Relatable 
Yeah I definitely read that as I like girls, but I guess a girly guy would work, but idk anything about the characters
I’ve been really enjoying that aspect of マリア様がみてる | L29 as well. It’s late 90s/00s and they’re in high school. Computers at home are uncommon, cell phones are barely seen, etc.. Very refreshing to read (not to mention nostalgic)
Agree! I’m feeling like I could use a little less of my smartphone in my life lately, so it’s enjoyable reading stories where the characters aren’t using one either. 
I’ve been enjoying my Kindle a lot for this reason. It’s so much more immersive - almost as enjoyable as reading physical (which I prefer, besides the lookups). Tho I still check the translation with まりみて, so I can’t totally ignore my phone just yet. Anyway, I feel like not having them opens up a lot of story possibilities - or at least ones that are more interesting to me right now
bungakushoujo already discovered this thread (sorry, I forgot to post here straight away 
), but for others who are interested in the book, here it is:
Finished 鳥籠荘の今日も眠たい住人たち〈1〉 | L32. It was good, but don’t see myself reading any more of it.
Started 誰が勇者を殺したか | L31 - going in with high expectations seeing all the praise it’s gotten, and seems interesting so far.
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X」 | L32 today, which I enjoyed all the way through! The short stories at the end were different enough to be interesting and had a few important details that were missing from ローゼマイン’s perspective. Well, mostly just one big one. So she’s lost her memories about people and things that are more important tot her than books? This was completely unexpected, and although losing-your-memories tropes like this often feel unsatisfying to me, I’m interested to see what happens here. The multiple levels of her 下町 family and friends, her 前世 family and friends, and potentially some of her memories from the recent battles means there’s a lot to consider… And if 魔力を流すこと turns out to be the solution her 前世 memories might be particularly problematic. But I trust this author enough that I’m more interested than worried! Just two more volumes left in the main series, the end is really in sight now 
Aside from that I read やがきみ 3 and a two random short stories by Soseki since my last update (neither was particularly interesting enough to comment on).
Just for fun I’ll leave a Chinese update here as well. In addition to setting up Anki again for the first time in years, creating my own cards with a fancy addon that autofills most of the fields, I’m forking out the rather hefty $15 a month for Du Chinese. It’s an app with graded readers that’s super easy to use, and lots of the stories are actually interesting. Built in definitions (based on context) and native recordings are much appreciated. It also has numbers that go up, but nothing too complex to distract you from the main goal of reading.
It completely changed my view of ミスティオノーラ. Like, b!tch, you did it on purpose? And you are messing with my boi. Unforgivable.
Right?? I was like oh フェルディナンド’s assessment of the gods and reaction afterwards is totally justified now. 神々 really don’t give a shit lol. Also the fact that フェルディナンド basically outsmarted the goddess of wisdom is iconic
I finished ぬるい毒 | L35
which was very good, despite being full of horrible characters, and 気持ち悪い throughout most of it.
Maybe similar vibes to Daniel Day Lewis’ Phantom Thread film, but with more childish characters.
The premise is that a charming, but horrible, guy calls up MC out of the blue pretending to know her, and they sort of spiral into a toxic relationship.
Oh! I have read another book from 本谷 有希子 that also had horrible characters and really enjoyed it. Maybe I should check this out.
I could easily see people picking it up and hating it, since the characters are horrid. But overall I enjoyed it!
Must. Not. Click. Spoiler.
Maybe I should set a reminder for those posts in like… 2 years.
Despite? No no that’s an entire genre and I’m a big fan.
https://learnnatively.com/search/jpn/books/?ntags=terrible-people-doing-terrible-things
Edit: though looking at some of the books tagged with it I think some didn’t read the description
I’ll be sure to utilize that tag in the future
Off-topic but I’m noticing some of y’all have things like 一目十行 or 本の虫 under your names (at least on mobile, with the app language as JP). It’s there a setting for that or something?
It was for participants in the 2024 Japanese bingo who updated the wiki with the amount of bingos they had - the custom badges were the ranks you could win based on the number of bingos you got
I’m up to https://learnnatively.com/series/494308d39c/ 17 now, and have mostly very positive things to say. This volume corresponds to the last episodes in S3, which means I’m closing in on the content I’ve been most looking forward to!! Specifically Yumi x Touko, and stuff w/ Suguru, but the rest of it in general too.
After watching おにいさまへ… S1 | L26 the manga has broken my「マリア様がみてるから！」 blockade. Thankfully it’s only 3 volumes, and I’m still prioritizing マリみて either way. I couldn’t help myself on this one. The anime was incredibly gripping, but somehow is 39 episodes… from 3 volumes!! The aesthetic is very different so far, which makes sense, since it was drawn in the 70s, and the anime came out in the 90s. Anyway this is one of those “Golden Age” of shoujo works - and that’s something I’m finding myself more interested in exploring & learning the history of. (The author’s earlier work ベルサイユのばら外伝 1 | L24?? was apparently the first major commercially successful shoujo manga!!)
Update: I finished vol 1, and to the anime’s credit, I like the anime much better so far. It did a really excellent job of fleshing things out, in a way that really enhances the story
I’m fighting the temptation to read this now, having just come back from the movie (which was excellent)… it’s already on my list for when I finish マリみて next(?) month, so I can probably hold off until then. Also I’d definitely like to get the physicals (the I’m not sure they printed vol 2 in physical??)
Speaking of 魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない ~今日から自由な職人ライフ~ 4 | L30, I finished that volume yesterday and am currently 1/3 through the 5th volume but… I’m kinda losing steam.
Mostly, one of the things that was pulling me forward was the may-or-may-not-be romance interest being attractive and acting cute. I’ve read a lot of isekai romance LN (or TL) and he is one of the best written character of that type that I have seen.
However, most of volume 4 and all of volume 5 so far has been devoted to “plot” (ダリヤ’s business getting larger) rather than their relationship. I guess that aligns more with @mic’s interests than mine
I hope we get back to them soon.
It‘s not that I‘d require the book to have no romance at all, just that it stays in the background 
Seconded. I don’t suppose anyone has a list with this theme they’ve been working on?
Why do you think that? Looks like Amazon lists copies, at least.
