Hi, everyone! Decided to share my little achievement with you all.
After Intermediate Book Club stopped its activity I decided to go on my own reading journey. So I went to our local Japanese library to see what they have, and this time I wanted to read manga instead of books. Our library recently got a fair amount of different manga, but one series grabbed my attention immediately:
I watched the anime 4-5 years ago and I remembered that I loved it and wanted to know how it ended eventually.
21 volumes seemed like a lot and I was unsure if I could make it, but I decided to give it a try. There were some tough places, but I managed to make it and overall it was a great experience. Reading manga in Japanese was my dream, and now I can actually do it. The dreams come true.
Anyway, maybe it’s not such a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but you know what they say: 千里の道も一歩から
My next goal in reading is to read 100 books (including manga). 100 is a nice number and it somehow motivates me to read more.
Looking forward to seeing your reading achievements/goals!
BTW here is my 読書メーター page if anyone is interested:
You can see there what I’ve read/am reading and also share what you’ve read/are reading!
That’s awesome, congratulations! Libraries are the best
Right now I’m (slowly) reading One Punch Man. となりのヤングジャンプ has it (and a bunch of others) available online, which is nice and convenient. I want to catch up so I don’t have to wait for season 2 of the anime, but I still have about 135 chapters to go, and new ones are still coming out!
Congrats!!! That’s really terrific achievement and a great goal to aim too.
How long did it take to tackle the whole series? What can you say about the progress from that first volume until the last one. About the time spended looking for new vocab for example initially and then at the end.
I’m still reading 小学生 aimed book series, but I think the 100 book goal it’s resounding with me already … I wonder what kind of book and level will be that 100th book …
Please keep sharing those achievements, it’s very inspiring to read about the actual use of the language from people after they’ve tackle (or better put “review alredy”) the basics, including the WK phase.
So, you want to know everything, aren’t you Okay, here you go:
It took me almost exactly 2 months. 1 volume per 3 days on average.
Volumes 1-7 were covered in the anime adaptation, so it was an easy start since I was familiar with the plot. After that it started to become more difficult and peaked at vol. 10-11, but after that difficulty level started to drop and was pretty comfortable until the end.
I don’t actually keep track of those things, but I think it felt pretty constant throughout the series. I would say the main difficulty for me in this series was in difficult wording and writing style at some places (mainly internal monologues about feelings and emotions), so getting used to the writing style was a huge help in the end.
Now that you said that, I think it should be something special. I think it would be cool if I could finish another series right on the 100th or something like that.
Also, thanks for introducing us to 読書メーター. Really helps me to stay motivated about reading.
… wow… seems pretty much like the speed at which I’ll read in my native language …
Ohh… Good to know that even if vocab can be settle after getting acquainted with some thousand more words there still will be new challenges at grasping upcoming readings
My next challenge after finishing the 小学生 graded series looks like this
I’m not quite at that stage yet (just finished my first N3 level graded reader without having to look up anything) but I have 15 volumes of Natsume Yuujinchou staring at me that need to be read…
^^^ There were multiple issues with that book club and I hope we can overcome them one day. But for now your best bet is just to start reading whatever you find interesting and not rely on any book clubs.
Niiice! Congratulations!
I’m currently through 4 volumes of death note and started reading 亜人 (ajin) a few days ago. Want to order the full set of 東京グール as well but I need to stop the drunk japanese amazon late night shopping until I actually finish what I’ve already got.
We’re officially reading the second item listed in your picture (bright green border) which uses furigana. This is linked to in the book club thread, so you could always go there to make sure you’re getting the right one. You could technically also get the one immediately to its left, which doesn’t use furigana. But it might be a little harder to follow the group discussion since the page numbers won’t line up.
@OmukaiAndi Can you drop a link to that first one in your picture? It’s slightly different from how it’s listed in my search. (My search shows the promotional cover for the movie and lists a different release date, but I still think it’s the same.)
… I wonder what kind of book and level will be that 100th book 
…
Thanks for the tip!
Okay, here you go:
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