of the story. 
I didn’t know that before hand.
I didn’t play the game but my understanding is that it follows different characters from the game although a few of the villains show up to harass this group.
I didn’t enjoy it though, just wish the other 12 volumes would have been published instead of online only.
What an odd decision. Maybe they’ll slowly release the rest of the volumes as regular books eventually? 
I so hope that they do as I was pretty engrossed in the story 
I like the Tales of series games and how they progress as well as how unique some of their characters are.
Now I’m catching up with Dandelion and Shade
