I finished 現実もたまには嘘をつく5【電子特典付き】 (中経☆ス) | L22 today. The series continues to be great! I was 覚悟’ed that I’d have to wait a whole year for volume 6 since they’ve come out once a year so far, but the end of the volume said volume 6 is planned for end of year!
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I finished スマホはどこまで脳を壊すか | L30?? two days ago. The first half was pretty interesting, even including results about language learning and comments about how to help your kids in school (which was completely unexpected). Second half (from chapter 4) started to feel a lot more rambly, though. It felt like the author tried to fit as many of his past studies in there and connect them somehow to the topic at hand, but that was kinda meh. Some stuff were still interesting (like how some part of our brain that activates when we are chatting with people in person doesn’t when we are chatting online, e.g. through zoom, making the experience worse) but it’s still not what I was sold the book would be about. The last chapter was retelling his experience trying to completely cut all smartphone usage for a week, to see how it would go. Dude was like “it’s weird not to be able to call anyone” (friend, have you heard of regular cellphones or even *gasp* landlines?) and, on a date with his girlfriend “it was hard reaching our destination with google maps because we didn’t really know how to use a paper map” (??? Are you for real??? That made me realize that he was younger than me but even then, he mentioned that he likes traveling and guidebooks are basically just glorified paper maps; was that a bit???).
Anyway, I would still recommend the book but I think it’s fine to skim those last few chapters and go straight to the conclusion 
Then, yesterday, I read ハンチバック | L33 in nearly one sitting. I got to literally two pages from the end before I had to stop to join a party (weak, younger Naphthalene would not have stopped reading for something as trivial as acknowledging the existence of surrounding people) and read those last two pages on my way back. Those last two pages, though. What the heck. This is just the main character taking out her frustration by writing more unhinged smut, right? But at the same time, I’ve seen people making the hypothesis that the last part is real, she really got killed by 田中 or potentially someone else, and that girl is, in a way, the reincarnation she wished.
Unrelated, but for some reason, my ribcage felt weird the whole time I read the book. I don’t know if it was my sitting position or something. Most likely it was just in my head, but still, very uncomfortable 
Although… well, obviously, it could be way worse.
After that, I spent the rest of my way home reading the free preview of 私の推しは悪役令嬢。 | L33 (technically it was past midnight when I was done, so I guess I was reading it today). It might be because of my altered state, but I didn’t find the main character annoying this time. I still think her attitude is problematic, though, but that’s literally par for the course with this kind of books.
Does anyone know how long the free sample is? It ends at place 535, but I have no clue how many page that corresponds to/how many places there are in a typical kindle book (well, LN, I guess).
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The free preview ends at around 9.32% of the e-book version, or 13,061 文字 to be exact.
The start of chapter 2 is at around 52K 文字, and the whole book clocks in at just over 140k.
I’m curious what specifically you find annoying about her, I’ve been curious since you mentioned it the other day.
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Say more? I’ve watched the anime and read some of the manga… So curious to hear your thoughts
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About ハンチバック - That is more or less how I read it! 
I kind of interpreted it that having sexual relations with her was so distressing that 田中 ended up killing her out of anger or disgust, which I felt like was a commentary on how her disability made her kind of sexually invalid in the eyes of society - was engaging in sex so bad that it triggered him, even though he was an “incel”? Even for a incel she’s not a valid sexual object? Maybe he was dealing with his own feelings about his inability to have sex for different reasons than 釈迦 and felt anger or regret…there are so many ways you could read it. I absolutely loved the choice to end with that vague smut ending in a potentially alternative world, it made everything else before seem so much more powerful due to the contrast! That book really made me think about disabilities and sexuality in a way I never did before.
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Okay! That’s about the typical amount for a free preview on Booklive (first 10%).
I have two main issues with her:
- Complete disregard of the boundaries of クレア. Arguably, it could have been a “traumatize them back” type of situation, but the book makes it clear that she is enjoying the situation, making it sexual harassment.
- Complete disregard for social norms. Even if you are against the concept of royalty, the crown prince trying to be nice to you should not be met with “oh okay” as a reaction. I was thinking “why can’t you be normal” the whole time. Her attitude towards クレア’s entourage is also really bad (even though it’s easier to brush off considering the situation)
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But he already quit, and didn’t take the money at that time. He would have had to go back with no excuse to get inside the place 
It was mentioned that security isn’t particularly high, but it feels still weird to me. It’s not impossible, but kinda weird still.
Absolutely agreed! I was particularly impacted by the part where she mentions about the front of purity that she has keep up in public, since people don’t expect her to be sexual in any way.
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Makes sense/I agree - and yeah the whole thing is extreme harassment for sure (and of course bullying from Claire and her group as well). It’s one of those things where if I was taking it with any semblance of realism, I’d be very disturbed… but like you said, it sorta comes with the genre.
That makes me a little curious to read the LN, to see how it comes off comparatively. I feel like having more of Rae’s inner monologue/narration might make it harder to brush off, vs the anime/manga
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I know that you don’t mind re-reading stuff, but anime+manga+LN in short succession… that would probably drive me crazy
Anyway, I guess I’ll commit to this book at least.
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Haha I’m not actually planning to, especially with this series (fun, but pretty one dimensional… tho that’s why the LNs sound a little interesting). I skipped most of the manga parts that the anime overlapped with. Similarly, I dropped 転生王女 manga, when I started the LN recently.
I’ve managed all 3 with 夜のクラゲは泳げない tho, but mostly bc I needed some copium after the last 1/3rd of the show, they’re still releasing, easy reads, and the LN supplements it really well
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I admittedly didn’t find it to come off any more or less worse than the anime, though I did have a bit of a hard time with the difficulty of the LN. Reading Naphthalene’s bullet points though, yeah I gotta say that she does kinda act with zero respect for boundaries and basic social norms. Maybe it’s bad post-hoc justification but I could be sold on the idea that the way she acts in the beginning of the story is due to not seeing the people in this world as real people, but as the characters in a video game. According to some friends who are caught up, Rae gets some serious character growth as well, so maybe this gets addressed at some point.
Personally I can look past it in fiction, and I got through much worse just from reading copcraft (seriously, some of the stuff in that book still hasn’t left me over a year out from reading it).
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I think that actually does have a lot to do with it. Also, even over the course of the anime, you can see her change and improve wrt how she sees other people.
For me it depends on if the story is presenting itself seriously or not. In a story like this, I can accept it, bc the whole gimmick is it’s over the top and ridiculous. If it’s presenting itself more seriously/believably though, then I’ll be more critical of the character.
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I felt in the mood for horror manga after picking up and blasting through BIBLIOMANIA | L25 so I figured I’d pick up a manga written by the famous Junji Ito. I’d seen some of his character designs in the past and they looked intriguing. In particular, this picture from うずまき:
So I got my hands on a copy of うずまき 1 | L27 and started reading. Everything was good and well until I arrived at the scene where a centipede approached the ear of a sleeping character. Due to everything that happened up to this point, I was filled with a sense of foreboding and I NOPE’d really hard 
I don’t know if I really want to know what happens next…
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I finished なぜ働いていると本が読めなくなるのか | L30??! It took a philosophical turn in the last third that explored the relationship between information and labor under capitalism on a really macro scale, but I found it super fascinating and thought the author did a great job of tying it back to the history of reading in modern Japan. After all, books are just one form of information and information both shapes and mirrors larger trends in society. If you like history, sociology, economics, or just meaty non-fiction that makes you think, I recommend it! I wrote a review with further thoughts here.
(It was actually one of my goals this year to review more of the books I read, and I am proud of myself for managing to review so many so far )
I also finished 無敵の犬の夜 | L30??, the one about the delinquent boys in rural Kyushu (and reviewed it as well). I enjoyed it a ton - sometimes a short little jaunt into a different world like that is great.
Now I will go back to 小さいおうち | L41 after taking those detours. I’m getting pretty close to reaching 50% finally. 
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I booked it at my local library, but there’s a 9 months (!) line right now I was hoping it would be my third non-fiction for the year, but it seems I won’t get it in time.
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Yesterday I finished the two stories (cases) in コップクラフト 2 and it was great; in fact too great, as now I am burned by the Balrog of too fast and greedy reading. I doubt that I will be able to read the remaining 8 pages of the bonus track and afterword today, and actually finish the book.
All in all the book wasn’t as difficult as I thought: with 10.9 I had just marginally more lookups/page than the 10.8 of 狼と香辛料 2. But the value is again above 10, so far outside the range of comfortable reading, which means also this #3 will have to wait till next year.
And now: I will start the next book around L35 about mid of September, either らせん i.e. リング #2 or 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 1. And in-between I will hopefully reduce my staple of easier books and mangas.
Btw: the author of copcraft has i.a. worked on the script of the Suzumiya Haruhi anime.
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I ended up spontaneously listening to the audiobook for 旅ドロップ (小学館文庫 え 4-6) | L27 this weekend and had a great time doing so. It had a bunch of short essays about traveling and now I’m in a travel mood myself! It was a pretty easy read if anyone is looking for something light or an easier first audiobook. 
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And I am now done with the first volume.
I ended up giving it 4* although the very last sentence of the bonus story almost made me drop it to 3.
The part that moved me the most was when ミシャ brings up the sexuality of レイ and I liked that the book brought up the soul-crushing situation of being in love with someone who just can’t reciprocate. If I’m being honest, using the fact that you are the same sex as the other person to make “jokes” that do not respect their boundaries is also something I did in high school. I’m not proud of it, but at least it did help me relate to レイ more. I was afraid that the development would simply have been that レイ keeps pushing until, for some inexplicable reason, they end up together, but it seemed that it wouldn’t be the case, and I was happy with them not getting together.
But the last sentence of the bonus story implies they do end up together. Except for a random utterance from クレア saying that “the gender of the person you fall in love with is kinda random, right?” which made me think maybe she would be bisexual, everything has been going towards the direction that she is straight. The bonus story itself felt kinda meh, too.
Overall, the book had a surprising amount of action and a much more plot driven direction than I expected. I also liked the main character kinda breaking the game mechanics since she knows what will happen when. Her failing to stop the summoning of the Chimera also made her reflect on her completely irresponsible attitude, which isn’t bad.
I’m probably going to continue with the series, except if something convinces me to stop.
Edit: wait, there are two versions of the light novel: the kindle exclusive and “私の推しは悪役令嬢。-Revolution-”. There has been some modifications, but I guess the plot didn’t change? Still, it’s 5 volumes versus 3… so I guess I should keep going with the kindle one?
Edit2: I was also checking how far the anime goes. I guess volume 1 covers up to episode 8?
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The Wikipedia page describes the difference pretty well. But basically yeah, you should stick with the kindle one at this point
This was in the anime too, and I also really appreciated it.
Thx for sharing your thoughts on the book!
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What. The English wikipedia page has more details than the Japanese one??
Edit: the second volume has a “last chapter” and epilogue. So I guess “revolution” only covers up to that point, with volumes 3-5 of the original LN remaining exclusive to kindle. (I assume that they didn’t do well enough to justify a second publication?)
Yes, I don’t see them skipping that part (especially if they are taking the time to adapt one book in 8 episodes). It’s pretty rare to see it in media, too.
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