[2024] 多読/extensive reading challenge

Hmm~ How old is that post? :thinking:

I found something on the Discourse meta about the edit option disappearing after two months?

Looking back at the first post I made here in February, I do seem to be unable to edit in any way.

There is a thread talking about how mods can edit the setting, so if it’s important, and the mods don’t see a downside, a mod can be pinged with the request to change it.

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I think the default is 30 days, but I have no idea if WaniKani changed that setting.

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Well, I’m finally done with the 新世界より series. I’m not sure it’s the longest thing I have read in Japanese (1Q84 would be a close contender) but it sure felt like it.
The third book is at the same time my favorite and least favorite in the series.
Things keep happening and it’s hard to stop reading although the part in Tokyo felt kinda long and very reminiscent of the parts where the main characters are running away from other バケネズミ, like the 土蜘蛛 in the first volume or 奇狼丸 in the second one… At the same time, this part was full of gore and properly terrifying at times (well, I might be just weak to that kind of things though). The scene in the hospital in particular, and the whole war in general… Plus the idea of what would happen to the babies kidnapped by 野狐丸…

Anyway, I definitely recommend the series overall, with the caveat it’s a pretty hard read, both from the language point of view and from the content point of view.

Also, I have now reached 15 books read this year, reaching my stretch goal. I guess I have to stretch further to 24…

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That means you have time to read 魔法少女育成計画 with me. :stuck_out_tongue:

Congrats on finishing 新世界より. How many more years of studying and reading do I need before I can try it? :joy:

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I’m planning to, yes.

Well, there are some advanced grammar point (as in, they are classified as N1), but as far as I can tell, the sentences were always straightforward and relatively easy to understand (I’m probably not the best judge of that, though).
The main problem is the use of rare kanji with no furigana (I think it’s mostly 準一級 from the kanken). Without learning a fair amount beyond what WK teaches, looking up words can be fairly painful. And there are lots of words including crazy buddhist terms and fake species names from the future. Floflo can deal with most of that (the crazy species name have furigana anyway), but only the first volume is in there.
I did use Floflo for the first volume by the way, and it tremendously helped, even at frequency 3. It also made the next two volumes a lot less painful.

So, actually, you can just check freq 3 on floflo for the first volume. Whenever that number stops looking scary is probably the right time :stuck_out_tongue:

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My brain still tries to check out when I see a long string of kanji, even if the meaning is very clear and straightforward. :sweat_smile:

13 back-to-back kanji is my personal record so far.

西鳳民国大統領暗殺未遂事件

西鳳民国「せいほうみんごく」is a made-up country in the game.

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I definitely do that sometimes too, especially if there’s a word I haven’t seen much mixed in :sweat_smile:

And that’s a large-ish amount of Kanji in a row! Doesn’t beat my 20-something I posted about earlier in this thread yet though :smirk_cat:

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It was fortunate this was an easy one, especially with 4 of the kanji just being a country name.

True!

Not sure I want to beat your record, though. >> 20 is just… come on!

I wouldn’t want to puzzle with a string that long if the meaning was actually unclear to me.

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If I saw that many kanji in a row I’d start to wonder if I’d stumbled into some Chinese.

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This is basically what starting up the Japanese version of Dies Irae(it’s a visual novel that reaaally likes using uncommon Kanji And vocab) felt like when I first did it

Maybe I should give it another try sometime :thinking: …in the distant future

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I’m currently reading the second book of the ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 series and came across a massive breach in the 4th wall :p.

When talking about the events of the first book, the protagonist says

そのことをまともに語ると、一冊の本になってしまいそうだ。

:stuck_out_tongue: Well, you’re right about that.

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Cheeky. :joy:

Reminds me of the anime version of 斉木楠雄のΨ難.

While working on a school project, they get into what they think are the weirdest / most messed up Japanese folk stories. Two of them have a go, but when it cuts to the third kid saying he has one too, the voice over cuts in:

「窪谷須君の話は原作漫画でお楽しみください」

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Finished the first chapter of ひぐらしのなく頃に

higurashi-onikakushi

only 7 more to go :sweat_smile:

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Only 200 hours to go! :muscle:

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Just finished ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 2, and it was a very nice read!
Very relaxing compared to other things I’ve been reading recently too.
It’s also nice to have protagonists closer to my age (even though they are still quite younger) instead of teenagers.

In terms of content, I was sucker-punched by the part on “a clockwork orange”.

Spoiler for the first chapter of ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 2

For once, the mystery revolved around a book I have read already! Yay, I have a shot at guessing the thing, I thought naively.

Turns out the twist comes from the fact that, when that book got published in the US, publishers didn’t like the end and changed it!! The author reluctantly agreed to that due to external pressures. When the movie adaptation by Stanley Kubrick, which is obviously based on that version, became a hit, translations abroad basically only used the US version.

Apparently, recent translations in Japan are now based on the complete version. The fact that one character ignored the existence of that true ending meant that they couldn’t have read a new edition as they pretend they did. I also missed it, since the version I read was also incomplete :sweat_smile:

Anyway, I also love the way the interactions between the two main characters are evolving. First book, she said she doesn’t trust him (but they somehow get back on friendlier terms in the epilogue); second book, she says that she doesn’t want to ever get married (which implies no relationship either), then in the epilogue she basically accepts to go on a date. Well, one step back and two forward? Still, I wonder where this will go.

Finally, this series is officially characterized as a light novel, but I felt the quality was much higher than other light novels I have read. I will definitely keep reading this series.
I’m also thinking to recommend it to the intermediate book club, but at the same time, I’m not planning to re-read the first volume :sweat_smile: Still, recommended to anyone out there reading this. :slight_smile:

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Took me from February 19 until September 6th to play cases 1-3 (admittedly, while skipping a lot of days of reading :eyes: ).

Case 4 took me 19 days. Gee, it’s almost like knowing some grammar and actually reading 5-7 days a week gets you progress or something. Who knew?

Last case! And then I can finally say I read blundered my way through a native Japanese reading endeavour, even if it was with a shameful amount of holes where I had no real clue what was being said. You know, 多読 - getting exposure and just ploughing through. That’s what I’m telling myself, at least. :grimacing:

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I just finished reading ここにないもの.
It’s a philosophy book written as a discussion between two characters, Epsilon and Mu.
Interestingly, it’s aimed at maybe middle schoolers. It has no furigana, but doesn’t use complicated words nor kanji beyond the ones learned in primary education. If you are level 30+ on WK, you can read everything but one single word in this book. (At least I couldn’t read it; I should have looked it up)

The illustrations are extremely cute as well.

Don’t let that fool you, though, that book will make you think hard. Or maybe I’m just to dumb to handle philosophy.
In any case, despite being simple (in terms of writing) and very short, it took me 10 days to read through it. It’s not really a book you can rush through.

With all that being said, I would definitely recommend that book at the beginner book club level. If you care about this kind of topics. No matter how cute, it’s fairly dry otherwise. (So, not for the actual book club)

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Finished one book this past month and dropped the other. I really need to get back on track if I want to make my year goal.

Also, since it’s going to be the start of October tomorrow, does anyone have any recommendations for scary books? I plan on reading Kiki’s Delivery Service #2 because y’know the whole witch thing and all, though I doubt it will be a scary book. OR will it?

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Don’t know if that qualifies as “scary” in the way that you have in mind, but from some website I got a recommendation for Kirino Natsuo (桐野 夏生) who writes mystery detective stories. Her book OUT won Japan’s Grand Prix for Crime Fiction (be warned that it contains 800 pages in total, though):

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Well, it’s the end of the month, and I’m really happy with how this month turned out to be in terms of reading.

Well, when it comes to raw numbers at least. It was more light novel than literature. But hey, I had a good time at least :sweat_smile:

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