https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/japan/jp/special/order/confirm/https%3A%2F%2Fjp.mercari.com%2Fitem%2Fm46225156732/13_1/ - some or all new (I didn’t look closely to confirm which it was)
You can of course find them cheaper used there as well, but not a ton of listings… Really tempting me to order them now 
I did pretty much the same a few months back and got the spring cover. First time I’ve ended up with one of those double cover books
Me too – I picked it up because it has a deck on jpdb and the Amazon blurb seemed interesting, but some of the vocab in the deck makes me wonder where the story is going to go…
You got a double cover? I only got the limited cover and the book so don’t have the original cover 
I have had a few double cover books though.
Yeah mine has the original underneath, guess they didn’t want the summer one to get too hot with all those layers
I made a couple of new orders recently since I discovered I can read physical LNs in the mid 20s without a crippling amount of lookups (and I also apparently prefer reading physical books–the plot twist I never saw coming).
I also grabbed ダンジョン飯 1巻 | L31 to read with the WK book club. It’s way harder than the level I try and read manga at, but I watched the show with English subs so I’m hoping it’s not too much of a slog.
That just reminded me, I never Hung up my 猫猫 poster (is a double poster, ダン飯 is on the back of it). At some point I need to try watching it, so I know whether to get rid of the other poster I have…
I love reading physical. The ease of acquiring ebooks is nice, and if they’re very hard books the ease of lookups is also nice, but there is something so brain-calming about sitting down with a paper book for me 
Even when I find myself doing a lot of lookups, it’s also like the words stick better (probably some research out there about that )
I am even odder: I do find something very pleasant about looking things up in a paper dictionary. Like, it’s extremely time consuming, so I almost never do it, but when I do, my brain is like “yes, this is how it’s supposed to be. 
”
I do not like reading books in English physically. So it’s maybe the whole paper makes it stick better thing* and I’m just a strong enough reader in English that I’ve never noticed the medium mattering. But I think it’s more likely that Japanese books are a delightful size and feel good to read no matter where you are in the book. Western paperbacks longer than 200 pages only feel good 30-50 pages in and suck to start and end. And reading a hardcover is just hundreds of pages of microaggression.
That has always felt like dubious research to me. Like p-hacking to get the results that you want. I’m curious to see what happens if they repeat the same research on Gen Z/Alpha who probably learn to read on screens before paper.
Meanwhile, come December I’ll be reading a 1200 page hardcover of Stormlight Archive 5.
Absolutely no universe
I’m reading War and Peace right now and it’s 1400 pages ish. They broke it into a 3 book set and that’s highly manageable for an icky hardcover book.
I think people learn things better when they spend more time with it. Slower dictionary lookups = more time thinking about that specific thing.
I have recently started using hover dictionaries again and I feel that the speed comes at a cost of retention. With manual lookups, each word has an extra moment to breathe. I actually really enjoy handwritten lookups for that same reason. Physical might be a little too slow for my tastes though.
Sorry for off-topic, (I never read physical lol). But I thought your discussion here was interesting!
Yeah, I like the much lighter feel of JP books a lot. Much easier to read from. Honestly even the huge manga magazines feel light and easy. I’m always amazed when people post wide-bans / omnibus editions - I could never (I mean I do have the magazine size NEW GAME! editions, but they’re the exception to the rule). The English book bindings are so much stiffer most of the time.
Honestly same. Also doing it with monolingual dictionary is great, cuz you get a lot of second hand exposure to other words, and it helps you really internalize the 五十音順 - which is sometimes useful
I type in many of my lookups, and find that’s helpful for retention as well
I learned to read paper books originally but did spend around 10 years reading only using a kindle and calibre on pc before I moved to kindle app and even read only through e-readers when I started Spanish. I like e-readers for the ease of look ups and amount of books they can hold but when I started Japanese, I’ve always preferred physical books, though I kind of have an obsession with how miniature their books are compared to English ones. I do have issues with my eyes now caused by screen use though, so have to limit screen use in my personal time because I use it so much in my work.
English, I am comfortable reading either through a screen or physical book. Spanish, I still prefer e-readers (partly why I haven’t done much Spanish recently). And Japanese is physical books, but maybe I’m just weird
Honestly, not reading on an electronic device (with all the potential distractions) and not sitting in front of a screen, is a blessing of its own - even without eye issues. Also don’t have to worry about device glare, which at least in my apartment gets really annoying
Never thought about the lack of distractions. 
Less eye strain as well (even with my tinted glasses for screen use).
Mmm, I feel like my preference for paper books is half four-decade-old habit and half that I like it being a completely separate experience from the distraction machine that a phone/tablet/computer can be. I even have a special-purpose electronic dictionary rather than using a phone, so I can read in bed without having to bring a phone along…
I need to look at that option as my phone jjst leads to distractions
When I read physically, I tend to keep my phone on my dictionary app so that’s the first screen that comes up when I unlock it. It’s not perfect because notifications can come in that will distract me. I suppose I could put my phone into DND mode…
But anyway, I find if the first thing that happens when I unlock my phone is that I’m dumped into the dictionary app it helps keep me on task.
