I suspect you’ll like 異世界の名探偵 1 首なし姫殺人事件 | L32 (probably will land close to 30) a lot more than me. I’m getting through it, but fantasy settings just aren’t my jam. It has no fan service as well.
If the themes don’t bother you おやすみ、夢なき子 | L30 is such a wild ride.
I’m currently reading (well, listening to) 崩れる脳を抱きしめて | L34 and it’s a human drama, no particular dark elements yet. IMO 36 is a bit high for it, I’m guessing it got that for having some medical vocab but it’s really not that bad. I find the MC a bit annoying, but he’s at least showing growth.
It’s much more heavily fantasy than mystery, at least so far. I’m 50% done and it has some mystery going on now, but I’m pretty stalled in reading it between book clubs and fighting off a cold (favoring books that require no mental energy).
How about 魔法少女事変 1 | L28? I see it’s on your wish list, and it’s a fun TS comedy. If you’re looking for non-manga, maybe サイレント・ウィッチ 沈黙の魔女の隠しごと | L29 would be up your alley. Or for something totally different 神様 | L33 is a bizarre short story collection and one of the first things I read, I remember enjoying it and I’ve been wanting to go back to it again sometime.
I still haven’t finished 獣の奏者 I’m having some issues with that author.
I added those to my wishlist.
Oh, that one is on audible. I may try it.
I remember you suggesting that one before I still have it opened as a tab on my phone.
That one was already in my wish list, it turns out. Maybe I should get to it.
Also on audible, so maybe.
I was thinking about 活字, but maybe manga is what I need to get out of my current slump.
Or
Sure, more light novel, why not. Not on audible, though.
I’m thinking audible might help to just push me forward even when I don’t feel like reading. Maybe? Other than that, short stories may work as well.
We’ll see.
A a few suggestions if you’re feeling like audiobooks: 夢探偵フロイト: -マッド・モラン連続死事件- | L33 is on Audible JP. It’s very lightly horror, light novel style. I haven’t finished it but that’s mainly just because I got distracted by other books. I was going pretty strong there for awhile. コーヒーが冷めないうちに | L29 is a basic emotion grabber. I loved it as an Audiobook, people who read the book directly said it was meh. I don’t think you’ve read it? 不機嫌な果実 - I’ve owned this forever and haven’t listened to it, but a Japanese friend of mine laughed at the title and asked why I was reading it. It sounds saucy. 魔法少女育成計画 | L35 I admit to knowing nothing about this other than it’s a light novel and on Audible JP 先生とそのお布団 is another one I haven’t read/listened to, but it seems chill and has good ratings.
As for the conclusions of the poll, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go through two books at once, but I’m going to try anyway.
For the version of 本好きの下剋上, I’m going to give the normal version a go. If I see I’m struggling I’ll jump over to the Junior version.
This is the contrary to what I put on the poll, but the reasoning is that I’m going to try to +1 my reading game, and having no furigana on every word might expedite my kanji reading retention, as I find myself relying too often on it.
I’m going in very blind in 本好きの下剋上, the only thing I know about the series is a short 3 phrase summary of the story setting. We will see how it turns out!
Thanks to everyone who voted and helped me decide!
Well, I just grabbed the first two things I found at my local library, which ended up being completely random because I still do not understand the way things are organized there the following:
and
On an unrelated note:
I read it a few years ago (already?!?) and I can confirm that it’s a light novel. Despite the cute cover, it’s a dark, bloody battle royal type of story.
For what it’s worth, I have read the first four volumes of 魔法少女育成計画 and enjoyed all of them. I own the next two and will likely read them in the first half of next year.
It is indeed a battle royale style series, with each volume (sometimes pair of volumes) having (mostly) new characters, story, etc. I don’t know how much variety or overall plot it’ll have in the long run since I haven’t made much progress yet, though I do see hints of a larger story. I suspect I’ll never find out since the series is so long.
I enjoyed both of my previous picks (well, I’m technically not done with FLESH&BLOOD, but almost), which proves that my selection method is correct.
The two next random definitely deliberately chosen books are
Well, I am done with コーヒーが冷めないうちに and 1/3 through 記憶屋.
コーヒーが冷めないうちに gave me strong huit clos vibes. It’s a single room with the same characters doing everything, very theatrical. I really liked the atmosphere, but I guess the drama felt a bit cheap? That felt like the perfect level to complement the setting, but your mileage may vary. I struggled to decide how many stars to give the book, but ended up going for the “huh, I dunno” 3*
Not much to say about 記憶屋. I don’t know if it’s an effect of the cover, but it gives me some 夜市 | L31 vibes (although I was thinking of the cover of 秋の牢獄 | L31); different author, though. We’ll see. I plan to finish the book today or tomorrow.
Time to select the next ones.
Oooh double @cat this time.
I am literally using a list of suggestion with a random selection “script” (a single command, actually, np.random.choice(recs, size=2, replace=False) )
Looking for the next book! I’m in my 30s, and I would like to find more material at my level that treats more adult problems…I just finished reading おおかみこどもの雨と雪, which was OK, and コンビニ人間. The latter was easily my favorite novel I read in Japanese, although there was a lot of new vocab which made it a little challenging and took a long time to read. I’m at WK level 34, but I’ve tried reading books marked at 30, and those felt too difficult, regarding unknown vocabulary.
I was looking at かがみの孤城 and また、同じ夢を見た because they seem to be in my range
I love magical realism
My goal is to be able to read authors like Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto
I’m in my 30s and thought 鏡の孤城 was fantastic despite being about middle schoolers, but don’t care for works by the author of また、同じ夢を見た because the storylines felt too childish for me. YMMV. Works you may like below level 30:
Good day Natively, I am once again going to return to using polls. I have too much I want to read and can’t decide what to pick anymore! Please help me out
What a great list! Thank you so much. All of these are going to go on my wishlist. I have the epub of かがみの孤城, so I will start that. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it. I keep coming across コーヒーが冷めないうちに, so maybe I’ll try that one next. This will keep me going for a while
Oh man, I’ve tried to read かがみの孤城 two times but I just can’t get into it. I was really hoping to enjoy it, but it just feels too much like a kids book. I had the opposite experience, where I just couldn’t care about the middle schoolers, and was constantly annoyed by the awkward main character .
I read it with the audiobook which was incredibly well done (I listen to a TON of audiobooks and the quality here was some of the best) so perhaps that helped.
I also am just a sucker for an interesting mystery and character depth, and it delivered on both although with a very slow unfold.
I read it first and really enjoyed it (in fact, it’s currently my favorite Japanese book). Some people felt it was slow in the middle parts or got annoyed at Kokoro, but I never felt any of that. I’m listening to the audiobook now (on and off for over a month) and it really is quite good. That said, if someone doesn’t like the book when reading, I don’t think listening will make a difference.
Well, I was stuck at home for 10 days, so I couldn’t grab the next two books.
And yesterday, when I could finally get out, I found out that the library was closed for a week for re-inventoring… then they were closed for the holiday season until the 4th next year.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
I’m having some issues with that author.
I still have it opened as a tab on my phone.
Maybe I should get to it.
)
