絶望した！絶望先生の難しことは私に絶望した。。。！！！
My god, it has furigana. A trap!
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Since the book club went with an option that I didn’t fancy much, I went ahead and finished
Now I understand why this volume only got 2 anime episodes 
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The most annoying part is when they have a normal conversation with you until they realise you’re a foreigner and then you get jouzu’d left and right. 
And I agree, for a manga (especially one with full furigana) it’s quite difficult. Although the repetitive nature of the chapters where each one focuses on one concept really helps with flowing into it.
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Just finished vol 15 of the KZ series. 探偵チームKZ事件ノート 青いダイヤが知っている | L27 and it’s ridiculous as ever. At one point one of the kids even says something along the lines of “It’s normal for a middle schooler to stay up until 2 am to study.” Uhm… no. Also, one of the kids calls his mom or aunt on the phone if he needs something, while being at home, and they bring it to him. (Instead of him like going to the kitchen and taking it himself, etc.) In 15 books, I also still have not encountered a good, intelligent woman. In this volume they are even given confidential information about a patient from a doctor. Having said all that, I still have a good time reading them - probably because how ridiculous they are. 
As I am trying to lower the volumes on my physical TBR, I have now started 角川つばさ文庫版 きみにしか聞こえない | L25??. It’s a collection of 3 short stories by 乙一. I’ve read 夏と花火と私の死体 | L28 from them before and enjoyed it, so this should be good. 
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Not exactly about what I am reading right now, but it’s been 3 books in a row (from completely different series) that involves a youkai called 鵺 (ぬえ).
I first heard of that thing a couple of months ago from yet another series (using the writing 鵼 instead, for plot reasons; not going to elaborate nor say which series because I think some people are reading that series here)
Did I just never notice that name before or did it randomly gained popularity? (It’s probably just a coincidence, but honestly that’s not a kanji I would expect to pop up so frequently)
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マイン will have to wait as the poll on “What should I read next” directed me onto that.
I resumed 異世界のんびり農家 while I’m doing a second pass of 本好きの下剋上 #2 with the Audiobook for things that I might have missed.
To be honest I’m a bit relieved, as there was too much slow paced content on 本好きの下剋上 #2, which could have been summarized quite a bit.
I hope the pace picks up so I don’t get stuck so many times! I started that on February, yikes
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I feel this struggle a lot with LNs, bc my reading pace is so slow
Good to know I’m not the only one who does that 
I started ぼっち・ざ・ろっく 1 | L28 back in February, and should probly just put it on my Stopped list. I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed, as I’m diving more into LNs. So I should probly stick with simpler manga to balance things out
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Speaking of finishing things, I fiiiinally finished reading D.Gray-man reverse 2 四十九番目の名前 | L29, which I started back in, uh, December. It wasn’t a hard read or anything; I just kept putting it off to read other bookclub books because I kept figuring, “oh, this is an easy one, I can pick it up whenever”. 
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It’s been a few days, but I finally got the motivation to write a review about お狐様の異類婚姻譚 元旦那様に求婚されているところです | L38
I'm just going to copy/paste it here
First of all, that story didn’t go at all the way I expected.
I have to admit I bought it on a whim, based on the title. In general, those kind of romance never get to the point where anything every happen between characters, so reading that the main character was divorced made think that, well, we are past that barrier, so there’s a chance for more developments.
I was wrong. (Minor spoiler for the first ~30 pages) She was only married for a short period of time and they were not even living together during that time, so it’s like nothing ever happened. However, the divorce was actually filled by the rival character without the consent of the main love interest. He then tries to convince the main character to get married again. Cue typical romance LN developments.
What is NOT typical is that the book contains a lot of violence and gore (because of youkai fighting). Also, it’s hard to explain without major spoilers, but things are typically not what they look like (after all, foxes are tricksters). The last chapter reveals what was really happening and that changes pretty much the whole reading of the book. Still, most of the book is the main character getting in “damsel in distress” situations, followed by one (or more) potential love interests to come to her rescue (in a rain of blood and gore since they are powerful youkai). Without the final spin, I would have given the book 2*.
In terms of difficulty, the book contains quite a lot of complex kanji and words, and relies heavily on shinto concepts, which can be a bit much at a low or intermediate level. The last chapter gives the required context with respect to the shinto aspects without going into too much details, though, so you can ignore those.
I also read volume 12 of かくりよの宿飯 (series) | L31 (not on Natively yet… I feel like the “add more volumes” process is much slower than adding a new series, is it just me? Also, in one case recently, it missed the last volume, so I had to request again… anyway)
That was a complete disappointment. The book is just a compilation of “improved” version of all the bonus short stories the author wrote over the years, plus a prologue and epilogue that tells us that it’s just the main character writing those in a letter to a different character… Well, okay, but then why are there stories from the point of view of other characters? Also, those stories are mostly boring from start to finish. After the prologue, there’s still more of the same, but those couldn’t fit in the actual story since they break the fourth wall (like the characters discussing the release of the anime… that was ages ago, but whatever).
In the あとがき, the author mentions being sorry for the delay between volumes AND publishing a new series with a different publisher. So I guess this book is just a way to calm down one publisher while working on the other project… but I think this book has literally negative value, so it might have been a better idea to just wait one more year or something.
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Halfway through 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~第二部「神殿の巫女見習い3」 | L31
As always, this series is both enjoyable and incredibly frustrating. It just needs an editor to slice out all the pointless bits and it would be great. Everything that the pointless scenes convey has already been conveyed in actually worthwhile scenes anyway. But, it’s a very smooth read and each book so far is consistent in quality, so I’m reading these when I need a break from trying out new authors.
5 Likes
I finally finished SAO 27!!! Almost exactly two months from when I started.
I picked up 灰と幻想のグリムガル | L30, which I’m really enjoying. I’m only just starting chapter 2, but so far it’s hitting that sweet spot of fairly accessible and enjoyable. So far it’s a lighter read than either SAO or 本好き, but we’ll see if that holds up in later chapters. It’s my main reading focus rn.
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I totally gave up on reading こころ because honestly it just isn’t my style of book and I can’t find myself feeling the motivation to read it. I will try reading 坊っちゃん or something later because from what I hear people say it seems like it would be more up my alley. In other news, I got my copy of 最悪のはじまり (世にも不幸なできごと 1) | L22?? (the Japanese translation of A Series of Unfortunate Events) in the mail today so I started reading it right away. It is very easy so far and I’ll probably finish it by tomorrow, I’m thinking of using it to practice speed-reading though.
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I like a lot of Soseki’s work but I didn’t really get on with Kokoro, not sure why 
depending on what you’re after, Bocchan and I am a Cat are quite funny from memory, and Sanshiro is a good coming of age tale. Disclaimer that I read them a couple of years ago so my memory isn’t super clear!
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Yeah, I liked both I am a Cat and Sanshiro, but they’re rather different in style and also in difficulty. I am a Cat is a sequence of amusing scenes with no plot to speak of, and the language difficulty level is pretty high because the cat never uses a common word when there’s an obscure one available. Sanshiro has a plot, and isn’t trying to be funny, and is generally a less taxing read.
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Amusing is relative. I got bored extremely fast. I think I barely made it through 50 pages 
Meanwhile, I loved こころ… well, the first two parts, at least. The last part wasn’t fun per se, but some dark curiosity just pushed me forward. It was a bit similar to the feeling I got while reading 人間失格 by 太宰治.
Eh, to each their own, I guess 
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I read this in English a few years back and found it incredibly boring but I actually got on with Kokoro (also in English) just fine. 
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I finished the first chapter of 異世界のんびり農家 01 | L30 and I think I’m getting used to the writing style of the author.
It’s written in a weird diary self-narration style, but I don’t really dislike it. Also I appreciate the small subchapters, let’s you finish subplots without leaving them hanging too much, making it easier to resume the reading.
Also for now at least, if you don’t understand much of a subchapter, doesn’t seem to pose a big issue.
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Finished 魔法少女育成計画 JOKERS | L36 today. Took 2.5 weeks, which isn’t too bad given the length and difficulty. The volume was excellent, and in fact this is the first 5/5 I’ve given any LN not named 本好き. I could just jump into the next volume, but I think it’s probably better for me to watch some anime and read some manga for a few weeks. There’s only so much violence and murder I can take in a short span! Plus I have two English books to look forward to this month and don’t really want to be in the middle of a Japanese book when they are available (though sadly one isn’t available until the 18th and the other who knows when).
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Has anyone here read 美しい彼 | L30 and could give me a short breakdown on it? I checked out the official publisher blurb, but I’d like to get more details about it if possible.
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I haven’t read it but I attempted the first episode of the drama adaptation on Viki* so would summarize the plot as geeky boy falls for hot bad boy. Basically. There’s a better summary on the viki page and maybe someone who read the book can give more insight, but it seemed like pretty bog standard popular kid+outcast kid high school BL to me.
*I say attempted not because it was difficult but because it was quickly clear it’s not at all my kind of show
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