As a way to fight my reading slump, I started reading 薬屋のひとりごと 13 two days ago just before bed time. I thought I just read 5 pages or something to get back into the groove, but I ended up reading 1/5th of the whole book instead and just finished it yesterday.
I really liked it! It’s the beginning of a new arc, so we are getting some new plot points, but mostly it’s about catching up with all the characters we didn’t see during the previous arc. Also, the writing style was quite different from the previous books. We are back to the episodic nature from the earlier volumes, but this time things are told from the point of view of other characters. Often, 猫猫 happens to be involved, but not always.
I usually don’t like collections of short stories, but here there’s a sense that time is moving forward and that it does matter.
Anyway, just like after finishing the last volume of 本好き in a couple of days, I am now back to not feeling like reading anything
Started reading 嫌いなら呼ぶなよ with @omk3over on WK and it’s been a riot so far. It feels similar to おいしいごはんを食べられますように, so if you like messed up characters and slightly dark humor you’ll probably enjoy it. It seems to be a short story collection so do bear that in mind - I love short stories but not everyone does
Difficulty wise it’s probably mid to high 30s. I noted over in the other thread that quite a few words I could only find in my JP<>JP dictionary, and I’ve also googled a fair amount to understand everything from types of eye shapes to types of pastries
I finished 12月のベロニカ - it was very good. Would highly recommend if you like heroic, angsty fantasy.
Moving on to 歌の降る惑星 for the next probably-terrible sci-fi novel. Expectations are, of course, very low - but the writing style so far is decently engaging. Characters feel like they might wear a bit thin, but at least they’re established as having clear personalities, so that’s a step up over comparable things I’ve read this year.
I have started 謎解きはディナーのあとで 2 | L31 (learnnatively.com) and so far it’s living up to my fond memories of the first book in the series, genuinely making me laugh out loud. I haven’t finished the first story, so I can’t comment yet on whether the quality of the mysteries is as good, but I would heartily recommend this series to anyone who likes mysteries and fancies a laugh
I’ve actually managed to finish a good number of manga since my last update, so I thought it’d be nice to brag a bit~ So anyway, it’s been almost three weeks since my last real update, and I’m pleased to say that I’ve crossed three items off of that “currently reading” list entirely.
First up I finished reading the ファイアパンチ series (books 5-8 since last post); I was reading it along with an English book club. Overall I enjoyed the series more than I expected to. The author went hard for his first published series, and my club and I had a good time discussing it all. It was a new experience to have to ask how the English was translated at times (mostly for names and such); I was pleased to hear that I correctly guessed how vulgar a character was translated, haha. I’ve only ever read a few volumes of the author’s other work, Chainsaw Man, but reading Fire Punch makes me want to give CM another try, now that I have a better idea of the author’s style.
Next is the rather random manga 異世界の沙汰は社畜次第 4; I’ve been immensely enjoying the English translation, and it’s going to be like a year before it’s released, so I got impatient and just read through the Japanese. Man, the OG LN has been on my list for a while now; I need to just switch over so I can get the full experience…
After that I finished reading FLESH & BLOOD 12. I am now halfway through the series! Volume 12 ended on an absolutely amazing note; I’m going to jump over and read another short story in Flesh&Blood外伝 女王陛下の海賊たち before I get to volume 13, but I’m extremely excited. ^o^ If the LN club maintains enough popularity I’m super tempted to recommend the first Flesh&Blood as a nominee; I gotta spread the love!
And finally, finished up just this morning, I’ve finally conquered the レバダン・希望の花 series (volumes 6-8 since last post). I really enjoyed the series all the way through, and I’m glad I revisited it (after having only finished three volumes the first time around); I’m definitely going to be checking out the author’s other works. I’d definitely recommend this series for those looking to improve their “historical” vocab (think 16th century England terms) and enjoy a bit of light politics, drama, and romance lighter than I would’ve liked for the latter.
告白 is very nearly finished; I’m looking forward to seeing how that ends. The first F&B short story collection will only have one story left before I can finish it off, but I think I need to wait to read a few more volumes of F&B before I can get to it. Dracula continues to be a long-term project; I’m glad to say it’s a fairly easy read in Japanese, at least at my level.
I’m going to try to continue finishing off long-standing manga series I’ve had in my backlog; I’ll probably put a poll up on the “what to read next” megathread for thoughts. And now that F&B12 is done and 告白 is within spitting distance, I plan to finally get to D.Gray-man reverse 2 and cross that off the list. If I’m lucky I can keep momentum and dive straight into the third and final DGM LN after that…
Recently finished the 五等分の花嫁 anime and movie, and started reading the manga. On vol 4 - it’s nice having the time to take things in a bit more slowly than watching it:
Also halfway through with SAO 27, which will be the 3rd LN I’ve finished, once I’m done:
After finishing the bookclub read (告白) early, I got side-tracked by some English books. (Can highly recommend the Daevabad trilogy. Binged all 4 books (trilogy + collection of short stories). )
Very slowly making my way through 記憶屋 and looking forward to seeing what the lightnovel pick for the new bookclub will be.
Just about halfway through 世界から猫が消えたなら. I was excited to read this one, but I’m actually struggling to stay interested at this point. Not really a big fan of the main character, as he doesn’t really seem to think about or care at all about the implications of his choices on other people. Sure, it doesn’t seem like anyone else is aware of what has disappeared from the world, but really? Your ex who you decided to call with your last phone call in the world - her favorite place is the movie theater. Your good friend’s entire LIFE is about movies. Also, both of these people’s employment presumably depends on movies existing. Did you even think about that? I thought the book would examine more of these consequences for other people as well.
Maybe I’ll take a break and spend time with one of other two books I’m reading at the moment, but neither of them are calling my name. The current short story I’m on from カレーライス is a bit harder for me to follow without lookups, and it’s a paperback. The other book I’m reading is a bit too easy, but I started it so I could read along with friends.
Side note, but am I missing something about how to add Natively links that automatically format with the title and level marker?
Hmm. It didn’t seem to be working on the preview of my post, only when I did a standalone link on its own line. Let’s see if it works when I actually post:
The other book I’m reading now is https://learnnatively.com/book/ce12ae910d/
I ended up just pushing through and finishing 世界から猫が消えたなら | L27 so I could just be done with it Now I have to figure out which book I want to read digitally next. I like to have both a physical book and a digital one going so I can choose between easy dictionary lookups and freedom from a screen.
I’m a big fan of 逃げるは恥だが役に立つ 1 | L29?? (although I actually enjoyed the drama better than the manga overall) and was excited to see that 海野つなみ has a new manga starting! I stumbled upon it yesterday while scouring the web for volumes 10 and 11 of 逃げ恥 (no luck I bought volumes 1-9 as a set before the last 2 volumes came out) and realized Volume 1 had just been released for sale that day. I feel like a real fan now
I finished the free sample, and it seems intriguing so far. Kind of a similar start to 逃げ恥 in that the main character is jobless and suddenly loses a place to live. It seems like fortune-telling will be important to the story, and I’m curious to see how that unfolds.
So, meanwhile I finished 狼と香辛料 1 and two (far) easier ones. 狼と香辛料 1 needed far too many look-ups per page (about 10-13) to be comfortable, but as I liked the story, I managed to finish it with the help of JPDB. That’s of course a crutch, which I actually hated to use, but without it reading time would probably even be two times its actual value of almost 7 weeks. Nonetheless, I will for sure come back to that series sooner or later.
The other books were: おおかみこどもの雨 with 5.9 look-ups per page, and 泣きたい私は猫をか with just 4.0 look-ups per page.
So I came to think about how this relates to books I read earlier. How to gauge progress? Two years ago I read e.g. 魔女の宅急便 1, then at 5.5 look-ups per page. Where would I come out today with that book? So I decided: well, let’s try with part 2 of the series 魔女の宅急便 2, as it very probably has the same difficulty as part 1 and see how it will work out. And maybe I read part 3 in another two years to see again…
I’m dipping my feet in a bunch of different things right now. I finished (and am rereading) 五等分の花嫁, and still working on SAO 27 (53% done). Otherwise I’m trying out:
おいでませ、こくりさん - not the most interesting, but it’s “fully voiced” and very low reading level
Trinity Trigger - a surprisingly fun JRPG. Language difficulty is just right for me.
There's a few firsts for me:
No translation: I’m reading 本好き、 はなにあらし、 ささやくように恋を唄う*、 こくりさん, and both games completely without translation. Almost everything else I’ve read until now has been “read, double check translation, reread/continue reading”. This is the first time I’m reading brand new things without any reference. I feel confident in about 85-90% of my comprehension here, and the parts I don’t fully get aren’t an impediment to the overall story.
Audiobook: I’m reading 本好き along to the audio book. I think I’m settling in the following flow: read with audio, read without audio (look everything up), reread with audio. It’s a substantially longer process than just reading, but it’s more fun, and I think probly has more gains, since it reinforces 読み方 and 読解 (kanji readings and listening comprehension). Having audio is helpful, since the narrator has split the phrases for you.
Paperback: I’m reading 本好き, ささやくように 7 , and五等分 in paperback. (I’ve only ever read a few pages of 暁のヨナ and ささやくように 1 in physical form before). With 本好き I’m alternating, bc lookups from a paper book are 面倒臭い. I listen with paper book, then read with digital. Comparing physical to digital:
本好き it’s nice having the extra space between lines. Reduced contrast makes it challenging though
ささやくように paper works fine, I don’t have a lot of lookups there.
五等分 nice seeing the colored version in print. Very little whitespace between the inner edge of the page and the panels. This requires opening the book more widely, which I don’t like doing bc it wears the book more quickly
In general the tactile element and lack of screen time with books is nice, but having to worry about things like lighting, keeping them nice, finding a convenient position, etc - along with the off-white background page color - leave me preferring digital
Reading speed: I’m tracking reading speed. This is pretty interesting, and at first it was making me rush a bit. One place where this becomes iffy though is whether I’m tracking digital vs physical edition. With digital there are more pages (and less text per page), meaning my pages per minute count would be higher. I’m not putting too much stock into reading speed though, and I can sort of “feel” how I’m doing. I definitely read way faster than I used to (but still not fast). With 本好き having the audio book is a nice benchmark to compare to.
Also some surprises:
佐伯沙弥香について: I’m finding it really hard. I feel like I’m getting about 60% comprehension here. I think part of the problem is that I don’t feel interested in the characters or setting yet. But also the wiring style is just hard for me. I’ve decided to drop it for now, given everything else I’m reading, plus the upcoming コップクラフト reading club.
本好き: I’m finding 本好き really easy. I have a decent amount of lookups (75% familiar words, and 25% new), but the sentences are really easy to understand. It’s the first LN that I can just read it comfortably. That’s really nice.
SAO キス・アンド・フライ feels easier than expected. When I tried SAO Girls Ops a few months back, it felt too hard - and I think still would. Kiss and Fly has simpler dialogue, less fantasy MMO vocab, and better fonts & contrast.
Getting back I to stories: It’s been 4-5 months since I read the previous volumes of はなにあらし and ささやく. It’s been challenging to remember the story and characters. I need to look up the character names for ささやく, bc they’re not giving 振り仮名 at this point.
I recommend 本好き if you’re look for an easier fantasy LN to check out
I agree. I think there’s something about Sayaka’s thought process that can be difficult to follow, and as you said the writing style can be difficult at times. I wouldn’t say the book is hard, but I think its Natively level is misleadingly low.
Mmm, it definitely took me a while to get going with it. I’m not sure the structure the author chose does it any favours in the “drawing the reader in” stakes…
To put it more harshly:
Book 1 is 200 pages of backstory that adds little beyond what the manga details in a handful of chapters.
Book 2 is another 200 pages that adds even less of value than book 1 did.
Volume 12 ended on an absolutely amazing note; I’m going to jump over and read another short story in 
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