Ah, yes. Those typo vibes are really important. Without those no one will like the series.
8 Likes
I’m reading また、同じ夢を見ていた | L25. This is my first time reading anything complex in Japanese, and I’ve noticed that my biggest challenge lies in understanding the grammar. There are many instances where I comprehend the meaning of each individual word in a sentence, yet I struggle to grasp the overall meaning. Is this normal, or am I just that bad when it comes to grammar?
10 Likes
It’s normal until you internalize the grammar structures and start to get a ‘feel’ for the meaning of sentences. When I was at the stage you’re at now I did a lot of googling of individual grammar points to try to glue together the meaning of the sentence.
That book has a club actively going, I think? See here: Home Thread for また、同じ夢を見ていた / 또다시 같은 꿈을 꾸었어 (노블판) 📖 🇯🇵 🇰🇷
If you call out which chapter you’re in and spoiler the contents asking for help understanding I think people would be happy to assist 
8 Likes
I see. This is my first time using Natively and the Natively Forums, so I’m a little bit lost. I really appreciate your help! 
10 Likes
It is absolutely normal, and will get better over time, as you read more. I spent so much of my first year reading just going sentence by sentence, and checking the translation, then puzzling out how things connected. (Learning grammar more actively definitely helped)
We officially start reading on the 28th (tho some have read ahead a bit). Feel free to join us or ask any questions. Just wrap any possible spoilers in tags like this [spoiler]details here[/spoiler]. Once we start, there will be a weekly thread for each week’s portion.
ちなみに, I’m reading much harder stuff rn, but still got tripped up a bit by the second sentence in また、同じ夢
10 Likes
To give a bit more context on the book club:
- Home Thread for また、同じ夢を見ていた / 또다시 같은 꿈을 꾸었어 (노블판)
is the home thread for talking about the book or the club for reading it in general. - Like @暁のルナ said, we’ll start on the 28th.
- Every week we’ll read about 5% of the book “together” (i.e., everybody alone at home, but during the same week). You can find out more about how much exactly each week in the home thread if you expand “Full Details” under “Club Schedule”.
- Every week there’ll be a new weekly thread talking about those 5%. The new threads will likely be linked from the home thread. Usually people ask questions and talk about that week’s portion in those weekly threads.
Although I can see on your Natively profile that you’re close to done with the book, so this might not help you that much.
There are lots of other book clubs though. Some will start soon! You can find an overview of our Japanese book clubs here:
11 Likes
So today I read chapter 14 of the manga of 本好きの下剋上３ and with it the main story content of this manga volume. There’s a little bit more left, including a bonus side story chapter with Frieda’s introduction and what appears to be a little 6 page short story. I’m guessing more of Benno and Otto’s conversation, but I haven’t read it yet. Some more complicated language today, talking about contracts and magic, though much like the paper making overview in chapter 13, at least the manga itself explains itself a bit.
Given I bailed out of the LN book club because I couldn’t keep the pace, the short story will be an interesting (and more time contained) chance to do some novel-like content reading.
I’ve been keeping a log of sorts in the WK forum for their read every day challenge, so here’s everything I read last week:
| Name | Type | Amount | Time | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 老女的少女ひなたちゃん 1 |
 Manga |
 Chapter 1-9 178 pages |
2h50m |  Completed |
 本好きの下剋上第一部３ |
Manga |
Chapter 11-13 131 pages |
2h30m |  In progress |
 この美術部には問題がある 1 |
Manga |
Chapter 3-4 72 pages |
1h15m | In progress |
 デジモンサヴァイブ |
 VN |
5 scenes |
1h35m | In progress |
10 Likes
It always throws me off when there’s short story content at the end of manga… Not a bad thing, but my brain’s like “I just signed up for the pretty pictures, and wanna mark it Finished already!!” So I often skip them (oops)
Neat thing with the book club of course is that the threads are still there. I recently picked.本好きの下剋上 back up, after having dropped the club, and it’s been nice having them
9 Likes
I have been trying to read 私小説―from left to right | L40 as my random pick from my TBR list for the Natively BING(o) and I just can’t get into it.
It’s been a week and I’m only ~150 pages in (out of ~460!). (Granted, I finished 今日からマのつく自由業! | L30?? ahead of the book club and read a couple of manga as well during that time)
I don’t know. I like the concept of the book and considering that I spent more than half of my life “abroad” I feel like I can somewhat relate with the author… but it’s just not pulling me in. I read a couple of pages and then I just start looking at my phone 
11 Likes
Yeah, it took me a while to get going with it too and I think it sat in my in progress pile stalled at 150 or so pages for ages. I think a lot of the better parts are more in the later part of the book than the early part, but life’s a bit short to plough through books you aren’t enjoying…
6 Likes
Huh, I am quite interested in this author based on reading the English translation of ‘A True Novel’ - I found it incredibly compelling! Probably my favourite book I’ve read over the last two years. So I was curious about this book as well 
the concept is intriguing anyway so I may check it out at some time. But I am a much slower reader in Japanese than English so it’s probably worth getting my speed up if it takes a while to get going.
4 Likes
Well, it’s reassuring to know that there are good parts coming up.
Life is short but I need to fill that BING(o) card 
She did mention that she wants to write a “proper” novel and I found it hilarious that she literally did. I like her writing, but so far it’s just been about her going nowhere in life and being depressed.
Like, okay, I have problems too. Plus, there are novellas with a full fledged plot shorter than that. I guess the problem is that real life isn’t really fun.
8 Likes
I’m reading 「心のクセ」に気づくには ――社会心理学から考える | L30??.
This is my first time reading a nonfiction in Japanese.
It’s a psychology book about the biases and mistakes we make in our judgments.
I’ve only read one chapter (out of 6) so far and it was surprisingly very easy to read.
I’m hoping to learn not only about my own judgments but also about Japanese culture and society and how they affect their mind and way of thinking.
11 Likes
I’m reading (and have nearly finished) コンビニ人間
I love it. It’s so weird.
I recently finished むらさきのスカートの女 too and it was kind of similar.
9 Likes
3 days later and I’m only 80 pages further. The good thing is that, while it’s really easy for my mind to wander off, I do not mind reading the book itself. I only read 10 pages the first day and realized that I would not be able to finish it at that pace before I need to return it, so I decided to read ~5 pages every time I realize I am just aimlessly refreshing the forum instead of doing anything productive. That has worked well 
It also pushed me to finally make a custom list of all the series I want to keep reading (or re-read) but always forget about. Whenever I am looking for something to read, my usual reflex is to go to my wishlist, but it doesn’t include series where I have already read at least one volume. I guess I could put the next volume in line in there, but it’s annoying and it would get lost in there.
I also decided that I will read ログ・ホライズン 1 異世界のはじまり | L33 as a reward once I am done with 私小説.
10 Likes
I’m currently in the process of catching up to the long-neglected 傲慢と善良 | L32 (learnnatively.com) WK book club. The good news is that the book reads fast. The bad news is that the basic premise (the main character’s fiancée disappears) looks like just an excuse to explore they whys and hows of finding a marriage partner from various points of view. Not that it’s uninteresting, but it reads very much like non-fiction, as if the author did a series of interviews on the subject (which she may well have done) and then just tried to combine them all in one story.
I’m detecting a trend of the author wanting to explore various social issues , and doing so through one story that tries to combine as many aspects of them as possible. かがみの孤城 | L27 (learnnatively.com) felt much the same way to me. I’m starting to feel less optimistic about 闇祓 | L28 (learnnatively.com), but I will get to it at some point since I already own it.
11 Likes
and this is how a negative review becomes a recommendation. 
puts on wishlist
Edit: just to realize I already have 2 books of that author… and listened to https://learnnatively.com/book/0546c6169a/ which was not great. But I really enjoyed https://learnnatively.com/book/8717a21964/… so, it’s 50/50 now. 
7 Likes
I read both of those and I generally agree (although I am slightly more positive about the first one)
Edit: Turns out that 闇祓 is on my TBR. Didn’t realize it was from the same author.
7 Likes
If that is the case, you will probably also dislike 闇祓 
but it is a funner/faster read since it is basically multiple short stories and converging POVs.
3 Likes
Slowing getting started with my 2024 reading with 羽田圭介s 御不浄バトル | L35??. I know I should have expected it from the title and cover, but there is a lot of talk about toilets and going to the bathroom in this book. 
That may be a pro or con for anyone out there depending on your preferences…but the combo of ブラック企業 x Toilets is very unique.
I am really happy to finally be getting to another 羽田圭介 book, though, as I loved スクラップ・アンド・ビルド | L34 back when I read it! One of my 推し作品 of all times. 
6 Likes
