Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve seen both her Japanese books on Amazon and German books in bookstores here but I’ve just never gotten around to reading her since I didn’t know much about her or where to start. I might look out for that one though.
All the classic ones like YouTube, twitter, instagram or TikTok have you covered if you check out Japanese content creators. Besides that, girls channel is also ok as a news aggregator and has funny BL, anime, and meme topics sometimes (from a female pov, hence the site name) and you can learn slang from the replies. But some topics quickly turn into a cesspool, so be careful which ones you go into. Any news website that posts about current events or trends is also great for staying in the know — some slang from the book such as 地雷女、老害、and 繊細ヤクザ were trending, so there were articles explaining them. That’s all I can think of!
I can additionally offer オーストリア滞在記 by 中谷 美紀, an Japanese actress (from the movie リング) who moved to Austria and writes about her experiences But I have only read a bit of the book, but it doesn’t seem very difficult (But maybe also because I am very familiar with Austria? :D)
This is the kind of series that ain’t amazing or something like that, but it’s just fun and light and you honestly don’t notice how much you’ve read until you finished an entire volume lol
I find an improvement on the format from the same author from the previous series.
The twist deliveries are much better, and the story is much easier to follow being in the same world at all the times, instead of travelling from one place / situation to another.
Due to that also you get to form a bond with the protagonist and characters, that otherwise sometimes was hard to feel anything for them when the twist happened.
And although it’s aimed for learning/middle grade school, I strongly recommend.
I’ve been wanting to learn more Japanese history, but always felt overwhelmed by the level of vocab required. These have full furigana, and seem perfect! Almost 1/3rd through the first one… It was even full color for the first 25 pgs!
So I’m probably going to binge read all of these before getting back to anything else.
I did get a few chapters into ひげを剃る。そして女子高生を拾う and am enjoying it. The audiobook narration is great!
Does the main character (or other characters) have more interactions with other characters, or is it similar to カタログ where most of the chapters only feature one character’s thoughts and interactions with the catalog item in question?
I’m unsure if this will be the same for the next volume, but through the first volume you are always dealing with the same characters (main, and support).
For the next volume, it might be a set of new characters, or not… is not clear.
As usual, I read something else. I got tempted by people on Discord and noticed that 腐男子家族 1 | L23 was free to read… so I did.
It was quite funny in a lot of cases, but there were stuff I was uncomfortable with (the little brother is really weird and manipulative at times). Since the manga is not free from there on (and quite expensive) I’m not planning to go on.
Considering how often you seem to get distracted by other shiny books, I was wondering how many books you are “currently reading” - and I’m impressed that it’s just one. I guess you’re easily distracted, but super quick!
Would you recommend this as a first book? I’ve flamed out of 魔女の宅急便 (too hard at the beginning of the year) and クックの物語 (too boring and at the time still a bit too hard?) already though but I think it’s time to challenge myself again
If you mean on Natively, my currently reading means “didn’t finish, but plan to get back to it soonish”.
I have a few books I am reading through book clubs, although I don’t really count those (本好き and 痴人の愛).
It takes me 1~4h to finish a volume of manga (depending on page count and text density). For a ~300 pages novel, it’s more like 5~10 hours. I can be done in 1~3 days depending on my motivation and free time. Shiny distracting stuff tend to provide me with maximum motivation, so they don’t pile up (but if it’s the first volume of a 15 volume series, it does end up putting a dent in my schedule, since I tend to go “just one more volume” )
Have you tried 悪役令嬢レベル99 ~私は裏ボスですが魔王ではありません~ その1 | L24??? I read the light novel and I really liked it. The novel itself didn’t feel that hard, even though it seems to be level 30… The grading of the manga is 24 but temporary, so it might be okay?
The 24?? Grading is default for manga that hasn’t had anyone grade it yet - I got rused by tearmoon with that exact scenario and ended up spending 6 hours in vol 1 lol. (I enjoyed myself, but it’s still too far above my level for easy reading)
Well, the light novel version of Lv99 felt marginally easier than Tearmoon (which is reflected by a 30 versus 31 on Natively… but I’m apparently to only person who read Lv99, so it possibly just reflects my bias ), so maybe the manga will be marginally easier as well?
That might not be enough though. The Tearmoon manga is at 28 right now, so maybe 27-ish for Lv99?
I will give it a go at some point probably! Happily I’m at the stage where even if it is around LVL 28-30 I believe I can get through it eventually, haha. But I might start with the other 令嬢 manga a bit higher up in the thread.
One day after I wrote コップクラフト would take another 2-3 weeks to arrive, the store wrote that it’s on its way…and DHL this time did it in record time, below 48 hours, so yesterday I already had the book in my hands.
I immediately put ボッコちゃん on hold, which is easy with a short story collection, and started the book. BTW: Did anyone knew that ボッコちゃん is just part one of a 34 volume series of short stories by 星新一? So this guy actually wrote hundreds of stories in the same vain…
But I have only read a bit of the book, but it doesn’t seem very difficult (But maybe also because I am very familiar with Austria? :D)
)
