Manga: RG Veda
Book: Alanna: The First Adventure, Pillars of the Earth, and The Well of Ascension.
That’s so awesome. Could you put up a photo of the Shades of Magic books that you have? I’m really curious as to how they look (yes I do judge a book by its cover 
)
A+++ dang that bookshelf is so boss!
That’s my dream room for the future. I would literally sleep on the floor just to make room for extra books.
I’ve been reading the web novel for 転生したらスライムだった件 very recently. It has a decent English translation, so if I can’t figure something out (and I often am confounded) there is a pretty direct translation I can take a look at. 
I still have my training wheels on, I suppose. I have some physical books, but those are still a bit too hard for me to get through.
The chapters are decently short also, which helps because it’s easier to pace out, but is a change from what I normally read in English. I can’t marathon read in Japanese yet. 
(I am a bit too fond of epic length stories, I just love all the content available to sink into!)
In any case, web novels have been my saving grace, if not for them I’d probably be penniless and unable to afford my subscription here. 
Sweet! I love the Alanna books, and I greatly enjoyed the Mistborn series. Do you think Pillars of the Earth would appeal to me in that case?
At the moment I am reading the Lady of the Lake, the last book in the Witcher series.
So I have a bit of a casual interest in Shinto and Japanese history and heard about Kojiki, Nihongi, ect. Can anyone here recommend a decent translation I could get on Kindle?
Currently reading: Ao Haru Raido Volume 6 (finishing tonight) + Shingeki no Kyojin (volume 1) + Hai to Gensou no Gurimugaru Vol 3 (hasn’t begin it yet). All of them in Japanese. 
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The Darker Shade of Magic covers [the US version especially, which is the normal hardcover] is legitimately one of my favourite cover designs.
On Halloween this year a special edition is coming out with this design but in black and gold and fancy.
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Pillars of the Earth is a bit different from Sanderson and Pierce. Hmm, Pillars of the Earth is fiction, but it is definitely based on reality so it has a historical non-fiction feel to it. It has definitely been excellent however, and if you like Jane Austen or architecture, or even Downton Abbey, I would say it’s up your alley. (=^ ◡ ^=)
That is truly some superb cover art. I think I’ll wait for the special edition to come out this year before purchasing it. I’m a serious sucker for limited edition items plus it’ll give me time to clear the enormous backlog of reading I have right now (I’m not joking there’s like 20+ books that I need to read before I can move on to something else).
About a third of the way through a book called ‘The Power’ by Naomi Alderman. Bought it on a whim and wasn’t expecting much, but it is surprisingly good so far. Thought I’d bring it up here since it seems to me - for some reason - to be a Wanikani type of book. I don;t know quite what I mean by that, to be honest, just it seems the type of thing people on here often talk about.
Just started reading Banana Yoshimoto’s Moshi Moshi, which begins with a reflection upon Jun Ishikawa’s film Zawa Zawa Shimokitazawa; that’s because the female protagonist moves to an apartment in the city after her father’s death.
It’s my first novel from Yoshimoto since I read Kitchen a couple of years ago - which I don’t remember at all. Nonetheless, it’s a quite famous book which left me a little uncertain if I should delve deeper into her work, as it didn’t convince me back then. If you have any recommendations, I’d be happy to hear them.
I recently bought the full set and have been reading from the start. Finished all level 0 and level 1 stories, and just started on these ones =)
I really enjoy these =^_^=
They are expensive, but to me they were worth it. These was my first real experience of mastery, to be able to pick up a japanese book with absolutely no translations and read it all and actually understand it! Finally feel I’ve actually gotten somewhere (even though it was the lower levels, before that I’ve only found random words, it doesn’t give the same pleasure)
It was this feeling of mastery that gave the the renewed joy for learning, and made me find WaniKani for wanting to learn more =)
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I feel you. I have waaay to many books on backlog. I legitimately own two
kindles. 2! [one for English/German books linked to my Austrian account and
one for Japanese books since I’m living in Japan at the moment.]
There should be a Goodreads group for Wanikani members. If anybody has the
time/energy to set that up, that would be amazing!
Well, I’m currently reading the “Qualia the Purple” manga series in Japanese, which poses some pretty interesting philosophical questions within it about the way one perceives the world, and how our perspective of the people around us influence our moral values. Also reading Espirit, a typical shounen manga with the twist that the protag is a cute anime girl rather than a beefy, sweaty hunk of meat shouting "うるせえええ、てめええええええええ!” like an idiot. Also Midori no Hibi, since its cute and I like the concept of some tough yakuza dude romancing his right hand in the most literal sense.
Most of the stuff I read in Japanese are visual novels though, since I tend to prefer them over light novels and manga. Not sure if that would be fit for this type of thread, though, since they’re more like interactive games (unless they’re kinetic novels).
Anansi Boys was really good and a psuedo sequel (takes place outside of the events of AG, but Mr Nancy is in it). I think I might have enjoyed it more than AG.
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if you finish, a beautifully artistic and futuristic reinterpretation of Count of Monte Cristo in the anime, 巌窟王 (Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo). I’ve not read the manga version, but it’s only 3 volumes so that might be worth looking it…actually now that i think about it, finding these shorter classic books like MC and maybe Treasure Island in JP might be a fun way to go back to them. I’ve not read many of those tales since middle school.
I’ve read a lot of books over the past winter and up to now.
- True Crime Japan: Thieves, Rascals, Killers and Dope Heads: True Stories From a Japanese Courtroom Murphy, Paul
- The Fireman: A Novel Hill, Joe
- NOS4A2: A Novel Hill, Joe
- Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War Roach, Mary
- first 4 books in The Longmire Mysteries Series
- 5 trade paperbacks in The Expanse series (prefer that format so waiting on latest one to come out in it this fall)
- A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and The Handbook of Japanese Verbs (Kodansha Dictionary) added to collection
currently reading An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (ReVisioning American History) and have next 4 in Longmire series lined up. Yeah…i jump around a lot in types of books.
I was about to start a “General Book Thread” but then I found this!! I’m currently reading The Pun Also Rises, cause I love me some puns, and I’m always looking to enhance my pun armory. I never knew how sophisticated the art of the pun was until reading this book. Also just reread the Ouran High School Host Club manga (in English tho… cause I’m only level 10, yo.)
Edit: I forgot to mention that I am (very) slowly working my way through しろくまカフェ. The fun thing about it (other than its general cuteness) is all the lovely puns that somehow transcend language barriers.
@kins954 nice thread resurrection!
Recently I just finished a book called 微分積分 (derivation/integration). As the name implies, it’s a math textbook. It’s pretty well written and the exercises are interesting. (It’s aimed at undergrads).
In terms of fiction, I am reading 図書館の魔女. It was recommended to me because I like fantasy. Halfway through the first book, it feels a bit boring because the story is progressing waaaaay too slow for me. (I just checked on amazon, and it seems to be a common complaint)
I used to read a lot of manga, but right now there’s only one punch man that I am still into. I read the 15th tome yesterday.
I will definitely scroll up and look for recommendations
Although I’m following a good number of manga, I’m only reading べルセルク at the moment, obviously in English, because I’ve caught up with the rest.