That’s good to know.
Mine doesn’t have notes so guessing they updated the vocab and grammar for more modern times maybe. 
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I did read all five volumes of オレが私になるまで | L21 over the last few days, as planned. Just barely managed to finish before the new year, so that was nice. I really like the series. I wouldn’t go so far as to put it in my favorites, but it’s consistently enjoyable, like a strong 4/5.
Per my poll in the “what should I read next” thread, I’ll probably start 神様がうそをつく。 | L23 for my next manga. Besides that, I’ll just pick whatever I’m in the mood for. I do need to get back to 君は放課後インソムニア | L24, スキップとローファー | L24, and 父とヒゲゴリラと私 | L24?? at some point so I can continue purchasing volumes.
I also started the final volume of 本好き. So far just read the prologue, but hopefully I make consistent progress on it.
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I started 嵐のピクニック | L30?? as a late joiner to the Profoundly Weird Book Club reading of it over on the WK forums:
嵐のピクニック ⛈️ Book Club ・ Starting Dec 14th - Book Clubs - WaniKani Community
This particular book club is a bit loose and some books are read here, some there, and some people just read them by themselves and report back. There is a Natively list of the books here along with an explanation of the genre, and books can be nominated as Profoundly Weird 
in the WK home thread for the club.
Anyways! With that explanation out of the way, 嵐のピクニック is a short story collection, and it’s certainly…something. I feel like these are the sort of thing you’re meant to read in a classroom and analyze as a group 
They’re definitely strange, and I can see how they are ‘profoundly weird people desperately trying to be normal’ but it’s a very different flavor of that than the others I’ve read in the list thus far.
EDIT I wrote all that and then realized it was a failed IBC nomination, not a PWBC nomination 
Well it certainly fits the latter well enough 
Also! because I clearly can’t not immediately start more books since I just finished a few, I decided to finally crack into 月光ゲーム―Yの悲劇'88 | L36 because I’ve seen it/the author referenced many times in mystery circles and I want to know what the fuss is about. I’m only ~15 pages in and if the writing continues like this (currently prologue) I can see why it’s rated 36. I feel like I’ve mostly been reading easy books recently and this one requires a bit more focus. Huge cast of characters doesn’t help…
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After the rush of finishing my 2024 bingo card, I didn’t really feel like reading anything…
I still managed to read 双子王子の継母になりまして嫌われ悪女ですが、そんなことより義息子たちが可愛すぎて困ります~ ベリーズファンタジー | L28??. I liked the premise, but the author didn’t do anything with it. The book was meant to be a one shot and is okay at that. Still, I originally bought it because the cover of the second volume looked interesting. I guess the book sold well enough that they decided to make a sequel… but I don’t see what could happen from there on.
The one thing that was fun is that the world seems inspired by the region I’m from. There’s a scene where the main character goes secretly to the town and eats the local speciality along with the local alcohol, and now I want to eat those too. Also, all spells are basically French words in katakana, which is pretty funny. I guess a German speaker reading 本好き would feel the same thing.
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So I’ve been in book club catch up mode so far this year, and I’m now up to date with my current book clubs. Over here I’m reading along with the current Children’s Book Club with 人類サバイバル, while over on Wanikani’s forums I’m reading ぼっち and ぼっち with the BBC and IMC respectively. I’m also probably going to join 魔法少年なつき×らびっツ with the BL Book Club here.
Aside from book clubs, I’ve now got some time to pick my own reading material again with the holiday backlog out of the way. I have an order from Amazon JP en route with:
- Volumes 5 to 8 of the 本好き junior novel (Part 1 Volume 3 and Part 2 Volume 1 for readers of the full novel version). I had the full novel versions of Part 1 Volume 1 and 2 in physical copies because that’s what my European retailer stocked, but I kept going to my digital furigana versions so I’m just getting the physical furiganas editions to hopefully do more physical novel reading
- Volumes 2 to 4 of とんがり帽子のアトリエ
- Volumes 7 to 12 of 葬送のフリーレン
- Volumes 1 to 2 of Spy X Family
And in terms of physical manga still lying around, I have Dr Stone volume 1, 本好き part 2 manga and Made In Abyss volume 1 to 3. I don’t super feel like overdosing on 本好き with my plans for more volumes of the novel also, so I’ll probably leave the part 2 manga for now, but I might try read volumes 1 of Dr Stone and Made in Abyss in the 2 weeks until my Amazon order gets here.
Other things that are on my radar (with some encouragement from the bingo thread).
- 一週間フレンズ | L22 which I first heard of in Animegraphy… 2014? and had the concept sitting in my head as intriguing but now with a need to fill the Natively bingo square for character with a disability, seems like a good excuse to actually go and read it
- ブナの森のアリア 第1巻 | L25 which was recommended to me on the bingo thread when I commented on the small amount of manga set in Ireland
- とある魔術の禁書目録外伝とある科学の超電磁砲 1 | L27 - I’ve had this in progress since last year and it’s the one thing in my in progress list on Natively that isn’t a book club read so it’ll be nice to clear it off the table. I don’t think I’ll do future volumes in the short term though, as while I love the setting, the amount of sci-fi/fantasy or just plain made up language for this manga makes it not great learning material. Still, it’ll check off the sci-fi bingo card
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You have my attention. Added to wishlist for when I finish マリみて
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Managed to finish reading Sandland manga today. I already knew the story having watched the manga last year but actually found this easier to read than I expected.
Created by the creator of Dragonball iirc, it’s a one shot manga that covers the same story as the first 6 episodes of the Sandland anime series.
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The previous book made me feel like reading more 悪役令嬢 stuff, and I do have a pile of those.
I went with 追放悪役令嬢の旦那様 | L28??, which I knew nothing about and only bought because it was consistently in the top 5 女性向け LN on booklive for a while. The premise actually surprised me (I don’t think it counts as spoiler, since you learn everything immediately): while it is your typical “got reincarnated in the villainess just as she got 婚約破棄’d”, the book is from the point of view of a different (mob) character who actually gets married to her instead (the titular 旦那様). His internal voice is very reminiscent of 男性向け stuff like 乙女ゲー世界はモブに厳しい世界です 1 | L28 but the story doesn’t have any fan service nor incel logic. Turns out I’m actually fine with this kind of characters when they aren’t complete a*holes.
My only complaint is that there’s virtually no romance so far. I appreciate them respecting each other’s boundaries but I think they should at least discuss the situation (even if it meant getting a divorce or something).
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Just finished reading 魔女のエデン 1 | L21, another great start to a Harta series. It’s also quite easy, so I would definitely recommend those interested try it out. It’s another in the genre of “barren fantasy world with no greenery”, which I’ve quite enjoyed so far.
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Started reading 葬送のフリーレン and now I think I need to change my bingo prompt to include reading the whole series
It’s slow paced but lots of introspection and although there are words here and there that I don’t understand (but can kind of get most of them from context), it’s pretty approachable for me and now I kind of want to binge the series.
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Did you watch the anime? It’s a 1:1 adaption, so could be feasable after reading the manga or the other way round: use the manga to check your understanding of the anime.
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Finished マリア様がみてる 7 いとしき歳月 前編 | L29 and almost halfway through マリア様がみてる 8 いとしき歳月 後編 | L29 as. The first story in vol 7 turns out very surprising (and hilarious), and the 2nd story is not really my favorite.
Book 8 contains one of my favorite moments in the whole series, in the first 1/3rd, but the second 1/3rd has been agonizing so far (graduation ceremony for the Roses (and their grade), which involves retrospection and backstory for 3 characters, 2 of whom I have zero interest in). It’s well-written, but I’m just not interested, and eager to finish graduation, and get to (for me) the good parts of the story!
Gradually going through Tobira in part thanks to motivation from the Tobira Study Group here. Gave myself a 1 pg per day minimum, just to build the habit.
Otherwise the book club for 徒然日和 | L21 starts tomorrow, so I’ll reread along with that. Other book clubs are on pause for me, so as to not distract from マリみて (just 29 volumes to go lol)… but I’ll look forward to catching up w/ CLAMP (Tokyo Babylon home thread) and Non-Fiction (日本人の心がわかる日本語 | L25 home thread), once I’m done!
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I can’t access the anime yet so only read most of the first Manga. The anime is on my to get list though so will be watching it further down the line 
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I finished 本好きの下剋上 volume 27. It was a transition volume, so there was a lot of procedural/administrative stuff that was boring for me. It reminded me a bit of the infamous ink making volume. 
However, I appreciated the heartfelt chapters with Elvira, Tuli, and Lutz. I just read the synopsis (and saw the 興味深い cover) of volume 28 and I’m excited to read it soon! It looks like it will be much more dramatic.
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Happy New Year everyone!
I felt like I was in a bit of a slump in December, but I’ve still read a few things.
First 猛スピードで母は | L30 , which is two stories about mothers through a childs eye.
The first of these stories, サイドカーに犬 was my favourite, but both were pleasant.
And, slightly aiming at getting out of a slump, I read 三世代探偵団 次の扉に棲む死神 | L24 by 赤川次郎 , which was a really quick fun read.
Grandmother, Mother, Daughter all unintentionally get wound up in an series of crimes. It’s not so much of a whodunnit, since we do know most of bad guys, but it still unravels in a fun way.
I’m a bit put off at starting some of his other series, e.g. 三毛猫, since there’s so many of them. But this series has only started recently, so I was happy to start, knowing I wouldn’t be getting myself into a mega-series.
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I started reading 自滅 | L30?? this week, which I bought in a random bookwalker sale a while back simply because it’s by the same author as 聖なる黒夜 上 | L35 聖なる黒夜 下 | L35 (which I loved). This particular book is a collection of horror short stories all involving female protagonists, but I’m not really liking it that much so far. I loved the psychological descriptions in 聖なる黒夜, so I was looking forward to some more of that with women and dark horror vibes this time instead of cops and yakuza, but the stories aren’t really packing much of a punch so far. It is easy to read and pretty short though, so I will go ahead and finish it.
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Finished マリア様がみてる 8 いとしき歳月 後編 | L29 ! Final 1/3rd was the story of how Sei & Shimako met & became sisters, which ties in really well with the next volume. They feel a bit more believable to me now, and having Shimako’s inner monologue was a major improvement over the anime. Anyway, I’m crazy excited about vol 9, since it starts w/ a very interesting story, and one of my fav characters appears in it (though I hated her at this point in the story)! Despite not being concerned about reading speed/time, I managed to finish this one in about 24 hrs, and feel like my comprehension is improving.
Anyway, will check out the next jpdb deck, and then onto vol 9
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I kept going with the series and finished 追放悪役令嬢の旦那様2 | L28?? but it was pretty boring for 60% of the book. There was a bit of plot after that, but too little too late.
I checked the free preview of volume 3 and decided that I won’t keep going with this series. Too bad, I wanted to know if romance was actually going to happen or not… I think so, but no way to be sure.
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More of a “What am I reading in the short to medium term?”, but my Amazon JP order arrived.
That picture of Myne and Lutz in the snow definitely feels appropriate for today, high of -2C, low of -8C.
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I’m making decent progress on 本好き 31, finishing the first bonus chapter (of 5) today. Some of them do have me interested though, so hopefully I’ll get though them faster than last time.
Also, with the new year, I’ve decided to focus on Chinese (Mandarin, and primarily Simplified) studies for awhile. I spent about 2 months mid-2024 getting into it and want to pick it up again. I’m now paying the fairly steep monthly subscription fee for Du Chinese, an app full of graded readers, which has been very nice so far.
Ironically it also led me to read a short story in Japanese the other day, since one of the stories in the app is based on it:
It’s a short story by Edogawa Ranpo, and was a solid bathtub read. Two men meet in a park and both become convinced they’ve seen each other somewhere but can’t figure out where. The eventual explanation is fun and very Ranpo-ish. I wouldn’t rank as one of my favorite stories or anything, but I gave it 5 stars.
And now I can look forward to reading/listening to it in very elementary Chinese, based on a vocabulary of 300 characters, and split into 13 individual bite-sized sections
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