[2025] 多読/extensive reading challenge

That’s the one my local library has too, so I can have a look sometime.
(At the same time, that’s ~1700 pages total… I’m not sure I care enough about the topic to go through all that)

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If it’s available in electronic form, one could try DeepLing / ChatGPTing through it via brute force. YMMV, tho :joy:

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Wait, is it? :flushed: I’m reading the PDF version ATM which is roughly 280 pages… still talking about the Alexander Bennett translation. Could you send a pic of the book(s) if you happen there?
Maybe I’m just reading the short version or an abstract (of 280 pages, lol)

Edit

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More books arrived:

Feeling guilty I haven’t read the last pile yet.

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The old Japanese version? I assume they would just be incapable of making any sense of it, but I don’t need an English version when a modern Japanese version exists anyway.

The link you posted to the modern Japanese version mentions that the original was 1344 pages. Adding the notes, it makes sense that it would reach ~1700 pages (although I guess it depends on the page size). The first part (上) is 582 pages long (which you can check by clicking “learn more” and then select the paper version instead of kindle)

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Will you be reading 告白 with the mystery book club? :eyes:

Also I loved 本を守ろう

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This is the level I currently am at english and the level I aim at Japanese :star_struck: (I’m far away)

Oh okay, there was a misunderstanding, my bad, I think I begun talking about the Japanese translation and then moved to the english version which is a translation of Alex Bennett. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the dialogue when chatting with people of different time zones :joy:

That said I’m curious about what is omitted in the english translation since as you can check in the last screen I posted, it’s said that it’s comprehensive of the entirety of 上 and 中 and the most relevant part of 下

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I don’t think that’s the books they are referring to, since (I assume) they translated directly from the original text, not the modern translation.
The original text spans 11 books, but still, they don’t look like they would reach 1000+ pages in total.

Also, it would be wild to only translate the first ~25%, so I don’t know.

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I have some cdjapan points that are about to expire, so I had a look at maybe putting together a book order. But it turns out that even with the points it would be cheaper to buy from amazon or kinokuniya because they charge less for delivery, plus cdjapan stocks fewer books. And I don’t have any book club books I need to buy right now, and I have a pretty big backlog. So I guess I’ll just let the points expire, but it feels a bit sad to let that happen…

(For 4 books, to the UK: cdjapan 3943 yen shipping; amazon 3396 yen; kinokuniya 3500 yen. At 5 and 6 books Kinokuniya becomes cheaper than Amazon.)

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No romance? The title lied to me! :stuck_out_tongue:

I did not know we had a mystery club even. Probably read something else first. I’ve been playing mostly some games instead lately.

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It’s actually over on the Natively forums (would link but on mobile right now). Definitely not a romance book :joy:

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It’s here: Home thread for 告白 🪑 🙊 - Book Clubs - Natively Forums

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Just finished 今昔百鬼拾遺 河童, which is the second book in the series by 京極夏彦. These continue to be really good, assuming you like murder mystery with a strong dose of folklore explanation and theorizing. (You should start with the first book in the series, 鬼, though, because the tail end of this book contains spoilers for that one.)

I have book 3 (天狗) in my to-read pile, but I shall try to read some other things first and save that treat for later :slight_smile:

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Read あひるの空 vol 2-3 in about a day and a half. Have days where I don’t read anything and then this. :sweat_smile:

Would have continued reading it, but have much more waiting to be read…

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I read some 西の善き魔女 today and there are many references to 狼と七匹の子山羊. The third chapter was even titled 子ヤギたちの行方. That’s an old discussion by now, but the fact that it’s just dropped without any form of explanation confirms my image that it’s a generally well known story (at least in Japan, but I stand by my affirmation that it was also common in France when I was a kid).

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  • I finished the first アルスラーン戦記 novel a few days ago. The setting (medieval fantasy based on Persia) is right up my alley, but the book was just OK - not sure if I’ll read more of them or not. The writing and characters just felt too shallow for me.
  • On the bright side, I started 探偵ガリレオ (the first book in the series that includes 容疑者Xの献身) and it immediately reminded me that this 東野 圭吾 guy certainly knows how to write a book :wink: . Engaging story, smooth read - just some good stuff.
  • I’m a bit behind on my reading goals for the year but hopefully my latest order will help me out:
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Ready for more adventures with Saikawa and Moe, I see :eyes: :sparkles: :durtle_noice:

(I can’t believe the book club is halfway through the series already)

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I’m also jumping straight into book 6 of Mori’s V-Series because it was the only decent-looking book I could find that’s set on a cruise ship :sweat_smile:. I wanted a train-book and a boat-book for vacation reading.

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It feels nice to finish a couple of actual novels and not just something from the 夜カフェ series :stuck_out_tongue:

I decided to get back into reading かがみの孤城 since that was really popular, and I had already started it a while back as well. I’m 21% into it already. I like that it keeps you wanting to read like チュベローズで待ってる AGE22, but unlike that book, the language is a lot easier to understand so I can literally pick it up at any point and keep reading without getting tired.

I think I’ll start on コンビニ人間 after since that tied in the poll. It seems intriguing but I was a little tired from reading about Japanese societal issues in チュベローズ (especially when I have to see it every day) so I needed a break :sweat_smile:

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I read the first and unfortunately probably only volume (it was released over a year ago and there’s no sign of the second volume) of the manga 美少女になってちやほやされて人生イージーモードで生きたい!, and I quite like the protagonist’s attitude to things.

Just spoilers for the premise of the manga and the first chapter: (not really much of anything not mentioned in the blurb, just with my take on things added to it)

She wishes to be reborn as a girl, gets her wish fulfilled and becomes a girl, is immediately 100% aboard the girl train and then basically never brings up that she used to be a guy again even in her internal narration. After that it’s just a story about a girl with social anxiety trying to become a vtuber.

It might not necessarily have been the author’s intention but with the story playing out like that the protagonist reads a lot like a trans girl (since she’s quite happy about becoming a cute girl, always calls herself a girl or woman in her internal narration, immediately switches pronouns etc… and well, she also wished to become a girl in the first place). So I quite enjoyed reading it as basically a story about a trans girl trying to overcome social anxiety through vtubing, or at least the closest thing to that I’m likely to actually find a manga about.

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