Sometimes there’s cool announcements in them, like that time クラにか announced there were plans for an anime, and then over a year later there was still no news, or you get a glimpse into what was going on at the time (neat, if you’re into a specific franchise)… anyway, totally valid. For me, it mostly depends on how tired I am.
And yeah, I think I agree with you on that one…
I guess “author is even hornier than the actual target audience” explains a lot of light novel covers (or in fact a lot of light novels)…
Especially when there’s a decent female character in it. Or even if she’s not that decent, it’s like, did we really need a picture of her with the camera framing her cleavage as she looks worried/constipated?
That’s their business, but like I don’t wanna hear about it (sigh)
I don’t get the impression authors always have much of a say in that.
Indeed
To be fair, I feel like the author doesn’t have much say on the cover/illustrations.
But I do agree in general.
Speaking of that, I came across the children version of the series… It makes me sad just thinking of what could have been.
“ミリム is showing a lot of skin” = bare midriff + short skirt. That absolutely makes sense.
(Also, the illustrations are generally cute)
For a long time I didn’t read any afterwords, but while on a flight where I had nothing better to do, I happened to read the afterword for 限りなく透明に近いブルー | L38. It wasn’t from the author himself, but the person commenting on the author’s works and the influence of them helped me put into words what I’d felt for a long time from 村上龍. Namely, that his words are violence itself, and the intense feelings when reading them are almost wrenched from me unwillingly. As someone who doesn’t easily get emotional when reading books (and still a fledgling reader), this was a great revelation for me and helped me better understand my relationship with books.
Because of that experience I’ve recently started reading the afterwords of books that had a great impact on me. As I stated in my review for the book, 個人的な体験 | L44 also had a fantastic afterword. This time coming straight from the author, reading it made many things about the story and its ending make sense in my mind. The fact that it had been written well after the original printing of the book also made me appreciate Oe’s growth as an author and I’m now inclined to read another of his works sometime in the future.
P.S. Now reading the afterword you are replying to I can see how not all books are so blessed in that regard 
That sounds like a 解説, not an あとがき By definition, an あとがき/前書き will be from someone involved in the writing of the book (usually the author, but it can also be from the editor, translator, etc… in the case of light novels, I have also seen the illustrator writing something). But more than that, you are literally making it sound like a 解説 to begin with
Also, I don’t think it’s really fair to compare a book that won the 芥川賞 to an average 男性向け light novel…
I finally finished 流沙の記憶 | L35! Except for a couple of issues, I really enjoyed the book~ It took me longer than I would’ve liked to read, but I’m going to put all the blame on real life. I was tickled to see that the author included a small bibliography of books she consulted while writing the book; I included them in my review for those curious:
Man, I really want to read the original 1994 version now to compare it to the 2014 version, as well as 王弟殿下とナイルの異邦人 | L30?? to compare it’s execution of the “archeologist time traveling to meet hot ancient Egyptian” plot. But I have so many other good books to read. @.@
Ah, you’re probably right that it was a 解説. I wasn’t really drawing a comparison between the two, just offering my own perspective as someone who always skipped passages in the back whether from the author or not. I have next to no experience with LNs so I can’t really comment on what the average 男性向け LN is like. The one posted above definitely seemed questionable though.
At the risk of misremembering and giving another example of a 解説, the explanation in https://learnnatively.com/book/99c9eeca71/ was also quite informative. I’ll double check both when I get home but I’d guess you are right about 限りなく透明に近いブルー.
Edit: So the final part of 限りなく透明に近いブルー actually is labeled as an あとがき but it’s basically just the end of the story. The page after that there is a 解説, which is where I got confused.
森鴎外’s was called an 縁起, but in it he explains why he wrote that particular short story so I guess that counts?
I added your spoiler tagged TW in the review to the tags (and marked it as spoiler) for the book btw. Thx for mentioning it. I put it at 50%, bc I didn’t know how relevant it was. So feel free to adjust it.
I started 青い花 5 | L26 and there are so many not obvious (to me) name readings! I don’t remember 80% of the characters since I read the first four volumes over a year ago. (Also, wow I didn’t realize I last read this in May/June of last year…)
I’d be curious how often this happens to native readers. With the pace that books come out I feel like it’s not crazy that you wouldn’t remember all the characters names. At least give me a bone of the first time in the volume to give me the reading
Speaking of reading books in your native language and not knowing characters’ names, I may have not ever heard of the name Hermione before and just assumed it was some weird, British spelling of Harmony until the movies came out 
It’s also that the mangaka doesn’t even provide furigana for names the first time, let alone my preferred approach of first time per chapter. If they are a main character you can go to the character profiles at the beginning of the volume to see the reading (which is annoying, but thankfully I have the manga physically), but if it’s some other character good luck.
Also, this mangaka isn’t known for her art, so a lot of the characters look pretty samey.
I would imagine they at least know a reading for the name most of the time even if it’s not the only possible reading. I think 恭己 (given name) and 茂木 (surname) are probably the hardest names to remember.
So, I kept reading/listening to 転生したらスライムだった件 | L33 (I basically read the free preview of each book, then switch to the audio when I reach the end).
(Sorry to quote you as well @mic, I just need the text for context )
Credit where it’s due, it might just be a case of unreliable narration, where the main character is just ignoring/not paying attention to the reaction of the guys around him.
I just reach a scene where “he” tries to go to the onsen with the guys for once, before getting confused as to why they are so enthusiastic about it (and why they suddenly start bragging about their ultimate secret back washing techniques), before getting stopped by シュナ who explicitly says it would not be appropriate (leading to the main character to be even more confused and wondering why she is angry).
I personally think it’s just as fine for “him” to go on the guys side (because still agender, plus that seems like the right time to use the slime form), but I’m glad to see that people around do indeed react to his appearance. (I’d like to see more of such interactions, but in any case that scene did greatly reduce my frustration)
Edit: Followed by an extremely annoying scene where the main character is just focusing on the breasts of another character for waaaaay too long. I guess we just can’t have good things. 
One of the small things I love about 東京バンドワゴン | L29 is that every volume has a relationship chart in the front giving everybody’s names with furigana, so you can remind yourself of who is related to who in this massive extended family and how to read the names…
While I’m in this thread: just finished 御宿かわせみ 2 江戸の子守唄 | L40 which was exactly what I expected from volume 2 in a 30+ volume series of short stories – some interesting stories with the characters, basically no cross series arc. I’ll pick up volume 3 next time I’m in the mood for Edo detective stuff.
I had no idea how to read that when I first read them. I also mispronounce a lot of names in books written in English, especially those in the Pern series and sword of truth series 
This was really challenging back when I read it (in March), even having already seen the anime… I really wish authors would give these things at least once per book - especially for a story with this many characters
I definitely don’t remember either of those names either (tho it’s possible I just didn’t bother to figure them out, in the first place). This is making me want to start my reread soon… I’ll probably write down any names I have to lookup this time around
Otoh I forgot 結菜 (ゆいな) and 和奏 (わかな) from ロンリーガールに逆らえない | L22 despite having reread it like 2(?) weeks ago At least I guessed the 2nd was maybe/probably わかな. ゆいな I should have been able to figure out to tho
To be fair, it’s literally Ancient Greek, and probably unknown to most American English speakers, prior to those books.
Ah, thank you! I was looking for an appropriate tag, couldn’t find one, and didn’t think to check that particular wording.
Oh, excellent; progress, at least of a sort.
I finished the main story of 本好き volume 31 today, but that’s only 60% of the volume. Hopefully the bonus chapters aren’t too boring. It’s also looking very unlikely that I’ll finish the series before December 6th, so maybe I’ll just try to finish volume 32 before then.
