Thanks, I did try that before with the Zelda manga in one volume to Natively’s two separate volumes but it was rejected as there’s no significant difference between the separate volumes and the all in one but I’ll see what happens this time.
I have the other two books still to read, I read somewhere online it’s best to read the heavier tone one first then the lighter tone one if reading both.
Yes I now have just over 500 physical books in Japanese not including the ebooks and audiobooks I have. About 80 physical books are dictionaries, textbooks or graded readers and learners stuff, the rest are all native level stuff. There’s too much I want to read and I should probably spend more time learning Japanese and using it than buying books but a lot of what I want to read is stuff that’s older and now out of print or difficult to get here so I buy it when I see it. I do tend to go all in when collecting materials for study and practice
Most of what I’ve got is light novels and novels ranging from a few children’s chapter books and short stories up to adult level stuff. I will not want for choice once I can actually read higher than my current level
I just read https://learnnatively.com/book/e8e33729f8/ (君を愛 , not sure why it’s not converting) after having first read 僕が愛したすべての君へ | L29, and I agree that they are better read in that recommended order (君を愛 first and 僕が愛 second). I have a feeling they were written in that order too, since there is more set-up in 君を愛.
Unlike @seanblue , I actually liked 君を愛 more. The beginning was much more engaging to me, but I still have annoyances about what I feel was a pretty half-baked plot later on. Both books were very straightforward, easy reads for “science fiction”, which I associate in my head with more made up, pseudoscientific, and scientific vocabulary, which can be challenging in a second language. That sort of specialized vocabulary in these books is pretty minimal and straightforward to understand in context.
I think you’re right as my copies both show as published in 2016. Both books reference the other book at the back for recommendations by the same author.
I didn’t know how easy or difficult they would be when I picked them up, just saw some reviews and liked the premise of them. I like games and other books I’ve read that run different viewpoints beside each other (I’m currently also writing this kind of story myself) so it really appealed to me.
All 7 current volumes of 雨夜の月. Really like the feel of the covers. It’s one of the rare cases where I’m tempted to trash the obi. It’s just so annoying that they are all advertisements for the anime. I wonder what they were originally. Only downside of the physical copy is the little * notes explaining some words are really hard to read in the margins, but thankfully these aren’t that common. Definitely glad I bought the physicals for this.
It’s usually easier/more effective to just look up whatever word they’re explaining, I find. I love the feel of the covers too!! I wish all manga were like that tbh
You probably know this already, but the movie version: ルックバック | L30?? just came out!
True, but I’m also just curious how the mangaka will explain it.
Yeah, I mentioned before that I like this kind of cover and the rough feel ones, but I really dislike the glossy covers (which unfortunately most manga I own use). If I had to choose one style it would probably be this one.
Grabbed these at Book-Off earlier. Much less selective than I’d normally be, but one of my goals is to read more magazines with interviews and introductions. One has a 薬屋のひとりごと feature, and another has a Sawashiro Miyuki interview (yes I’m really that simple lol)
Thoughts on using a physical monolingual dictionary
The dictionary is cool, but gonna be quite a challenge to get used to… will definitely become a lot more solid on the 五十音順 (syllabary order), and I see a serious benefit already, in that I have to look up words to understand definitions… ex: 各個 (かっこ) めいめい。一つ一つ。一人一人。 - I had to look up めいめい, which turns out to be 銘々 (each, individual). There’s also the incidental seeing of the words around it, and the fact that it has antonyms is really great!!
The other thing that’s cool w/ monolingual dictionaries is that they’re often much more descriptive than J-E dictionaries… so it’s basically an exercise in reading comprehension. It’s interesting comparing it to the JP definitions in the Takoboto app.
I don’t really know how I’ll incorporate it overall… maybe just use for song lyrics, or stuff like that where there’s no time component to it. Or for something I’d consider easy in the first place… but I think the “no time component” will be important for me. Looking up words that are familiar is a helpful bridge, for adjusting to it.
Just remembered this extremely satisfying picture I took in Enoshima last year of my copy of 江ノ島は猫の島である | L31 and thought this thread might appreciate it (excuse my atrocious nails!).
And yes, lots of people were fishing around here haha. Not nice and sunny like in the cover unfortunately, although it did brighten up a lot later on that day.
I took my friend around Enoshima based solely on what I’d read from this novel and it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done, would love to do this with another location and another book one day.
I also wanna get the 逆転検事 manga, in part bc I love AA and Miles Edgeworth/Mitsurugi Reiji, in part because it’s apparently basically NaruMitsu: The Licensed Doujinshi. Like, obviously I need it.
I have seen collections of caps from that manga that were pretty damn gay. I even saw one that was like “Let’s play a fun game called guess which of these are from the licensed AAI manga and which are from BL doujinshi! If you guessed doujinshi for literally any of these, you would be wrong!” So I have high hopes. I just gotta find them somewhere for cheap (or at least not-too-expensive)
I now have just over 500 physical books in Japanese not including the ebooks and audiobooks I have. About 80 physical books are dictionaries, textbooks or graded readers and learners stuff, the rest are all native level stuff. There’s too much I want to read and I should probably spend more time learning Japanese and using it than buying books but a lot of what I want to read is stuff that’s older and now out of print or difficult to get here so I buy it when I see it. I do tend to go all in when collecting materials for study and practice 
Which means I just need to buy it off of the secondhand market, so no big deal.
