Yeah idk, I find 4-koma really hit or miss. If they’re the “whelp I read a page” variety, then I drop them fast. It’s just super misleading of them not to show some of the 4-koma part in the previews
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4-koma are very much a “you gotta be in the mood” kind of format, even for someone like me who generally likes the format. For example, this year I’ve only read about 5 volumes, other than my reread of ひとりぼっちの○○生活 | L22 with a book club, because I just haven’t felt like reading them much. Compare that to last year where I read about 30 volumes.
I find that with 4-koma, even more than free-form manga, a lot depends on how much the series clicks with you. Maybe that’s just because so many 4-koma are comedies and humor is so subjective to begin with, or perhaps because they tend to be denser than free-form manga so it takes more effort to read.
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previously on shitsurei’s read your owned books posts
I didn’t make my goal last week, but today I finished TWO manga in my currently reading:
NANA―ナナ― 8 | L28
気になってる人が男じゃなかった VOL.2 | L24
I have 7 (
) started manga in my currently reading and want to clear them all out by the end of the month.
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I read this book I bought years ago, 세상의 마지막 기차역. It was ass. But hey, I’m done with it now.
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Finally finished my re-reads of アスタリスク 3 | L25 and アスタリスク 4 | L25 this weekend (although I remembered so little from アスタリスク 4 it’s more of a first read), so now I’m finally moving to my unread books for the series! I’ve also finally realized that yes, reading manga does take time, so if I want to do it I need to actually carve out that time. 
Considering doing some sort of manga reading challenge for myself next month, but we’ll see.
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Well that got really disrupted lol
My current physical reads:
2 are Kansai Ben, and one is organizational
Maybe when I finish those I’ll start
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I finished read 눈에 갇힌 외딴 산장에서, a physical book, and immediately sold it for like $1 
and bought 3 more books. Also possibly gearing up to read 드래곤 라자, which I bought at some point over 2 years ago.
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Finally! I’ve been looking forward to updating this thread for a while. Earlier this week I finished 王と夜啼鳥, a Flesh&Blood gaiden novel. It was originally released in 2012, with the bunko re-release coming in 2024, 12 years later. So I have both versions, and thus was able to knock two physical books off my TBR at once. 
(Sick TBR hack: just buy the same book over and over and over.)
I’m hoping to finish up a manga series this weekend, so hopefully I’ll have three more books to post here tomorrow.
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update: finished 미제레레 | L32 and 번외 | L28 !!! 2 physical books down…this means I can buy 2 more then, right? 
((Woahhh while taking the pic I realized the 띠지 for 번외 actually unfolds into some sort of poster hehe
Physical TBR (the short list) (yes there are more physicals I own but ;;;)
= started and paused…some I may just need to start over tho
The long walk
2029
바보 허스키와 그의 흰 고양이 사존
(manga/manhwa) Death note 4-13
(manga/manhwa) 귀태 1-3
파과
급류
죽고 싶지만 떡볶이는 먹고 싶어 2
불귀도 살인 사건
잔류 인간
안녕, 소중한 사람
번외
홍학의 자리
82년생 김지영
완득이
지구 끝의 온실
사랑과 결함
미제레레
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The cover is so pretty!! Definitely worth buying 2 editions 
What did you think of 미제레레? I convinced myself out of wishlisting it because it is above my level for now, but I might change my mind 
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I’ve finished exactly none of these. I did however finally finish the asexuality manga (きみのせかいに恋はない | L26). And I’m in the middle of https://learnnatively.com/series/38246b7b58/ with my book club (we read a chapter aloud every week, and most of us have read the entire series already)
I’m especially glad for the asexuality book. I started and paused it almost 2 years ago, but now that I’ve been trying to engage with that part of my identity more (I’m grey/demi), it was nice to have a book explaining & portraying it in Japanese. The story itself is ok, but wouldn’t be the primary reason to read the book imo, unless you’re also totally new to asexuality (I am not)
I’ll be getting コミック百合姫2026年3月号 in the mail this week. So that will get added soon. At some point I really need to make sure my physical media spreadsheet is up to date
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I liked it! I read it in physical form, right? So tbh it was more difficult for me to judge its difficulty (I got so used to reading with online touch lookups lol). But the first scene/chapter was rough cause there was an exorcism kind of ritual and idk any 무당 vocab. It did get very comfortable after the midway point, but I couldn’t actually read extensively until I got through the first parts…So I feel it needs to be above level 29 for sure. You’ll get there before you know it hehe. Orrr if you know and just push through the whole exorcism thing I think you’ll prob be fine hahah.
Also, there should be some trigger/content warnings tbh. Kind of 조예은 creepiness/horror imagery vibes if you’ve read her work yet!
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Oooh, I see. I don’t know any 무당 vocab either, so that definitely sounds interesting.
I’ll keep in mind the halfway point if I give it a try, I think it’ll be motivating to know it does get better at some point!
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I made a push today, and I finally finished アスタリスク | L25 ! I’ve had this series for like 4-5 years now, maybe longer, and it feels so good to finally finish! This was one I picked up far before I had the language ability to actually read it, so it was quite nostalgic to come back to certain sections and remembering how much I struggled. And now today there was no friction whatsoever; finishing the last three volumes I needed was more a matter of stamina than ability.
I need to write a review for book one, see if I can hook more people into reading it, but in short: it’s a cute, sweet, action-packed series about angels fighting demons. The protagonist is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, and the series on the whole is very positive and hopeful.
This is the first manga series in a while I’ve actually completed, and it feels pretty good. Probably my next big effort will be the WK readathon, so I want to start thinking about another backlog series that’s either a) short enough for me to finish in one day (4-6 volumes, depending on level), or b) something I’ve been working on and has that many volumes left.
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I’ve started working on my next physical manga series, this one also by 森本秀 (アスタリスク’s mangaka): 仁獣芳烈伝 | L27. The first two volumes I read waaaay long ago, so they’re technically re-reads, but for all intents and purposes they’re new to me. At least now I’ll be able to start updating them in natively. I need to write a review for volume one, but I may do it after I’ve read a few more volumes and have a better handle on the series…
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