I think 花束は毒 would probably be an alright entry level adult novel for people looking for that, but I’d recommend スマホを落としただけなのに | L29 or 変な家 | L28 over it.
この本を盗む者は felt closer to a 36 than a 38 to me, but that aside, it was a lot of fun and I was happy to read it. Good light hearted fantasy with lots of silliness and chaos.
The spring book order I placed last week arrived yesterday! First up: 勇者のひざには猫がいる 2 | L24. My one concern after reading the first volume was that this could be a one-joke series that starts spinning its wheels - I am happy to say that is not the case! It continues to be an adorable Dragon Quest parody while developing its premise a bit beyond that. I don’t know if this counts as a spoiler, but just in case: the titular cat has more or less been accepted by the hero and his party at this point, and their concern for his well-being leads them onto a sidequest that takes up the first half of the volume or so.
A fun, breezy read with a handful of dictionary lookups, though a slight curveball in chapter 13 with one character speaking in a different dialect (Kansai-ben, I think. I’m not great at identifying dialects).
I started reading 100万回生きたきみ yesterday and I’m surprised I can’t put it down.
From the premise of a girl who’s been reincarnated 1,00,000 times but learns that life is worth living from a boy who saves her life, I expected a slow paced romance like 君の膵臓を食べたい, but then the book takes a sharp left…
That sounds like a human (with gender swapped) version of 100万回生きたねこ 講談社の創作絵本 | L16
In fact, considering that the title is basically the same, I assume that’s the point?
I have been in Japan for about 10 days now and while I have been reading a bit it’s definitely not as much as I thought I would. Currently making my way through 神様 | L33 which I am not finding as engaging as I thought I would. Some of the stories are better than others but overall it’s a book about fantastical nothing really and I just don’t care about anything. Tbf, I enjoyed the first few stories, especially the one with the bear, but the latest few stories made me fall asleep.
I also just started 最悪な一日 | L29 which has me already intrigued.
I may or may not (definitely may ) have bought something like 20 books already. Who thought it was a good idea to put me in walking distance of two well-stocked bookoffs?
On a side note, since I plan to visit in May, I’ll add it to my possible visits!
Book-off and Hard-off are evil! I filled a basket and I was only saved by the fact that I don’t really understand the sorting they have
I’m scared of what I might buy too. I think I’ll just go with limited space as to not buy too much. Specially books, are heavy to carry around to the other part of the globe.
Last time, customs made me open my bag and saw full of used books, they weren’t expecting that from a bag from Japan I guess.
As for what I’m reading and going back to topic, I’m trying to finish 本好き #2 before going to Japan. Then do the second pass with the audiobook on the airplane. It might be a bit of a stretch since it’s about a month and a half left and I started my seasonal madness already, but we will see!
Should I mention that it’s not too expensive to take a box of books to the nearest Japan Post office and get them to ship it seamail?
(I found that most useful when I was reading manga and was picking up complete sets of things at book-off; for novels my desire not too build up too big a backlog means the last couple of times I was in Japan I stuck to just filling up to the 20kg baggage limit…)
Wait, are you me? I’m in the exact same situation lol. Just got here a little over a week ago and I’ve been so busy doing other things (like buying books) that I haven’t spent much time reading. And you’re even reading two books I’ve read before!
It’s too bad you’re not enjoying 神様, but I can see what you mean about them being a little dry. I remember the protagonist didn’t usually react much to the strange things going on, which made it hard to follow sometimes too. I’m excited to hear more of your thoughts on 最悪な一日 though! Out of curiosity, did you watch kouichitv’s YouTube channel at all before picking it up?
Finished 再就職先は宇宙海賊 | L35 a couple of days ago - felt a bit stale, but was at least straightforward. Starting to feel a bit more positive about it in retrospect, but wouldn’t recommend it.
That positivity is probably just coming from the other things I’ve been trying to read though. I’m alternating between reading science fiction and fantasy - normally science fiction is harder, but not having a lot of luck on the fantasy side this time. Gave up on 蒼衣の末姫 | L22?? after two pages because it looked incredibly dense with description and I didn’t have any clear idea what was going on. Next I tried 水使いの森 | L30??, which was clearer, but also felt dense and description-heavy, and I didn’t feel like slogging it out. Next up: 異世界拷問姫 | L35 - heard a lot about this one, but mostly from r/LightNovels and I don’t trust their opinion. Seemed doable, but also fairly dense, and I didn’t manage to find any enthusiasm for reading it during the prologue, so I’ve put that back in the pile.
Which brings us to 後宮の烏 | L33. Only read a couple of pages so far, but will probably stick with it. In pretty much every sentence so far there’s some kind of 後宮 genre-specific vocabulary (some of which is not in my dictionary), but it’s generous with the furigana, and the writing style is clear and has immediacy to it. Also, the characters are front-and-centre. Not starting off with some big descriptive navel-gaze or infodump is a huge plus.
I thought I understood the sorting by now but I still get confused at times. At least I only ever look in the 110 yen section that narrows my search area
If you are in Aichi, we might have some weird dimensional thing going on.
Yes and I found his humour to be quite Western but that might just be me I was lucky to find it for like 200 yen, so I couldn’t resist. But it’s basically the heaviest and I’d like to not have to take it with me.
Wow, yeah, that’s got a bit more complicated than when I was just filling in forms by hand five years ago. It looks like it’s basically “fill in the form on a website and then get it printed at the post office” now. I’m lucky in that the UK doesn’t charge VAT on books, so there’s no customs charges to pay on them.
) have bought something like 20 books already. Who thought it was a good idea to put me in walking distance of two well-stocked bookoffs? 
If you are in Aichi, we might have some weird dimensional thing going on. 
I was lucky to find it for like 200 yen, so I couldn’t resist. But it’s basically the heaviest and I’d like to not have to take it with me. 
