The difficulty keeps ramping up until arc 3, then it just stays there.
When I am grading stuff against 本好き, I’m always using that level.
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As predicted, the short stories have slowed me down a lot.
トゥーリ コリンナ様のお宅訪問
This one was enjoyable enough. Benno coming in halfway through to argue with Myne was a big help. It was interesting to see that from Tuli’s point of view. 4/5
イルゼ お菓子のレシピ
A dreaded cooking chapter.
I continue to be surprised with all of these adults who will listen to Myne’s nonsense and then be like, “wow, she acts so mature, oh well, that’s just Myne”.
I mean, I guess in reality if you came across someone who was able to come up with all of these things, you wouldn’t immediately think “reincarnated child” or anything. And Lutz did figure it out, so it’s not like a plot hole or anything, just… I feel like I’d be way more skeptical of this kid 
Anyway, cooking, 2.5/5
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Not gonna lie, I absolutely hate those too.
I was trying to figure out why recently, since I do like reading recipe books for instance, and I think it’s because the main character is basically reinventing the wheel (in a context where it doesn’t even make sense) instead of presenting me with new information (like a recipe book would). I guess it would be better if those chapters involved “fancier” ingredients or introduced local foodstuff to which the main character would give a different spin 
(talking about cooking chapters in general, not just 本好き)
Actually, no, you know what, I know I would enjoy them more because half of 悪食令嬢と狂血公爵 ~その魔物、私が美味しくいただきます!~ | L32 involves cooking but in a way that helps the world building (and I enjoyed it)
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I’m back in business and ready to finish this book up~ Sorry for the delay! I finished ベンノのお説教 and 契約魔術と工房登録 today; the goal is to finish the book by Saturday or Sunday, depending on how long it takes me to power through the extras. This is going to be my stretch goal book for the WK Readathon this weekend as well, so I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to say さよなら to it soon.
I’ve got nine sections left in the audiobook (3 main story chapters + 6 side stories), so I might see if I can listen to one more chapter today; after that at my regular two chapters per day, I should be done by Friday.
契約魔術と工房登録
I really liked this scene, with the two of them walking home in the afternoon sun and ルッツ so sad. 
I constantly forget they’re supposed to be 6, let alone ever remember they’re 6 when ベンノ is discussing important business negotiations with them. 
No wonder he thinks they’re weird little kids, huh? It’s going to be strange to not have him around to smack マイン upside the head once we move into the temple.
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契約魔術と工房登録
I luckily Benno seems to be the kind of person that would happily deal with a taking cat or whatever and not stress too much about it, as long as it promises profits.
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You’re 100% right there, haha.
Well, I went ahead and did my third chapter today, 対策会議と神殿 and it ended on a cliffhanger of all things. I was so excited and so mad, haha; why are all the actually interesting parts only at the end? So I had to continue to 決着 to see what happened, and now there’s only the エピローグ left in the main book. Will I just give up and finish that today as well? We’ll see, depends on how I feel after work.
対策会議と神殿 & 決着
マイン pretty much attacking the 神殿長 and 神官長 with her magic was a lot of fun, and I hope we get more it. (Not attacking them specifically, but just more proactive not-papermaking stuff from her in general.) Honestly I’m kind of glad the 神殿長 started off the meeting acting like someone of his privilege would likely act towards a bunch of peasants; we keep hearing about all these class divides, but マイン really hasn’t had to deal with that because everyone else in her sphere is so nice.
I’ve really liked her parents throughout the books so far, but I think it’s because I identify with them more than マイン, who comes across as a child no matter what she does to me.
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I’ve gotta get my rear in gear then
My SIL is coming to visit us Thursday night and my goal is to be done before she gets here since I imagine I won’t have a lot of reading time with her here. I only have 4 more stories plus あとがき, so if I listen to one a day I’ll be there (I’m pretty hit and miss reading あとがき. I start them but stop as soon as they get boring, so I’ll just tack it on to the last story).
This has been my complaint about this whole series. There have been teasers of a really good story that wanders around in circles for 250 pages in order to pad out books. I’m hopeful that マイン’s change of scenery in the next arc will help that somewhat, but I don’t think we’re entirely in the clear
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Okay, I went ahead and finished the epilogue. Short stories start tomorrow, I’ve dedicated enough 本好き time today.
You put it really well earlier in this thread when you mentioned we’re sitting in meetings that could’ve been emails, haha. I’m also cautiously optimistic about the next arc given the upcoming changes, but to be honest I’m anticipating a lot of the same.
Once we finish up this book proper we can talk about when we want to start book 4; I wonder if we’ll be able to draw in any other 本好き hopefuls as well?
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I’ve seen some people making progress on the 2nd book in the activity feed, but not sure if they’d want to join us for the 4th book and if we’d want to wait that long or not (I’m definitely going to need another マイン break, but I don’t think it’s the length of time for someone to read two books unless they are very fast). But maybe there are some people parked at the beginning of the 4th book who will come join us. It’s definitely more fun to commiserate with a group.
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ベンノ カトルカールの試食会
Ugh, how did a ベンノ chapter turn into a cooking chapter? 
tbf it wasn’t exactly a cooking chapter, but it was pretty cooking adjacent. 3/5, except 1/5 for getting my hopes up to be good because it was a ベンノ chapter
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I’ve been following the discussions and have had this on my radar for a while but yous might be another few books down the road before I join in (was originally going to be my last read of 2025 starting around October/ November time).
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Next up is a マルク chapter; he has to redeem us.
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Much better. Still a lot of food, but we didn’t have to hear マイン tell us how to cook it for 10 pages so it was acceptable 4/5
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商人見習いの生活
I don’t actually care that much about the day to day as a 見習い, but I love ルッツ, so 4/5.
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商人見習いの生活
I enjoyed this one as well! I like ルッツ, but I was also curious what his day-to-day would look like, so it’s a win-win for me, haha.
For those who’ve read the ベンノ カトルカールの試食会 and ギルド長の悩みの種 short stories at the end of volume 3, could you give me a quick breakdown on why ベンオ and the ギルド長 hate each other so much? They each gave their viewpoint during the two stories, and I didn’t quite catch it all and didn’t really care enough to go back and check.
Otherwise I’ve finished with the book. 
My original estimate was that I would finish by this weekend, but for some reason I had 120% 本好き energy this week, haha. The book was alright overall; I never know how to quantify my feelings for these. There were a handful of good parts I was excited to read, surrounded by the more slice-of-life stuff that doesn’t particularly grab me. Despite that I didn’t dislike the book; it’s mostly just “there” for me.
Anyway, I will definitely be continuing on to volume 4; 本好き hasn’t chased me away yet. 
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I also went ahead and finished up today. I had 25 minutes left in the audiobook after my allotted reading and decided to just get it done with
My read was that ギルド長 is trying to maintain the stability of the businesses and thinks ベンノ is frivolous, and ベンノ similarly thinks that ギルド長 is calculating and callous. If there was much more than that I missed it bc I was pretty checked out for the side stories
Perfectly put. I have faith that there’s something else coming, but I will get to the end of the books I own at some point and probably won’t buy any more unless I’m hooked at that point.
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Sooo I hope I’m getting the timeline get but I think this is end of volume 3 information:
As far as I remember it, there was an unfortunate sequence of events caused by the guild master’s old fashioned (?) views. So when Bennos father died, he quite shortly after that (and insensitively) proposed they marry in order to help her bring up her children. Like, as a financial support. Later, he also proposed sth similar for Bennos sister and his son and Benno himself and a daughter probably? after Bennos wife died. He basically insured that his sister couldn’t marry anyone else in the business because he’d ruin their merchant career. That’s why Otto had to become a guard instead of helping the store or building his own as per his original plan.
I think in the guild master’s mind he was helping them (although he later got indignant and stubborn ‘if you’re not on my side you’re my enemy’), whereas Benno and his family saw him as insensitive and trying to take over their business. Which I also think he was. 
I guess he just doesn’t understand human emotions.
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Woohoo! Congrats, we made it! When would you like to start book 4? I remember you saying you’d like a 本好き break, which I would also like. My July is likely going to be kind of weird schedule-wise in general due to work, so we can go with whenever you’d like to start and I’ll plan myself around that.
Thank you both! That clears things up nicely.
Same here, though I’ve got quite a few books stocked up, haha. I guess around volume 12 at latest is when I’d need to decide whether I’d want to continue going.
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I’m not clambering to get started with the next one, so whenever in July works for you (or, you know, August 
). This has been using up my read along with audiobook slot, and I have plenty of books that I can read there in the meantime. I think I was more ready to go for arc 2 before we got 150 pages of short stories at the end of this one 
We have some travel plans for the end of August, but only a long weekend so I don’t have much coming up that will interfere with my reading schedule.
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Let’s check in on July 26th, then, and see where we’re at?
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