So not for me then 
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Got halfway through File 2, and realized I was previously really close to the end of the chapter before. So found my place & read from there. Verdict: comprehension is better, but still too many lookups. More effort than it’s worth to me rn. Next time I’m interested, I’ll definitely do jpdb first.
Oops, I started another one… Except this one is actually pretty comfortable level. Thought about doing it audio only, but I’ll leave that for other stuff. The audiobook is only a bit over 7 hrs, and I probably won’t have to stop much for lookups - and I won’t really feel so inclined to procrastinate it.
Wonder whether I’ll finish this or SAO 4 first lol
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I mean, 本好きの下剋上 ハンネローレの貴族院五年生1 | L30 (the follow up series) is right there (even though it’s going to be much slower to publish). I did like volume 1 and hopefully we will get the second volume this summer, but there’s still no announcement about it, which makes me doubt it 
I could read ahead from the web novel, but I have a lot of stuff on my plate anyway.
レトロゲ 3 came out today, but I haven’t read volume 2 anyway… I didn’t expect the series to go on for more than 2 volumes either 
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Vol 3 is the final one (28 chapters total) 
. I haven’t been as into vol 2 (I’m 2/3rds through), but based on our discussion b4, I think you’ll like it better than I do.
Hoping Suruga-ya gets a copy, by whenever their next free shipping thing is, since I’m about to order Yurihime, along with 崖っぷち令嬢は黒騎士様を惚れさせたい! 1 1 | L25 and a more recent edition of わすれなぐさ | L37 with a pretty cover
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I started 十津川警部「スーパー隠岐」殺人特急 | L30?? because why finish a book when you could start a new one? The author really really likes commas; here’s an example spoiler free bit of text from chapter one:
The author even puts commas in places like 「…」と、いった。
It’s actually kind of jarring to read because it feels very stop-start…
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@NihongoLearner19, @Naphthalene, @Athakaspen, and others who have read all of 本好き, how would you rank the arcs? Arc 4 is my clear favorite, but after that I’m less sure. Partly because I read the series over about four years and because the series changes so much over time.
I think I would rank them like this
- Arc 4 - the transition to the 貴族院 is so much fun. There are a couple of “just okay” books in the middle of the arc, but the start and end are phenomenal.
- Arc 2 - introduces a lot of new things, but I particularly enjoyed the second half of the arc (books 6 and 7). Also, introduced more fun bookmaking stuff.
- Arc 5 - definitely has more ups and downs than the other arcs, and there’s too much filler content (i.e. “bonus” chapters I don’t care about), but overall I still enjoyed it. It starts particularly strong again and volume 28 is one of my favorites in the series. Sadly the last 3-4 volumes drag because of said filler, but thankfully it still ends on a high note.
- Arc 1 - I don’t remember much at this point since it’s been so long, but I remember it being a solid, enjoyable start to the series. It can also be nice when things are simpler and reading about all the bookmaking stuff was fun.
- Arc 3 - I particular liked book 10 at the time, but otherwise I thought this arc was just alright.
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Hmm, good question. I tried to make a list but I get the feeling this ordering could still change based on my thoughts any given day.
I first experienced Arcs 1 and 2 through the anime, reading LN volume 1 somewhere in the middle, then started listening to the audiobooks for volumes 2-20, and switched back to print for 21-33. Which is to say my overall impressions are probably influenced by how I consumed them; in particular I think arcs 3 and 4 being audiobooks made me not mind slower pacing and side-content as much as I did when reading in print.
Rough rankings (many spoilers)
Arc 2 - This arc was exciting with lots of new things going on, and マイン beginning to gain more responsibilities. Also ベンノ is probably my favorite character so I really enjoyed all their interactions in this part.
Arc 4 - 貴族院 is a lot of fun. I was mentally preparing for “school arc,” but instead of actually going to classes, there’s just a lot of accidental interactions with royalty and ディッター matches. I always looked forward to the 頭の痛い報告書 corner at the end of each year too. On a side note, is this maybe the arc where マイン gets to do the most actual reading?
Arc 3 - The real turning point of the series, imo. I remember feeling overwhelmed with all the new characters at the time, I think it would be interesting to reread this part now (or maybe wait until the anime adaptation of this part releases). Collecting the ingredients for ユレーヴェ in each season was a fun way to see more of the magic in this world, and I really enjoyed imagining the different environments while listening to the audiobooks.
Arc 1 - This arc is much different from the rest of the series, but it has some moments that really stuck with me, especially ルッツのマイン. In a way the fact that the first arc is so different makes the whole series interesting to me. It feels like a naturally unfolding story, not designed to target a specific theme the whole time.
Arc 5 - While I certainly enjoyed this arc, I agree it seemed to drag on at times. So many things happened… Between more 貴族院 time, interactions with the royal family, talking to the gods, and the long battle campaigns, it’s hard to even compartmentalize this arc as one thing in my head. It has some great moments and a very satisfying ending, but judging it as a whole I think it’s one of the weaker sections.
While I’m thinking about it, it occurs to me that up to the very end we still have no explanation for how or why 麗乃 was reincarnated into this world. Even the goddess of wisdom doesn’t appear to know about it (or at least doesn’t acknowledge it) so I guess it’s just a mystery of the universe…
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Nice ranking! You seem to remember more details than I do. I’m generally good at remembering high level plot points but not good at remembering details. That goes for all media, not just 本好き or Japanese books. Case in point, I went back and forth on flipping arcs 1 and 5 in my ranking, but arc 1 is just so fuzzy that it’s hard. And I remember book 10 because of the cover, but I couldn’t tell you anything about the other ingredients or which books they were found in.
(By the way, I would consider watching the anime to re-experience the early story arcs, but I really dislike the voice actress’s portrayal of マイン. I’ve seen other anime with her and she’s totally fine. I think she just overdid the “young girl” voice and I found it grating from previews.)
My theory was that it was an act of the gods, so that being (more or less) disconfirmed was annoying, especially with no alternate explanation being given.
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It is strongly implied at the end of volume 1 that it’s due to the “curse” of her childhood friend.
(Edit: it is confirmed by the author in a Q&A session back in 2015; the author’s answer is on page 3 of the comments: https://mypage.syosetu.com/mypageblog/view/userid/372556/blogkey/1076209/index.php?p=3)
I would rank them in order (5 is my favorite, 1 my least favorite). A minor caveat is that I liked the pace of the web novel version of arc 5 better, but I liked the way some stuff got expanded upon in the published version. All my favorite scenes are from arc 5 too (マイン becoming an adult, saving フェルディナンド, the fight against I forgot his name who made half of his body into a magic item, the aftermaths of the fight in the center, pretty much all of the last volume but especially when she can finally sense him [so that they can actually become romantic partners, I wish it was expanded upon] and the epilogue, …).
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Do I need to reread the prologue or something? Or the bonus chapter?
(If that’s the official explanation it’s kinda dumb. I’d rather there be no explanation than that, and if it’s from the bonus chapter I’m going to consider it non-canon.)
What?? Not even in arc 2 when we get to see マイン’s memories and she has that emotional “reunion” with her mom? That’s honestly still probably my favorite scene in the whole series.
When was that again? Did I mention my memory is bad? I want to reread that scene and make sure I understood it.
I’m not quite sure what you’d want to be expanded upon though. I always understood it to mean that there’s literal fertility problems if two people aren’t close enough to each other in terms of magical power. And I took the sensing part as something that comes naturally around puberty. But I don’t think one affects the other directly.
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It’s from the second bonus chapter of volume 1. To be fair, it doesn’t explain how it worked, but there’s literally no way to know from her side, so I’m fine with that.
I liked that scene and I did cry while reading it but… no? There’s a lot of stuff that I really liked in the series, so there are scenes that didn’t make it to my “favorites” list that I still liked a lot.
When they are in the mega neko lesser panda bus, during the road (?) trip where she is trying to empty her magic.
It is mentioned from three different characters (at least) that it’s an important factor in feeling attraction for other people. ヴィルフリート even mentions that he feels a visceral repulsion to the idea of being with her since he cannot feel her magic. Now, obviously, some people can manage to feel attraction even outside their magic power range, but I assume that’s because there are individual variations and/or they have more romantic experience. マイン keeps saying that she doesn’t feel any romantic attraction because she never had any experience even in her previous life, but my theory was that it’s also because she never met someone who would trigger (biologically) attraction. When she is next to him while sensing him, she is feeling nervous/restless. I wish someone had a conversation with her about the above (I think she tried to ask フェルディナンド but he dismissed the topic, in his typical fashion) so that she could explore more her feelings. That may still happen in the spin off though (or maybe even already happened off screen)
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Finished the second volume of 7Seeds and decided to move to 黒鷺死体宅配便 1 | L24?? for a moment. Another series I read a decent amount of volumes of in my late teens/early 20s. I bought all the current volumes on kindle during the new years sales. I don’t think I ever made it past volume 10 when I was younger. I only had the brown cover copies I think.
Level seems around 25/26ish currently? Definitely a bit easier than 7Seeds, but there’s still specialized vocab around Buddhism and 死体.
content warnings for people interested in reading the manga
Just a note that I added the “sexual assault” and “incest” tags to the page. It’s not directly shown, but is implied to have happened to some of the 死体 that they come across. In the first volume there’s a father who was implied to have been having sex with his daughter before she died. There’s also a man who is serial killing women and cutting them up, with the implication that he also may have sexually assaulted them. I feel like those tags could be removed, but if I were coming into the series cold, I would rather know that those implications are there at all. As I go through more volumes I’ll consider if they should stay or not. (options on this are also welcome)
There’s also below the belt nudity for men and women, which I feel like isn’t all that common in manga. Just in case some people don’t want to see all that.
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Fair enough!
Is there a keyword that’s likely to find it? Best guess I have is 感知, but I’m not sure.
I don’t remember that being a reason, but that’s interesting. I thought it was just because he saw her as a child.
Only way that would happen is if ハンネローレ is the one to have the “talk” with her, but that would be awkward and hilarious if it does.
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I have been reading my 6th story on Satori Reader.
Hole in the Wall
Just started this yesterday, so far interesting.
Difficulty is obvious higher than I have formally studied but working on it.
Too bad that natively does not have Satori Reader story’s. I would love to grade and find similar books. But I have found that the easier stories are around level 15.
That being said I am trying to read more and more.
Can not wait to finish them all. 
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If you mean the scene I was talking about originally, it’s at the beginning of the chapter 大規模魔術 in volume 32.
If I remember correctly, that was his explanation as for why he couldn’t sense her (at the time, he didn’t expect her to be so insanely strong that she would be outside his sensing range; after all, he was able to sense some of the top 領主候補生), but it felt like the inability to sense her was the problem, rather than her age. Not sure how to easily find this scene again…
I wonder if there’s any scene from the point of view of フェルディナンド in the short stories collections or the fan books that show if he could (or not) sense around that time.
That would be perfect! Since those two are friends, I can definitely see it happening. Fingers crossed.
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This week, I finished up ニッターズハイ!2 | L20. As anticipated, we learn more about the other club members. Plus this volume also has a knitting pattern and a crochet pattern for two of the projects in the manga.
Started 赤ずきんチャチャ 3 (りぼんマスコットコミックス 732 ) | L18 but haven’t made much headway since I’ve been busy.
For my (children’s) novel, I’m reading たまごの魔法屋トワ 1 | L20 which is an (Easter) egg witch themed thing. It seemed appropriate given the time of year. Although the extreme lack of kanji in this book is proving… interesting… The insert art is cute though.
Also, also I bought a physical copy of ラブ・バレット 1 MFC | L25 because it had furigana on the obi, I thought surely the book itself would have furigana. So I opened it up and no furigana!! No big deal, I just need to double the kanji I know before I can read it.
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Finished and loved! The author treated the whole thing very seriously, and portrayed some really great & complex dynamics, along with different types of relationships - with both the younger and adult characters. It didn’t end at either of my 2 least favorite typical ending periods (shortly after the confession, or at graduation) - so I was very happy with that too! In case you’re curious, but worried about the age gap: it does not have an adult and minor dating, at any point. I actually almost want to reread it already, to my surprise. So I’ll have to nominate it for the yuri book club next round!
I suspect this will be a pretty slow read. It’s been referenced in all the English stuff I’ve read on shoujo & Class S history. As far as I can tell it’s covering from the Meiji education reforms (1880s) through probably pre-WW2… but it’s possible it might reference the post-war period as well. To my frustration, it won’t work on my Kindle (but will work in the app). I do want to find some more about post-war shoujo, and specifically yuri at some point too… but 1 modern history book at a time 
I haven’t started, but it caught my interest for being josei yuri, and cuz I’ve heard of it b4. (don’t ask me why I haven’t read おとなになっても | L27 yet - I don’t have an excuse
Decided to drop ソードアート・オンライン4 フェアリィ・ダンス | L34 for now, just b/c I’ve got way too many books now, and I’ve been getting in non-anime listening via other sources recently
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I think it’s good that you added them. Tho the only question would be whether to keep them series level, or on the specific volume(s) only
That was my first story on there, and I loved it! It gets a bit easier as you go (due to repeated vocab, and getting used to the style and stuff)
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If you haven’t read them already, Spring and Summer from their seasonal stories series are both pretty simple and I think a nice ramp up toward some of their longer Easier stories.
The Jam Maker was my first Satori Reader story and it took me months to read all of it. I got way too attached to the characters and actually cried at the end. 
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I will post here once more when I am finished with the story. This and kona are favourites it seems.
Did you read any other and remember their difficulty level? Keen to find out what to read next, one post I found grading these stories.
I intend to go through them all.
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