I’ve been reading novels for almost almost a year now and it’s still hard, but it’s far easier now than when I started. Truth be told, it’s going to suck a lot when you start no matter what you do. There is no way around it and you should just do it. Do it somewhat consistently and you WILL get better. The good news is, there are things you can do to make it a lot better.
Things that can help:
1. Read something you already know
The first books I read were the first three volumes of https://learnnatively.com/book/f265765d19/
The reason those worked for me is that I’ve seen the anime 3 times and thus already knew what was going to happen. I still got lost plenty of times but knowing the story made it manageable. I’m not sure if this is the best method, but it’s what I did. It’s fine if you don’t want to do this.
2. Read with a pop up dictionary.
When I started I read on reader.ttsu.app combined with Migaku. Migaku is a paid app but yomichan is free if you want to go that route. I’ve sinced ditched Migaku and started reading on kindle with this custom dictionary (Don’t worry, it’s not hard to install). A kindle is quite expensive though, but if you can afford it, it’s well worth it in my opinion.
Just before you look up a word, try to guess it’s meaning, especially if you recognize the word but just have difficulty recalling it, it makes it stick a lot better.
3. Pick an easy book
Everything is going to be hard at the start, might as well not make it harder than it needs to be. There isn’t a giant pool of lv 24-25 books on learn natively but there are enough to keep you entertained for a while while still being able to select for your tastes.
4. Reread at the start
The first 5 books I read, I reread every single chapter at least once. Even more often at the start. This helped me improve quicker during the hardest part of learning. The repetition of words and grammar points you’ve already looked up really help them stick a little. It also gave my brain some much needed breaks from trying to decode something new.
5. Don’t be afraid to translate whole sentences, with caution.
At the time I tossed entire sentences in ChatGPT (sometimes together with the preceding sentences for context) and had it break them down for me. I still use the translation software in my kindle here and there. Use this with caution though, translating a sentence doesn’t really teach it to you, but it can give you the context you need to understand the sentences around it.
6. Just be consistent, read a little often
I have a lot of free time so I read for at least an hour per day. But you’ll improve even at half an hour 5 times a week (albeit slower). Learning to read novels is a bit of a marathon at the start. Good news is, it’s a marathon you probably can take slowly.
You’re not going understand everything you read at the start and that is fine. It’s going to suck but it’s going to suck less over time. You’re going to be looking up a lot at the start and that’s fine. Not a lot of those words are going to stick and that’s fine too. I don’t use anki to learn new words while reading, you can probably speed up the process by doing so but you don’t need to if you don’t want to. If you do want to use anki, make sure you get the repeating words first.
I actually read https://learnnatively.com/book/e36155e551/ quite early (when I decided to take reading seriously back in May). So you CAN go with a harder book, I just think I should have gone with an easier one.
Some good easy books are (I can only recommend what I’ve read which isn’t a lot):
Or just look here and pick something that seems interesting to you.
If a book bores you out if your mind, drop it and pick another, you owe the book nothing.
Sorry for the wall of text. I only started reading books myself relatively recently so I really feel like helping someone else do it. It’s tough, but it’s well worth it in the long run!
If you got any other questions, you can ask me.
