What are you reading today?

I think of slice of life as being calm and enjoyable, you get attached to the characters, etc. To me if just realistic every day people films were slice of life then a lot of very unpleasant art films would be slice of life. :sweat_smile: I googled it to check where our expectations aligned with definitions and got this:

Slice of life is a depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment. In theater, slice of life refers to naturalism, while in literary parlance it is a narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary sequence of events in a character’s life is presented, often lacking plot development, conflict and exposition, as well as often having an open ending.

So…kinda both? To me the core of おいしいごはん was conflict and the ending cut deep. Interestingly the article has a separate entry for manga and anime slice of life.

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I think the often is key here. So conflict (or drama) would still be possible.

which goes on to say

Slice of life anime and manga are narratives “without fantastical aspects, which [take] place in a recognisable, everyday setting, such as a suburban high school, and which [focus] on human relationships that are often romantic in nature.”[14] The genre favors “the creation of emotional ties with the characters.”[15]

I feel like it still works if the emotional ties are that I hate everyone :joy:

Anyway, I guess it doesn’t really matter; it’s just funny to see that nobody completely agrees on the definition of any genre in media :joy:

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Very true, very true. I’ve often complained to my roommate how productive I could be if I just didn’t have to go to work every day. I bet I could easily double, maybe triple all my book reading. :thinking: Or read normally and finally have time to play video games.

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I felt this deep in my soul. :face_holding_back_tears: I love reading, but there are so many other things I also love (including games) but with work occupying like 9-10 hours per day and other adult things that need doing, there is simply not enough time… :poop:

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Some free manga in Kindle JP in case anyone is interested (not sure for how long)


小林さんちのメイドラゴン Vol 1 (Spin-off that is not on natively yet)


つぐもも Vols 1-3


Not on natively yet:


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I’m trying to catch up on book clubs after traveling for 2 weeks, but while I was stuck on planes I did get at least one book completely finished:

Ya’ll can read my review or not, but the tl;dr is that I didn’t like it. I was baffled by it seeming to have good ratings on Japanese sites, so I decided to check what people were saying…

現地やホテルでの生活の描写が素晴らしい!読んでいて、本当に旅行している気分になる。

my friend did you read this book? A murder hotel makes you go, “gosh, isn’t traveling great?!”

Same with this one:

こんなホテルがあったら是非行ってみたい。

although maybe they mean the bit about sleeping with the hostess, I’ll give them the benefit of doubt I suppose :upside_down_face:

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Well, you don’t really want to kill people near your place. The police might find you.

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I’m still in mangaland (really struggling even with this kid’s book I was recommended) but feeling the pain of finishing the available volumes of a manga that was almost perfectly targeted at my level (今日から始める幼なじみ (series) | L16). Not quite a breeze to read but easy enough to understand and a huge confidence builder… now gonna have to flail around trying other manga for a bit, or go to a few that I know are a little above my level… ah well.

Also the pain of having to wait for the next volume is real!

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Have you tried よつばと! yet? It should be pretty much on your level and has a similar vibe to 今日から始める幼なじみ as in it’s a comical slice of life with likable characters. :+1:t2:

Well, I grabbed カスタム・チャイルド | L34 and a bottle of wine. It’s time to find out. For science!

(Replying here instead of the original thread to avoid derailing the conversation… also it’s literally what I am reading today, so it fits better here anyway)

Edit: it’s mostly a joke, I’m only planning to have a glass or two, not finish the whole bottle.

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Enjoy :rofl:

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Is that the rumoured Mega-Pint?

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Yeah, I’ve read it in English, but now it’s time for the JPN version! Though iirc it has one of the common irritating things about stuff about kids in that their kiddy language is all borked up and difficult to look up in a dictionary sometimes.

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Maybe the reviewer is secretly one of the characters in here… or a detective!

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Well, jokes aside, the book definitely has a light novel feel, but it’s on the high end (much better quality than stuff that started on 小説家になろう, in particular). But I could read it drunk if I felt like it.

The prologue and first chapter reminded me a lot of NO. 6 〔ナンバーシックス〕 (series) | L32. You might like it @Aik.

Next two chapters were completely different, though. We are focusing on the relationship of a different character with his family.

Then chapter 4 seems to be back to the initial feel? We’ll see.

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I finished 本好きの下剋上~司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません~第一部「兵士の娘1」 | L32 today.

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I enjoyed the story but I have to admit that advancing through it was painful at times.
Some chapters I breezed through them, others I felt like I was being a snail.

I also been reading this book since 2022/11/24, so that’s about 3 months in a single book.
That means at the current pace, it would take me more than 7 years to catch up :rofl:
If this was in English (still not my mother language), I’d probably catch up in a little over a month as I’m used to go through a book in a couple days if it lures me in.

So yeah, mixed feelings, one part I’m glad I was able to beat it, on the other, I’m disappointed in myself that maybe I lacked more discipline.


@seanblue if you don’t mind me asking, since you don’t record time, how long does it take you to finish one of this volumes approximately? I’ve seen you going through one in a week, which is impressive.

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19h doesn’t sound bad, though? You could definitely read a single volume in a week (or even a single weekend) if you focused on it.
For me the story really started picking up during the second arc (especially from volume 5, I think). And you will probably get faster as you read more volumes, so you probably don’t need to worry about speed.

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May I ask how long does it take to you to read a volume too? Just curiosity, I know I can’t really use it as a reference.

Also I’m pondering if I should listen to the audiobook (and read along), or just listen to the audiobook before jumping to the next book.

I’m a bit wary of what you also previously said that the Book 2 was only covered in 2 anime episodes, makes me think it will be a slow crawling to go through?

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I can’t really remember how it was for early volumes Wait, I logged everything on bookmeter and read everything in succession.
I read volumes 2 and 3 in 4 days each, then pretty much everything else in 2 or 3 days. 4 days for volume 20 as well, for some reason.

If the voice of narrator is good, I do enjoy having both at the same time. It keeps me focused too (otherwise my mind may wander as I think about what might happen next/ how things might develop later, or, in the case of the book I am reading right now, I may be raging because of holes in the plot).

I don’t know. I don’t remember having any specific problem with volume 2. I think they were just hurting for time and had to skip a lot? I haven’t seen the anime, so I’m not sure. But then, even more reasons to have to audiobook to push you along (maybe)!

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Are you asking me how many days or how many hours?

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