I didn’t cry and I usually fall for those, so I guess not?
3 Likes
I don’t. I prefer integrated Google translate vs Kindle’s poor lookup functionality.
Kindle vs Bookwalker & Akebi, Random example: 歓声をあげて
- Kindle: dictionary & wiki give nothing. Bing gives “Cheers”
- Bookwalker: “Cheers” + “kansei o agete” + copy & audio buttons
- Akebi (dictionary app): partial - 歓声 かんせい “cheer, shout of joy”; full - 歓 かん joy, enjoyment, 声をあげて こえをあげて “to raise one’s voice”
Of those 3, Kindle is the least useful. It often fails if your word has っ or is not in dictionary form (like 忘れかけて selects as 忘れかけ, but only works as 忘れ). Even if Bing translates it, I’ll still have no idea how to read it. Kindle also limits the amount of times you can copy from a book, making it cumbersome to paste stuff into a dictionary app. Also, Bookwalker & Akebi are both useful for breaking down 4+ kanji words. One place I do like Kindle is easy access to JP-JP dictionary. If it had fuzzier matching, it would be great.
Not trying to argue that one is objectively better than the other, but for me Bookwalker is more effective. I’ve found my LN reading speed is hampered by the Kindle app personally. Ymmv
On the other hand…
Between google translate vs dictionary app, I happily use both, sometimes together.
A lot of my lookups are to double-check readings or “is this (known) word A or B”. Google translate and Akebi are both “reliable enough” for that, with some margin of error. I know enough to know when to take either with a grain of salt. It’s entirely possible that Bing translates better than Google translate, but I don’t have an easy way to verify it while using the app. If Bing provided a reading (even an inaccurate one), I’d be more able to do that.
My main use for Akebi is when I have lots of lookups. My secondary use is to double check something I looked up in Bookwalker. When I have lots of lookups, I extract the text w/ Google lens and copy the whole page into Akebi. If it’s only a few lookups, then I’ll use the integrated google translate, and optionally c/p into Akebi if necessary. One place I’ve found where Google translate works better than a dictionary app is with onomatopoeias (though it is still imperfect). For context, Akebi looks like this:
For me, it’s not so big a deal. I have a very automated “square icon > screenshot, > Google lens & pull text > paste to Akebi” flow. After that, I just use the square to partially/fully switch between them. I can switch btwn those + translation more comfortably than other setups I’ve tried. The only equally/more comfortable setup I’ve found is computer + mokuro + Yomichan & ichi.moe, but I prefer reading on mobile, for a variety of reasons.
I’m surprised to read that. What’s different/better on iOS?
4 Likes
Thanks for your detailed answer! It’s very interesting how different workflows people have to cover the same need.
Answers to lunacodes on dictionary usage on Bookwalker
I see what you mean. It’s very hard for an integrated dictionary to pick up expressions like 歓声をあげて. I’m glad you found a system that works for you. Akebi is fine, and I try to use it (or Takoboto) when reading on Android, but I hate switching between apps on my phone. I hate Google translate even more though, the times it has given me totally wrong translations and even wrong readings are countless. And I also dislike having only one possible meaning given for any given word. I love reading through a dictionary’s multiple definitions, the nuance in the book is very often not the first definition that comes up, after all. And it’s easier to get a fuller picture of a word by reading more about what it might mean. But I digress.
I had forgotten about that! You’re so right, this is the most annoying feature ever, and I remember hating it with a passion when I last read on Kindle.
Bookwalker on iOS uses the integrated dictionaries (a JP-JP one and a JP-EN one, both good) instead of Google or any other translation service. The dictionaries are probably better than the ones on Kindle in catching inflected words, but they also fail sometimes. In those cases, or when I want to look up an expression, I have Midori and the Dictionary app on a side drawer. It only takes a flick to have the the dictionary and the text in front of me at the same time (that’s on iPad, not sure if a smaller screen would be different). If I can’t guess the reading to directly type into the dictionaries, I usually try the integrated dictionary first (the monolingual dictionary catches more words for some reason) to get the reading, the type it into my dictionary apps on the side. If the integrated dictionary comes up with nothing, I use Bookwalker’s search function to copy the text (only way to do it I think), then paste into the dictionary app.
Sorry to everyone for derailing the thread once again. Dictionary usage while reading would definitely warrant a thread on its own, but since we started talking here, it felt strange to interrupt the conversation to move it elsewhere.
To bring things back on topic, these days I’m reading 予言の島 with the Spooky Summer Club (on WK), started 木洩れ日に泳ぐ魚 ahead of time to make sure I can keep up with the Mystery club here on its first week while I’m travelling, and the strangest collection of stories I have read in a while, 穴らしきものに入る. The first story was about someone who develops a compulsion to enter (impossible) holes, like the water hose or the binder holes on work documents. The second was about a family who find out a relative had gold bones after his cremation, and the third one about a woman who abhors sunlight, and goes to extremes to ensure that it never touches her skin, even when she’s out and about. A riot of absurdity, and good fun. Looking forward to the next two stories.
And I’m also sort of super slowly progressing through 山の霊異記 幻惑の尾根, which I started ages ago. It’s a collection of very short eerie stories, all supposedly experienced by the author while hiking the mountains of Japan. It’s well enough written, no story is particularly gruesome or scary, and I love the mountain atmosphere, but there’s such a lot of them, and it gets quite repetitive after a while. It’s probably that the stories are so short and that the stakes aren’t really high, but I don’t feel any urgency to read the remaining ones. Maybe when I crave the cool expanse of nature around me they’ll be a good fit.
9 Likes
I finally got around to updating my Natively profile with all my Kindle manga. I should have all that logged now; all that should be left is some physical manga series that I haven’t added to the site yet because they’re old enough for it to be a pain to find them on Amazon.
…Most of my digital manga is stuff I picked up for free/extremely cheap without looking at the series description. >.> I’ve got a feeling most won’t be hits, but it should be fun to pick something blindly from the pile to see what I’ve got.
I also got some new books in recently; I’m super excited to read them. ^o^ Gonna take me a while, but I actually read the descriptions before buying them first (after ascertaining that the cover art was pretty enough, of course), so they should all be at least decent.
Small fun side story: I picked up 王弟殿下とナイルの異邦人 | L30?? because it’s description was unusually similar to 流沙の記憶 | L30??, so I’m real curious to see how different they are. 
8 Likes
Bought 木洩れ日に泳ぐ魚 | L32 along with two more volumes of 宇宙兄弟 1 | L29 to take advantage of the Bookwalker sale. Well, now I have 1558 coins saved up, which means I could do another purchase of 1500円 for free using my coins AND get another book’s worth of coins from THAT purchase. Mwahahaha.
…Except all combinations of my “checked” books either go significantly over 1558円 or just miss the 1500円 minimum by 10-40円 
So… today I have been reading my own wishlist trying to find something that works with my devious coinback plan. 
13 Likes
I’m still chowing through 異世界のんびり農家 01 | L30 and I do hope I’ll be able to finish it in the next following free days I have. I have the second book already coming shortly.
On an unrelated note I stumbled upon these sales in case anyone is interested.
EDIT: I moved the sales to it’s own thread so the topic doesn’t get too OT:
9 Likes
On to 灰と幻想のグリムガル level4 | L30! I’ve decided to read only this series until I’m fully caught up (19 volumes). I’m currently doing “read whole chapter in JP, then in English”, and find I’m getting most of it right, most of the time!
Some progress thoughts:
I finished Book 3 in 3 days (14 hr 19 min). It’s really exciting that my reading speed is slowly improving. It feels less like “this is taking forever” than before (though it’s still way slower than I read in English). I’ve decided read only this series until I’m caught up. That’s 19 volumes, so 38-64 days, if I keep up a pace of 3-4 days per LN. It’s possible I’ll change my mind midway. Once I’m done, I’ll probably check SAO Progressive 1 | L34 and see how much that progress does/doesn’t transfer over, given the similar domain
Some story thoughts:
Story wise there’s an interesting tension between “it’s getting more interesting, and the characters are growing” vs “okay why does it feel like the party has regressed, and why haven’t they made certain very obvious improvements, now that they have the means to do so?” Sometimes they’re passive to a degree that I find a bit hard to buy, but that’s also an intentional theme, and interesting in its own way. They’re basically “the regulars”. They’re not particularly exceptional nor OP, but they occasionally achieve some very exceptional things. The writing definitely improves a bit with each book so far though. Also I want there to be some solid romance already!!
4 Likes
You’re getting through those very quickly! Nice!
2 Likes
The one I’m currently focusing on is さいとう市立さいとう高校野球部 (下) (not on Natively yet) as it’s short and easy and I’m getting more novels soon and I wanna finish it before those get here (they haven’t shipped, so no estimate on that yet). There’s a 50% chance I’ll be making a poll in the “what should I read next” thread bc I want to read all of them simultaneously (in the literal sense) and that’s unfortunately not possible.
The MC is our narrator, and he is very ADHD, and I’m finding it very entertaining. The story actually didn’t move forward much in the 上 because of all his rambling off down on tangents, but it was still engaging and funny. I expect there to be less of that in the 下, but there’s definitely still some. He also has some awfully gay thoughts about his childhood friend awfully often for someone who ostensibly only likes chubby girls. Although he specifically says he doesn’t like his friend in a gay way because he 基礎的に likes girls, and, hm, that’s an interesting word choice there, babe. “Fundamentally” is not the same as “only”! (The author’s written BL before [NO.6, although I guess it’s more that it has BL elements than that it’s actually BL?] and I’m sure this was put in as food for her BL fans, especially since it’s greater than the usual level of “well that was a little fruity” you get in a lot of sports series. I know it ain’t gonna go anywhere, but I don’t care, I’m enjoying it. Though I’m also the type of person who doesn’t need couples to be explicitly-in-canon together-together. That’s what fic’s for!)
Normally I wouldn’t worry about whether I could finish this before my new books get here, especially as I read like 100 pgs of the 上 in one day and this is only 240, but I recently joined Natively so for the past few days (and for the next few days, as I’m waiting on a bunch of stuff to be added, although at this point most of that is just 積読) I’ve been getting that set up and writing reviews and stuff, so I’ve ended up slowing wayyy down.
8 Likes
I just finished 虫かぶり姫2 花守り虫と祈りを捧げる使者 アイリスNEO | L31
I was kinda curious how it would go, since it’s one of those TL-adjacent series where the protagonist is pursued by a bunch of really hot dudes and semi-sexy stuff happen (off screen or they get interrupted, it’s a light novel, not TL). However, from the start, only the main love interest got any such scenes and it was pretty settled by the end of volume 1. Generally, that means that the story is over, but there’s a bunch more volumes.
Turns out that the author just kept writing about the characters but in a more general setting (the first 60% of the book revolves around politics and diplomatic relations with neighboring countries…)
That’s fine, but the author isn’t exactly the best for that kind of plot (as far as I can tell). Then, around the 60% mark, we are back to having some fun time and romance plots (this time focusing on other characters).
Again, not bad but not great either (this has been a recurring thing with the light novels I randomly bought). I bought all volumes up to 5 when they were discounted, so I’m still going to read the series, though. Hopefully things get more interesting.
7 Likes
Today I finished 気になってる人が男じゃなかった 1 | L22 (only volume so far) and 青のフラッグ 1 | L24 (first volume out of eight; completed series). Both were pretty good. For the latter I’ll order a few more volumes whenever I buy physical manga next. For the former, unfortunately the mangaka comes out with new chapters really slowly, so it could be a while before volume 2 is released.
I’ve also been reading 桔香ちゃんは悪役令嬢になりたい! 1 | L24??, which has been okay. About average for a Kirara series. Might read volume 2 since it’s just a two-volume series anyway, but not sure yet.
(Still not reading another Japanese novel/LN yet since I’m occupied with Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, which by complete coincidence has a Japanese-inspired setting and another non-Japanese Asian-inspired setting.)
6 Likes
Today I came back from my trip, so on the plane I read volumes 1 and 2 of 【推しの子】1 | L30. Then I tried to read one of the novels in my bag but there was so much turbulence that was making me feel sick so I gave up like 1 page in. Happily, when I came home I found that my copy of 推し、燃ゆ | L36 came in the mail so I started reading it. 
12 Likes
Oh I was curious about that manga! Would you recommend it? I tried the sample on Bookwalker and it seemed interesting but I am usually not fond of pregnancy plotlines as I am quite squeamish 
1 Like
The pregnancy only lasts for the first couple chapters so if that’s your only issue I would say still go for it. The rest of it (so far) is about the lives of her kids growing up already set out from birth to be part of the entertainment industry.
3 Likes
Probably going to start エロマンガ先生 4 エロマンガ先生VSエロマンガ先生G | L30?? today. It’s been in my backlog for quite some time and became part of Kindle Unlimited as well the rest of the series.
5 Likes
I’ve been chipping my way through 異世界のんびり農家 01 | L30 but I couldn’t come close to finishing these 4 days I had free.
I do hope to keep a steady pace hopefully, even if the next days I have a work shift.
The two next volumes came along ながされて藍蘭島 39 | L19, which I’ll probably use at some point as a “quick break” from reading novels.
I’ve also purchased 【マンガ】本好きの下剋上 (series) | L26 , but I haven’t dived into it, so it could also use it as a break, to read up to where I left the books.
For what should I read next, I have at least 3 items that will go in a poll, to see if I sway one way or the other. https://learnnatively.com/book/b26291e5b3/ was left on a cliffhanger, 異世界のんびり農家 01 | L30 I can’t imagine it will be much of a cliffhanger or anything, and there’s also the 世にも奇妙な商品カタログ (series) | L23 last 4 volumes pending.
4 Likes
Today I’ve reading some mangas I had in my list that had new volumes published and I forgot about them for some weeks.
Some mentions I must make are カノジョも彼女 (series) | L18 wich is now over and has been absolutely hilarious for me, 姫様“拷問”の時間です (series) | L21 which always brings a smile to my face, and 「マンガ」この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! (series) | L26 with an amazing story as always and made me want to keep reading the LN (but I’m pretty lazy when it comes to reading pure text).
Recently, I started reading LIAR GAME (series) | L27 recently and it’s been quite interesting, I think it’s the first “death game”-like thing I read.
Also, for self-motivation, I’ve given me 2 challenges: The first one being to reach 1500 volumes read before the year ends (~200 left), and the second one is to read at least 2 hours of manga every single day (where I live it’s currenly 3 AM and I’ve passed the last 2 hours reading for not to fail the challenge the second day 
)
Hope you all are reading well!
6 Likes
Do you mean read ever or read this year?
if the latter, are you made out of money? Also, how do you find enough interesting content?
8 Likes
Based on their stats they mean “ever”, but I think your question about interest is still valid. It would probably take me 15 more years to read a total of 1500 volumes of manga, assuming I can find enough to read that interests me.
3 Likes
Still trying to finish my pile of unread books, I decided to finally deal with ダンジョンに出会いを求めるのは間違っているだろうか 15 | L32
Honestly, the following scene sums up pretty much everything I find wrong with this series:
- breasts do not make noise when you press them against something. I don’t know why the author keep doing that.
- it’s just a hug, why is that noteworthy? The main character has received many similar hugs throughout the series so far, why is he still blushing about it? Even if he had no prior contact with women before, he got a lot of experience by this point. Why is that still a thing.
- Why all the main female protagonists having feelings for him. He is 14. This is really weird.
Other than that, the book has been mostly boring so far. We are just getting a bunch of flashbacks about the past of the main cast of characters. However, there’s almost no new info. Almost everything was mentioned previously.
That’s the last volume I have, so, except for some major turn of event, I’ll probably be done with this series soon. That’s too bad, since I otherwise liked the overall setting.
13 Likes
