I read the next subchapter of 2.43 today and we’re done with the flashback and back to the match and ah man I wish I knew more than just the set count/who wins this match. I remember why I needed the break now. (It’s the emotional dysregulation.) The previous arc, when I came across stuff that had been cut or changed for the anime, I might have still lost my mind over it, but, like, within reason. I was still fine, relatively speaking. I knew most of what would happen from watching the anime a billion times. But this one’s completely new to me so it’s just like [feral rending biting maiming meme]
And I can’t even be productive with it and channel it into a fic or anything, I just gotta let it Consume me (though I have a feeling some part of it will be making it into a fic at some point, just. not now)
There are like 70 pgs left of this chapter/match and augh I don’t wanna take another break, I wanna finish it, but I may need to go read something else which doesn’t affect me so much for a bit…
I just polished off the last of ガールズドーン! 1 | L25 which was very cute, slightly above the reading level I’m comfortable with at times but I’m glad I stuck with it since it was pretty fun. If you like “straight man & wacky character” duos it’s a good time.
Not much time to read over the week end.
I went through 75% of 地獄くらやみ花もなき | L30??, which does basically medium, but (spoiler for medium) played straight. The main character can see people who have committed a “sin” in the shape of a Yokai, which depends on the type of sin. While it provides hints, it’s not enough to solve the problem (plus, someone can have committed a sin without having done anything illegal; e.g., cheated on their parter). It’s however enough for the detective character to figure out the solution.
The story seems to feature two mysteries (I’m not done, but the last chapter is an epilogue, so that’s probably it). The first one is pretty much warm up for the reader. The second one is more like a mystery novel, but it doesn’t seem to expect the reader to solve it. In that one, literally every suspect is guilty of something, so the ability of the main character isn’t even that helpful
I also finished the first section (~5%) of 吾輩は猫である | L48 and it’s been rough Not only is the writing dated (thus using vocabulary or expression I’ve never seen before) but there are a bunch of jokes related to people or things from that time.
Thankfully my edition has some footnotes, which told me stuff like
Because, for cats, dogs are the same thing 鬼 are for humans. But I didn’t know that expression to begin with, so…
Towards the end of the first section, there was a joke about doing art in the toilets, which reminded me of 正岡子規 | L37 by the same author. I wonder if that’s the inspiration?
Anyway, compared to my first attempt 10 years ago, things have been much smoother. I also find it quite funny, this time around, probably because the process of reading the book isn’t excruciating anymore. I’m probably missing a few things from not using a dictionary (and not being familiar with the context) but I just want to enjoy the ride anyway, so it’s fine. (Even then, I am much slower than usual; I was hoping to finish this month… but that won’t happen I guess).
I just finished it and oof, CW: body horror, gore. The culprit is sent to hell and it’s not pretty. It was relatively tame in the first story (although, scary I guess), but the second story is
I still liked the book overall, but, yeah, I’m going to think twice about continuing this series.
Edit: the book doesn’t appear yet in the search (or even my activity). Does it just take time? It also doesn’t show as part of a series…
Yeah, I am very strongly in the camp of “don’t read that book in an edition without copious footnotes or endnotes” – especially in the later chapters there are just so many references and allusions to the Western, Chinese and Japanese literary canon that you can just get totally lost without them.
Yeah, has to get mod approval before it shows up in search afaik (hence we get the emails that the books were added). Idk if the display applies to showing as a series… But if it’s not there after you get the email, you can report it.
Are you sure? I haven’t gotten any email since the auto adder has been implemented
I just checked and the last email I got was from before then.
I had a quick look at the blog post, and it just says that added books do not show up in search, nothing about activity (it’s especially weird in the “me” tab, since I would not be shocked with seeing anything in there). If that’s not a bug, it might be good to add that clarification to the post @brandon?
Last email I got for a book was 1/21… Maybe your email randomly decide to send them to spam or something? I agree that’s weird about it not showing up in the feed/as a series and such. Guess Brandon can clarify on that tho
Finished 竜愛づる騎士の誓約 上 | L34 - really liked it once it got through the infodump phase and the plot got moving. Don’t know why fantasy authors feel compelled to do that - I don’t need to know the last thousand years of history to pick up on the ethnic tension between the two groups, and there was lots of places where the relevant stuff would have come up anyway.
Moving on to はじまりの町がはじまらない | L24?? - seems like a pretty cool premise (told from the point of view of NPCs in an MMORPG that’s about to be shut down). Just need to regather some enthusiasm for reading.
Well I have not taken a break and have been reading some 2.43 every day. It’s kind of ironic that a week and a half ago, I wrote a fic where Subaru’s knees never healed enough to go back to competitive volleyball and he has to watch from the sidelines while Yuni takes the spot meant for him in college, and now in canon Aokisprains his ankle and refuses to acknowledge it, much less let himself be switched out. How easily he tends to give in to Oda aside, I think he might be the most stubborn character in this series, honestly.
He’s not even one of the ones I think about being injured. Subaru, obviously, though usually it merely cuts his pro career short, not prevents him from having one at all. Chika, sometimes, though it’s about him losing his sight entirely, since apparently the more nearsighted you are the higher your chances of going blind, and his eyes are so bad he can’t function at all w/o corrective lenses. Yuni and Oda, once. But also it’s never while they’re still in school, and it’s a given he won’t be continuing volleyball in any serious capacity anyway. I had no reason to!
This could be due to how I resolved the ‘custom tags generating multiple activities’ bug. Perhaps that’s causing issues for generating the initial activity for added items.
Just over halfway through volume 3 of 放浪息子. Yuki’s behaviour in this latest chapter concerns me, but otherwise I’ve gotten really into another volume of this
Finally finished 本好き 33! I got it back when it came out which was in… December?! I read really slowly and prioritized other books instead… Since I had read the webnovel before, I mistakenly thought it would be a short book I think I reached the “end” of the webnovel at around ~45%
My only grievance with the book:
spoiler for this volume
I really wanted know what the hell フェルディナンド said at the engagement ceremony. But that will only come up in a not yet released shortstory collection?? Gaah, I want to know nowww
I also got the artbook and am very happy with it. Good print quality, and now I can finally see all the illustrations from the junior version! As well as all the merchandise I wish I had
I am so frustrated that マイン still doesn’t understand those. She has mostly the same culture as literally everyone else AND she has studied the gods way more than anyone… just why.
Considering the reaction of the public, I’m sure he brought out the heavy artillery too I want to know what she said and what it means too. Beyond the fact that she said something different than what she requested, we don’t know much.
Can’t wait for the “next” volume (from the spin-off series, coming out this summer; I read it already as a web novel, but I want more)
I’m now at roughly 1/5th of the book (3rd section). It’s still rough. In particular, there was a loooong formal letter in the middle of the 2nd section候(そろ). The book is hilarious, but it’s really giving me the bashing my head against a brick wall feeling I had when I was trying to read books at the N2 level.
Truly worthy of the “harder Natively difficulty” spot in my bingo card. I’m only averaging ~25 pages a day (which is actually better than what I was doing at the N2 level, though… it was more like 5 pages a day at best)
Comparing my previous attempt with the book (which was at said N2 level), I can at least enjoy the humor now. I guess I found it boring because the situations were too unclear to me to be fun.
Edit: actually, thinking about it, it’s more mild discomfort rather than bashing my head against a wall like I did at the time. I’m just not used to the feeling anymore. I should have listened to Colonel Quaritch. Low gravity did make me soft.
I think I reached the “end” of the webnovel at around ~45% 
Gaah, I want to know nowww
I want to know what she said and what it means too. Beyond the fact that she said something different than what she requested, we don’t know much.
(which is actually better than what I was doing at the N2 level, though… it was more like 5 pages a day at best 