It is something I have seen, yes. It’s fairly common in Chinese-inspired (?) fantasy settings, especially 後宮 ones. But picking the oldest/most formal I know is a joke in itself, too.
That’s what I have seen too, as well as endless wars about the meaning of “nakama”.
Well, that too. All the fan communities I have seen have been quite toxic. (Not that I have spent much time in those, though)
The first book that I have is 330 pages and the second I believe is 300-330. (I can’t remember right now) If I have to buy books separately than they’re separate books. Whether it continues the same story or not.
I mean yeah they mention the castle. The game literally starts in the castle though. Therefore, all of this first section isn’t in the game.
I had just finished reading the first volume of キノの旅. I thought it felt harder than that, but I also had only read 4 pages so far. What a letdown though. I can’t close that 6 level gap just yet.
I mean I say that, but I did stubbornly order a book stand so I can keep trying. 
Huh, the one at my local library is 380, though? That’s also the page count I see on Natively.
The problem with this one is that it “ends” in the middle of a chapter The table of contents also lists both books together (but that doesn’t really matter). I guess we could consider it a hardcore cliffhanger? Since the page counts aren’t equal, I assume they made the cut somewhere somewhat sensible, not in the middle of a conversation.
I personally do count softcovers as separate books when it comes to reading stats, though.
And also, really, how many more 畝 can they throw at you? At some point it should get easier no matter what. (Also, 6 levels is a huge jump)
True, but the lore is why I wanted to read the book in the first place, so, I for one am happy about that. The game just has a cutscene of the main character just getting there, no explanation. (Plus, not only has it been literally decades since I played that game, I didn’t go very far)
… at this point, I have spent orders of magnitude more time talking about the book than actually reading it. I should get to that.
Well, after quite a while, I felt like reading 神様たちのお伊勢参り | L26 and finished the parts I had left when I silently dropped from the book club. I didn’t have much left either, so it was really quick (I didn’t check carefully but probably 45 min? 1 hour max), but I just didn’t feel like reading it until now.
And I’m probably not going ahead with that series either. It wasn’t bad, but it really wasn’t drawing me in.
I’m planning to use it as my “past book club” bingo entry, but honestly it feels like borderline cheating.
I really want someone to read #2 and tell me whether or not it gets better. It was such an easy read compared to most books in the genre AND the series has audiobooks, but it was also just so flat.
Yeah, I voted for that book based on the premise, but… the main character just has no personality. I did like the chapter where she actually does something (with errr rock goddess; I could look her name up, but I can’t be bothered at the moment), but otherwise she didn’t really elicit an emotional response. When she is told that it will take 100 years to pay back the money stolen by 邪神 (thus not even her fault), she only says “I guess I’ll have to make an effort to live long”
You could just start the audiobook and see how it goes? (Assuming you have 聴き放題) Also, if you are looking for listening practice, it’s great too, because even if you miss something/don’t pay attention, nothing of value was lost.
I do have 聴き放題, so this is a good point. For my audiobook I’m working on the 四つ子ぐらし series right now and plan to keep going until I get bored of it. I think 神様たちのお伊勢参り would be a bit hard for me just listening right now, but maybe after I have some more audiobook hours in I’ll try it out.
I finished 生命式 | L31 the other day. I think I liked it a bit more than コンビニ人間, but maybe just because I prefer short stories. It didn’t really deliver on the “weird” factor - aside from in the titular story when the narrator suggests it might have been her childhood wish that got the world so weird. Didn’t like the protagonist either in many of the stories. Half of them are “normal” people in a “weird” world and the other half are “weird” people in a “normal” world.
I think my favorite story was 夏の夜の口付け. Short and characterful.
I’ve been reading a bit more of https://learnnatively.com/book/b0ba0f6bf6/ and I’ve got to a section where it draws a contrast between 消費 and 浪費 – and I keep having to pause to check which of the two words has been written in any particular sentence…
I am still reading なぜ僕の世界を誰も覚えていないのか? 運命の剣 | L31 and getting increasingly annoyed that I am. On the scale of light novels it’s not terrible or anything, but it shits me how light novels (and just a lot of fantasy in general) manage to put in a bunch of fantasy concepts in to something and then not explore any of them, and just tell a story about how if you hit people with a sword the right way you win. Who cares?! Go into the implications of the genocidal fantasy race war, or the isolation of being the only person who remembers the old world, or say something interesting about how human society has changed now it’s moved underground to escape the demon armies. But nope, instead it’s just strong-guy-meets-girl(s)-beats-up-bad-guys story.
Anyway, just had to get that off my chest. I wish I was better at filtering out these sorts of books.
Well, I haven’t been reading much of it, but I’m a bit more than 150 pages in and we are finally at the beginning of the game I’m not complaining though, I’m having a good time so far.
I finally finished 本好き! I started the series back in 2020, so this is a huge accomplishment! The ending was lovely, though I’m only giving the final volume 4/5 for the same pacing issues that have been present since volume 29.
First I will say that I love where the story ends. I think how it ends is really great, but most of the volume was (again) slow filler.
It starts off really nicely with how マイン gets her memories back by seeing a lot of key scenes from the series from フェルディナンド’s perspective. And the fact that observing her love for her family and their love for her changed how he saw family really added a lot of depth to his character. I also really like that between all the options available to her (both in these opening chapters and the preceding few volumes), マイン chooses to be アウブ and rename her territory to アレキサンドリア.
Unfortunately over half the volume is then just going through the motions to get to the desired ending. Especially all the chapters in エーレンフェスト. I get that you want to wrap up the story and relationship with a lot of other characters, but it dragged a bit. That’s not to say any of the content was bad or anything, it was just uneventful and felt kind of boring for the final volume. I wasn’t surprised to find out that it was all 書き下ろし since that’s what the author has generally struggled with.
More generally, the 書き下ろし since volume 29 has been particularly bloated and has really hurt the pacing. I also disliked a lot of the plot points since then. Mostly, the 魔石 phobia plotline just felt so forced and seemed pointless. There are better ways to handicap your overpowered main character if that was the intent. The lost memory plotline was also generally annoying, even if the way it concluded was really nice.
Thankfully, bloat aside, the final volume ended very nicely. I think the epilogue was particularly well done, and it’s exactly what I wanted to see. I have had this vague desire for like half the series to get an epilogue hundreds of years later showing マイン being taught about in history class for nearly singlehandedly making the populace literate and stuff like that. I’m not surprised nothing like that was shown (as it’s less intimate than a family reunion), but it could have been neat.
Now that I’m done with 本好き, I need to catch up on Silent Witch for the WaniKani intermediate book club and start 風立ちぬ for the advanced book club (which just started today). After I’m caught up on those I’ll need to pick something else to read. I could go back and finish 博士の愛した数式 | L35, which I paused about halfway through. I could read 魔法少女育成計画 QUEENS | L36 since I haven’t touched this series since mid-2023 and technically I’m in the middle of a three book arc. I could read やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について 3 | L30 to finish that trilogy. Or I could start a new series, like 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 | L32. I probably won’t decide anything for a few weeks while I get into a routine for those book clubs.
I also just started 君は放課後インソムニア 7 | L24. The series has been really cute so far (just finished volume 6 this morning), so I just placed an order for the remaining volumes. I won’t get them until early March since the order includes a preorder for volume 5 of 星屑テレパス | L24, but I have plenty else to read in the meantime anyway. I plan to read ルックバック | L20 soon. There’s a WaniKani book club, but I think this will be better binged over a weekend instead of spread out over several weeks, so that’s the plan. Besides that I don’t have anything particular lined up, but I own plenty so I’m sure I’ll find something.
Just finished マリア様がみてる 26 クリスクロス | L29 - which means I’ll be starting the final volume that the anime covered!! I’m still really in love with the series. It’s been an extremely rewarding read, both in terms of enjoyment, and seeing/feeling my reading progress. Depending on my free time, I can get through a volume a day. So I’ll be done this month for sure!
乙女の港 (実業之日本社文庫 - 少女の友コレクション) | L33?? slowly getting through. If I wasn’t obsessively reading マリみて, I’d be through most of it by now… but I’m only done with the first 2 chapters I’d consider pausing マリみて when I finish the current story line (I think that’s another 2-3 Vols), but I’m scared to break the momentum, so probably will tackle it fully once I’m done with the series
花物語 上 | L39 in lessons, it’s really beautiful but soooooo hard
おにいさまへ... 2 | L25 I got the physical volume, and I’m surprised how small it is (light novel size). So I’ll probably read side by side
百合姫2025年3月号 | L26?? slowly getting through last month’s
Quartet 1 | L20 only a few pages in, but I like the formatting & presentation a lot. It’s a lot more accessible than Tobira (tho that feels a bit more thorough so far)
レトロゲ(1) | L27 occasionally struggle through read with my friend. It’s great, but very very niche. I definitely still need to check that translation, so まだまだ on the L27 manga goal.
Replying here since it’s more relevant.
I just read the first volume today. It was fun! I love the facial expressions of the main character when they (?) forget how to control the relevant muscles. My favorite is when they wake up when they are about to be stabbed. It’s pretty terrifying.
Volume 1 ends with some foreshadowing, but I’m not sure I will keep reading this series at the moment.
I’m glad you liked it so far 
It’s so cute how clueless the slime can be and how needlessly complicated some of its problem solving strategies are. If it’s for the sake of tasty human food, even a slime can become a picture perfect saint!
Interesting - there exists vocab for sitting positions of cats 
Btw: スコ comes from スコティッシュフォールド (Scottish Fold), it’s a position those cats presumably often use.
