I decided to pause daily habit of watching an episode of Japanese drama or variety shows for the time being because:
There are too many interesting Korean shows at the moment.
There are lots of Japanese novels that I’ve bought that I wanted to read more than watching Japanese shows now.
So I will do what I prefer to do now than forcing myself to watch Japanese dramas just to fulfill the daily habit. This actually made me excited to continue reading the RTK again (something I’ve paused for months).
I find that there’s pros and cons to joining book clubs
Pros:
Helping me to stay engaged even when the book’s pace is so much slower than I had anticipated.
Having someone to ask if I have questions about the book
Cons:
Having to stop myself from reading too fast.
Keeping quiet about story so as not to give out spoilers if I’m reading ahead.
But all in all, I’m glad that I joined an online book club.
Btw, I’m so glad that I sold the Kobo Libra Colour ereader (I think manga with color still looks best in iPads and it’s easier to zoom in and out as well) and get a Kobo Clara BW instead. It’s so clear and light and makes me want to read all day instead of watching Japanese shows.
But I guess I need to find some interesting Japanese shows soon if I want to improve my listening skills. Hopefully next month…
They’re always audiobooks (and a variety of other sources/formats)
Also I agree re: book clubs - and am finding informal clubs are nice, bc I can read at my own pace. For more structured ones tho, I’d just keep notes for each week’s portion (regardless of when I read it), or wait until the last week to join, and read the whole thing then
It’s the same gyst, just no schedule. Sometimes it’s post off a larger club that votes and starts, and sometimes someone just puts it together for a specific book/series, and there’s no larger club. Example: マリア様がみてる 1 Discussion Thread (Maria-sama/Marimite Informal book club)
Not quite Each informal book club is different. Most of the informal clubs I’ve been in have had a schedule (most recently, 理由) and I found the ones that don’t have a schedule I just end up dropping because people reading much far ahead of me is demotivating since then I had to bounce around in the thread to find people’s thoughts when I get to that section.
I think the main thing I see in common with informal clubs is they’re small (in number of people) and tend to only have one thread.
Ok fair. I’ve only been in one that had a (suggested) schedule but was still read at your own pace. So I’ll revise my statement to I’m finding schedule-less book clubs are nice, wrt the “I have to stop myself from reading ahead” thing
Right, that’s the disadvantage of the one-thread approach. With scheduled one-thread you can sort of ameliorate it, at least. Does something like “sub threads for each chapter, but no weekly schedule” work for you?
I don’t know what a subthread is So far as I know you either have one thread, or you have many.
If you mean like how the nonfiction club had a schedule but then posted all the weekly threads at once…I dropped it as soon as I saw those To me the point of a book club is to be reading with people and able to actively discuss - without fear of spoilers - what is currently happening. If I just feel like I’m playing catchup I’d rather just read alone The nonfiction club admittedly didn’t have spoilers, but again, I didn’t get to enjoy the feeling of reading with people.
Different strokes for different folks. We read in very different genres generally so we probably won’t overlap in clubs either
Yeah that’s definitely part of the fun. For me the fun is getting to discuss in detail with other ppl at all - bc outside of book clubs, I almost never get to talk about individual sections, just general impressions. Whether I’m ahead, behind, or in-sync is fine
I would hope that’s true for any club. I’ve certainly had to remind ppl in scheduled clubs to be careful about that.
I have occasionally considered the mystery ones, so ya never know. I’m pretty erratic with book clubs tho, so probably low risk
I guess there are pros and cons for having a schedule or not. Having a schedule will help one to push through reading the slow moments of the book and allows everyone to read and discuss together. The cons would be when the curiosity had to be suppressed when the story gets exciting
Since I’m mostly interested in investigations/mystery (not horror type of mystery), it seems that scheduled book club would work better to prevent spoilers being accidentally revealed.
Finished a really great book during the long weekend.
Even though there isn’t much action in the book, it’s really interesting and exciting that finished it in 3 days. (I usually take about 2.5 weeks to finish a light novel).
So, I’m wondering if I should try the reverse bingo challenge as well to make myself clear the backlog of ebooks that I’ve already purchased before I start learning Spanish in 2026.
Another possibility is to just use a random number bingo card and cross out the numbers based on the number of books I’ve read without matching it to the suggested prompt list.
Had just joined June 2025’s listening challenge to get some listening practice after I stopped watch Japanese dramas in Feb 2025 and stopped watching video lectures since Dec 2024.
I thought it would be fun so I tried two book clubs. However, I’ve realised they’re not suitable for me for the following reasons.
The reading pace is too slow for me because it has to fit into most people’s schedules, while I can read before bedtime every night.
As a result, I have to read other novels (which I really wanted to read and have bought) in between to adhere to the book clubs’ schedules, even though I prefer to read one book at a time.
Surprisingly, the book that most people, including myself, voted for turned out to be a lousy choice or I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I thought I would.
I also had to buy additional e-books to join the book clubs, even though I have many e-books in my TBR pile.
Instead of studying my Japanese flashcards, I spent my free time reading everyone’s comments about the book chapters (written in English).
Japanese Podcasts
After joining the June 2025 listening challenge, I’ve discovered some interesting podcasts. I’ll continue listening to them during my daily commute.
Japanese Dramas
This year, I initially planned to watch Japanese dramas without subtitles. However, my understanding level is still too low to comprehend most interesting dramas. The only genre I can understand without subtitles is romance, which I find monotonous after a while. This has led me to lose interest in Japanese dramas for the past 3-4 months. Therefore, I decided to continue watching dramas that interest me with English subtitles and read the subtitles sparingly. This strategy is similar to how I learned Korean.
Japanese Kanji
I initially tried Learn Japanese! - Kanji app, but I got bored with it after a while. I then bought Heisig’s book on Remembering The Kanji and combined it with Anki cards. However, it became confusing after learning about 800 kanji. @暁のルナ suggested WaniKani and Ringotan to me, and I found them interesting. So, I’m currently using both of them.
Japanese Books
I’ll stop buying more books until I’ve finished 50 books from my TBR pile, unless there’s a sale for “変な絵” and “変な家2.”
2025 Revised Goals
1825 hours of immersion and study - 783/1825 hours
Watch 12 Japanese dramas - 10/12 dramas
Complete the Natively Bingo 2025 card - 19/25 squares
Finish as many books as possible from my TBR pile
11/54 novel e-books
1/7 textbooks hardcopy & e-books
8/9 manga e-books
Learn to write kanji from Wanikani & Ringotan - 64/2080 kanji
Yes, but I haven’t found one for a mystery book that I’m interested in that has no fixed schedule. Someone suggested starting one for this book: 黒死館殺人事件 | L51??
Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. It would be a great fit for my decision to “not buy” more books since it’s a free mystery book.
If it had won the MBC poll it would have been scheduled out as usual so I don’t think you would have liked that I know a handful of people were interested in it - I also recommend starting an informal club if you want to read it with others and not on a schedule.
It’s ok. I’m not in a hurry to read that book yet. I’ll focus on clearing as many of my current Japanese books from my TBR pile, as I’ve decided to start learning Spanish next year as a New Year’s resolution in 2026.
Each informal book club is different. Most of the informal clubs I’ve been in have had a schedule (most recently, 理由) and I found the ones that don’t have a schedule I just end up dropping because people reading much far ahead of me is demotivating since then I had to bounce around in the thread to find people’s thoughts when I get to that section.
So far as I know you either have one thread, or you have many.
To me the point of a book club is to be reading with people and able to actively discuss - without fear of spoilers - what is currently happening. If I just feel like I’m playing catchup I’d rather just read alone 
The nonfiction club admittedly didn’t have spoilers, but again, I didn’t get to enjoy the feeling of reading with people.
