Most VPNs seem to work with Viki last I tried, unlike Netflix…
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I hope you enjoy it when you get to it! I think I would recommend it the most actually, just because the stories are so creative and felt so fresh to me. I’ve also read 蹴りたい背中、インストール、and ひらいて and found all of them great but the special brand of insanity in 憤死 just really does it for me.
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Back from vacation and I didn’t read much.
I read ももこのよりぬき絵日記 3 | L27 - one more volume to go. It’s always a bit melancholic to read memoirs/diary of a person you know is no longer alive. 
I also listened to a few of the volumes of the 四つ子ぐらし (series) | L23 while walking. Japan really likes its children’s books dark and by the covers you wouldn’t think it.
I now need to catch up with the 本好き bookclub and I have generally fallen behind on my TBR. 
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My pfp is a side character from the manga SILVER DIAMOND 1巻 | L24??! (Incidentally, that manga is the reason I picked up Japanese; I desperately wanted to read it.) He’s an immortal bird made of stones and leaves, and his name is Ao Tsubaki! ^o^
What about you, CatDQ? What’s the inspiration behind yours?
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Wow, cool 
I kinda want to go read that now.
Mine is just my bearded dragon drawn when she was younger.
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I went ahead and just finished out the final short story in 嫌いなら呼ぶなよ. I indeed gave it a 3. It’s good, didn’t hate it, would read other books by the same author, but I don’t necessarily recommend it unless you haven something very specific you’re looking for that it has.
I also read a bit more of 私は幽霊を見ない | L30?? because frankly I’d forgotten about it It’s short essays, mildly amusing, nothing crazy exciting so honestly it’s the type of book that even in English I would pick up and put down and read idly rather than zooming through.
Anyways, not sure where else to do this so quick poll for interest:
Anyone else wanna read a thirsty 1920s L43 novel with me starting ~November?
This one: 痴人の愛 | L43
- YES
- no
- yeah but another time
- I fear commitment
0
voters
(I already asked omk3 previously but a few joiners would be fun!)
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It’s highly ironic that this kid is annoyed by his little sister always saying everything is 関係ない after recently learning the word 関係, like, you know you use 大変 an average of nearly once a page, right? How about you stop doing that and maybe then you can talk.
Seriously, I never wanna see or hear the word 大変 again after this.
The only character in this I actually liked is Hamamoto-chan. I am very glad to have Penguin Highway behind me. I dunno if it’s just that I was tired of it by the end or not (and also pushed myself to read ch 3 and 4, 100 pg each, in their entirety in a single day each, which I definitely cannot do as comfortably in JP as EN yet even when I love the book), but I’m not so sure anymore I would have enjoyed it had I liked the MC.
I think the next one I start will be 僕たちの幕が上がる, which is by the same author as Jeweler Richard. Even though I did buy the 1st vol of Jeweler Richard (also the 10th, since it was the last CDJapan had in stock that came with the acrylic stand). …Or maybe おっさんだけど聖女です, which seems like it could be stupid or fun, or both. But then there’s also that edition of こころ with illustrations done by a BL mangaka… Souseki’s supposed to be relatively accessible, right. (I. might need to make a poll, actually.)
(I’m telling myself that just because I got 3 books out of rotation—2 finished, 1 dropped—that doesn’t mean I need to start 2 or 3 new ones. Two of those were book club books! But uh. We’ll see. I dunno how much would be working with my ADHD and how much would be, like, sabotaging myself.)
Since people were talking about pfps from books today, mine’s Ochi Mitsuomi, who was introduced in the second arc of 2.43 清陰高校男子バレー部. Which, granted, also has an anime, which is how I discovered the series in the first place, but I made my icon from official art for the side story novel. For that matter, my header image is official art for the fourth arc.
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I just read this a few months ago or I would! Enjoy! That novel is… something else 
谷崎潤一郎 is a master!
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L43 scares me.
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That’s really interesting - I liked that book, but never would have thought to recommend it for your prompt. I’m happy you found what you were looking for. 
More on topic:
I’m mostly trying to diminish my currently reading pile when I can find the time while I’m traveling. Today that will be 女王蜂 | L38 !
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I probably wouldn’t have thought to recommend it to myself either 
There’s nothing tangible about it that makes it horror, but it had that sort of vague feel. It was very satisfying.
Is it just me, or does the cover once again feel completely wrong for the contents? 
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One of the Amazon reviews says the cover is a tie-in with the 文豪ストレイドッグス anime.
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I voted ‘yes’ but it’s possible I may be overextending myself on the book club front, so I’ll see how it goes
(That would be 月の裏側, medium, 痴人の愛, Nausicaa manga, Fatal Twelve VN, plus maybe whatever the WK ABC picks next…)
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It’s not as difficult as the level makes it seem! It’s mostly older vocab or kanji usage that increases the difficulty in the beginning but once you get into the flow it’s not bad at all. It’s surprisingly very modern!
If anyone is ever down to take on the challenge of reading 春琴抄 | L52?? together after 痴人の愛 though, I am down! 
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That one’s only 70 pages, so at least fairly short for the difficulty. I wonder if it ought to be classified ‘short story’ in Natively?
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My dilemma was solved by the fact that I didn’t put my new novels away properly and instead just set them in a stack on my shelf, and Jeweler Richard was the one on top. So I’m actually reading that one now!
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The anime was great. So much hinting at BL - even the covers of the books - I wonder if the series ever goes there.
(According to google it doesn’t. It stays a bromance.)
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Check back in after 痴人 completes as I don’t know yet what my book reading schedule will look like that far out, but I’m tentatively interested as it’s short.
Edit: had no idea what it was about, but found this on English Wikipedia:
Set in 19th-century Osaka, the three-act opera tells the story of a love affair between Sasuke and blind koto teacher Shunkin, with the opposition of Sasuke’s rich suitor Ritarō.
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I’ve had a low-grade headache p much all day today like I haven’t been drinking, except I have. No temperature though, so hopefully I’m not getting sick. Still read a fair bit though.
Everything I read today needed a bunch of lookups (Witch Hat Atelier, Doubles!!, Jeweler Richard). Penguin Highway I mostly didn’t look stuff up bc I didn’t care enough, but there wasn’t really all that much I needed to anyway, I don’t think. But actually Jeweler Richard’s not that difficult so far even with the lookups—easier than I was expecting with it being graded L35. But then, I thought この本を盗む者は was pretty easy too and that’s L37-38, though honestly I’m not sure it’s not over-graded due to it being magical realism. Or maybe the upper bound of my comfort level just is higher than low L30s. I suppose I’ll find out as I keep reading, but then, the more you read, the more comfortable you get…
(I’m sad Olruggio isn’t in vol 1. He was my fave like the moment he appeared in Witch Hat Kitchen. Hopefully he’ll be introduced in vol 2, but I dunno when I’ll get it.)
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I think the shifting genres/writing styles and the vastness of the vocab (due to the shifting genres) is what drove that up. Also anytime you’re enjoying something it feels easier, I think.
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