So after finishing 十角館の殺人 | L34 last week with the mystery book club (was a really fun book; we should be voting on our next pick soon. Join us!), I’ve been focusing on 吸血鬼ハンター“D”―吸血鬼ハンター 1 | L39. I think I mentioned it before, but my English book club is reading the first three volumes; we’ll be discussing them mid-November. I wanted to get a head start to see how feasible it would be for me to read all three before our discussion date, and having now finished the first chapter of book one, I’m able to draw some conclusions.
The Natively level of 40, going solely by the first chapter (~30 pages) is waaaay too high. The first chapter was like mid-low 30s. There’s still plenty of time for that to change, of course, but for anyone thinking about reading the book, fyi. Some poetic language, N2/N1 grammar, but nothing that would shock you if you’re already reading low 30s.
I don’t think I’ll be able to finish all three volumes by mid-November; I just won’t have time. Even if all three books stay mid-low 30s, I still just read too slowly. :\ Ah well. Even just finishing the first would be a nice feather in my cap; I had not planned on reading Vampire Hunter D this year. I’ll probably read vols. 2 and 3 in English to make sure I can finish in time.
The lack of time thing is going to be exacerbated by two books I’m anticipating starting soon: whatever our next mystery book club pick is, and FLESH & BLOOD 5 | L33 (dang, that cover is blurry), which I’ll either start this weekend or Monday, depending on my mood/energy.
Brandon has accepted submissions of better quality images from recognized sites such as Bookwalker before. He pulls them from Amazon when the book is added, but Amazon isn’t great about quality.
I’d just about need to do it for every image in the series, probably… I’d like higher-quality images, but I always feel like I’m taking up his entire night with requests like this.
Request as you read them? Could also just download the images yourself and send them in bulk so he doesn’t need to go grab them? Dunno, @brandon what say you?
How crazy would reading 三体、死仮面 | L39, ユージニア | L30??, whatever the Mystery Book Club picks, and possibly another JP<>Eng collab book club book all at the same time be? Doable? Horrible? Masochistic? Euphoric?
I guess it depends on what kind of schedule you’re okay with setting, and how tolerant you are of going through a book relatively slowly (e.g. you only have time to getting through half a chapter per week or something). I totally think you should try, if nothing else! How else are you going to know your limits? Maybe it’s completely doable with a little bit of rearranging your day.
Speaking of, might as well list out what I’d like to finish before the end of the year, keep myself honest.
So, this ends up being quite a lot. Especially near the end of this month, with all those book clubs basically starting at the same time. I was thinking of doing NaNoWriMo this year since I couldn’t last year due to work, but all that already sounds like a train wreck in the making (plus I’ve got a wedding to attend in November and the Tactics Ogre remake and new Pokemon games come out then as well…)
The FFXIV short story collection I had originally planned on reading before the English reprint came out, but I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen now, haha.
I guess the good news is I’m anticipating being on vacation from work for most of December; I was planning on getting to the two DGM books then, at least.
Since they’re all book club (except 三体) I’d be limited by the book club schedule anyways. I think 死仮面 is probably the most aggressive schedule with ~50 pages a week and ユージニア is pretty relaxed from what I recall. I tried to work out a rough estimate and at the peak of overlap it’d be around 30 pages a day which is doable but tiring for the harder reads. Could be the bump I need to up my speed and endurance though! I still have room to improve there compared to my English reading
But… If they’re all -or most- mystery books, won’t you end up mixing up your suspects and clues?
Juggling multiple books of the same genre must be extra confusing. Then again, I’ll also be reading ユージニア and the Mystery Club pick at the same time. That’s only two of the same genre compared to your 4 or 5, but I’m still a little apprehensive.
三体 is sci-fi and it’s set in China so very little concern with mixing things up there. I’ve yet to run into any issues with mixing up books despite my habit of reading several at once. Maybe if I read books with too similar writing styles, or books by the same author, but the ‘voice’ of books feels so different to me and I’m big on imagining things while I’m reading so even though at one point I had 3 books with a 田島 and 島田 (x2) they all looked and acted different in my head so even the same/similar names wasn’t confusing.
Thank you! Everyone go look at the pretty high-def images now!
No worries, haha. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was loaded on the site with a higher temporary ranking, too. Once I’m done with it it should probably sink a little bit.
My next “active read” book is going to be 人間失格 | L39, hopefully starting later today. After that I’ll probably read either 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 | L43, which I’ve had for awhile, or かがみの孤城 | L28, which I just ordered. I’m also continuing to work through my manga 積読 and I figured out that if I keep a pace of 2 volumes a week, I can finish everything by the end of the year! Completely reading through my backlog is a tempting prospect, even if it’s just the manga side, so I’ll try to meet this quota each week too.
Edit to add: Almost forgot, but I’ve been thinking of joining the mystery book club too. If the chosen book sounds interesting I’ll try to read along there also. Hopefully I can keep up with all these goals at once, lol
Finished 偏差値10の俺がい世界で知恵の勇者になれたワケ | L27 which started off interesting and funny, but started to drag towards the end. The main character was changed to a 小学生 (in the webnovel they are in highschool) which probably negatively affected the story.
I still have 探偵くんと鋭い山田さん 俺を挟んで両隣の双子姉妹が勝手に推理してくる | L30?? stuck at ~50% of the way in. I feel the romcom theme of the mysteries just put me off… still I’d like to get back to it and finish it before the end of the year… Likewise I’ll need to fit in the mystery book club’s choice
Wow, you’ve got me beat for long light novel titles (although the publisher name probably shouldn’t be in the Natively title). Makes me wonder what the longest book title on here is… Sorting a user’s library by title length would be a completely useless but fun feature too XD
I just finished 君を愛したひとりの僕へ | L29, and I honestly don’t know how I feel about it… it was still a good book, but the tone was so different from 僕が愛したすべての君へ | L29. While I felt happy reading 僕が愛したすべての君へ, I just felt depressed reading much of 君を愛したひとりの僕へ. I don’t mind the occasional sad movie, but reading a sad book is different since it’s over several days instead of a couple hours.
I rechecked the description of both books on Amazon to see if there was an intended order, and while I still don’t think there was, I think reading them opposite of how I read them might have been a better experience. Both could probably be enjoyed individually and they can probably be enjoyed in either order as well. That’s because they both reference and (loosely) spoil events from the other, and you’re likely to have some “ah ha” moments with whichever one you read second, but in neither case are the events of one a requirement to understand or enjoy the other. However, based on certain story points that I won’t spoil (or if you just prefer a happier tone like me), it’s probably best to read 僕が愛したすべての君へ second.
Could also just download the images yourself and send them in bulk so he doesn’t need to go grab them? Dunno, 
Especially near the end of this month, with all those book clubs basically starting at the same time. I was thinking of doing 
I’ve yet to run into any issues with mixing up books despite my habit of reading several at once. Maybe if I read books with too similar writing styles, or books by the same author, but the ‘voice’ of books feels so different to me and I’m big on imagining things while I’m reading so even though at one point I had 3 books with a 田島 and 島田 (x2) they all looked and acted different in my head so even the same/similar names wasn’t confusing.
Everyone go look at the pretty high-def images now!
Tempted to also make a start on another easy single volume 異世界: 
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