Not much reading going on these days, but I finished https://learnnatively.com/book/565728fc11/ a couple of days ago.
It felt really similar to RDG, another series by the same author. The dynamic between the four main characters (and their characteristics) feels almost copy-paste. I loved the other series, though, so I’m fine with that. Also, the setting is different (medieval fantasy) and I like it too.
Not sure I’ll go ahead with the series right now since I have so many other series ongoing 
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Is the セラフィールド in the subtitle related to the UK nuclear waste processing site Sellafield or is it just coincidence? (I’m guessing the latter but as a UK person it’s a bit weird to see a real-world famous/infamous placename turn up in a fantasy-world context…)
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I assume that it’s a coincidence, but there are some signs that the world might not be what it seems, so who knows. Maybe we are actually in the far future, after a long forgotten apocalypse or a parallel universe.
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I am a little way into あの家に暮らす四人の女 and I’m really enjoying it. There are certain themes I remember from the only other one of Shion Miura’s books I’ve read - unusual tenancy arrangements and slight oddballs! But it is written with good humour, certainly I would say that the characters feel very real in their situations and psychology. The main character, Sachi, is a woman aged about forty who lives with her mother and two friends in an old house. They are all single, and share names with characters in ‘The Makioka Sisters’ (Sasameyuki - a classic novel which I absolutely love). I am very curious as to where Miura is going to take me with this novel!
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I’ve just started reading through Zoo book 1 by 乙一. First story is an eye opener and from what I’ve heard of the others this is going to be a weird as hell read. After this and book 2, I’ll be going back to キノの旅.
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I’m reading both https://learnnatively.com/book/8973f4f507/ and https://learnnatively.com/book/d272483776/. I don’t usually read more than one book (non-manga) at a time, but after starting the second volume of the やがて君になる LN I got kind of bored. It’s not that it’s bad, I’m just not that interested in anything that’s happening. (Does that make it bad? 
) In retrospect I probably should have just jumped into the third volume and skipped the first two since really only the third one has entirely new content. In any case, since I got bored I also started the next volume of 魔法少女育成計画 to finish the two-volume arc, and I’ve just been going back and forth as the mood strikes. It’ll probably take me another 2-3 weeks to finish both of these. I’m not sure what I’ll read next, so maybe I’ll ask for recommendations at that time.
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Finished https://learnnatively.com/book/546b15e178/ - it was solidly good. Would recommend if ghost story mysteries sounds like a good idea to you and you want to expand your vocabulary in new directions.
Started https://learnnatively.com/book/47eea999c4/ and having trouble gaining momentum. Seems well-written, and the premise is pretty cool. A researcher crash-lands on post-apocalyptic Earth, and gets help to recover his research tools from the ocean from the local miko. The people who still live on Earth have regressed to a fairly primitive society, but there’s hereditary priestesses who have an advanced, scientific education and conduct rituals and diplomacy. Also out in the ocean is this giant genetically engineered fungus that is rumoured to be sapient.
So yeah, lots going on, but it’s pretty slow so far and getting through all the story setup before getting to the meat of the story is enthusiasm-sapping. Wish more stories would just throw you into the deep end (which was something I appreciated a lot about 後宮の烏 - no wasted space on explaining all the backstory, you just learn it as the characters bring it up)
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i finally struggled my way through Bocchi-chan 1 taking about a month to read, with a reading time of 6 hours for a 100 page 4koma manga. lol. I’m chalking this up as a win but with a revisit in a year note to see where I’m at. Definitely not going to try something so far out of my level range again for some time.
I will say it didn’t feel like I was reading for that long each time, which I guess speaks to the time-bending properties of reading something you enjoy, but still… it was pretty rough going.
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I have just started 人間失格 | L40 (learnnatively.com) and it’s uh, interesting
It starts with the narrator basically saying he hates someone’s face, based off seeing three photos of them. I’m expecting quite a misanthropic read based on that. So far there’s a few wild kanji but it doesn’t feel too archaic or difficult, we’ll see how it goes.
In other news, getting on nicely with the Shion Miura book I’m reading; it wouldn’t be for everyone, I’m a quarter of the way in and I still don’t know where it’s going, but it feels like a well-observed slice of life novel so far.
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Finished https://learnnatively.com/book/21f92eda6f/ yesterday. It’s a two-feather (mid-elementary level) つばさ media tie-in for 牧場物語/Story of Seasons, starring the female lead (ナナミ) from the game it’s based on. I started out feeling ambivalent about it, but it really started to grow on me around chapter 4 (about 1/3 through), and ended up surprising me by the end with how much I enjoyed it. A nice easy read, both in terms of story and writing - by the last third I was reading for fun more than anything. In fact, I may pick up the other 牧場物語 tie-in by the same author (different game and protagonist). Should try and write a review at some point…
For today, I started on volume 2 of https://learnnatively.com/series/186a4d5729/, which is a huge change of pace. This time I’m not using Akebi for lookups, so I was only able to get through half of the first chapter (33/64) due to the difficulty spike. But man, this is so good - it’s worth the struggle. (And it also has me wondering if this is an alternate history take on the Hundred Years’ War - unfortunately, I know very little there. It’s not very subtle regarding what B国, E国, F国, and S国 are supposed to represent, though…)
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Wow, I had no idea Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon had tie in books. I wonder if there’s anything out for the Wonderful Life remake…
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I finished https://learnnatively.com/book/3ab5cd9a93/ (後宮妃の管理人 3). I’ve been trying to get over my reading slump, so I thought I’d go with a brain dead light novel but… that was actually boring .
I randomly picked 図書館の魔女 1 and 2 from the library. I read the first volume 5-6 years ago and it was one of the hardest books I ever read. I was curious to see if that was biased by me being lower level and it turns out I was right… but I still remember all the crazy words from last time so I don’t even need look-ups 
and I love the writing style even more now. Last time, I wasn’t even paying much attention through the pain of looking up one third of the words.
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How do you get it sent in Japanese??
today i finished the first quarter of https://learnnatively.com/book/990b0a7855/ (ひと) and i’ve been really enjoying it so far! it’s the first real novel i’m reading in japanese and so far i’m doing pretty well. vocab is my weak point (as always) but i’m getting away with looking up words i can’t make sense of here and there so it’s very fun
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Nice work! I definitely have very fond memories of the first novel I read in Japanese too 
Ah, I should’ve clarified - there’s no option to have it sent in Japanese, I was just wondering if anyone were going to pick up their own copy of Dracula in Japanese and read along that way. I did end up picking up a copy myself, but may not be super dedicated to keeping up with the days.
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Ah, got it. I might join you.
…
Does 600 pages sound right for a bunko version???
I want to get a copy with a cover I like but that’s dummy thicc
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I think that sounds about right, actually. My English copy is standard English paperback size and is 350 pages with small-ish tight text. Cut that book height in half for bunko format and I could see the page count doubling.
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Halfway update for https://learnnatively.com/book/47eea999c4/ ( ウェイプスウィード ヨルの惑星). It’s become very slow going.
It’s not overly difficult, though I am just blearing through some sentences because I get the gist from the kanji/context and don’t care that much about the specifics. The prose is fine, the characters are likeable (though, I wish it were more from Yoru’s viewpoint), and there’s some interesting sci-fi ideas here. The problem is that I have no idea where this story is going. The characters don’t have any strong, personal goals they’re trying to achieve - currently they’re just doing their job, which doesn’t seem all that personally important to them. The stuff I thought the plot was about hasn’t been mentioned for a while, and the main conflict there was resolved. It’s not bad overall, I just don’t feel any burning need to find out what happens next.
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