[2022] 多読/extensive reading challenge

[valkow]

Manga: two volumes up on goal pace. I finished ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 (), so I’m going to look at what I need to do next to get down to six series. (If I can ever manage that maybe from then on I won’t tend to so many rambling lists.)

List for for my own organization

1. マダム・ジョーカー (18/23, ongoing)
2. ヒカルの碁 (17/23)
3. 彼氏彼女の事情 (5/21)
4. 毒姫 (4/5)
5. ヴィンランド・サガ (3/23, ongoing)
6. 月刊少女野崎くん (3/12, ongoing)
7. 飛べない魔女 (3/3)
8. プラネテス (2/4)
9. 赤髪の白雪姫 (2/22, ongoing)

And then book club manga: 美少女戦士セーラームーン, ゆるキャン△ (between volumes), and whoops I started アオハライド.

Re: マダム・ジョーカー, I panicked to see I was at 18 of 21, but it turned out I just hadn’t bought 22 or 23 yet, and when I went to get them it turns out 24 is going to be released in July, HOORAY. I honestly don’t expect anyone here would enjoy this manga, but oh man it is just so specifically for me feeling and I love it so much. Thank you, world (/名香智子), I accept this manga gift.

Okay, six series, book clubs don’t count–I need to finish 飛べない魔女 and 毒姫, that’ll get me to seven, and then プラネテス is short, too, but I don’t want to rush that one. I’m rarely in the mood for 彼氏彼女の事情 or 赤髪の白雪姫–maybe I should pause on one or both of them. … Ah, I forget because I haven’t finished the first volume yet so it’s not in bookmeter, but I’m also in the middle of the first 約束のネバーランド, crap. I’m already planning that when I eventually finish ヒカルの碁 I’ll start ハイキュー (oh dear so many volumes), and whenever there is a long-term series spot open I’ll start Aria.

This is unrelated to my planning, but I just checked and my anki deck has 1,920 cards tagged manga (and I’ve been reading seven months or thereabouts?), so clearly all this enjoyable manga reading is also having a good effect on vocabulary acquisition, yay.

Novel: I’m enjoying ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖! It does feel pretty episodic, at least to the point I’ve reached, and I kind of wish I’d finished ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 before starting it because too much episodic-feeling novel reading makes me weirdly impatient, but it’s good! <3

[Belthazar]

@valkow

I finished ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 (),

Comments? A review?

[valkow]

I put one on bookmeter! But if you don’t want my error-ridden Japanese, I’ll say here that I thought it was wonderful, loved reading it, and am sad that it’s over. Writing this reminded me that I wanted to see what else the author has written, and this was in his biography on mangaupdates: “His work also usually has a rather laid-back, nostalgic feel with undertones of mystery; there are frequent stretches with little or no dialogue. Many of his works are also notable for their strong, independent female protagonists.” This is all accurate to ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 and how I felt about it. <3

[TamanegiNoKame]

@valkow

List for for my own organization

私立秘密組織の名前はなんだ。何のためのリストなんだ。読めば、命の保証はできますか。今募集中ですか。

[valkow]

I don’t have the mental capacity right now to respond to this in style, so I’m just gonna give it a:

[Naphthalene]

Got the 2020 update!

[QuackingShoe]

HAPPY NEW YE-

[Redglare]

Meanwhile, I got the 2019 and 2021

[valkow]

On bookmeter, I try to make myself review as much as possible, because my day-to-day includes hardly any Japanese output. Even short reviews are something! For novels I make myself do it every time, and with manga I’ve settled on making myself do it for the first volume and the last volume, at the very least. Since this is all to keep track of my reading and how I felt about it, I was thinking of putting something in the in-between volumes to note an impression even if I’m not up for words. I see a lot of reviews with stars for that, but I overthink stars, lol, and it would just stress me out. I was thinking instead I would use a system that only measures a volume against the last one, as in, I would only have to ask myself the question, did I like this as much as the last one, or more, or less? And I have some symbols to show that, but then I want to explain that in my profile (ugh words) and, again, I just don’t actively use Japanese like this very much and it’s unfortunate, please advise.

Draft

漫画について、最初の巻と最後の巻はちゃんと言葉でレビューする。他の巻は評価が以下のような感じです。
(前回より少しは好き)
(前回と同じで好き)
(前回は今回より少しは好き)

[NicoleRauch]

I must say I’ve always been impressed by your reviews Sometimes I try to write one myself but most of the time I‘m too lazy to think about something. Maybe I should write a review more often

For your manga reviews, I would not make things too complicated with the symbols and everything. I really like your descriptions in the brackets, and I think if I wanted to do such reviews, I would just use that text for each review. And if I felt like it, I could easily add another sentence, and if not, not.

(Now I feel a bit bad because I destroyed your review system! Sorry…)

[valkow]

Thank you! I can never think of anything to say, but I feel like if I stop making myself do it every time (for novels) I’ll stop doing it at all. It’s nice that you can see other people’s reviews for the same book and think, oh yeah, I liked that part, too, or oh, no, that is not how I felt about that, etc.

No destroying occurred–thanks for the feedback! I think you’re underestimating how much I don’t want to use words, though.

[afunian]

Your review system looks great to me! Im terrified of producing output, probably more so since I havent been to classes and have only once (when i was just starting) spoken Japanese to someone… Maybe in the future with more confidence and speed I can write reviews as well

[valkow]

Thank you! Also, I relate to that way more than I’d like, and I did take classes… Just getting myself to put anything in Japanese here was a struggle.

[NicoleRauch]

@valkow

I think you’re underestimating how much I don’t want to use words, though.

I think I got that in a way. I was just thinking, if you use the same phrases for your reviews each time, then maybe eventually those phrases stop being words and become symbols of their own for you. Plus, it saves you from establishing the meaning of the system of symbols and others from trying to understand what it means. (TBH I would not think of looking at somebody’s profile to find an explanation for symbols they’d use in their reviews, but maybe that’s just me…)

[NicoleRauch]

Okay, 鹿の王 III is done At the start it was a bit of a drag, because more and more details of the issue at hand were unearthed and looked at from different angles, and I found this to be quite strenuous and repetitive (probably it was just me because I did not fully understand all the fine details that were conveyed, I guess). Anyway, it got better in the second half, and towards the end more and more things started coming together in sometimes quite unexpected ways, and of course lots of Chekhov’s guns were at least brought into view again. Now I’m looking forward to the last part and how everything will be wrapped up in the end.

[jacobalbano]

For my second clear in the “other” section, I’ve just now finally finished Persona 5: Royal. I started it immediately when it came out back in December but only made it past the first boss before I had to put it on hold and my PS4 into storage. One silver lining from this COVID quarantine is that I’ve had the opportunity to get back to it. It was a 100% playthrough with all coop stories maxed and the new “true” ending completed, and I clocked in at 270 hours to the minute (though I know that number is actually very much inflated because there were times I’d leave it idling and running up the clock…turns out that the dialogue review screen doesn’t actually pause the in-game timer.

It’s definitely the most difficult thing I’ve read to date so I’m feeling quite accomplished. Not sure what I’ll move on to next but I think I’ll give games a break for a little while, or at least pick something I can play on a handheld console so I’m not tied to the TV.

[Naphthalene]

Just finished volume 9 of DanMachi. It was a reasonably good read, the author’s writing is still improving. Most of the usual problems with fan service are still here also why do you feel the need to describe the sway of everyone’s breasts? Well, to be “fair” that only happens once per female character in this book
Another thing that was a bit annoying (or, let’s say, less fun) is that one of the cool feature of the book is that you get to see characters progress in a neat numerical fashion, but no progress happened this time since character mostly just stayed home… Are they also in quarantine?
I liked the premise of this book, though, the fact that some monsters are sentient. But I really can’t understand why ベル stopped being able to properly fight monsters in general after that. Even if they have a conscience just like you, you fought actual humans and demihumans until as recently as the previous volume, and you attacked people before in a way that would have killed them had they not miraculously dodged the attack (volume 6). So, doesn’t look like you had problems then. It takes another character to spell it out for him, “if someone tries to kills you, you just try to kill them back”. (Obviously an oversimplification in general, but you don’t really have the opportunity to tell people “can’t we just talk about this” in the dungeon)

But, yeah, still fun overall. This book is also the start of a new arc according to the afterwords (well, not surprising considering it introduces a lot of stuff), so more on that next time I guess.

[seanblue]

@Naphthalene

also why do you feel the need to describe the sway of everyone’s breasts?

How else do you expect to find out?

Could be worse of course. You could be watching the anime adaption.

[seanblue]

I finished 空ろの箱と零のマリア earlier today (took about a month). It had its ups and downs, but overall I’d say it was just okay. I don’t regret reading it, but it wasn’t good enough to make me want to keep reading the series right away. The story was interesting, if a bit convoluted and bland in the end.

Next I think I will try 狼と香辛料, but I’m not exactly sure when. Maybe I’ll start it in a week or two.

[NickNickovich]

Just finished 神様のメモ帳.

It is a story about a troubled schoolboy (surprise!) who gets involved with a group of people who call themselves NEETs (plot twist: they are not NEETs) and a gang of self-proclaimed yakuza. During the course of the story they together try to find the source of a strange new drug which has become popular on the streets of their town. So, this is a kind of a detective story, but the large part of it is about our main character trying to find his place in society.

Overall, I quite liked the story. It wasn’t stellar, but not bad either. The characters were rather interesting though, looking forward to learning more about them in the next volumes.

In terms of difficulty, the book wasn’t easy. I was hoping that moving from medieval settings was going to solve many problems with understanding, but then I saw all that slang and references to modern Japanese society and thought: “Here we go again”. Also, one of the characters loves pseudo-philosophical rants which made reading quite painful at times.

While reading this book I also learned that reading on a phone with bookwalker app is better than reading from a computer screen and that reading mode actually makes reading more pleasant.