I feel like we have a bit of a 萬歳 thing going on lately lol (not sure how I feel about being the ボケ 笑)
I don’t think Grimgar is representative of my actual reading pace (I was spending all day, only reading Grimgar, shallow reading a lot, and skimming certain sections)
With 転生王女 I’d be intensive reading, and probably reading other stuff. So a better comparison is my SAO reading speed… The quickest I’ve gotten through those is 1.5 - 3 weeks, but usually it’s more like 1-2 months.
Ah, okay. My bad haha
I finished カフーを待ちわびて | L29 today - it’s a very slow-moving plot which could basically have all been resolved if the characters just talked to each other 
particularly the protagonist is the most passive, silent character I can think of. I think the fact it wasn’t too hard a read and it kind of fit with summer made it just about readable? But I wouldn’t especially seek anything else by this author lol.
Which brings me to my next read, back to one of my current favourite authors, Shion Miura! I will be making a very belated entry to 神去なあなあ日常 Informal Reading Club 🌳 - #38 by SophieShiori
I feel like that’s a lot of Japanese novels 
Finished everything from my last post. Pretty good on all counts. Waiting for the physicals of 雨夜の月 to arrive.
わたおし was tedious, due to vocab. So I’m skipping vol 2-5 (which are covered by the anime). Hopefully the summer vacation arc will be fun!
Really enjoying this - tho I started in the middle and haven’t read book 1 yet 
. It’s more like L24 imo - easiest LN I’ve read so far.
Cute romance slice of life, centered around the misunderstanding that the MC is a guy. Nothing exceptional about it, but it’s enjoyable.
I’m enjoying this so far, but also it’s by the author who wrote NTR (which I’ve never read, but loathe the anime). So I’m a bit wary. It’s in Yurihime tho, so I’ll keep reading.
Caught up with the latest chapters 
I’ve forgotten who some of the side characters are tho
Really iffy on this so far, but it’s in YH, so I’m giving it a try. The art style is really chaotic though, in a way I’m not into.
Almost 100% yuri (よるクラ is borderline)
Dropped わたしの百合も、営業だと思った? | L30?? - I had planned to give it more time, but I’d rather read things I’m excited about rn, and limit my “obligatory” reading to Yurihime series.
It has Kiui on the cover, so it must be good!
Does that expand on the anime (which was the original, I think)? How does it compare so far?
Kiui is my fav!! 
It does expand on the anime (which is the source material) - in the sense that you have all of Mahiru’s inner monologue (I’m not sure if other sections are narrated by different characters). I think it really has the same/similar sense of magic as the anime did so far. It stands well on it’s own. Otoh, the manga, while good, doesn’t quite capture the feeling 100%.
I’m at the new years section now, and there’s no way you can tell me this isn’t hella gay lol. I’m really nervous for how they’ll handle volume 3 tho… yuri dissatisfaction is half the reason I’m reading it… So I really hope they handle that (and other things) better than the anime did.
Kiui is the absolute best!
And nice. Sounds like I wouldn’t want to read it right now, with the anime so fresh in mind, but it sounds like something I might want to read someday.
If I had a cent for every time I thought that in the series, I’d have as many cents as disappointments.
I finished 青のフラッグ 7 | L24 today. There was a really long (50 page) and challenging chapter due to heavy use of slang, but as a whole the volume was still good. Only one more volume and I’ll have this series wrapped up.
Finished
Started 映しちゃダメな顔: 1【電子限定描き下ろしマンガ付き】 | L19?? … it’s a bit tricky rn, and I’m not super into it yet, but I know it develops some pretty intense drama a bit later, so we’ll see.
I made a vocab test (for native speakers) and it put me at about 15400 words, which according to some list is like a 4th year elementary school kid. Well, that‘s in fact what I also had guessed as books of this level (two feathers, etc.) had become more and more easy lately.
But despite that I started again, in fact I actually needed again, some action book: コップクラフト 2, which is the most complicated book series I read so far, complicated concerning vocab, not grammar. But the action (the book did probably not need 5 pages before the first bullets were flying) pulls me through it independent of necessary look-ups.
I just finished 雨夜の月 1 | L23. Rushed a bit to finish it before the free to read period ended. It was good and definitely plan to keep reading. I’m leaning towards buying physical copies for this one, so I’ll probably continue in a couple months when I order more manga.
Language learning achievement unlocked:
からかい上手の高木さん | L17 books 1-5 were free to read through 6/30 (Japan time). I noticed that 2 days before they expired and sped through all that were available. This is the first time that reading that many manga felt easy and not like a chore.
Now I’m back to はなにあらし 8 | L18. I’m trying to finish the series before I get my Mandrake order.
Oh hey - you’re a book ahead of me Congrats on からかい上手の高木さん !
It was a few days ago, but I recently finished 地獄くらやみ花もなき 弐 生き人形の島 | L31
It was nice. Despite being a type of mystery book that focuses on the psychology of characters rather than “who did it”, I still didn’t see the final trick coming.
The relationship between the two main characters is getting really close to something I would call BL, but sadly, since it’s a mainstream book, I don’t expect anything to come out of it… It’s just going to remain “undertones”, such as how 青児 (right on the cover) will just randomly think that 皓 (しろし, left) looks beautiful like a 白牡丹, then move on to think about something else. Similarly, 皓’s attitude towards 青児 is quite ambiguous… but, again, I have no expectation.
I started reading スマホはどこまで脳を壊すか, to get some more nonfiction under my belt for this year. It’s written in a clear fashion, definitely aimed at the masses, which is my knowledge level
I also tried 私の推しは悪役令嬢。 | L33 but I hate the kindle reader I’m also not a fan of the inner voice of the main character so far, but that’s a lesser issue for me. I’ll try to see if I can somehow get the paper version instead.
I finished 成瀬は天下を取りにいく | L30 and it was…perfectly fine. I’m not exactly sure why the is book had so much hype and how it managed to win the 本屋大賞, but my impression is it’s probably a cute story for younger readers or those who really like very light slice of life stories. At any rate, it was unfortunately not for me as I tend to prefer books with heavier character development and it wasn’t that type of book. The audiobook version of the second volume got added to the audiobook.jp 聴き放題 this week right as I finished the first book, though, so I may listen to it on 2x speed or something while commuting for some speed listening practice.
I also started なぜ働いていると本が読めなくなるのか | L30?? for some non-fiction and I’m enjoying it very much. I think the title and marketing of this book are a bit unfortunate, as the contents are different than you would expect. I expected something more about the workings of the brain, but the book is actually about the history and relationship between reading, labor, and class throughout different eras in Japan.
It covers topics like who was reading for pleasure, what they were reading, the history of the middle and labor classes, the advent of self-help books, and what salarymen read throughout the decades (and more!). I find it all very fascinating and suspect some other Natively readers around here might enjoy this as well—books about books and some Japanese history, what’s not to love?
I’m still slowly working on 小さいおうち | L41. It’s actually a very enjoyable story and way easier to read than I expected, but kind of dense. Luckily the chapters are very short, though! I think I am past the initial setup part of the book and am about to get into where the action happens, so I’m excited for that.
This was a pretty big week of reading for me. I got caught up with お兄ちゃんはおしまい! | L20, which was a good amount of reading as I had only read the first volume up until now. I can’t wait until volume 9 comes out. Judging by the release schedule of previous volumes, it’s probably going to be in the next couple of months.
After that, I continued reading random things throughout the week. Including カードキャプターさくら 1 | L21, which I’d been meaning to start for a while, and 魔王城でおやすみ (1) | L26, which I was worried would be beyond my level, but I am understanding it pretty well. I actually started those today and am already half-way through both.
I also finished 姫様“拷問”の時間です 1 | L22 earlier this week, which was a bit tough because there was what felt like a lot of fantasy language that I had to look up without furigana. It probably felt like a lot more than it actually was because looking up words by kanji instead of by reading takes a lot longer. By the end it was a lot easier though. Probably going to start the second volume next week.
Largely due to お兄ちゃんはおしまい！, I managed to read more this week than I had in any month before 
. 2400 pages this week, compared to 2339 pages on my previous best month 
. Definitely going to slow down for a few weeks as I also read quite a bit last week.
Also, I crossed 10,000 total pages read today!
That’s enough typing. I’m going to continue re-watching Supernatural so I can turn my brain off for a while.
Yep, that’s gone straight onto my wishlist – thanks for the recommendation!
I started reading あなたも殺人犯になれる! | L26, trying to pull myself out of a small reading slump, and I must say: thank you to all those people talking to other people about 赤川次郎 books being fun, fast reads. It feels so nice to sit down for whatever spare bit of time I have and just knock out a chapter, and be excited for what’s coming next. So thank you!
Finished Bocchi 3 in lesson. It was good, but not as good as the first two.
Reading in my lesson. Only got 2 pgs in. It’s really hard so far. I may purchase the translation to check after lessons, b/c even with my teacher explaining things, I’m not confident I’m understanding 100%. Maybe I’ll check out the audiobook too?
Apparently it’s a “novel” and not a “light novel” - so I guess I’ll finally discover the difference 
Started this with the audiobook, which so far has my favorite narration, and I’d highly recommend. Chapter 1, which was much easier than I thought, but I know (from the anime and manga) the next chapter or two will be harder.
