[2024] 多読/extensive reading challenge

Apparently, I’m not updating often these days, since the big table was still at 50/50 but I just finished my 53rd book this year.
I keep saying I’m going to slow down but, looking at my stats (which are probably final for this month considering the time left)
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slowing down didn’t happen.
I… somehow can relate to マイン in a weird way right now.

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Sneaking one more book in just before the end of the month by completing 秋の牢獄. It took me 11 days, which is a little bit disappointing – I originally planned to spend two weeks but got on a really good pace at the beginning.and I think I could easily finished it in one week if I had gotten a little less distracted. In any case, it’s still my fastest novel so far, down from 14 days for しあわせの花.

All three of the short stories in this book were enjoyable but the real star of the show was definitely the first one (秋の牢獄, same as the title of the book itself). Definitely recommended for anyone who liked the vibe and writing style of 夜市.

Time to catch up on 本好き!

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Did you just read an entire volume of 本好き in a single day? :eyes:

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No. The fastest was two days. I finished one volume in the morning before work (only had a few pages left) then spent all my free time reading the next volume, which I finished the next day in the evening.

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Meanwhile my ereader is telling me it will take me a total of 20 hours to read one volume

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If you ignore sleep that’s also just about doable in a day :slight_smile:

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In comparison to 夜市? About the same I think.

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Finished Danmachi vol. 1. I definitely got more into it towards the end. For some extra review/learning, I also watched three episodes of the anime (with JP sub), that cover the first volume. Although at parts it felt pretty rushed, it brought a lot of character (heh) into the characters. This got me thinking a bit about the interplay between LN and anime, and how they can supplement each other. I’m a bit more inclined now to continue with the LN series, and I already have the word list imported into Anki so…

I still have to dust off Night Market and read the last 50 pages, which I should have done ages ago… Maybe I’ll just blast through it making it a rule to not look at the dictionary; I’ve been wanting to experiment with that, too.

Need to catch up on Snow country, as well :zipper_mouth_face:.

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Made a critical mistake and forgot to change the last-updated column for my manga goal, almost added two instead of one.Thank goodness for Discourse’s history feature!

After a slow last week I’m back on track to double my manga goal by the end of the year; I’m basically just going through my massive ebook collection and reading through stuff at random. Out of nowhere one of the mangaka I follow dropped a new series, so I picked up vol. 1 but I’m going to catch up on 本好きの下剋上 first (just one chapter but I don’t want to get behind).

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I am keeping up with my reading challenge goal and am 1/3 of the way through :muscle:. Across 14 hours have read all of the Level 2 Tadoku readers and 2/3 of the Level 3 readers.

I am starting to have some minor comprehension gaps in level 3. The grammar doesn’t translate quite as readily into meaning, and I’m misinterpreting occasional words and kanji. I still get the overall meaning of the books, but I see room for improvement. After I finish Level 3, I’m going to go back and re-read the books it with a little more care, noting some of the grammar issues I’m having, and uploading sentences with difficult grammar constructs into bunpro.

After I’m finished with Level 3, I am looking forward to moving on to Level 4. I’m sure that will give me even more trouble, so I’ll take the same approach. Read through the best I can, then revisit.

After that, I am looking forward to buying some native material books and manga to read as a reward for reaching my goal! It’s fun to browse recommendations by level at tadoku’s website.

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Nanowrimo is eating up a lot of my time, but reading is still happening to some degree. I have 50 manga volumes left to read for the year to reach that goal. I’m 80% through 鍵のかかった部屋 and enjoying it very much. After that will likely be 本好き #3!

As I caught up with a few unfinished series, I want to organize my manga thoughts. I feel, again, like I need to start something new, but am not sure what.

Lists and thoughts

Book club stuff, from most certain I’m going to continue to least:

  1. 美少女戦士セーラームーン (finished 13 of 18)
  2. スキップ・ビート (finished 1 of 44)
  3. フルーツバスケット (finished 3 of 23)
  4. 3月のライオン (finished 1 of 16)
  5. ゆるキャン△ (finished 3 of 10)
  6. ふらいんぐうぃっち (finished 3 of 9… not sure why I read another when it doesn’t seem to be for me but I am weak to book club books [and the same could be said of ゆるキャン△…])

Stuff that isn’t book club stuff:

  1. マダム・ジョーカー (finished 21 of 24 and dragging my feet on catching up to published volumes)
  2. 桜蘭高校ホスト部 (finished 2 of 18)
  3. 天は赤い河のほとり (finished 2 of 28)
  4. からかい上手の高木さん (finished 3 of 14)
  5. とんがり帽子のアトリエ (finished 1 of 8)
  6. アリア (finished 1 of 12; still can’t quite get myself to drop it now and try again later)

(I dropped ヴィンランド・サガ because it was too gruesome and sad for me.)

And then I’m midway through the first volume of a few other things that certainly don’t seem to be sticking but might rebound to become full members of the list. (コミンカビヨリ, 猫とふたりの鎌倉手帖, やがて君になる)

Basically, in terms of my goal and also just reading enjoyment, I need another manga that is fast-paced in terms of my reading and is something I am always up for. After ハイキュー I had 不思議の国のバード, but sadly I ran out of published volumes. I’m reading several things I really like, but none of them fit both of those criteria. It’s just hard to tell beforehand what will… I don’t have as much free time now since I’m doing nanowrimo, so trying a whole bunch of different manga isn’t a good option. :thinking:

On the other hand, one manga that did meet both of those criteria, my beloved 7SEEDS, is on the table again! A Japanese-study/reading friend and I have started it reading it out loud together, alternating panels and doing rough English translation. We finished the first volume in two sessions and it is so so so fun.

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I really liked this series! Though from your previous posts I’m not sure how much our manga interests overlap? The only full series I’ve read that are over 10 volumes are がっこうぐらし and 放浪息子, both of which I recommend in general. Other than that, I’ve read 11/19 volumes of ヒナまつり, but it’s getting a bit stale at this point. Not sure if/when I’ll read more. It’s just a shame, because I really did like it for a while.

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It seems possible that our novel tastes overlap more than our manga tastes, but I don’t think I’m basing either of those feelings on much actual information. :joy: Either way, I definitely want to give やがて君になる a solid chance. If it ends up not being now, it’ll be later~

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Finished 鍵のかかった部屋 and started 本好き 3! Already thinking about what to read after that–maybe the next 獣の奏者?

With nanowrimo my reading and studying time has decreased a lot. I’m thinking about putting 雪国 on pause. It seems like there won’t be other new novel book clubs starting for a while? (I feel like saying that without checking is a sure way for one to be starting next week or something, so I am off to check.) Intermediate’s current book runs through the end of January; Advanced about a week into January; I’ve completed the readings for the current 本好き and 獣の奏者… okay, good. Anyway, it might be all I can do to keep up with manga book clubs (and right now I’m not even doing that), and in the past couple weeks when I’ve sat down with my reading-novels-in-Japanese brain the idea of giving it to anything other than 鍵のかかった部屋, or now 本好き, was not compelling.

Also this thread hasn’t been updated in a while–what is everyone reading? And what do you want to read after that?

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What’s this about and how did you like it?

I’m going to finish 獣の奏者 book 2 tomorrow or Monday. Then I’m reading Rhythm of War (which is why I’m finishing 獣の奏者 early to begin with), and then after that I’ll start 本好き book 3. That should take me through the end of the year or so.

I do still need to make the thread for 狐笛のかなた, which we’ll read after officially finishing 獣の奏者. The start date isn’t decided yet, but probably early January. If the other book clubs are starting new books in January, I wonder if it would be better to start later… :thinking:

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I’m currently finishing up the first volume 好きの下剋上 and after that I want to read the second volume and also catch up on the rezero book club and read the last yagakimi Sayaka light novel and read the next volume of 私の推しは悪役令嬢 and of danmachi and start reading Adachi and Shimamura and The Isolator and SAO Progressive and also actually continue reading some manga series I’ve started reading… the conclusion I can draw from this is that there are too many things I want to read and I will stop my list here :laughing:

Oh, and it’s not in Japanese, but I also literally just finished reading Dawnshard(in English) and will be reading Rhythm of War as soon as I get it.

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We’re planning a new intermediate level book club after the 獣の奏者 book club is finished. We’re aiming to start sometime between December 26th and February 13th, to be determined by a poll.

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@seanblue

It’s the third in the locked room murder mystery series I’ve been reading, and I very much enjoyed it! I like that the mysteries are like puzzles, that there’s not anything gruesome, that they can be sad and moving etc but are also funny, and also I love the two main characters.

Ohhh, I will have to think about 狐笛のかなた! That author is definitely someone I want to read more of.

@Ditto20

Look at all those things–that’s a lot of Japanese reading happiness just waiting for you to get there! :smiley:

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Oooooh that sounds interesting! Do you get enough information to be able to solve them yourself? I often watch Conan and love the general story but the puzzles are often solved through information that is not available to the viewer, and this takes away some of the joy.

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I’m no good at putting clues together while reading mysteries even in my native language, but I think generally when the mystery comes together, all the key bits are bits that appeared in the story previously, so maybe yes? I find the books fun, and the drama version is also excellent, if you like this sort of thing. :smiley:

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