I finally started reading 不可解なぼくのすべてを | L22 despite my distaste for the first volume’s cover. It was good. I liked the characters and how each of them had a different reason for working at the café. It also inspired me to finally make a list on gender bending manga, which I’ve been thinking about since reading オレが私になるまで | L22.
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It’s interesting reading this as Murakami was also one of the first authors I bought a book from because he’s so famous. I got ねじまき鳥クロニクル〈第1部〉泥棒かささぎ編 | L33 though and the first time I seriously cracked it open I actually could read it easily…but hated it 
I then tried 海辺のカフカ and was actually quite enjoying it, but someone clued me into there being explicit animal abuse/death later in the book so I noped right out of that 
He feels like something of an obligatory read for Japanese learners and I’m not sure, given the themes of his work, that I like that.
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My note on that (for when I inevitably go “wth is this, and why is it in my wishlist” is “Trans/nb. MAL synopsis is mad interesting” 
This sounds cool
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Still going through stuff I got a long time ago, I read バリアフリーのその先へ!――車いすの3・11 ( ここで生きる) | L28?? mostly because it fits one of my bingo square and it’s pretty short.
It’s one of the stuff I randomly bought back when I reached N1. I got it because the topic seemed interesting from an intellectual standpoint (as in, I ought to know about that) but I don’t think I ever cracked it open.
Overall, the writing isn’t exactly stellar but it does the job. The first part (40%) retells how the day of the Tohoku earthquake (and the days after that) went for her. I never thought about how you would manage to get out of the depths of the Ikebukuro station when all the elevators are stopped and you are in a really heavy electric wheelchair. Also, really lucky for her that her helper suggested to take the charger of the chair that day, since it took a few days for her to manage to get home. That section had a lot of other stuff like that that I found really interesting.
Section 2 (about 10%) was interviews and somewhat less interesting but okay.
Section 3 (the remaining half) was, sadly, mindnumbingly boring. It covers the life of handicapped (and to some extent elderly) people in Japan in general (which isn’t great) and the fact that she is starting to see tiny bits of change that give her hope for the future, but nothing really changed. If anything, the only reason she seem hopeful, as far as I can see, is that surviving the whole ordeal made her feel like she can take on anything… but I don’t know if that’s really applicable to society at large. Kinda depressing to think about.
Anyway, it’s still a very short book (about 170 pages if you include the intro, 140 pages of main text), so I would still recommend it for its informative value.
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Back in June I figured I’d branch out into some non-fiction, particularly the kind related to my interests and picked up 描きたい絵が描けるようになる本 明暗・構図・配色の知識を実力に変える方法 | L26?? on KU. I read about 30% of it over that Month and a bit in July and proceeded to then not touch it for over a month and a half. 
Today I picked it back up and made some good progress. It’s interesting and well laid out and I’m learning stuff but… I guess non-fiction just doesn’t hold my attention that easily. I had a look through and found that the last ~30% are basically an illustrations and photo gallery so it was really only about 60 more pages of text. I’ve set myself a goal to finish this month for extra drive. I think that’s a good amount of days to give the information time to settle without leaving it too long that I’ll lose sight of it again.
I do hope this sort of book will become easier to read in the long run if I just keep it up.
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Read Rashomon by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa today. It was quite a fun read but quite harder than I had anticipated.
Then today I picked up a collection of Yasunari Kawabata’s short essay including his Nobel prize lecture “Japan the Beautiful and Myself”. So far I am enjoying it as I quite like his Buddhist discursive art style that gives a different taste to the English discursive text I have seen so far, but the difficult part is the relatively frequent quotations of Classical Japanese poems or Japanese historical references that I am not so well-versed in.
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I’ve picked up some atypical titles for me:
- 卍 (まんじ) | L40 - basically Yuri from 1928-1930 with a crazy plot (same author as 痴人の愛 | L41). Reading with audiobook
- Colloquial Kansai Japanese―まいど! おおきに! 関西弁 | L15
The motivation for both of these is that I’m going to be practicing 関西弁 in my lessons starting next week. So I’m trying to work on it in advance, and get as much audio input as I can! Have found various useful YouTube resources as well. If anyone knows other audiobooks in Kansai, plz lmk!
The narration for the まんじ audiobook is pretty fast, so it’s taking a lot of my energy to keep up, and my plot comprehension is a little iffy. It’s narrated like it’s this woman’s diary basically - which is a style I’m really enjoying. I don’t really see why it’s L40 at this point, but I’m only 8% in.
The Kansai-ben textbook is great, except for one issue. At least for the Kindle edition, there are a ton of typos in the Japanese. Also I hate the font, and find it hard to read. So contrary to @eefara 's review, I’m actually really glad they have the romaji in there, bc that’s been totally free of typos so far.
Finished 付き合ってあげてもいいかな 1 | L24 . I’m not planning to continue right now, but plan to eventually. I’d recommend to anyone who wants a yuri with a realistic portrayal of a somewhat messy, college-aged lesbian relationship.
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For what it’s worth, I was using the physical edition when I reviewed it. Could you post a couple of examples of the typos? I can check my copy to see if I just didn’t notice them or if they’re digital specific.
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Sure, I’ll snapshot a few later, as I come across them
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Some examples:
That’s over 22 pgs, and there’s portions I skipped over, bc I’d read already. There were definitely more in the preceding pgs, but I’m not gonna go back through them. In one case, the error was the romaji - but overwhelmingly it’s been the JP.
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Thanks for the pages! It looks like the errors might be digital only? (I do recall one, maybe two typos when I read through the physical, but certainly nothing more than that.)
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Cool - glad it’s right somewhere at least. Also the don’t there is way more legible. I wonder if it’s an aspect ratio thing (I’m reading on my phone), or they just used a crappier font for digital.
It’s available in physical in US Amazon, so I just ordered a copy. Now I’ll have two textbooks - this and Quartet (which I have not made much use of, even though I like it and should )
Side note: I just bought the Esperanto Yuri VN you rec’d a while ago, cuz it’s 45% off on Steam
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So their OCR worked not that well.
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Was just gonna say this
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Finished 灰と幻想のグリムガル level.12 それはある島と竜を巡る伝説の始まり | L31 - that was such a fun and refreshing read, after the last two volumes. I mean it has pirates & dragons - what’s not to like?! Something happened at the end that really threw me for a loop tho, and I’m reaaaaally curious where the hell the story is going now… Which is kinda annoying, cuz I was thinking I might take a break for a day or two. But now I’ll probably start 13 tonight
Edit: I’ve mentioned previously that part of what I like about the series is that it doesn’t feel like a game. I have to take that back somewhat… It feels very much like a long-running D&D campaign - in a good way
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40ish% in and I do think this is probably some of the hardest book I have ever read, in all languages combined. A very beautiful collection of Kawabata’s views on cultural beauty but the difficulty mounts with entire pages worth of quotations in Classical Japanese poems and monogataris and Japanese Buddhist discussions. It would probably take me a while just to even finish reading this ngl.
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Wow, that’s terrible. I’m definitely getting the physical version of that when I buy it.
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I just finished 灰と幻想のグリムガル level.4 導き導かれし者たち | L31 and there was CPR in here as well. It’s indirectly explained that healing magic doesn’t work if the heart is not beating AND, in the case of モクゾー, the magical buff from メリイ ran out while he was already running on fumes, so it’s implied he died of shock on the spot. So it’s not like he was just barely tipped over the line, he was dead-dead at the time.
In terms of writing, I thought this volume was better than the previous ones, but not beyond what you would expect from the author getting more experience. I started volume 5 as well, but I haven’t seen any major change on that front either.
I liked that battle, by the way, since it really showed how much the range of actions of the party (and their enemies) has expanded. I also appreciated that there was a realistic build up of desperation, followed by a clear shift when the characters are clearly getting the upper hand, but are not done yet and are one mistake away from a total wipeout. That really contrasts stuff like dragon ball Z or ダンジョンに出会いを求めるのは間違っているだろうか | L33 and the like where the characters keep getting up no matter how many damages they have sustained (same for their opponents) so that you just don’t feel any tension anymore (and it just end up feeling boring and dragged on).
I meaaaaaan, someone is getting jealous despite trying to restraining himself 
. Also, I do agree with him that they are not in a situation to have a romantic relationship going on. That could add unwanted tension, leading to the death of everyone.
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Sounds cool. I might even agree if I read it now, but I don’t really remember it at this point… which feels sorta cruel(?) ironic(?) for something that apparently took me 5 hours of pain to read Anyway I’ll admit this may have been a bit of 八つ当たりon my part
A thing I love about the series in general, especially since we’ve already seen that the author is not afraid to kill off party members, if that’s what the dice roll says the narrative calls for it
That’s exactly why it’s frustrating!!
Thankfully I’m a masochist who loves this kind of slow burn
From what I remember of that point in the story, I might actually agree… But like that excuse gets old after a while, especially when you meet other characters who are partied & in relationships
I just realized I never wrote a review for vol 7. I should do that
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And I have now finished https://learnnatively.com/book/bf7226aed9/ in a day and a half. So I’m not going to say I did not enjoy it (in fact, it was pretty fun) but…
… I do not agree with that statement. If anything, the writing felt worse than the previous volume, since we have a bunch of characters with typical action manga/LN weird speech patterns and unbelievable behavior. Y’all should all be either much stronger or dead with that kind of attitude.
In terms of annoying speech patterns, the foreigner who partially speaks English (but incorrect English, because the author couldn’t get anyone to proofread? Or maybe the editor just thought it didn’t matter) and follow the trope of making strange mistakes when speaking. For instance, the character mixes up insults, saying ボケカボチャ instead of ボケナス or ドテカボチャ. Like, it seems like a weird thing to mix up, I don’t know.
On that note, I was quite happy that the character did not accept to date “ミモリン” (or anyone who’s willing to date him just because there’s an opportunity). Slightly unrelated, but I do like the way he is shaping up to be.
I wonder if I should just tempt my luck and go to a BOOK OFF to find the next volume(s) 
Reading on paper has been feeling much more comfortable (and much cheaper) than on my phone… But shelf space is still a premium, so I don’t know.
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