I spent a lot of time reading last week and managed to finish こころ | L39 yesterday! I wanted to hurry and finish it because I’m doing a game jam this week. (So not reading anything in particular right now, besides the manga I’m already working on.)
こころ was good though, I mentioned earlier that it was hard to get into at first, but the second and third parts were more gripping (and recontextualised the first section too). The story has a lot of dark themes, including death from chronic illness and suicide, and brought interesting character perspectives to those ideas. I felt a sense of dread in the 3rd part as I realized that K was going to commit suicide, and saw 「先生」 push him into it without thinking. Then seeing how that affected 「先生」 for the rest of his life was really heavy. I’m not sure I’d recommend it for entertainment purposes, but if you like a serious story that really dissects a character, I think this does that well.
I read くまクマ熊ベアー 12 | L23 and 早乙女選手、ひたかくす (series) | L22 over the week-end while procrastinating on reading 獣の奏者 4.
くま was mostly uneventful and boring (planning a group trip to the beach?!? How riveting) but had a couple random fun fights.
Other than that, I just got a random 20% off on 青年 manga coupon from booklive, so I just went ahead and bought the remaining of the 早乙女選手 series. Now, it’s really not a great series overall (maybe 5/10?) HOWEVER. As I mentioned last time, it’s just refreshing to have muscular girls as unrealistic beauty standard rather than the typical seinen fan service (just look at the covers, it’s pretty characteristic of the content). The typical bath scene was funnier than usual, with two of the main girls comparing their biceps and back muscles.
You know, I’m much more okay with that.
Today I read some more of the Loopers visual novel, but since it’s rather stressful to read a lot of it since it’s so hard for me, I wanted to start something else… so I’m part of the bears now!
Finished Friday’s new release あした、裸足でこい。 | L29 over the weekend, and it was pretty interesting! The plot centers around the graduating MC going back in time to attempt to save his former girlfriend after finding out that she left a suicide note and went missing. The end of this first volume being such a cliffhanger, and unexpected, has me looking forward to volume 2 for sure. The concepts of all of the author’s books really catch my eye, but this was the first one that I have actually gone and read (though now maybe 三角の距離は限りないゼロ | L30?? and 日和ちゃんのお願いは絶対 | L30??) move up my reading list.
Now that I got that out of the way, I’m back to reading 千歳くんはラムネ瓶のなか | L34 and 佐々木とピーちゃん | L30??. Enjoying both of these a good bit - the narrative voice of both protagonists is a lot of fun to read. If you look at the full title or any of the PVs for 佐々木とピーちゃん you’ll see it’s kind of a genre mash-up and it really is like “regular salaryman lives through every anime trope”, but his regular-ness is also part of what makes it really endearing.
I gave up reading 獣の奏者 4 for now. Not that it was hard or anything… I just didn’t feel like it. I still find it baffling that I’m having such a hard time reading that author.
Anyway, I have read ポーション頼みで生き延びます! (series) | L28 volume 8. On the one hand, I kinda like what the author is starting in this volume, on the other hand, it’s kinda weird to me that every characters (except for the main 3) behave basically the same. Like… they are all clones of one of the same NPC archetype or something.
I need to pick the next volume of RDG, but I am traveling at the moment…
So technically it’s an audiobook, but hey, it’s a book! So I started on 夢探偵フロイト: -マッド・モラン連続死事件- | L33 recently. So far I’m trying to figure out the age group it’s meant for. I’m thinking probably middle or high school? It’s giving me some of the same vibes as 謎解きはディナーのあとで | L32 and 心霊探偵八雲 1 赤い瞳は知っている | L28 , with the difficulty probably being closer to the latter. So far it seems broadly about dream researchers and the idea of dreams that can kill. The plot is very 悪夢ちゃん-esque.
I’m overall enjoying it, and it’s a good level for my listening ability and the voice acting is nice. I had been listening to 扉は閉ざされたまま | L30?? and one character’s voice just grated on me so much That one is also a bit harder to keep up with while listening, so I might be shelving it for a bit. Not impossible, but the juice doesn’t seem worth the squeeze right now.
I finished とんでもスキルで異世界放浪メシ 6 肉そぼろ丼×聖なる刻印 | L28
I think it is probably my favorite book in Japanese. There are a bit of pacing issues, but I had fun reading every part of it.
I kind of have a rule of take a break after reading any book in a series, so I will move on to the next book whenever I feel ready
I am also reading 絶体絶命ゲーム 2 | L25.
It’s ok. I liked the first one better (the rounds were more like puzzles). So far the challenges in the second book aren’t very interesting. It’s an easy read and I can finish it in a few days so why not.
I organized my stack into about 10 books I may read next, but will wait until I finish 絶体絶命ゲーム 2 | L25 and then decide. I often just read 5-10 pages in a few different books and go with what catches my interest the most.
I finished 魔導師は平凡を望む 1 two days ago (not on Natively yet).
I grabbed the first three volumes of that series when they were available for free on Booklive/Bookwalker. It’s so rare to have completely free light novels that I didn’t really hesitate. Plus, it was tagged as 女性向け and 逆ハーレム. That sounded great!
Well, in the end, the writing is pretty much exactly the same as typical 男性向け light novels, to the point where I (and commenters on bookmeter) are a bit confused about the classification. One person commented that the series is quite “old” and thus started before the current standards.
The book itself was okay but felt a bit rough. Mostly, it is very episodic and each chapter just skips all the “boring” action (which is just related in a few sentences) to the part where the main character is just completely overpowering the opposition and trash talking her defeated opponent. It’s kinda fun for a while, but I reached the saturation point quite quickly.
I’d say 6 or 7/10. Hopefully it gets better? There are 29 volumes in the series, so it was popular enough to keep going for that long.
I finished 火車 | L35 - nearly 600 pages in a month in addition to other books in my rotation and yet I still feel like I’m so far behind on my reading goals! @omk3 I believe you had said you wanted to know my thoughts on it since it’s on your list too - I left a review, but broadly I thought it was an interesting book, although I definitely enjoyed the second half much more than the first. 宮部みゆき has an enjoyable writing style, but I can’t mindlessly consume her books like I can say, 赤川次郎. It’s much more thoughtful writing.
I also can’t say I found all the characters believable, but the story it was trying to tell was larger than the characters themselves and so I forgave it. Sometimes realism just gets in the way.
I going to try to catch up on the book club reading tomorrow (this week looks juicy and I want to join the discussion! ) and then I can resume reading 天使の傷痕 | L33 with the simple goal of finishing it before October. That’s about 23 pages per day which should be doable but if not I can just take it with me when I go on my trip at the start of October (but I’d really rather not pack a book I’ve nearly finished!).
Thanks for the review (and for pinging me)! It’s still very much on my list, but based on what you said I think I may leave it for later in my reading journey. As my reading speed increases, I’m sure I’ll find it easier to wade through the initial drier bit before the plot really gets going.
Meanwhile, and in order to not be off-topic, today I’m reading this week’s portion of 十角館の殺人. Things seem to be taking an unexpected turn once again, and I too am very eager to join the discussion!
Good day NATIVELY, I hope you are all having another grand day feeling your eyes slowly get weaker from reading all the time.
Recently, I finished タイム・リープ<上> あしたはきのう | L30 and I think this is one that a lot of people here on Natively could appreciate. If you couldn’t tell from the title, this is inspired by https://learnnatively.com/book/dc838454ca/. I wasn’t sure if it was at first but it makes some pretty obvious references to it later on. Anyway, this is a fun one, it feels like toki but takes everything a step further with a totally out-of-order, probably hard to keep track of time travel(?) plot. Basically, If you liked 時をかける少女, definitely give this one a try (It’s not as easy though).
I can’t wait to get to the 下 part but I think I going to have to read ヴァンパイア大使アンジュ 6 and 7 back to back if I want to finish the series by the end of the month (and I’m obviously not reading it during my October 吸血鬼 marathon!)
Joke’s on you; my eyes have been terrible for all my life anyway. I’m pre-equipped to be chained to a book.
I’ve been bouncing back and forth between 十角館の殺人 | L34 and FLESH & BLOOD 4 | L34. 十画館 is going really well; things are heating up, and I’m excited for more murder upcoming plot. F&B4 I’ve been reading after finishing up my 十画館 reading; this last chapter was actually really stressful to read, so I’m glad to be moving past it. I’m just hoping our young hero stays safe, haha.
十画館 should be over fairly soon; there’s only two weeks left after this one! I wonder what our next book will be?
I guess it depends on why you didn’t like 時をかける少女. If you thought the plot was underdeveloped and too short, maybe… But if the idea of “時をかける少女 but longer” sounds like absolute torture to you, it might be best to skip it. So far, the story only takes place over the span of a week. It’s nothing crazy like, “I’m suddenly 300 years in the future!!” Also, I put (?) after time travel for a reason, but you have to read the book if you want to find out why
Well if it’s similar to 時をかける少女, I would expect time leaps, not time travel, so I certainly wouldn’t expect 300 years in the future situations to happen! My biggest problem with 時をかける少女 was that pretty much nothing happened? So a longer 時をかける少女 would indeed be torture since it would just mean a longer book of nothing happening! A more developed story with time leaps could be fun though.
One week (and a bit) later, I’ve successfully completed my game jam project and I’m getting back to reading! Started my 2-in-1 copy of 美しい村 | L40 ・ 風立ちぬ | L42 today. Just finished the 序曲 section of 美しい村 and then spent another 30 minutes reading the Wikipedia page and some blogs to make sure I actually understood what was going on . From that background reading though, I learned the book is split into the intro (which is a letter), one main section where things actually happen, and then the last two sections are supposed to be short stories about those events written by the protagonist, which sounds really cool. More on this story as it develops.
That one is also a bit harder to keep up with while listening, so I might be shelving it for a bit. Not impossible, but the juice doesn’t seem worth the squeeze right now.
) and then I can resume reading 
. From that background reading though, I learned the book is split into the intro (which is a letter), one main section where things actually happen, and then the last two sections are supposed to be short stories about those events written by the protagonist, which sounds really cool. More on this story as it develops.