[2024] 多読/extensive reading challenge

If you like 獣の奏者 both style- and contents-wise, then 鹿の王 should be for you. It’s quite a bit heavier on the medical side, but what it touches upon should not be surprising if you were halfway awake during biology lessons at school.

Other than that, I linked a few book reviews below the Big Table™ but I don’t know whether they can match the level of pulp that you’re looking for? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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薬屋のひとりごと
I’m reading it at the moment, judging from the books you’ve read I think you might like it. Read あらすじ for more details.
I recommend this book specifically to you. To anyone else I recommend not to read it unless they are interested in medieval Chinese palace setting.

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Wow, that must have been pretty expensive. Have those books arrived yet?

Well now you’re just making me want to read it! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I’m joking, but 薬屋のひとりごと was already on my ‘want to read eventually’ list.

I’m curious why you actively recommend against it - does the setting make it hard to read because of terminology etc? Do you think it’d be uninteresting because the setting plays such a heavy role?

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Sending with boat would have been the cheapest option from JapanPost, and maybe if I had picked that they’d currently be on the way to me. :sob: But I changed my mind because of a certain virus and instead went with SAL (not even sure what kind of shipping that is) which conveniently stopped working right about when my packages should have left Japan (I was already back in Sweden), so they didn’t get anywhere. They are currently with a friend of mine in Japan, waiting for JapanPost to start shipping to Sweden again, and then I’ll probably pay more for air shipping since a shorter shipping time will make it more likely to actually get going and arrive. :disappointed_relieved:

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Yes, especially at the beginning. Gets easier near the middle of the book though.

For me personally the setting is a big deal, so yes. To be fair though, I’m not really interested in old-times settings, but somehow I keep reading this book, so I guess that means something too.

That mostly aimed at people with less experience in reading Japanese books. If you find the premise interesting and you are okay with imperial palace setting, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t read it.

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Finished キノ last week after a few weeks of laziness. Have had some difficulties keeping my reading habits during the isolation but I’m getting the hang of it again. Overall I was quite surprised how the themes got quite dark, although the middle of the book was quite a slog at times.

Continuing now with キッチン! We had this for required reading in high school so I’m curious to know how much I remember :smile: Judging from the beginning, not a lot…

Also CAKE. Or more specifically, チーズケーキ!

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Thank you for expounding on it! :slight_smile:

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Well, I already own the book so it will happen soonish. I was more thinking of recommandations beyond what I already own :stuck_out_tongue: (thought about that when I wrote the list)

Oh, yes, I remember looking at that and thinking it sounds interesting. Thanks!

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Finally set some more specific goals. They’re more like vague aspirations, though, so if I feel like having those numbers is stressing me out, I will go back to my ever-forgiving question marks.

Yesterday I finished two manga series, and am not going to start new ones in their place, resolve face. Next short-term goal is to finish とらドラ 5.

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Great news! All currently published books are available at my local library!
Bad news: they are all rented out, which means that at least a few people are concurrently reading them right now. :confused:

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:+1: Wasn’t sure whether you were just listing your books but were not sure whether you actually wanted to read them. So I thought I’d give it a nudge :wink:

By the way, this one is also available online at 小説: 薬屋のひとりごと
Of course, it’s not as nice as a book, especially in the HTML page format. There is also a PDF export, which may reduce the pain somewhat… But I expect you to want to wait for the book, so this is more a hint for others who don’t have other cheap/free means of acquiring the book.

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Hey it was my first time adding myself to a leaderboard. Sorry if I made a mistake!

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I alphabetised you :wink:

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Oh oops! Thank you!!

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I’ve probably mentioned it here a couple of times already, but 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん was still the best time I ever had with a Japanese book. It’s short, but incredibly funny and heartwarming and touching. So if you haven’t read that already, I definitely recommend it.

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Starting to get into the 多読 thing. I read primarily on the weekends but I spend lots of time on it. I read two volumes of Soul Eater on Sunday… and then another half a volume in bed, instead of sleeping (against my better judgement).

Reading is becoming much easier and more fun. And it’s also fun to do WK in parallel. I was doing new lessons recently and got a few kanji that I already saw in Soul Eater (e.g. 斬、霧). So, I remembered them effortlessly :grin:

I have a growing wishlist too! The plan is to finish Soul Eater within a few months, read another manga with furigana and then try reading Konosuba. I watched the anime, so I hope it’ll make it a bit easier.

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Pff, anyway they just updated their schedule saying that they will remain closed until the end of the state of emergency… so one more month.

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I saw some of you tried ordering books from Amazon Japan after the lockdown started. Do you know if they send them internationally already? (I am specifically interested in deliveries to EU)

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I can only speak to shipments to the US, but I can say that I ordered a book from Amazon Japan last week and got it this past Monday, so no issues with DHL to US at the moment.

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