[2022] 多読/extensive reading challenge

[valkow]

@seanblue Hm, I don’t know how quickly I read objectively, only that it feels slow subjectively. (I can’t help but compare it to reading in English, or to a lesser extent manga, now.) I read faster than I used to and slower than I will in the future, but other than that I don’t know! Also, I definitely do the same thing with checking where if the break is too far away I might just give up.

@NicoleRauch I have a novel goal, but it’s a time goal rather than pages or percentages. Maybe I should consider one based on distance, even if it’s only sometimes! Glad to hear that what you’re doing sounds like it’s really working for you. <3

[NicoleRauch]

Today I finished 鹿の王 vol. II (took me a bit less than 3 weeks, phew!) Really happy with my progress so far. I picked up a fair number of vocab, which of course allowed me to read more quickly. Curious to see how this will pay off in the long run…

For the book itself, it managed to keep my interest at a high level most of the time. We continue to see the two main protagonists that were introduced in vol. I, and whenever the perspective switches to the other one, we see an appropriate cliffhanger Overall, there is lots of talk of medicine and illnesses and research and treatments, but I did not find that boring or strenuous at all. The vocab was really moderate and/or plausible (i.e. although my dictionary would not cover the special words, just from looking at the kanji the meaning was clear to me). Also, some decent “supernatural / fantasy” elements were introduced, which made for an interesting mix. Sometimes there were some political discussions, and those were a bit more straining for me. Also, the introduction of the world and its geography early in vol. I turned out to become very important, so I was a bit bummed that I did not take proper notes back then. But I started to take notes right from the start of this volume, mainly because all of a sudden there were a lot of people interacting and it was very helpful for the general understanding to be able to keep track of who is who. (Many of them already got introduced in the last chapter of vol. I so I had to backfill my notes a bit.)

Also, I’m quite proud that this has been my thickest book so far Now on to volume 3!

[Houndstooth]

@NicoleRauch

Now on to volume 3!

I’ve got this series on my “to-read” list, but I had no idea there were more than 2 books Where did you find the third one?

[NicoleRauch]

It depends on the series, actually… Wikipedia says: “Kadokawa have originally published the series in two volumes in September 2014, and then republished it in four reprinted volumes between June and July 2017.” That means, vol. 1+2 of the version I am reading is actually vol. 1 of the original edition…

If you look at Bookwalker, this does not help to clarify things, unfortunately

Details for book series and volumes

The series I’m reading is the 2017 one with these covers:

but there also seems to be a trailing fifth volume:

plus they offer a series with full furigana, of which the third volume was just released (so I have no idea how these three relate to the other series…):

(I do like the kanji art on the 鹿 kanji, though )

[Radish8]

@NicoleRauch

The series I’m reading is the 2017 one with these covers:

I literally have this on my to-read list purely because of the covers. I’m a simple radish - if your book has a beautiful cover, I will pick it up.

[NicoleRauch]

Honestly, I also fell for the cover the first time I saw it! That was way back, on FloFlo. I had no idea about the book or anything, though. Through the 獣の奏者 reading group, I came to value Uehara’s writing style and contents, and so I decided to try it out. So far, the cover did not disappoint!

[Radish8]

The best thing in the world is when the cover does not lead you astray

[Ditto20]

100! Even if most of it is manga, but it’s still a cool number

[Houndstooth]

Ohhhhh okay, gotcha. When I searched it on Bookmeter I only saw the original print. I assume the re-prints are the same? If so I may read those instead just so it’s easier to find clear cut breaks, and the originals are pretty thicc long books.

[NicoleRauch]

@Houndstooth

When I searched it on Bookmeter I only saw the original print.

Yes, sometimes I also have issues finding something on Bookmeter. With this link you get them all ^^

@Houndstooth

I assume the re-prints are the same?

I would expect them to be identical. (But I’m really just guessing here.)

@Houndstooth

just so it’s easier to find clear cut breaks

The books are actually quite neatly divided into chapters (章) with sections in them; usually one book (from the 4-volume edition) has about 3 chapters with 6-9 sections each. So there are plenty of clear-cut breaks in the books, but I agree that it is much nicer to be able to say “I finished a book!” more often (and less intimidating to tackle a smaller book).

[Naphthalene]

Nice! I’m hoping to reach that number this year, actually.
(It was not the original plan at all but at my current reading rate I will get there and then some, so why not).
Also kinda envious of all those ハイキュー. That’s literally the only anime I am watching, and I have to wait until they release more episodes…

[Naphthalene]

3 days later, and I’m done with volume 4… I guess I’m going to run out quickly (there are only 9 books published so far, the last one came out a couple of weeks ago).
More attempts at world building, this time! In the last volume, カタリナ (the protagonist, I don’t know if I ever mentioned her name) used her 100 in charisma to seduce (without noticing, as usual) the guy who kidnaped her, and convince him to travel with her around the world. This volume’s cover: her wearing an adventurer’s outfit and him bend under a massive backpack (and also カタリナ’s fiance, who’s not going to leave them alone).
So, we end up traveling. And the naming (or lack thereof) is quite disappointing. We have “the first town”, “the large town”, “the country-side town” and finally a named town: Noire, which is supposedly very dangerous. Of course, it is their final destination.
Anyway, this time we have some action as well, and an actually horrifying enemy. Still, カタリナ’s group is massively overpowered, so they basically just steamroll everything that comes in their way. Thanks to her past memories, カタリナ compares that to a bunch of level 99 taking a stroll through a level 1 area. It was satisfying. The “last boss” is still above their level, though, and manages to escape, most definitely coming back in a future episode (probably even the next one? Or maybe we will get something more light hearted?)
In other news, カタリナ received more confessions (and kisses) and has no idea what to do about that situation. Can’t blame her, actually.

[Radish8]

@Naphthalene

In other news, カタリナ received more confessions (and kisses) and has no idea what to do about that situation. Can’t blame her, actually.

I want so badly to read these

[seanblue]

I have no interest in reading these books at all, but @Naphthalene’s summaries are very entertaining.

[Naphthalene]

@Radish8

I want so badly to read these

@seanblue

I have no interest in reading these books at all

As I have said, the writing is quite subpar at the beginning, especially for the first volume. It’s a bit hard to recommend that book series… On the other hand, the writing is also extremely easy to read, which makes those books perfect for me at the end of a long stressful day, when I don’t want to have to think.

Technically, either of you could have a look at the original webnovel, since it’s free… but I would be really worried about the quality, considering how the edited version is.

Also, volume 5 is a collection of short stories supposedly showing what was happening behind the scene during volumes 2-4. Way to kill my momentum.

[valkow]

I realized that there was at least one book club left where the book seemed somewhat suited to me, and that I had grabbed it free from amazon, so yesterday I started the first 銭天堂 book. For once, this actually feels like 多読! I read the first story in one sitting and felt accomplished. As usual with books like this, I find the lack of kanji off-putting, but the writing was easy enough to follow regardless so it wasn’t frustrating. I probably won’t read any of the other stories in one sitting, because my attention span is strongest at the beginning of books, but I’m hoping to zip through this one as much as possible. As was part of the motivation, I’m enjoying reading the book club posts. <3

My next goal is to hit the halfway mark on my manga goal for the year. Today is day 143 and I have read 146 volumes, so I am on track. July 1st is day 183, so my short-term goal is 37 volumes by July 1st. My volume-finishing speed is definitely a bit slower than at the beginning of the year–I had more of a buffer and have eaten through most of it–but with a tangible goal in mind I’m hoping to keep to a goal-achieving pace.

My secondary, even shorter-term goal right now is to finish one of my close-to-finished manga series, since I’m still aiming to cut down the number of series I’m reading. Those series are ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 (reading volume 13 of 14), 毒姫 (reading volume 2 of 5), プラネテス (reading volume 2 of 4), and 飛べない魔女 (reading volume 2 of 3). Once I finish one, the next goal will be to finish another, and so on until I’m done with them. Then, I think, I will be done to six series, which is the number I had decided was semi-reasonable. (Then the challenge will be not to start anything new until I finish one of the longer-term manga series…)

[seanblue]

Why’d you pick such an aggressive goal of finishing one volume of manga per day? For me that would kill all the enjoyment.

Unrelated, but have you read any 4-koma manga as part of this goal? I ask because most of the 4-koma manga I’ve read are relatively dense and take me a lot longer to finish that regular manga, despite usually being a lot shorter in length.

[valkow]

It doesn’t feel like an aggressive goal to me. I didn’t set the goal until months into the year, during which time I was already reading at that pace naturally. So whatever pace you’re reading at now, it’s like setting a goal to maintain that pace.

I am currently reading 月刊少女野崎くん, which is 4-koma, but I think that’s it? I read maybe 20-30 pages of the first ご注文はうさぎですか? volume but it didn’t call to me enough to keep going at this point, and I think part of it was that the format is less appealing to me. (Though I am basing on that on a very small sample size, so we’ll see if that turns out to be true.)

[seanblue]

@valkow

I think part of it was that the format is less appealing to me

I can understand that. I kind of like reading two manga at once, one regular and one 4-koma, because they are very different experiences. Back when I still working in an office () I kept a 4-koma manga there to read one chapter during lunch.

[lantana]

I’ve finished reading おおかみこどもの雨と雪. For a book about wolf-children, this was a lot more slice of life than I was expecting. It’s very sweet and pulls at the heart strings. I think this has to be my second favourite book I’ve read in Japanese so far (君の膵臓を食べたい is still my favourite). I read it in a little over a week which is a record for me.

Next up is 氷菓. I plan to follow the bookclub schedule at an accelerated pace. So I’ll do each week’s reading in a day and hopefully finish in a little over two weeks.