Might be worth looking into the furigana version in addition to @bibliothecary’s suggestion; if you know you’ll be looking up a bunch of stuff anyway, might as well shorten the process.
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Finished this week’s reading; I listened to the audiobook while reading along. Didn’t look up any words, just did extensive reading, and I have to say, it’s night and day comprehension-wise from when I last tried the book with the WK book club in 2020. Keep that in mind kids: keep studying for three years and eventually you’ll make it or fake it.
Gotta say, we’ll have to see how well I can take マイン this time around. I partially dropped the book last time because of how annoying I found her; her one-track mind in regards to books got old real fast. Like, I too love them, but her obsession felt unhealthy. Makes me wonder how socially maladjusted she was before the story begins. We see a tiny bit here in the prologue, at least.
I was a bit wary of the narrator’s voice as well; it starts of pretty high-pitched (for me at least), but it doesn’t sound overdone so far. I’ll see how my feelings change as I listen to more.
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Just finished with this week’s reading! I’ve found that personally I enjoy reading Japanese the best when doing extensive reading with mainly the audiobook but the e-book to follow along with. That way I can use my listening skill to help save time on reading, and also be forced to go much faster than I would normally. I had been reading the first Full Metal Panic audiobook (and I’ll probably nominate it for this club for later!) which is slower and easier to follow in my opinion. So yeah, this audiobook moves pretty fast and I’m not catching everything but I understand more than 90% of whats happening and I’m enjoying it!
I had the same first reaction to マイン and the narrator’s voice as you @eefara ! I’m definitely going to finish this book, but how マイン acts and how much I adjust to the narrator’s voice will determine if I’m up for volume 2.
Overall, looking forward to seeing how it pans out!
(Also I’m sure no one cares but just for reference I’m Florence14. I made a new account that uses my WK name to make it easier to connect with people crossplatform. So yeah Florence14 didn’t leave just is switching over!)
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Unfortunately this version took about a month to arrive so the English version will probably be about the same. I used to be able to get books pretty quickly and easily but shipping now is taking a month to 2 months for anything atm and I’m not really up for reading ebooks if I can help it (I have issues with my eyes that are aggravated by screen use and since I work with screens daily, I try to limit their use in my free time when possible 
). But if I can grab a physical copy quick, I might consider it or just come back to this at a later date and re-read it like I’ve done with others. 
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Is there not differences between the furigana version and this one though? Other than furigana I mean.
Also if it’s in 2 parts that’s about £40-£50 for one book which is kinda out of my budget atm. I don’t mind not understanding much atm, it just means I need to re-read it at a later date once my Japanese is better. My current comfortable level is probably closer to the low 20s. The higher level stuff I’ve read has mostly been figuring stuff out from context, from what I already know and being able to read the stuff that is lower level within a higher level book if that makes sense.
My intention with this series is to get them all and read them at some point since I do have a few of the audio books so far and it’s decent listening practice in the process
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I have to say, I was also not into it during most of volume 1 and thought I’d drop the series after that… until I read the epilogue. Then I was hooked and just burned through the rest of the series at the fastest speed I had ever read (at the time). It used to take me ~1 week to finish a book, but I read every book at a pace of 2~4 days per book instead (past volume 1, I mean).
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I’ve done a first read through of the prologue, chapter one, and more chapters as well – what can I say, I got hooked! I’m enjoying this a lot, in part because it’s a great match for my skills. I really ought to reread for closer comprehension–even on second read, I won’t necessarily be trying to understand every detail though.
The main character is indeed annoying. I was given volume 1 in English and just couldn’t do it. But in Korean, I’m less sensitive to tone, and the fact that the author / MC says everything three times is actually helpful rather than irritating. Ditto for the detailed descriptions of everyday activities like attempting to open a door.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but I can make two general points that don’t give away anything plot-related. I’ve been told that the MC does indeed grow and change a lot throughout the story, and I’ve also been told that she tends to downplay her affection for others, almost as if she’s embarrassed about it and has to deny it. I’ve already seen a little of the second point in action.
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So I did switch to the junior version since I last posted. In the WK book clubs I’ve been in before, I usually aim to do the whole reading in one sitting these days, but that’s a bit much for me at the moment with this novel, so I’m doing 5 pages/day as my target for now. With that, I just finished the prologue (again, since i did a test read like a month ago) today on the first time.
Sort of meta spoilers about things the anime/manga omit/change in the prologue
So Myne nearly getting isekai-d the traditional way by truck-kun, and anything about Shuu have not made an appearance in the anime, or in my current progress in the manga, so I thought that was interesting. Also, I’m pretty sure in the anime, she died from being crushed by books in her job as a librarian, not at home like in novel, so that’s another difference. Maybe I just underestimated Myne’s at home library though.
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Finished this week’s reading! I listened to it first without reading and was able to follow the broad strokes. Then I listened to it while reading, pausing periodically (usually at the end of each paragraph) to run through the text again. A lot of times there were sentences that I could understand, but just not at the speed the narrator was reading. I underlined words I didn’t know in pencil, but didn’t look all of them up. (This is progress! 
)
I had heard about Myne (is this how you spell it in English?) being potentially annoying but I actually thought that (if you somewhat ignore the prologue) she was relatively understandable, positive, and pro-active! Her obsession with books obviously seems unhealthy, but at least in this chapter she is using it to help get herself through a difficult situation, which I appreciate. 
This is very intriguing … I’m looking forward to that epilogue now! I did find the narrator’s voice fairly annoying at first, but I’m actually getting used to it pretty quickly I think.
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Ah, that reminds me that I meant to copy that character table over to this home post. Thanks!
Edit: Question, now that I’m thinking about it: I have a little notes section where I intended to write identifying notes (“Protagonist”, “Myne’s sister”, etc.), and my first instinct is jot the notes down in Japanese, but that’s not exactly inclusive in a multilingual club. Should I default to English, given that English is this forum’s standard/default language?
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So the first season’s anime subs originally went with Main, which is just the transliteration of the katakana, and Crunchyroll still has that, so you’ll still sometimes see her called that in English too, but pretty much everything else went with Myne. (Probably because people were just pronouncing Main as the english word “main”)
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Yeah, I’d totally be pronouncing it that way if I just saw “Main” with no context. Even with the context of “it’s a character’s name”, it’s still way too ambiguous imo.
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I’m also wondering about spoiler policy for some of these people. For instance, is it a spoiler who Tuuli is? I can spoiler them out easy, but I’m just wondering if I’m being too paranoid.
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I don’t think you need spoilers unless there’s a twist in the story - if they appear in the week’s reading, I think it’s fine to include their role/relationship.
Speaking of the protagonist’s name, all I can think of is:
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I think it’s sort of a spoiler if it’s not clear why they’re a notable character. I think it’s pretty self evident from this week’s reading why member’s of Myne’s might be a notable character. But for example, I maybe wouldn’t tag (part 2 spoilers) Ferdinand and the high priest/bishop/head priest/whatever this version calls him on their first appearance as it’s not clear at that point they’re going to be recurring characters.
Then again, the anime did (anime episode 1/LN part 2) make ferdinand the narrator and give a flash forward to the memory scene, so clearly they disagree with me
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They don’t show up in this volume, so that’s not an issue.
Otherwise, I would just take the approach of the character list in the book: just put any named character in there.
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This is getting a bit pedantic (and maybe minor spoilers?), but the language used in illustrations, merch, and visual text shown in the anime can be mapped to latin characters, so it’s confirmed that マイン’s name is written as “MAIN” in-universe as well.
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I had a very similar experience! I liked the first book well enough, but that moment is the first “glimpse behind the curtain” to things that Myne’s perspective doesn’t let us see. It shows how carefully the author has considered other characters and the world itself beyond just Myne’s story in it. So hopefully that can be extra motivation for everyone to look forward to 
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IIRC, the official English translation uses “Myne” which I’m personally partial to (though I wasn’t originally since I had only watched the anime). I think using the spelling that already looks like a word just throws me off a bit, and the former is more obvious in it’s pronunciation. I believe the translator himself (who is active on the bookworm and light novel subreddits) has gone into detail about the decision and his frustration with the CR subs choice to use “Main”, though I’m too tired to go digging for it as I’m off to bed soon.
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I finished listening to the prologue again and the first chapter. Although I understood very little of the prologue, I understood a bit mire of the first chapter while listening but need to go back and read them both without the audio, which I’ll start tomorrow and finish on Sunday ready for next weeks chapters.
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