🌷 Spring Equinox 24-hour Readathon

Fourth update:

So I started reading 鉄風 and I actually like it a lot based off the first chapter! I remember buying it initially because it had something to do with boxing, which I love, and sort of being unable to get into it every time I started reading. I’m not sure what the problem was, but now that I gave it a proper chance, it’s really fun.

The protagonist makes me giggle :face_with_hand_over_mouth: she’s so full of herself, so it’s actually pretty fun to read a sports manga that’s not about an underdog genius, or a character who works really hard always and succeeds because [insert shounen manga trope]. Just refreshing to have a female protagonist who thinks she’s the most powerful person without ever doing anything, and omg she’s so bored all the time… and… she gets a bit of a reality check :wine_glass:

I hope it continues going in this direction and honing in on the whole aspect of a person who never had to work hard but now has to actually learn how to learn, how to be better, and… how to be a little more humble :grinning_face:

Great first chapter, and I might read another one today before stopping :thinking:… let’s see how it goes. I just don’t want to overdo it.

Totals so far:
Time: 2 hours, 35 mins
Pages: 251

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Spring Readathon Goals :tulip: :books:

I’m way too late at making this post given it’s almost past Friday in my timezone but I just couldn’t make it today. Thanks to the topic post’s loophole additional rule, I can still participate by doing my reading tomorrow, though – thank you for that, @taiyousea.

I’m still dealing with a health issue which will limit the time I can spend on reading but I’ll try and scrape together any timeframes I can throughout Saturday while trying to catch up with everyone’s reading updates.

My goal will be to finish the route of 薄桜鬼 真改 風華伝 that I’ve been reading during the Read Every Day Challenge since January. (I have been still reading every day but I have neglected making daily updates again).
By now I have reached chapter 8 which is the second to last chapter, so there isn’t that much left and reading the remaining parts within the Readathon seems feasible. If I somehow finish it quicker than expected, I will start reading the first volume of あかねさす柘榴の都 in my leftover Readathon time. If I don’t finish it by the end of the Readathon that will be fine too since I will at least be close to the finish line.

Main goal

Finish chapter 8 of 薄桜鬼 真改 風華伝
Finish chapter 9 and the epilogue of 薄桜鬼 真改 風華伝

Extra

Read at least 30 pages of あかねさす柘榴の都 1

Previous Readathon result (autumn)
Previous Readathon result (winter)


Side note which doesn’t have much to do with the Readathon but is something I wanted to address: I saw the comments some of you made in my study log for which I’m grateful for. I will reply to those when I manage to finish writing my next log update post some days after the Readathon.

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Your summary + the cover, I am VERY interested in reading. Adding this manga to my wishlist :eyes:

You’ve done amazing!! Thank you so, so much for reading with me and for working so hard :raising_hands: :growing_heart:

:innocent: Happy to manipulate into reading with me assist with goals!

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Thank you for the encouragement!! I am so unhappy about this. But I did just order a 5x magnifying device, so maybe next week I’ll try reading again. I really miss my Japanese reading.

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Then it sounds like you’ll have lots of time to get used to your new magnifying glass before the summer readathon in June! :smile: I hope to see you then!

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I spent 63 minutes reading the first volume of ちはやふる today: I wanted to read at least something since the Spring Equinox is a big thing here, and two chapters - 85 pages later, here I am ^^

ちはやふる wasn’t my first choice for today, but I have many, many volumes from a Book-Off in Japan that are on my backlog, so why not at least start. I don’t know if I’ll follow or finish, but was relatively neat to do something Japanese related among a busy day today xdd

I’m rating the first two chapters of ちはやふる a なんとなく気づいてた、一生ものの宝物が何個も見つかる冬になるって/10 ^^ xddd

暗唱 - recitation
一張羅 - only good set of clothes
ズケズケ - frankly speaking
上の句 (かみのく)- first part of a poem
ハブ - ostracized (一枚でも取られたらお前はハブだ)
ハンカチ - handkerchief
大げさ - exaggerated
正々堂々 - fair and square

fun word:
嫌われたくない - I don’t want to be hated :eyes:

Good luck at the rest of the marathon, going to rest up a bit before my usual grind in an hour ^^

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Final update:

Wooo, read a bit further in chapter 2 until where my brain decided we were officially done for the day (+14 pages, +15 minutes). And then I pushed myself just a tiny bit and read one chapter in 理想の自分をつくる100の法則 (they’re really short, +2 pages, +2 minutes).

I’ve enjoyed reading with everyone, it was a last-minute decision because I wasn’t sure if I’d feel healthy enough to participate, but I still wanted to contribute a few pages and minutes :blush:. It was motivating reading about everyone else’s efforts hehe.

And with that, I’ve successfully managed to complete all of my goals.

Final total:
Time: 3 hours, 27 mins
Pages: 267


お疲れ to everyone who’s done / about to get done, and 頑張って to those who are reading along tomorrow and on the weekend!


:joy: I’m happy it’s not just my summary!! :face_with_peeking_eye: I might be totally wrong based on just 1 chapter. But so far in chapter 2 there’s also an extra juicy detail that I’m excited about figuring out what’s going on with that… so who knows~ I’ll report back on my studylog and tag you once I’m done with this volume :saluting_face: taking one for the team in case it ends up being boring.

But so far I’m excited to read more~~

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woo hoo go go go!!! next time- summer solstice can double that goal for sure! :heart_decoration:

I use one of these on a swivel arm and lights and everything - great for physical books

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I’ll plan on it!

I’ll be doubly ready for June. If the thing I ordered doesn’t work, I’ll have time to get something else.

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[Home post]

Book Pages Read Time
変な家 2 77 2h 03 min
多聞くん今どっち!? 117 40 min
日本人の心がわかる日本語 12 19 min

Total: 3h02 min
Goal => achieved (3h of reading - just barely, but that was already pushing myself)

Books I read:

変な家 2
This was clearly the main contender for today. With 77 pages read, I can say this went quite well. The reading is smooth, but since I read on my phone’s kindle app, it just becomes too much for my eyes to read for too long.

多聞くん今どっち!?
The “easy break” of today - just because it’s a manga with quite some pages without soo much text compared to, well, a book. It was fun to finish volume 7 (I read this volume’s first chapter yesterday). Not sure when I’ll buy the next volume, though - there are a few other picks in my list.

日本人の心がわかる日本語
I found about this book via the Natively forums, and have been reading it for a couple of weeks already, a few entries per week. I needed something different to just reach the 3h mark at the end of the day, and doing my weekly reading just hit the spot.

Books I did not read

  • ハリー・ポッターと秘密の部屋: it was in my original post, but I just didn’t feel the need/mood? to read it today.
  • コーヒーが冷めないうちに: I actually did read this one, about 4 pages of it. It’s one of the few books I have as an actual paper edition, so I thought it would also be better rather then just reading on a screen. But I just wasn’t in the mood to get into it somehow.
  • 魔導具師ダリヤ: was in my reading list as another manga to spice my reading up, but I realised I download the LN instead of the manga, oops.
  • 鋼錬 : I’ll just read it with the book club, I guess. I was also feeling a bit tired of it after having read quite a long chapter this week.

I must say I’m quite tired now, and will probably head early to bed to read some more before sleep first of course, but this time in English. I was already quite tired today (combination of work fatigue + heavy sports workout yesterday I believe), and noticed I was getting a headache after reading on the screens for so long, so I think I should push myself to read on paper more next time. I still find it tough to read for long periods of time in Japanese, but I hope to get better at this with time!

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Update 2

Source Pages Time
薬屋のひとりごと 11 35m
F落第生 8 45m
しろくまカフェ 30 26m
アンフィニシュトの書 5 15m
三ツ星カラーズ✨ 53 30m
Subtotal - these 107 151m (2.5h)
Subtotal - combined 251 271m (4.5h)

Actual books with real physical pages are difficult. Technically didn’t reach either prose goal, but still, happy with the progress. Apothecary is easier from having watched the anime, but for the ones where I have 0 foreknowledge, I think I’m getting about half of what is being said. I’ve somehow already managed to beat my page goal. I’ll reach the character goal easily in the morning, I reckon. And, another manga out of my current reading list. Really I need to stop thinking about what I’m gonna read tomorrow and go bed so I’m not too tired to do any more reading.

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I’ll be doing my readathon tomorrow as I was working today, My goals are two parts:

Finish 本好きの下剋上 part 1. I’m reading the junior novel version, and I’m on volume 6 (end of volume 3 for people reading the standard version), which is the final volume for part 1. I’ve got 5 chapters left, which should take me about 4 hours. That’s about 100 pages which will be the most Japanese novel I’ve read in one day by a lot (my previous record is like… 40).

To split it up if I feel a bit novelled out, I also have:

Spy x Family volume 1. I’m not committing to finishing this, but I’m about halfway through and it may break things up a bit.

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Alright, I’m all done for the day, at long last!

I’m cheating just a little bit by stretching it to 1AM of the 22nd, but considering I joined at a bit past 1AM on the 21st, that’s still just 24 hours, so I’m counting it as a single day.

My primary goal was to finish reading 「怪盗レッド ー 2代目怪盗、デビューする☆の巻」 and I accomplished that (albeit just barely, with a mere 10 minutes to spare), so I’m well satisfied with my effort. I also wanted to read some of my manga, but that’ll have to wait for another time.
I kept meticulous track of when and how much I read, so here are the stats, for those curious.

Time of Day Pages Read Time Spent Reading
04:05-05:05 15 60m
14:35-15:00 8 25m
15:50-16:00 3 10m
16:30-17:10 11 40m
18:00-18:30 8 30m
19:00-19:35 6 35m
21:30-22:00 8 30m
22:40-23:10 7 30m
23:30-00:00 8 30m
00:10-00:50 10 40m
Results 84 330m (5:30)

This was a really fun experience!
I’ve never read this much Japanese in a single day before, and it’s been many, many years since I read this much in any language in one day. I feel pretty mentally drained, though, but that’s to be expected after forcing myself to focus so much for so long.

As for the book… Eh, it’s alright. I’m very glad that I’d already read the introductory sections and gotten all of the set-up out of the way before starting this challenge, so I got to enjoy the pay-off to all of that today.

The story is told from the perspective of the female protagonist, Asuka, who is told that she, along with her cousin, Kei, are going to inherit their fathers’ shared title as Red, a Robin Hood-esque thief that steals from the wicked. The first half of the book is dedicated to introducing the various characters, like Asuka, Kei, their fathers, and Asuka’s friend Misaki, and it gets to be pretty dry at times, frankly. Once you’re past that, however, you get to their first heist, where all the action of the book happens, which is pretty fun to read through. I really liked how Kei’s personality completely changes when he’s in “work mode”, where he starts speaking far more energetically and uses different pronouns, which really messes with Asuka for a while.
Overall, not bad, especially for a book aimed at children, but I only really cared for about half of the book. Hopefully the next volumes get to the action more quickly.

Best of luck to those of you still reading or about to begin!

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:tulip::open_book: 第一版 Update

My Readathon Goals・Time Left: 22.5 hours

Couldn’t wait to get started so I launched slightly earlier than I expected! For an easier pick to start with, I began with volume 1 of 『orange』(L20). I chose it for the bingo category “set in a place you’ve lived” since this story takes place in Matsumoto, Nagano – it was fun to see my old town in the background of every scene :smile: The summary states that it’s a “science fiction” story, but I get the sense that it’s a bit like sci-fi la croix haha. I do like it, though, and I want to grab the light novel version to read more at a later date.

Onto the next manga! :saluting_face: :books:

+01:04:00, 175 pages
My total: 01:04:00, 175 pages

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https://learnnatively.com/book/27819a2be4/

Whoops I ended up getting up getting an important package a few days early, so was working on something else for a bit and then taking a “nap” and woke up several hours later and even more tired than I was this morning.

Finished volume 2 in about an hour total, so slightly faster.

+ 190 pages, +1:05 (Totals: 380 pages, 2:15)

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might as well post some totals so far

I already pre-read the two weekly bookclubs ahead so could focus on bingo square targets
フリーレン and からかい上手の高木さん(元)not part of these numbers

Success in finishing a manga in a single sitting with a couple of breaks
少女終末旅行 (1)
162 pages in 2 hours (8006 char)

Needed a little break and then went to the 5 min story book
5分後に意外な結末 - 赤い悪夢 (1)
That story started out boring but ended up quite hilarious (could see the ending coming but still made that read worthwhile)
6 pages in about 40 min (2160 char)

Now to see it’s getting near dinner - what to do next pick more to read or make dinner

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Woke up a lil bit more, so this one went faster still!!

+ 180 pages, +0:55 (Totals: 560 pages, 3:10)

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🦴Jable's Read-a-thon goals🦴


Alrighty, I guess its time for me to make a goal post! Running a little late to the party but I'm counting my day as starting at midnight tonight! (12:00 AM PT 03/22/2025) I've been slogging my way through 魔女の宅急便 and while it is my first "real" book, I'd love to make some solid progress on it, (or maybe even finish it?). I'm currently on around page 90 so that's a tall task but we'll see. Maybe I'll read a bit tonight to help. While that will be my main goal, I've got manga lined up to pad the time. よつばと6 is first up and I'm already a good way through it, but I have yet to start さようなら絵梨. And then to wrap it up, I'm currently in the ルックバック and カードキャプターさくら book clubs, so I may read the respective chapters from those too! Currently, I'm on-call at work so I'm sat at home not doing to much. As such, I'm going to set my goals pretty high and try to read for at least 6 hours tomorrow! I think I may be able to do more but we'll see if I have the stamina haha. This is my first time doing something like this so I'm super excited! Seeing everyone participating has been so exciting!

Here are my goals:
read 50 pages of 魔女の宅急便
finish よつばと6
read for 6 cumulative hours
Mega awesome I did nothing but read today and probably forgot to eat and stuff stretch goal: Finish my first JP Novel!!

Looking forward to joining everyone!

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:tulip::open_book: 第二 Update

My Readathon Goals・Time Left: 20.5 hours

Ah… this one was not my favorite :see_no_evil_monkey: I started 魔法使いの約束 (L27) a month or so ago for the “knew nothing ahead of starting” bingo square and really lived up to the spirit of the category haha. It was a bit shallow, had kind of a harem vibe but not really, and the art left a lot to be desired [1] :sweat_smile: But it is now done! It got somewhat wordy toward the end, but I finished the last 100 pages today and can count it complete.

+01:16:00, 100 pages
My total: 02:20:00, 275 pages


  1. these are my humbly uneducated opinions, apologies to anyone who loved this manga ↩︎

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Looks like Saturday will be my day to read (although I have some errands to run mid-day).

I’m hoping to get caught up on some book clubs. I don’t know how much I’ll get to reading, but here’s where I’m behind:

Series Where I Am Where Club Is
カードキャプターさくら Vol 2 Pg 77 Volume 3
シャドーハウス Vol 19 Pg 37 Finished Vol 19
しろくまカフェ bis Vol 3 Pg 39 Vol 4 (non-bis)
とんがり帽子のアトリエ Vol 5 Pg 69 Volume 9
ホリミヤ Vol 9 Pg 5 Volume 9
老女的少女ひなたちゃん Vol 5 Pg 79 Volume 5
舞妓さんちのまかないさん Vol 7 Pg 129 Volume 8
葬送のフリーレン Vol 4 Pg 5 Volume 5

Tomorrow will be a long day!

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