As someone whose listening is at least as good (and potentially better) than her reading, I don’t think it does a ton for your reading speed. Maybe stamina?
I wouldn’t exactly call my listening skills a crutch, but I’m currently using my listening as the place to acquire new vocabulary and then finding them in reading and it feels very backwards. 
Really? A lot of my early vocab was stuff I’d encountered in songs, and went “omg that’s that word!!” Or “that’s how you write that?!”
I feel like acquiring words through audio-only is kinda hard in the first place - but I guess it depends
The web novel was ongoing last I checked.
I just checked again and it still is. Updates are irregular at this point since the author is busy, but they are still coming. I assume we’ll keep the pace of one volume per year.
It is 
But a lot of what I listen to is like, I understand everything except for 1-2 words, and I can either pick them up out of context (or context + knowledge of 音読み to get to the likely word), or it comes up again and bothers me so I pause and look up the one word I’m missing.
I’m also doing 10-20 new jpdb cards a day, so some of the words I “learn” from listening are actually more like clicking meaning into place for leeches. So maybe it’s more fair to say I learn most of my new vocabulary from targeted SRS, and listening is where I reinforce the meanings the best.
That makes sense, and is probly the ideal way to do it. I guess I did kinda do this when I watched Simoun, and pulled a ton of words out of 26 eps (and watching 3x)… but that was definitely only bc I had a dictionary. Most of them were not something I’d understand on the spot
Great when that happens 
Targeted SRS is my jam (well you already know that lol). Speaking of which - songs are perfect for that sorta thing… small word set + something one listens to over and over again. Otoh weird vocab & speech patterns
I’m reading 精霊の守り人. I’m only a couple of chapters in and normally I tend to not have much of anything to say until I finish something but this book is really good so far.
I have been wanting to read something for a little while that has a sense of adventure. And with me being the reader that is really hard to do, because all of my reference points are kinda formative - The Hobbit, (early) One Piece. But I remember seeing 上橋 菜穂子 (the author’s name) pop up from time to time so I decided to give her a shot. I went with this book over 鹿の王 because I had (incorrectly) thought 精霊の守り人 was not part of a series.
I’m not sure if it is going to have the sense of adventure I want, because I’m only just past the set up. But it really surprised me with the direction the story takes early on. The second part of the first chapter is split into two sections - the first giving a history of the kingdom the story takes place in and the second a character does stuff - and I had read each section on a separate day. After reading the history I was a bit wary in the sense that there were a lot of overlaps with the real world while also eliding the, let’s say, more problematic aspects of said history. For example, the kingdom was founded after a prince crossed the ocean to find a fertile land at the guidance of a priest and the original inhabitants of this new land hid themselves away in the mountains. Broaching the idea of settling an occupied land sans violence is definitely something that makes me go “why include this?”*, but the next part of the chapter calls into question the truth of this history. So there’s a thread about the relationship between dominant historical narratives and power which is very much in my wheelhouse. Now I’m interested in how this develops throughout the story, maybe more than a sense of adventure.
*It’s not necessarily that it offends my sensibilities but more so it’s boring when a big subject** is brought up and not engaged with. Like if the idea of settling an already occupied land without violence was played straight, it would still need to be engaged with (like focusing on the idea of cohabitation for example) for me to think “Oh this is interesting”.
**What exactly makes something a big subject is unknown
Read the blurb - it sounds great, and is already on my wish list apparently. Btw have you considered reading The Hobbit in Japanese? I read a few pgs once, or was pretty interesting (it’s been over a decade since I last read it in English)
Sounds quite interesting
Ironically, this is her longest series. Though it might work as a standalone, not sure. I watched the anime a while ago but never read the book.
What did you think of the anime? Worth giving a try?
100% but every time I get the urge I don’t have enough gift card money on my account to buy it so I get something else instead (because not spending money is out of the question apparently lol)
I think the next time I read it in the fall I’ll make it the Japanese translation. It’ll be interesting to see how it feels pacing-wise. I have such a bad sense of how the pacing of a novel is due to the slowness with which I read Japanese, so being familiar with the work might help me understand how it feels to read vs. how it should feel to read.
Big whoops (I also chose this over flesh and blood because I didn’t want to read a series 
)
I watched it 9 years ago so I don’t remember anything about it. But I gave it a 9/10, so I guess so.
Finished this and definitely enjoyed. It’s a bit of an oddity in that it ran ahead of the 2006 anime, and is essentially a summarized, alternative telling of the main relationship, with only 5 of the 12 main cast. Left a review
It was interesting to see an ad for Yurihime (where the manga released) in the back, featuring a cover from 飴色紅茶館歓談 | L19 - a story from back then I really enjoyed - as well as a magazine cover image by Hibike Reine (who illustrated the マリア様がみてる | L31 novels, and did all the Yurihime covers, for a long while, in the early days). This won’t mean much to anyone who hasn’t seen the anime, but I’m intrigued that both this manga and the radio show prominently featured ロードレアモンン (the radio show was her and ネブィリル’s voice actors). I wonder if it’s just that they had her story more worked out first, or if the mangaka just felt drawn to her and マミーナ?
I’m curious to read the (ridiculous parody & fan service-filled magical girl spoof) from メガミ 雑誌 sometime, but I’ll have to read translation, bc it never got a 単行本
yrhm 百合姫20thアンソロジー | L22 was pretty good. 1-2 stories I wasn’t into, but overall I thought they were fairly creative (though still too much school yuri). It’s making me consider trying more anthologies in the future. And of course. it’s cool to see some favorite authors do something different from their usual.
https://learnnatively.com/book/48732c77f7/ was a decent follow up to volume 1. The group’s expanded, and gotten a lot busier. Less romance, but lots of fighting games strategy and mechanics and stuff. As one might expect, next volume there will be a competition. I definitely can’t help but think of レトロゲ | L28 as I read this - especially when they occasionally reference some of the same consoles or games. So far I’d say I liked that better, though it wasn’t exactly yuri (there’s arguably some subtext later, but not to the point I’d tell anyone to read it for that).
Stories set in any period between Meiji-era and modern day. Curious to see how much I’ll have to look up. Will help meet my “5 physical books a month” goal (I’ve got 2 already)
Left a review. The age gap is a bit extreme (25 OL x 15 悪役令嬢), but also kinda irrelevant, bc the 15 year old looks and acts like 18-20 
and it’s barely brought up. Otoh the OL is powerless & the villainess’s servant (starts as maid, promoted to secretary) - so that’s an interesting inversion. End of ch 1, and the OL just wants to save the 悪役令嬢 (who is supposed to be murdered in 2 years, and who is clearly becoming infatuated with her). Meanwhile OL is explaining away her own キュン moments. By the end of ch 2, they’re having some moments together already.
Relationship writing is pretty good, and artwork is beautiful. World isn’t that developed yet. So far I like ギャルメイドと悪役令嬢 ~おじょーさまのハッピーエンドしか勝たん!~ | L24 and https://learnnatively.com/book/b89b6fe252/ better, but I’ll probably read vol 2 at some point.
https://learnnatively.com/book/909c53a29e/
Been reading 乙女の港 during my commutes from time to time. Enjoying it. But maybe I am a bit tired recently but personally I do find its language slightly harder to comprehend than 古屋信子’s 花物語. The vocab is actually relatively easier but I feel like I am not that following the flow lmao.
If anyone is looking for an easy listen (or read, but I’m listening) ST警視庁科学特捜班 黄の調査ファイル | L30?? has been a breeze. Don’t let the kanji in the title scare you. I’m guessing it will level similar to 殺人ライセンス | L27 by the same author, but I have to admit I’m enjoying this book more than that one.
It’s a basic police procedural and while it’s listed as being 3rd in a series I haven’t gotten any kind of feeling that this will be anything but a stand-alone case in a series with the same detectives.
It’s currently on audiobook.jp’s 聞き放題 as well, so if you’re already subbed to that it’s free!
Sorry for the late response! I haven’t been cheking the forums much lately.
I’ve read 1 through 16 and number 22. I thought 9 and 10 were interesting since Kirby gets isekai’d and he teams up with other Kirbys. I am taking a break from reading the series, though, since while somewhat entertaining and 90% comprehensible, they’re written for children, so I tend to get bored while reading them.
What about you? Did you only read one of them?
This does not align with @Naphthalene’s (and Wikipedia’s) definition of the teen love genre. This manga is as wholesome as they come!
Finished レディ・スクウォッター (電撃文庫 つ 2-1) | L32 - really liked it. No waffle, simple premise, dynamic plot that keeps changing things up. Would recommend to anyone looking for a light novel entry point to space science fiction.
Moving on to 風の大陸〈第1部 邂逅編〉 | L31.
Damn - 35 books? There’s no way I’ll ever read all of it, so hopefully it’s pretty self-contained
Surprised to see someone else mention it In case you didn’t already see, there was a book club: Discussion thread for 乙女の港 (informal, Class-S Club) - Now Reading
Surprised to hear this. Definitely the reverse for me - depending on which stories we’re comparing it to.
I do find 吉屋信子’s novels easier to follow than 乙女の港 though
Yeah tbh, vocab-wise 花物語 is definitely the more difficult one compare to 乙女の港 but not by a large margin personally. However I do speak Cantonese natively and can read written traditional Chinese on a native level so that definitely helped with the obscure Kanjis of the former especially.
I do think the flow of 花物語 is a lot comfortable than 乙女の港 also. Not sure why that is. However the conditions I read both works on are quite different: For the former pretty much 70% of the work I read is spent on a weekend just dedicated to the book whereas the latter I usually read it on a bumpy bus ride usually cramped and filled with the noise of too much children lmao. I read probably like 20% of the book but personally rn I like Hanamonogatari by quite a margin with how elegant and a lot of the time, elegant composure of the essays. Not like Otome no Minato is an inferior work, just I haven’t clicked up with the vibes yet.
