For me I didn’t so much dislike it as want it to deliver something more. Reading my review I said something about feeling like the author maybe wasn’t great at short form content, and I would be open to reading something by them again. Just, perhaps long form instead since the bite I want from shorts wasn’t there for me.
I do love Terrible People Doing Terrible Things, so it’s firmly in a loved genre, just not 100% my flavor of it I suppose
I have now added it to my wish list, which now reaches the 3rd page despite my best efforts to control it…
Sure! And I often have that issue with short stories too. Case in point, I would have loved the first story to go on longer than that (even be a full book). That’s what made your review even more effective (?) on me. 
(Luckily, I didn’t get that issue this time around)
I would read that book…what happened next with yummy 係長?! I want to know!!! 
That’s the thing I was thinking about! Plus, what about the other woman who was gunning for him? She certainly wouldn’t let りな get ahead like that. Will she figure out that the surgery was fake and use it to put more social pressure on りな?
She could try, but I have faith りな would prevail 
I finished 亡びの国の征服者 1 ~魔王は世界を征服するようです~ | L32 - solidly enjoyed it. Probably the best one can expect from isekai fantasy that’s playing things completely straight and without wallowing in the tropes of the genre too hard. Also feels a bit like the story hasn’t actually started though.
Yesterday I polished off Gunslinger Girl. Could probably have done without the second epilogue, but overall big fan of the series. Maybe I should go back to reading manga…
I’ve just started ひとつ火の粉の雪の中 (新潮文庫 あ 81-1 nex) | L32??. No real opinion yet, but seems like an easy read.
I finally finished reading 夏の終り | L35??! Can cross that off my TBR after 10+ years now. 
I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I read it in one go instead of stretched out across 4 months with multiple pauses in between but sometimes that happens. It was an interesting “私小説”, although kind of emotionally tiring to read at some points. I think that speaks to the writing and how well the feelings and inner turmoil of the narrators came across. All in all I’m glad I finally finished this after owning it for so long.
I just have the square “found for free” left on my bingo card and it was surprisingly hard to find something in my physical TBR that I could use for this. I decided to go with 越境者が読んだ近代日本文学―境界をつくるもの、こわすもの | L36??, which I quite literally found on a book of free Japanese books that were being given away. It appears the author is (was? The book is from 1999…) a scholar of Japanese literature who grew up in America and the book looks at both national literatures from a comparative literature pov.
It’s 450 pages and has the potential to be dry because it appears to maybe be a university literature(?), so I’m kind of worried about finishing this in 2024 since I’m not reading so much in Japanese lately but let’s see how it goes. Gotta finish the bingo square!!!
I’d also note it’s an absolute steal that I got it for free. The obi says the selling price is ¥4600 and the Amazon listing says ¥5000 for a used copy. 
Not exactly sure it’s in high demand on the resale market, but free is the best price!
I’ve got some Life 
going on which has utterly shot my focus for the past several days, and I absolutely cannot focus on my bookclub books because I have this sense of “I need to read them properly to discuss them” and since I’m too distracted to do that, I’ve been reading nothing 
Hopefully next week things will settle down, but if not I’ll just play catchup after the jlpt that I also have completely stopped studying for 
So naturally I started a new book. New book good. New book solves all problems 
It’s a random 恩田陸 book that has only been added to Natively as a 上・下 set, but I have the combined hardcover so I’ll probably just wait til I’m done and list them both finished. Having duplicate versions of books kind of annoys me so I don’t want to add my version 
It’s been uh… 3 months? Since my last proper update. And I haven’t read much besides manga in that time. But to be fair, as excuses go, I have a pretty good one:
How did I get a job in Japan? Well for starters, my degree was in Computer Science, which makes things easier, but I was picky and wanted a job related to game development, which made things harder. For me, the hardest part was getting an interview. I applied to probably 40 companies independently and didn’t get a single response (even with N1 and a portfolio website). But then, I found a recruiter on LinkedIn who was willing to talk to me directly and was very impressed with my Japanese skills.
It seems I have somehow acquired unusually good pronunciation, which does wonders for first impressions. I genuinely don’t know how this happened. (I did pay for Dōgen’s patreon once and speedran the whole pronunciation course in a month, but I ignored all of his drills and other study suggestions, so… I guess the baseline knowledge was still helpful?)
In any case, by having this recruiter apply on my behalf and put in a good word for me, I was able to get interviews from two companies who eventually both gave me an offer. I picked one, and about 3 months later, I moved into an apartment in Tokyo.
Since moving here I’ve had a lot of stuff to do, both necessary-for-moving stuff and fun-living-in-a-new-place stuff. On top of that my job is a consistent 9 to 6, with occasional overtime, so I don’t have time for nearly as many hobbies as I used to maintain back in college. And the new Factorio DLC isn’t helping either…
With that out of the way, what have I been up to instead? Visiting lots of bars local businesses near me has been fun, and I’ve found the time to pick up a few new interests, the most consuming of which have been the rather unusual combination of arcade rhythm games (nothing activates 100% of my brain like オンゲキ does) and Rakugo.
My workplace is right near one of the major 寄席 in Tokyo, so I walk past it every day on my way to and from work. If I happen to be heading home late as intermission ends, entry is half price, so I find myself stopping by for the end of a performance quite often. I’ve even been going to some 特別興行 or my favorite performers’ 独演会, to the point that I’ve decided to set myself a budget for Rakugo performances 
I also found out only recently about the show 笑点, which for the uninitiated is basically Whose Line but with Rakugo performers doing the improv. For a solid two weeks I was up into the AM watching youtube clips of old 笑点 episodes, and I’ve been keeping up with the new ones every week too (though they’re not quite as good as the 1990s-2000s golden age eps). I’m applying for the chance to see it in person whenever I can too, hopefully I’ll get lucky one of these weeks!
Anyone looking for suggestions, 春風亭 一之輔 and 三遊亭 ごはんつぶ are probably my favorite current performers. On Youtube you can also find recordings of 桂 歌丸 and (六代目) 三遊亭 円楽, who in addition to being iconic on 笑点 also do excellent 落語 performances.
歌丸：竹の水仙 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur9d0YR8PA8
円楽：死神 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwAxmyzBE4g
Whoops, that’s two long text walls no one cares about Let’s get to the books, shall we?
昭和元禄落語心中: I can’t remember if I talked about Volume 1 already or not, but this is a character drama (BL? Depending on who you ask) with Rakugo as the central theme. I watched the anime first, and honestly I might just continue the anime instead of the manga, as I think the audiovisual medium enhances this series a lot. But the manga is excellent as well.
あかね噺: (Oops, all rakugo?) This is another rakugo based manga, which I picked up because it was a rakugo based manga. Fairly entertaining so far. The first volume felt like it was trying really hard to explain rakugo to the reader, so I’m hoping the series comes more into its own soon.
ゴールデンカムイ２: This series has been on my radar for a long time, so I thought I’d finally pick it up now that I was in Japan and it was easily accessible. Progress has been slow but I like what I’ve read so far. It’s almost scratching my Fullmetal Alchemist itch… but unfortunately, that also means it’s making me want to read FMA instead, which I might end up doing first.
やがて君になる: This series is like a bag of cookies. I could just keep eating them all day, but I know I’ll eventually run out, so I try to ration myself.
オレが私になるまで: I tried this book a long time ago, and got immediately turned off by the free preview. But I saw someone here (@seanblue maybe?) comment on it awhile ago saying it gets better by the end of the first volume, and since I already owned it I decided to finish it off. It defied my expectations in a lot of ways, and although there are still things I don’t love about it I did buy the next volume already.
本好きの下剋上：アンソロジー: I’ve been reading these for free on LINE manga on the train, and it’s been fun in that format. I don’t think I could sit down and read one of these books from start to finish, but for 10 minute periods with nothing better to do they’re thoroughly enjoyable.
本好き LN: Ah, I remember when I had dreams of finishing this series by the end of the year… Alas, it may be 無理 now. I swear I’ll at least finish this volume but I don’t know if 3 more is feasable…though as I type this, it seems like maybe I could squeeze them in… Time shall tell.
When the new year rolls around, my two goals will be getting back to consistent reading and picking up Mandarin again, since I want to visit China while I’m on this side of the world. Will I be able to fulfill either of these goals? Stay tuned to find out, dear listeners!
That makes you the 2nd person I know who moved to Japan, to work in game dev! I got into programming cuz I wanted to work in game dev… And wound up doing web stuff instead It’s still something I’d like to do, but it’s not exactly the best/most reliable industry (at least in America), so I’ve stayed with my much more comfortable job where I read JP things or spend too much time on here, instead of working half the time for the present. Anyway once I’m fluent (enough), I may finally pursue that.
My friend literally just mentioned the anime to me 2 days ago! (But I’m watching 9 rn , so I probably won’t try it anytime soon)
I’ve started and stopped that twice, but someday will probably just binge the whole thing (maybe with some jpdb pre-study to cut down lookups). The 2003 anime was my favorite for years (along with .hack//SIGN), and is still very dear to my heart!! (Nothing against Brotherhood, but it just doesn’t hit me the same, and it skimped out on a lot of what makes the beginning so powerful, since the 2003 series already existed)
I’d love to hear more. There’s a lot that I really love about オレが私になるまで, and it definitely gets better as it goes! I got the physicals recently, so I’ll get to a reread sooner or later
Congrats on the job and move!
Probably was me, yeah! I was also super skeptical from the free preview, but after the first few chapters it really is a completely different tone. I appreciated how it was taking the topic seriously and not for laughs as I expected from the preview. I already own all 5 volumes and plan to read the rest towards the end of the year.
I was in the same boat. There are a lot of bonus chapters for a few volumes, which I can never get into as much. I took two months to read volume 31 because I just couldn’t be bothered, so I wasn’t sure I could still make it. (I originally planned to already finish the series by around now.) That said, I’m now halfway through volume 32, then taking a break to read Stormlight Archive book 5 in early December. But I think I have at least some chance of finishing the last volume after that before end of year.
Honestly, I’d recommend not rushing it. If you’re inspired to keep reading go for it, but in my experience forcing it can take away the joy and why do that to wrap up a long and beloved series, ya know?
I dropped 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 2 | L32 bc the jpdb deck was making me wanna cry (too many entirely unfamiliar, hard words that I was just endlessly getting wrong). Also dropped my other LNs besides マリア様がみてる 1 | L29 (31% left), so won’t be able to leave a review on 私の初恋相手がキスしてた | L32 for now, sadly
Decided instead to focus on ソードアート・オンライン5 ファントム・バレット | L34 which despite the higher level, and number of unique words, is actually easier for various reasons. So I’m gonna finish it (42% left), and then do vol 6 (the 2nd half of this arc). I’ve gotten through a lot of the jpdb deck, and my comprehension (with text+audiobook) is decent enough. I’m only stopping for lookups when I feel like it, at least in the current section.
Have 2.5 hrs left in the audiobook for SAO 2 as well (it’s my “listen while cleaning” audiobook now)
Almost done with らんま1/2〔新装版〕 21 | L23 . I’m taking it a lot less seriously than previously, and I can read faster more. So it’s less painful overall. I really like the earlier books in the series, but the further it goes, the more variable it gets, imo
Will probably start reread of アオのハコ | L23 soon. Otherwise, haven’t made any progress
There are times when I miss having a job with free time 
Sounds like you’re making the most of it though!
If you find the time, I highly recommend!
You’re right, I should just keep going at my own pace. I haven’t totally stopped anyway, I still read a chapter or two every week. Once I get back to the main story again I’ll probably pick up more motivation too (I’m also stuck in post-epilogue SS right now)
In my better moments… Sometimes I just waste time on social media And to be fair, there are days (or weeks) where I’m coding 9 hrs straight (usually it’s more like 4-6 tho, and even 6 is pushing it wrt writing decent code)
I already forgot about it … Anyway I’ve added the anime to my wishlist. So slightly higher chance I’ll remember it now lol
Just started 黒死館殺人事件 | L42?? this morning.
I don’t always read forewords because I don’t usually need anyone to hype up a book I’ve already chosen to read, but this time I decided to. I was surprised by the extent that the writer went to describe how groundbreaking and all-encompassing the work was. Then I got to the end and saw who wrote it: Edogawa Ranpo. Guess I’m in for a treat
The second foreword was from another author (pen name Koga Saburo) who apparently had enough familiarity to call him Edogawa-kun too
Finally there was a preface from Oguri himself, in which he used a kanji that apparently doesn’t exist? The meaning was at least clear (it was 墓石 but the 石 had 穴 over it similar to 究), but I’d be delighted if anyone could find it. My typical last resort to find pesky 第4水準 kanji and the like is to draw it and search that way but it was to no avail.
Edit: Looked up the preface on Aozora and they use the completely different kanji 窖 there. I would be satisfied if it was that, but how did they print the kanji I’m reading in the book…
I finished 欠けた月とドーナッツ | L24. It was good from beginning to end, particularly the two main characters have great chemistry. As always, I wish we got a little more of the characters actually in a relationship, but what can you do.
Now I should really finish some of the four other manga I have in progress… I have two chapters left in クプルムの花嫁 3 | L28. It’s cute and I like the manga (I did just buy volume 6 after all), but it’s harder so I have to be in the right mindset. I have three chapters left in 夜の名前を呼んで 5 | L23 (the final volume), but this series can be a bit slow so I tend to only pick it up when I’m at the gym (when I don’t bring my kindle, which I have been lately). The other two are both 4-koma, which I haven’t been in the mood for lately.
That said, I do also need to focus on 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XI」 | L31 so I can finish it before Stormlight Archive 5 comes out. That gives me a week and a half to finish the remaining 40% (~160 pages). I have three chapters left, the epilogue, and three “bonus” chapters, which I’ll read or skim depending on their quality.
Oh love Ranpo, would be curious about a book he sings the praises of. Will have to check it out sometime 
I tried looking for this too through lists of 旧字体 and whatnot but no dice. Even asked my partner (Mandarin native) if he knew of a character like you described and no dice (and also tried a Chinese radical dictionary to boot). It looks like 墓窖 is a valid, but uncommon Chinese word but didn’t get any Japanese hits for it 
is it possible there is a printing error in the book? How old is your copy? Some of my old (60s and older) Japanese books have iffy printing and some characters get blurred or are missing strokes
Wikipedia says they knew each other. They also had there debut in the same magazine, Ranpo four months later than Saburo. As Saburo was the older of the two, he’d have called him Edogawa-kun from this time on.
I wish Aozora had a preface of his foreword as it’s quite short, but it seems they only have the latter two
It seems this edition is from 1969, but there doesn’t even seem to be any blurring or quality problems with it. I’m not exactly sure how book printing works but I wonder how they even got this kanji on the page.
Thanks for the info and that checks out! He calls Edogawa a “monster” in his foreword (and dubs Oguri the same), but it was at least in a polite way
So I found an interesting hit googling the sentence!
吹雪の夜に墓〓（漢字： 穴（あなかんむり）＋石）を訪れる場面に当るのである
From: ひとでなしの猫 『小栗虫太郎傑作選Ⅰ 黒死館殺人事件』 （現代教養文庫）
I think this character didn’t survive to be computerized I wonder a bit if someone would have more luck with one of those paper unabridged kanji dictionaries as a result.
I kind of struck out googling further with that and the kanji form (穴冠) mostly gave Chinese results and the Japanese ones I did dredge up were 知恵袋 posts asking for the reading of 石 topped with a different radical
I’m on mobile at the moment but maybe later I’ll check my book on Japanese fonts to see if there’s any section on characters skipped or alternates (kinda of doubt it tbh, but worth a peek)
