This sort of thing drives me nuts and is why I hate badly written 名探偵
I know I am not smarter than a genius. Please don’t let me outsmart the one you wrote.
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Started マリア様がみてる 1 | L28 (no I haven’t finished my other LNs lol), cuz I’ve been curious to try another Class-S series, after 私の百合はお仕事です! | L27 (which is half real-world, half class-S concept cafe)
So far the language itself is much easier than I was expecting, compared to わたゆり. Reading it feels fairly easy, with 4-11 lookups per pg. It’s been a great opportunity to use the Kindle app’s JP-JP辞典. I can mostly understand the definitions in there, and when I can’t, I use my phone. Definitely a lot more productive than just JP-EN.
I’ve had to reread some sentences a few times for comprehension, but in general I think I’m getting it. While the chapters are split into sub-chapters, you only get name readings once per chapter, so those are a bit tricky (I should really get back to that proper nouns Anki deck).
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What’s a Class-S series? And マリア様がみてる is a big-name Yuri series, right? I feel like I’ve heard it’s one of the earlier ones?
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I meant to link that in my comment…
Maria sama is definitely a staple, and apparently credited with reviving the Class-S genre and/or starting the “modern yuri trend”.
I was totally expecting it to be German-themed like わたゆり, but it’s French instead, so that took a sec 
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Ah, very neat. Thanks for the link! I wonder if the book would be a good nominee for the Yuri club?
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Somehow that never occurred to me 
maybe cuz I’ve nominated too much stuff already Anyway, seems like a good choice
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Updates from me!
Finished the horror book club’s 六番目の小夜子 | L30.
And started reading いなくなくならなくならないで | L30?? , which was an Akutagawa nominee this year.
It’s been good so far, quite simple language wise, and interesting dynamics between the two main characters. (Only 30 pages or so in, so will update again later).
I also have a book of 芥川 龍之介 stories, 羅生門, 鼻 amongst others, which I think I will start reading alongside my usual easier stuff.
And I’m off to France on holiday next week, hoping to visit one of the Book-Offs in Paris, so who knows, some other random finds might be in the mix too.
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Enjoy! AFAIK they have moved all Japanese books to the Book-Off in 1. Arrondissement so if you’re specifically looking for Japanese, there is no need to go to any other stores. (Also that’s where all the Japanese food is waiting for you 
)
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When? When I was there at the end of May every Book Off had Japanese books 
But the Châtelet one was open on Sunday and had the most books, if I remember correctly.
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Hmmm I think somebody mentioned this last year (but I can’t find the post any more) so when I went there last April, I only went to the one in the 1st. But the year before they also had books in Châtelet (in the basement) but not as many as the one in the 1st. 
Maybe they swap around things regularly? 
Or maybe I just misremembered 
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Ah thank you that is very good to know!
Does that mean BOOKOFF Châtelet or BOOKOFF Quatre Septembre (or either) ?
( from Nos Boutiques - Book Off )
Both look close to 1. Arrondissement.
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Yeah, the basement one (Châtelet) had more books when I was there in May… I didn’t plan to visit both, but it started raining and I was looking for a place to hide and I was accidentally right in front of the Châtelet book off 
But I now realize I haven’t been to the one in Faubourg Saint-Antoine, so can’t vouch for it
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I just read 本好きの下剋上 ハンネローレの貴族院五年生1 | L32?? over the week-end and I had a blast as usual. The book ends one chapter away from where I stopped reading the web novel, so I’m a little bit disappointed that I didn’t get new plot. HOWEVER, the author rewrote and extended the content pretty significantly, fleshing out [@seanblue’s avatar character]'s presence in particular (who upgraded from “we see her in the background some times” to minor character). I guess that also makes sense from a marketing perspective. Except for a few weirdos like me, I’m pretty sure potential readers are mostly here for that character
Speaking of marketing, I’m reaaaaaaally hoping this series does well. The fact that they called this volume 1 instead of 上 makes me think that they are aiming for more than 2-3 volumes, but that might change if the sales are not following.
In particular, this story is a strong departure from the main story in the sense that it’s basically a reverse harem rom com. Booklive even categorized the book as 女性向け LN and the rate of people adding the book on Bookmeter seems slower than what happened for the last volume (although… well there’s probably a bias due to it being the last volume, plus it’s not like I am looking at hard numbers).
Anyway, I want more stories from that universe, so I hope it does well…
I also read half of 十二秘色のパレット 第1巻 | L23?? as my “random pick for TBR pile”. I don’t even remember why I added that book. It’s very basic as far as 少女漫画 go. The main point of the story also revolves around color… making a black-and-white manga probably the worst media for that 
Plus, the potential love interest is a teacher (so far at least) and I’m not really into that.
Then, I checked the free chapter past 女装してめんどくさい事になってるネクラとヤンキーの両片想い 12巻 | L25 as comfort “food”… turns out it is more than one volume ahead, spoiled me something in a few pages and now I regret my decisions.
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That’s how I feel about manga about music 
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I’m halfway through Gunslinger Girl. Have decided to take a bit of a break and get back to novels, so picked up 竜愛づる騎士の誓約 下 | L34. Hope it delivers on the stuff that the first book set up - pretty optimistic, but the first book did feel like a lot of work at times.
I have also been reading ロストレコード, which is a TRPG system. Need to reread bits and pieces to make sure I actually understood the rules and maybe write myself out a summary, but planning to get this to the table soon (not in Japanese unfortunately - maybe some day…).
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I’ve really gotten into Moomins so that DS game looks adorable 
(There was a Moomin lottery at the convenience store near my Airbnb in Tokyo last year and I think the staff thought I was mad because I kept coming in to play lol. I won a Moomin mug and a keychain 
)
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Seems much more effective than LNs at least (but certainly a downgrade from media with audio)
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Ooh, I’ve been interested in this series for awhile, but didn’t think to check out the comic. Maybe I can try to crawl my way through the original Mandarin version… (y’know, with all that free time I have lying around🫠) It’d be good to try and read something before my two months worth of studying completely leaves my brain, though.
Also I guess I might as well give a reading update while I’m here haha. I finished 本好きの下剋上~司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません~第五部「女神の化身VII」 | L31 with an extended reading session to get through the epilogue and post chapters so I can continue the story in the next volume, which I’ve made decent progress in as well. Haven’t really read anything else though, bookworm is consuming my thoughts for the time being…
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Like, two months of Mandarin total? If you do end up trying that, let me know how it goes. I have a couple of volumes of the original, but my Mandarin doesn’t extend much farther than 银行 and 芒果, so…
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Very relatable.
Also, I realized that I never added the volume you just read to my bookmeter, so I just did… but maybe I should check I didn’t add a weird version at the time
Edit: gah I had. Well, removing that version instead.
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