I think it has probably been the only book I have read where I feel like I pretty know every word. Typically things with easy vocab have a lot of 擬音語 and there is a never ending ocean of 擬音語 that I don’t know. I leaned タオルケット from it, which is actually now kind of cute, now that I realize it’s a combination of two English words.
It puts me to sleep when reading it for some reason, so I have to read it in the morning or I will never finish it…
And I finished ごんぎつね (おはなし名作絵本 1) | L23. @cat, you were right on the money with your description of it, and I fully agree with your review. Especially that first sentence.
Spouse bought volumes 1-7 of 怪獣8号 (series) | L29, so I was reading that.
The premise sounded interesting (alternate reality Japan where 怪獣s are just a part of life like typhoons and earthquakes, main character in his 30s and part of the clean up team, the unsung heroes who put everything back in order after the actual heroes have killed the monsters), but it sadly went quickly back to standard power fantasy. It doesn’t even matter that he is older than the usual protagonist, he behaves like a typical “俺” shonen/seinen manga main character. And people still put up with that for some reason. I thought it would be interesting to see how he can get into the defense force and get up the ranks (to finally catch up with his childhood friend/current love interest?) while being an average human being in a group that is made of the elite of the elite. Well, never mind, he just gets a 怪獣 parasite that turns him into a crazy strong 怪獣 so that he can pretty much one punch anything. There was still some tension in the sense that if anyone else on his team notice that he is a 怪獣, he would immediately get everyone against him… but even that ship has sailed around the place where I am (just finished volume 6).
… Now that I have typed all that, I wonder if I should just put the review on the main site.
The last three days, I’ve been reading (playing?) the Visual Novel L∞PERS together with a WK “book” club. I never really felt like getting into VNs in English, so I didn’t expect too much, but this has very quickly turned out to be the most fun and engaging reading/listening experience I’ve had in Japanese so far! No idea if it’s the plot or the medium or a combination of both, but I’m really itching to continue. If I wasn’t kinda exhausted after reading for 3 hours already today I would probably immediately start with the next part.
If anybody is interested, there’s a free demo. I’m still quite early, so I don’t know it will stay this good, but so far: Highly recommended!
I started reading 水槽夜曲 1, which I bought because I saw fish on the cover and back cover, thinking there might be people transforming into fish (the back cover mostly). I was wrong, just a few angry salarymen.
Yesterday-ish (technically 2 days ago in terms of sleep cycles, but it was past midnight, so yesterday) I finished 悪役令嬢レベル99 その5 | L30. It was okay, the series is still fun. The main character finally got more involved in the politics of the world… but that didn’t last long.
I love how the story keeps getting closer to the marriage without having a clear timeline of when it’s going to happen. It might take 10 more volumes for all we know
Well, also, I kinda expect the series to end with the marriage… but there’s no real reason to do so? The author could just keep writing stuff about what happens after that, when she gets pregnant, etc…
Keigo Higashino’s Masquerade Hotel! It’s the longest book I’ve ever attempted in Japanese, and I just passed 400 pages. I would recommend Keigo Higashino for anyone who likes a mystery/thriller that’s not scary, written in fairly straightforward Japanese and always well paced
It’s kind of annoying to me how some book covers on Amazon include the obi; covers up all the pretty cover art with giant characters that are now permanently glued to the picture. :\ At least for Natively it’s annoying; I’m looking forward to the day where we may be able to suggest alternate cover uploads so some of these books can be free of the clutter.
I started reading 八つ墓村 | L39 today and it’s kicking my butt, haha. This feels just a bit more difficult than previous entries, at least for the opening part. It’s only 15 pages long but boy did I look up a lot of things.
Good day, readers of Natively, I hope you are all having another marvelous day doing what you do.
Today, I am reading すべての神様の十月 | L27, a book that Natively selected for me in the recommendation thread. So far, I am liking it. I think I should let Natively decide what I read more often. Or maybe I should read more books reviewed by @cat.
Lately, I have been playing around with formatting when reading digitally. Sometimes I can’t tell if I want a huge font or not. Sometimes I tell myself that it’ll be easier to read if the characters are bigger, but at other times I tell myself that it will easier if there’s more on the screen at once. I’m the type of person that will tweak their settings over and over, but never reach a point where they’re satisfied.
I used to pretty much always read horizontally, but I have been trying to read vertically for a change. I do like that it lets my Yomichan pop-ups take up the entire screen without too much obstruction. Eventually, I end up returning to horizontal because I can’t determine which I like best yet. I think physical mains would probably have no problem sticking to vertical. The one thing I will say I don’t like is vertical on mobile. It feels like I can only fit a sentence per page without going down to some incredibly small font. It’s probably fine on a tablet, though.
I’m done with 獣の奏者 3 and 本好き 30, so I “randomly” started reading わたしの幸せな結婚 五 | L31
(I was talking about it with someone on the WK forums, so I thought I’d go ahead again with that series)
Additionally, a bunch of series I follow had a new volume in the past few weeks (including 本好き obviously) and I think I bought everything That’s how my 積読 pile never gets better.
I am currently making my way through 十角館の殺人 for the bookclub and ももこの21世紀日記〈N’04〉(which is part of ももこのよりぬき絵日記 2). I also still have 夜カフェ 2 going but it has kinda fallen to the side
Also working on 十角館の殺人 | L34, though very slowly so far; I’ve read the prologue, but I think I’m going to re-read it before starting chapter 1. The language used was really evocative, so I want to make sure I’m in the right mindset before pushing ahead. 薬屋のひとりごと 2 | L37 is currently on standby while I read easier reads; my goal is to have it done before the end of the year, so I’ll probably start it back up in November at the latest? I’m hoping that gives me a better chance of having a smoother reading experience.
@Drinos I have two 吸血鬼 recommendations for you.
First one is PURE BLOOD (series) | L25; a short, two volume manga series. Slight BL, shoujo, some found family themes, episodic in nature; I thought it was rather sweet in general. Could be a good palate cleanser between other things.
Second is 吸血鬼と愉快な仲間たち (series) | L24??. Four volumes of manga (so far? not sure if completed or stalled atm), definite BL. American turns into (incomplete) vampire (he turns into a bat by day and is only human at night) and is accidentally frozen with meat being shipped to Japan. He ends up there, no clue what’s going on, and is taken in by a mortician. There’s a novel series it’s based on (which is currently not yet on Natively) that I haven’t read, so can’t speak to how well it’s adapted. I have enjoyed what I’ve read of the manga, though.
I think I should let Natively decide what I read more often. Or maybe I should read more books reviewed by 
I’m the type of person that will tweak their settings over and over, but never reach a point where they’re satisfied.
so long as we have similar tastes it works!
That’s how my 積読 pile never gets better.
