@Kyayna@Radish8 I think whether a split happens soon will largely depend on how the next vote goes. If the winner is a relatively straightforward manga, I think it’s somewhat likely.
Personally, I don’t want to just read books though. It’s very draining (for me at least) to read a book, so I like to balance that out with manga. That said, there are still more intermediate level manga that we can sprinkle in. I’ve been eyeing 放浪息子 and うさぎドロップ, both of which have little to no furigana and cover slightly more complex real-world topics.
I recently found out that audiobooks are great remedy for that, since you can “read” at times when standard reading is difficult/impossible (like walking/chores/commute/shopping; it’s surprising how many “reading” hours you can squeeze that way).
This. I’ve been trying to find time to read Planetes in English and play Steins;Gate in English for months now. Plus I want to reread The Reckoners. Maybe I just have to skip one Japanese book and literally do all of that in three months.
I don’t think I could stay focused long enough to listen to an audiobook. When reading I tend to reread sentences and paragraphs sometimes, which would not be easy to do with an audiobook while driving.
Hmm, yeah. It’s probably not for everyone.
Before I’ve started, I remember thinking “I CAN read myself, why would I want to listen to someone reading the book”, but I was positively surprised.
Maybe some day my Japanese listening skills would be good enough to listen to JP audiobook (that seems like a good listening practice )
I’m weirdly averse to trying audiobooks, given that I used to listen to cassette tapes of children’s books avidly as a kid. I think it’s because I’m a fast reader so the thought of listening to someone arduously read a book isn’t very appealing. Which is stupid so I’m gonna try to listen to an audiobook!
I think everyone has short stories but that the different editions have different short stories, if I remember rightly?
I do. I read 3/4 of the next story, but it’s a bit boring, to be honest. I haven’t tried the third story (I’m reading lv.999の村人 instead at the moment )
Ah good, I was hoping there would be a helpful 先輩 who could give that sort of useful information!
It really depends on who is reading. When I was breastfeeding in the middle of the night some years ago (and not wanting to turn the lights on, which makes it challenging to read!) I listened to a number of Alexander McCall Smith books about the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency, which is set in Africa, and hearing it all read with genuine African accents was magic.
I think I’d be up for reading the other short stories, too. I totally understand wanting to read manga for something that takes a little less effort, but I’ve found so much more satisfaction in reading 時をかける少女 that I want to simply read light novels/books for awhile. I’ve found that reading manga makes my learning feel rather broken or disjointed. Of course, I’m sure I’d enjoy it more if it was a story I absolutely loved, but I haven’t found that yet.
時をかける少女 is great because it’s so short. Other relatively short books (~200 pages) could still take 5-6 months at 10 pages per week, but I don’t think I could read any faster…
Yeah, I understand that. It’s harder to find a book that’s more suitable for a book club like this, though honestly I haven’t done a lot of research on books that may be comparable in length to 時をかける少女 so I’d be curious to see. I personally don’t mind if it takes that long to read a book (I’d probably try to speed up my pace though), but I know that others in the book club may not agree or may not have time for that.
Yeah, I actually still have really vivid memories of some of the readers from those tapes I listened to as a kid. Goodnight Mister Tom stands out in my mind I’ve read those! I’ll look for good reviews of the actual audiobooks as well as the book itself ^^
Yeah, I think I’d like the completion of feeling like I’ve read the whole physical book. They look to be literally only 6 - 7 pages each in my copy.
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