What are you reading today?

You compared it to FLCL and I loved that anime :sweat_smile:

But yes, I am dedicated to finish the book!

I mean, the worst parts are just vibe based. If anything, understanding the details would make it more confusing.

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That’s fair, I’m mostly laughing about the situation :joy: I think someone could love the book tbh, just not me

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Well, that someone is me, I guess. I loved the first part, found the first 門 boring (especially since it was clear to me that it was just a near death experience from getting hammered to the face), but got reinvested midway through the second one (once they get in the forest proper) and then had an amazing time until the end. I also enjoyed the short story at the end quite a lot.

I don’t think I would recommend it to everyone (it is weird indeed), but it was definitely my kind of weird. I’ll probably check more books from the same author some day™.

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I’m glad you enjoyed it!

I selfishly propose you read 好き好き大好き超愛してる。 since I have always been intrigued by the weird title and very ugly cover and want to know what it’s about. :joy:

Anyone out there still need an ugly book cover bingo square…?

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Sounds good to me! It’s available at my local library too.

I also want to read 小さいおうち | L40 soon, which is also one of your recommendations, I think? Thank you for those!

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Since I’m still away from home, though, I had to read something else. I read 20% of 魔法使いの引っ越し屋 勇者の隠居・龍の旅立ち・魔法図書館の移転、どんな依頼でもお任せください | L30 and 20% of 地獄くらやみ花もなき 参 蛇喰らう宿 | L31, ping-ponging between the two. After 阿修羅ガール, I’m getting whiplash :sweat_smile:
Plus, the former is a round-the-mill LN, I’m just reading it because it is apparently the longest title in my TBR list (for bingo purposes). Nothing to write home about so far.
地獄くらやみ is nice as usual, but also as usual we are still in the setup stage of the story. While suspicious things are afoot, not much is happening yet, so it’s hard to stay focused.

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Finished the last of パルサー宇宙戦記 ふたご座の戦士 yesterday so decided to start on ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 again from the start since I didn’t manage to finish it the last time.

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Man, the covers for these books are all so pretty; they’ve been on my list for a little bit. They’re supernatural mysteries, right?

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Kinda. The mysteries themselves (typically murders) aren’t supernatural, but the main characters are.

I love the covers, that’s why I started reading the series :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: but I kept reading for the BL lite elements.

In the following, I’m keeping plot points hidden by spoiler tags, but not the BL development that just happened (and is thus technically a volume 3 spoiler). I think it gives a good idea of what to expect on that front without actually spoiling the fun, while the story spoilers would ruin it.

Summary

Right now, 青児 (on the cover of volume 2, who’s point of view we are following, [volume 1 spoiler]only human among the main characters) got recognized by the supernatural side as 皓 (wearing a white kimono on all covers)’s “共に生きるパートナー” (and thus became officially part of 皓’s faction while it was unofficial so far). パートナー can mean a lot of things of course (and the series so far is always playing with this “it could mean something else, but we won’t acknowledge it” kind of vibe), but I’m unreasonably happy about this development.

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Almost halfway through 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 | L33. The last chapter was mostly magic theory and/or internal monologue about magic theory - comprehensible, but meh. I have about 5 hrs of audio left. I’m hoping Yufi becomes less passive soon, cuz while I like Anis, it’s not really an interesting dynamic rn.

私の推しは悪役令嬢。 | L32 has become my “kinda boring, but not that hard” read for now.

Staying focused on those two, plus Fate/Stay Night, in small doses

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Finished 阿修羅ガール | L28 , still working out how I feel about it. I totally missed that マキ tried to kill her with the hammer, somehow I had interpreted “そんで金槌” with the meaning as “a person who can’t swim”, like she was a liability (preventing アイコ from getting with 陽治 by being there). In retrospect, that’s a big stretch of logic, and meant that during 三門 I thought she was just napping at home waiting for the night to end.

I also don’t think I liked how “real” the dreams ended up being? Like it wasn’t just dreams/in アイコ’s head, because 桜月 is a real person. I think I would have preferred if it had been really internal. Also, I think weirdly homophobic?

I liked the writing style, the sort of stream-of-consciousness casual language throughout.

Just started コンビに人間 https://learnnatively.com/book/2f20d58780/ this morning, finding it much smoother of a read. Shorter and way more straightforward sentences thus far.

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What. When?
I didn’t catch anything like that.

I mean, it was previously established that her dreams are affected by what is happening around her. Clearly, the writing on the cliff is just Youji talking to her at the hospital.

The thing that bothered me the most is the age gap between Youji and the widow (I already forgot her name)

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Ooooh, thank you for this update. :eyes: I’ve gotten into a bad habit of unreasonably expecting every pretty cover with two men on it to have some sort of BL element, even light ones, so I’m always extra happy to be validated. I need to go nominate some stuff in the LN club…

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The focus on ぐるぐる魔人 sucking dick. Not that you can’t have a gay villain, but when you’re in the twisted mind of the villain, it tends to give the impression that his sexuality is part of his “twisted mind”. Plus that and him being a pedophile as well.

Was that established before 三門? Because 陽治 talking to her could easily have just been part of her dream and not actually happening.

I couldn’t tell if that was an actual romantic relationship or whether アイコ just feeling jealous about not getting 陽治’s attention.

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I’m still completely wrapped up in my melodramatic nostalgic manga series (伯爵カイン) and neglecting both of my novels - including the August horror book club! Feel like I’m guiltily gorging on a big chocolate cake every day while ignoring my (delicious but) healthy vegetables re both language learning (I find manga easier/less tiring than novels) and ~artistic appreciation~ (I love this silly series and the art is gorgeous but it’s definitely more on the guilty pleasure side of things). With apologies for the hamfisted metaphor :joy:

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I love 怒り!!!! So pleased to find another fan. Have you seen the film? It’s excellent too and the cast is absolutely stacked. The audiobook is also great (…I “re-read” the book as an audiobook on my commute earlier this year, but I first read it back in 2016 when I was living in Kyushu).

I have this long-standing theory that Ikari is a book that would do well if translated into English and I wish an English publisher would pick it up. Maybe someone out there is working on it.

(Sorry for gushing, I’m just always pressing this novel/movie on people :sweat_smile:)

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I haven’t seen the film, I will if I can get my hands on it. It seems like it’d do well in film format because there is a wide cast of dynamic characters.

Also I agree it would translate well - the writing is straight forward and nothing is “too Japanese” as to be confusing for people not as familiar with the culture. All the themes are just common, human ones.

No worries about gushing, it’s a great book! I really enjoyed reading it and the conclusion… :heart_eyes: love love love complicated emotional books

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I absolutely love all of Yuki Kaori’s art, but have never read any of them. (The English translations weren’t out yet when I was eying the series, and like, I hate the font they use for English manga and low key can’t read them because of that :sweat_smile::sweat_smile:). Your tour through her manga is inspiring me to keep up my studies so that one day I too can read her manga like popcorn.

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I read him as straight. All I saw was 2chan/4chan type homophobia from him (plus random memes, like the theme song of Lupin the 3rd stuck in his head).

Yes, when she had a dream about looking for a soccer ball, due to her brother putting his leg on her.

Well, she thinks it is, and I think she would know at this point. She could be an unreliable narrator though (due to her jealousy possibly)

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I started reading it and the typesetting is violating my eyes. Other than that, I’m not far enough to say for sure, but it seems like a regular novel. Nothing like the crazy writing of 阿修羅ガール so far.

Edit: never mind, it’s weird as well.

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