[2024] 多読/extensive reading challenge

Hmm, in some ways I agree, but… the way it’s framed made me feel very much like both of them were rejecting their “other half”. It wasn’t so much “I’m going to embrace being a human because I want to live in the human world” as it was “I am disgusted by my own wolf nature”. I realise that then the whole arc with Sohei represents her somewhat coming to terms with her wolf side after all, but the “choice” they make still feels… I don’t know, kind of damaging and unhealthy, to me? Like, in order to belong they have to reject and/or hide their full natures. It just doesn’t feel like a particularly uplifting conclusion when I actually dwell on it :sweat_smile:

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I guess I should’ve been more clear :sweat_smile: I got that, I just thought the whole “these kids are hiding, meanwhile her mom is on the brink of death” thing was kinda flimsy.

Your point of view on their choices is one I hadn’t considered, but idk, I still feel like they could’ve done a little more with the two of them living as おおかみこども instead of one or the other.

It was still a good book all around, just not without it’s flaws.

It’s been quite a while since I was into reading novels, so I think I still need to get used to not liking the entire book :joy:

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Oh dang, I was actually wondering whether you meant this literally or metaphorically :rofl: But then you said something about maybe missing some nuances, and so I figured that you might maybe actually mean it literally :woman_facepalming: Sorry!

If you want more practice, you might consider reading 時をかける少女 - seems like the entire book club more or less did not like it :joy_cat:

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:joy: in fact, it was especially like this situation, because most people found the conclusion specifically unsatisfying :grin:

btw I do not mean to bash your interpretation / enjoyment of おおかみ - I really love discussing books and things, regardless of agreement or disagreement :blush:

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Oh no worries, I don’t feel bashed at all! I find it particularly interesting to see that and what you did not like about it. I think I partly like this story because it somehow resonates with some of my personal experiences, which of course blurs everything a bit for me, and so it is nice to be able to also see through the (more realistic) eyes of un-blurred readers :wink:

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I need help deciding my next book! I’ve boiled it down to these three.

  • 夜市
  • キッチン
  • 時をかける少女

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After Kino maybe 時をかける少女 would also be on the easier side but at least it would be a quick read. Feel free to elaborate :slight_smile:

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About that vote ^^

I haven’t read 夜市 so I’m really only deciding between 時 and キッチン here. With キッチン being pretty much my favourite of the book club picks and 時 my least favourite that’s an easy decision. :see_no_evil:

As for why - 時 was a bit of dry read for me. It’s kind of old too, so I guess that makes sense? Some of the kana/kanji usage choices were a bit awkward too, but that’s easy enough to get used to. (Like かの女 for example ^^;) And like has been mentioned a bit above, no one really liked the conclusion.

キッチン is written in first person, which already makes it a bit easier to read I think. It’s not all that long and it doesn’t have any fantasy elements, so no unusual vocab; The protag is very straight forward, so there’s no fancy metaphors either. It does use all the kanji, but I don’t think there’s any particularly unusual ones in there. All these factors might make it one of the easiest intermediate book club picks actually.

In the end go with what interests you the most in that moment, since reading’s supposed to be fun and all. ^^

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Aye. To be clear, @morteasd, the 時をかける少女 novel is not the book of the film-of-the-book anime film - it’s more that the anime film was inspired by the 1983 live-action film, which itself was based on the book.

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Here’s my summary of 時をかける少女:

  • Interesting premise and mystery at the beginning
  • Nothing happens
  • Nothing happens
  • Nothing happens
  • Well that’s weird
  • Oh, it’s done
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Sounds an awful lot like what I felt reading Murakami :eyes:

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With Murakami I always feel that „Well that’s weird“ by far outweighs „Nothing happened“ though :joy_cat:

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Thanks everyone :slight_smile: I am leaning towards キッチン but I can’t see the votes unless I vote myself. Kinda odd the poll creator has to do that.

I wonder if I close the poll will I be able too see it or if the results just disappear for me.

I reported this to Discourse a couple months ago. It got some likes, but no direct response from staff on changing this. I’ll ask again.

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So I think I’m going to pull the plug on 霧のむこうのふしぎな町。 I started it roughly a month ago, and I’m only on chapter three. Admittedly, there’s been stuff going on in my personal life (death of an immediate family member) but three chapters in a month is not great for me. I keep telling myself I’m going to focus on powering through it, only to fall asleep a page in.
I’m not sure if the problem is the difficulty level (there seems to be a lot of dialect) or if it’s just not the right story for me. My favourite genres are horror/josei/drama/trash and I generally don’t like fantasy, so I guess it makes sense that I’m not enjoying a whimsical fantasy story about an elementary school student.
At the rate I’m going, I won’t hit my target of 6 books and 12 manga this year, so it’s time to say adios.
It might be time to stop thinking about finding books that are ‘easy’ and just focus on picking a book that I actually want to read.

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I am finding it strangely satisfying and thus motivational to be able to click ‘reading along’ in the weekly book club polls.

Manga volume count for the year at 70. However, I’m about to finish my main squeeze, and after that I’m unsure if I’ll still hit a volume a day pace. This is when I’m glad not to have set a yearly goal–if I end up reading a bit less manga a day, that’s all right.

Wの悲劇 reading is going well! Despite the interesting kanji usage, I think it’s relatively easy to follow. The sentences are clearly arranged, and one reason I choose mysteries is that I find the plots (in the type of mysteries I like) to be defined and understandable. The characters have goals, and the plot moves along step by step, that sort of thing. Also I just like mysteries. Alibis and clues and scheming and deduction, yay!

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Just started my day of “work” by opening up 君の名は and boy am I glad I already know the story from watching the movie. The prologue would’ve thrown me for an absolute loop otherwise.

The only way to know who is talking is that 三葉 uses 私 and 瀧 uses 俺, it flipped back between them sometimes after just a single sentence.

Add to that vocab like 車輛 instead of 電車, kanji like 摑む in place of 掴む, this is going to be quite the bumpy ride and if I didn’t know what was going on already, I don’t know that I’d be capable of finishing it before it’s due back at the library.

I think I’m gonna aim for a slightly easier book after this one to give myself a bit of a break :joy:

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I’ve seen that つかむ before. I think that might actually be a somewhat common variant of 国.

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I’m still fairly new to reading native content, so that wouldn’t surprise me. My vocab is one of my weakest points (both passive and active) when I’m both reading and speaking, which is one big reason I’m tackling reading so hard. This will be my 6th Japanese book ever, 3 of which are from the 銭天堂 series which uses fairly basic vocab and kanji since it’s more aimed at kids.

Very excited to be learning new things, there was just a lot thrown at me in the first handful of pages that required a dicitonary lookup :upside_down_face:

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I’ve only finished 5 books myself (currently reading two, somewhat slowly). According to Book Meter I’ve also read 69 volumes of manga though. Next thing I finish will be my 75th book/manga total. :grin:

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Meanwhile in beginner book club.

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