I am currently reading
I really like this book so far. It is a self care book trying to motivate you to start the things you want to do. At the same time it is also touching the part to stay mentally healthy.
Interesting is that you have chapters and then mini chapters in it. Those mini chapters are usually two pages long and concentrate about one specific point in more detail.
A lot of thoughts that I’m spending more time on thinking about here 
One of my favorite anime got a manga!!
So far I love the art, and the dialogue is one to one. I don’t feel like much had been lost in translation yet, but I wonder how people who haven’t watched the anime will feel about it
Struggling with an obscene amount of lookups in Flowers, so I hit my “I need something easy to read” switch:
I have to say - to my surprise - I was pretty underwhelmed with this book. Setting aside that I would have liked to see certain events/drama handled differently and given more focus, a huge chunk of the book just felt really dull. There were some very major, special moments that were very nice, but a lot that wasn’t.
To the book’s credit, the things that made me uncomfortable last book were actually dealt with in a satisfying way. But I really wanted the book to go in way harder on the unrequited love triangle at the beginning, like you would have expected from the end of the last book. The way it played out in the last 1/3rd - 1/4th was very mild and safe, but it did open up the possibility for some real character growth for one of the characters. In a way that’s cool (showing the characters’ increased maturity - especially Umi). I still think Nozomu is incredibly under-utilized, and that’s disappointing considering Maki is constantly referring to him as being one of his core friends group
I wonder if maybe I’m outgrowing the series a little, or if it really was worse than the previous books. Overall I still like the writing style, and it’s an easy read. At the very least I’ll read the next book and watch the anime in April
Next up is 凜として弓を引く 青雲篇 | L27 and I guess Flesh & Blood. After that I’m considering picking https://learnnatively.com/book/37b309a2de/ back up, but I’ll see once I get there.
Also thinking I’d like to read some nonfiction on various LGBT topics in the near future - maybe something about LGBT history would be a good idea. Not sure where to start there, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out
Do you have a list of the LGBT stuff that you’ve been reading lately? Some of it has sounded interesting (although lord knows I have enough to read already), but I doubt I’ll remember it all longer term
I don’t but I can make one sometime tomorrow
No rush, but also thank you 
Ok, I made a list. Found some books I’d forgotten or hadn’t come across as well, including the one on X-gender:
There’s even more stuff under asexual and trasngender tags on here. LGBTQ+ Themes tag also exists, tho is broader than I was looking for.
卵のつれづれ 百合コレ | L24?? is a nice oneshot btwn a lesbian and an ace woman, from the ace woman’s perspective.
When someone says LGBT I’m here! I need everyone to read 箱の中
There are two editions I think? Make sure to read the one that has all the bonus stories since they’re very important. It’s such a good novel and not your typical BL but more realistic
Ah, that one’s been on our BL Club nomination list for a while! I don’t think it’s typically done well in polls, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because of people not having a strong grasp on what the book is. If you’d ever like to pop over and do some advertising for why you think people might like it, I know for sure I’d be interested!
I’ve been reading a lot of Silent Witch lately. Volume 7 dragged a bit in the beginning (I don’t like excessively long battle sequences), but it was overall a very good volume. Just started volume 8 yesterday and plan to read straight through volume 9, as I’ve mentioned before.
Because of this I haven’t read a ton of manga lately, with one chapter left to finish しまなみ誰そ彼 1 and two to finish (rereading) まちカドまぞく 2. I’m sure I’ll finish them soon enough, but they’re just not a priority right now.
I want to place a new manga order so I can finally read the latest volume of 雨夜の月 | L24, but I also want to buy more volumes of ひらやすみ | L22 and somehow volume 2 is still out of stock on CD Japan, so I can’t yet. The rest are back though, so hopefully it comes back too. (I’ll probably also buy a few 4-koma even though I haven’t really been reading much of them lately.)
Finished 青ブタ vol 9 and started vol 10. I just want to know… Who tf had the idea to change the font after 9 volumes???
Wow that sounds weird. What exactly changed?
Can you share some pictures? I’m really curious how it changed.
Here it is. Although taking these made me realize it’s not the font. It’s the color of the font. It’s darker than in all previous volumes I think? It definitely looks kinda different. Here’s volume 1 VS volume 10. You can’t see the difference that well in a photo though
Well, since I finished 魔入りました!入間くん 47 47 | L27 (literally the day it came out) and I am weak, I ended up reading the next chapter from the serialization (made available for free by the publisher; they know what they are doing).
Volume 47 ends on a cliffhanger, which is solved by the next chapter… but it then opens a lot of possibilities for the series, which is great.
I kinda thought this development would happen. To be honest, I hoped it wouldn’t, as it cheapens a major plot point, but at the same time, it’s just cool on its own. So… yeah, I have conflicted feelings about it and I want to just keep reading… but then I’ll have nothing left to read when volume 48 comes out.
Contrary to what I thought last post, the things I’m reading rn are actually コミック百合姫2026年3月号, たゆたうふたり 1【電子版限定特典付き】 | L24?? and ウィキッド 誰も知らない、もう一つのオズの物語 上 | L30?? - which I’m really enjoying, tho with slightly imperfect comprehension in parts. I’m maybe gonna start reading the English alongside (JP chapter first, then English). I prefer the writing style in Japanese, tho there’s a lot of uncommon (to me) vocab/ways of saying things, which has been nice
YH will be done soon. Maybe I’ll finally read the rest of #ギャルとギャルの百合 1 サンデーうぇぶり | L24?? or give GOAT Winter 2026 | L30?? a slow-paced try
Since my last update, I’ve finished both スキップ・ビート!キョーコの全力フルコース! and 本好き 5. Skip Beat was the fastest I’ve read a book in a while; I was hoping to finish it over the equivalent of a long weekend, but other stuff got in the way, sadly. I’m thinking my next book I’ll start will be NO.6 #3; my goal for a little bit has been to finish up through volume 5 before the next release of No. 6 再会, mostly to keep myself on a somewhat regular pace reading the series. (Note: for those wanting to try the series, volume 1 is the BL club’s next read!)
本好き’s audiobook successor is ヴァンパイア探偵 --禁断の運命の血-- | L30??, which I’m quite enjoying so far, though I’m early in. It’s a standard crime novel so far - protagonist is a police detective in a town with an unusually high number of yearly murders for the region, and when tricky blood work needs to be done, he calls on his childhood friend for the analysis. Said friend is jokingly(?) called a vampire, due to him living out in the middle of nowhere in a huge, western-style mansion, dressing in all black, basically never leaving the house during the day, and specializing in studying blood. The jury’s still out on if this novel is going to take a fantasy turn, but I hope it does!
Otherwise, I’m neck-deep in book clubs with BUTTER and 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった… 1; the latter shouldn’t be any issue, but I’ll need to make sure to start on the former early this week so I don’t start falling behind. I know from experience that once it starts, I have a hard time catching up…
Well, as it turns out, I did keep reading, but past that one chapter, it goes on a different (comedy) plot following two other characters. That’s a bit frustrating.
I checked some of the other stuff from that publisher (since there are a lot of free chapters on their site) but nothing really grabbed me.
So I went back to my 積読 manga pile and read
It was… a lot of second hand embarrassment (cringe, even). It’s not the book’s fault, it’s just that I can’t really stand body swap stories. I do like the characters, but I just don’t see myself continue this series.
Woah, what is that!? I’m a huge fan of Skip Beat, but I didn’t know there was a novel. Is this some side story? Do they intend to release more novels?
I started this book last week. I love 住野先生s writing style and am enjoying her different novels 
Ah, thank you for reminding me I need to write a review for that book. Anyway, it’s a collection of short stories published in Hana to Yume; they’re all very cute! I’m not currently aware of any other prose Skip Beat releases, but I’m not super up-to-date on what’s been published in that realm over the last few years either.
I started the third and final volume of ねじまき鳥クロニクル〈第3部〉鳥刺し男編 | L33! I pleased with myself and my progress when I finished vol 2 until went to go grab vol 3 off my shelf and saw it was the thickest of the series with over 500 pages. 
Oof! This is the longest amount of time I’ve ever spent reading something in Japanese, including when I was a beginner at reading. Between being busy and the slow pace of the book, I’m probably going to be chunking through this volume for another month or so.
Despite that, I am still enjoying it immensely. The flow of time in the third volume has slowed even further and it feels almost Lynchian. When I have time to read for over an hour and can get really immersed, it’s a trancelike experience. 
I can get some good long reading sessions with it soon.
When I want to take a break from ねじまき鳥クロニクル I am reading 国宝(上) 青春篇 | L39, since I want to go see the movie soon. It is pretty fast paced and entertaining, and not too difficult after getting past the first chapter. The story is told in a narrative style which keeps the tone very light (no deep dives on characters’ internal psychology here, even though there are hints and signs), but the kabuki setting is very interesting and charming.
Additionally I am working my way through the audiobook of 私とは何か「個人」から「分人」へ | L35 and wow, is it interesting! This is a non-fiction essay? personal philosophy? book by novelist 平野啓一郎 about the concept of self and identity, based on his own thoughts and experiences, and is also sort of an explanation of the framework he uses when creating characters for his novels. His idea is that there is no such thing as the true self or 個人, but only different versions of ourselves “分人” that emerge in different situations and interactions with others based on the interplay and communication between the two. The examples in the book provide a very nifty reframing for a lot of interpersonal communication situations we all most likely face (even as language learners, since he writes about his experience learning French in a language school in Paris), and I am enjoying listening to it a lot!
