It’s a day early for posting this, but that’s okay.
2023 in Review and Plans for 2024
In 2022, I completed reading 91 manga volumes and one light novel. It was my most packed year regarding the number of manga read, even considering I didn’t read as many omnibus-sized volumes as in prior years.
Midway through 2023, I knew there was no way I would reach that many manga this year.
So, how did my manga reading go in 2023? Which have I completed, and which am I still working through? And how did it compare with my goals for the year?
2023 Manga Goals and Completions
| Series | Goal | Completed | Met? | Continuing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6月のラブレター | 1 | 1 |  |
N/A |
| ARIA The MASTERPIECE | 2 | 1 |  |
Yes |
| Colori Colore Creare | 1+ | 0 |  |
Pending |
| orange | 2 | 2 | |
N/A |
| ××でも魔法少女になれますか？ | N/A | 1 | No | |
| からかい上手の高木さん | N/A | 6 | Yes | |
| からかい上手の（元）高木さん | N/A | 3 | Yes | |
| きょうのキラ君 | N/A | 2 | No | |
| くノ一ツバキの胸の内 | 1+ | 2 | |
Yes |
| ご注文はうさぎですか？ C.B. | 1 | 0 |  |
Yes |
| それでも歩は寄せてくる | N/A | 3 | Yes | |
| ないしょのプリンセス | 3 | 1 | |
Yes |
| ななか 6⁄17 | 1+ | 0 | |
Yes |
| ひとりぼっちの○○生活 | 2 | 0 | |
Yes |
| ひよ恋 | N/A | 8 | Yes | |
| ふらいんぐうぃっち | 1 | 1 | |
Yes |
| まじっく快斗 | 4 | 0 |  |
Undecided |
| アオのハコ | N/A | 4 | Yes | |
| シャドーハウス | N/A | 11 | Yes | |
| ストロボ・エッジ | 10? | 5 | |
Yes |
| ハチミツにはつこい | N/A | 4 | Yes | |
| ハナヤマタ | 1+ | 1 | |
Yes |
| ホリミヤ | N/A | 2 | Yes | |
| ポケットモンスタースペシャル | 1+ | 1 | |
Undecided |
| ルリドラゴン | N/A | 1 | N/A | |
| 古見さんは、コミュ症です。 | 1+ | 1 | |
No |
| 可愛いだけじゃない式守さん | N/A | 1 | Yes | |
| 名探偵コナン | 12 | 5 |  |
Yes |
| 夢みる太陽 | 10? | 10 | |
N/A |
| 好きな子がめがねを忘れた | 1+ | 2 | |
Yes |
| 日々蝶々 | N/A | 5 | Yes | |
| 春色アストロノート | 1 | 1 | |
N/A |
| 桜蘭高校ホスト部 | N/A | 2 | Yes | |
| 舞妓さんちのまかないさん | N/A | 2 | Yes | |
| 藤原くんはだいたい正しい | N/A | 4 | Yes | |
| 風の谷のナウシカ (シネマコミック) | N/A | 1 | N/A | |
| ＹＡＩＢＡ | N/A | 1 | Undecided |
If my numbers and math are not mistaken, that’s 96 volumes. So close to 100, but not quite there. (Although if I count the omnibus ARIA as two volumes, then almost…)
I also started one or two novels/light novels but didn’t keep up with them.
2023 Completed Volumes Collage
2024 Manga Goals
For 2024, I want to reach 100 manga volumes read in one year.
What am I planning on reading in 2024?
| Series | Goal | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| ARIA The MASTERPIECE | 1 | Final volume! |
| Colori Colore Creare | 3? | Latest series by ARIA mangaka. |
| からかい上手の高木さん | N/A | Book club. |
| からかい上手の（元）高木さん | 6+? | |
| くノ一ツバキの胸の内 | 1 | Final volume! |
| この美術部には問題がある！ | N/A | Offshoot book club? |
| ご注文はうさぎですか？ CB | 1? | |
| それでも歩は寄せてくる | 2? | Waiting for next volume! |
| ないしょのプリンセス | 2? | |
| ひとりぼっちの○○生活 | 1? | |
| ひよ恋 | 6 | |
| ふらいんぐうぃっち | 1 | Waiting for the next volume! |
| まじっく快斗 | ? | |
| アオのハコ | N/A | Book club. |
| シャドーハウス | N/A | Book club. |
| ストロボ・エッジ | 5 | |
| ハチミツにはつこい | 8 | |
| ハナヤマタ | 6? | |
| ホリミヤ | N/A | Book club. |
| 可愛いだけじゃない式守さん | 2 | Offshoot book club? |
| 名探偵コナン | 6? | If I commit to weekly reading, I can aim higher. |
| 天野こずえ短編集 | 3 | Short stories by ARIA mangaka. |
| 好きな子がめがねを忘れた | 1 | Waiting for the next volume! |
| 日々蝶々 | 7 | |
| 桜蘭高校ホスト部 | ?? | This series is a struggle… |
| 浪漫倶楽部 | 6 | Older series by ARIA mangaka. |
| 舞妓さんちのまかないさん | N/A | Book Club. |
| 藤原くんはだいたい正しい | 6 | |
| 紅の豚 | 1 | Cinemanga. |
It’s difficult to pull a prediction of the total number of volumes out of that, but between these, offshoot book clubs, new book clubs, and any new series I may begin, 100 volumes in one year should be doable.
In 2021, I scheduled my reading, and I don’t remember it being an issue. I aimed to read one chapter of manga daily, with a specific manga tied to a specific weekday. Or two chapters for series with shorter chapters. I may try that again in January and see how it goes.
I just need to manage my progress to ensure I stay on track properly.
To that end, I have written some code in my “Mokuro bookshelf” to track (measure) my progress in 2024, including my goal to reach per day.
It calculates the number of days in the year to find out what my percentage of manga volumes read should be, then it counts my completed manga volumes and adds the percentage progress on what I’m currently reading.
The only thing missing is telling me how many pages I need to stay on target. This one’s difficult because each manga has a different total number of pages, so one page of a 120-page volume contributes more than one page of a 350-page volume.
I may consider adding a number to each manga cover telling how many pages of that specific manga volume I would need to read to reach my goal, but I may just be lazy and not.
I also want to try to incorporate at least one “no furigana” manga in my weekly reading. Reading volume 2 of 「ハナヤマタ」 has me feeling like easier “no furigana” manga is doable for me, and I know 「ひとりぼっちの○○生活」 will be fairly easy as well.
Programming
How did my (Japanese-related) programming goals go?
Book Club Manager
Although I made little progress most of the year, near the end I did a massive overhaul of the code and worked it into a Userscript.
There’s still plenty of room for improvement and minor features I’ve meant to add for a long time.
Manga Frequency Lists
My main programming has been updating my website’s manga frequency lists section.
There’s still more that I plan to do with it, but the code has reached a point where most of the functionality I’ve wanted for personal use is there.
I can track what I’m reading, what I have on hold, and what I’ve finished.
I can see which high-frequency words I should focus on learning in a series.
I’ve started looking into focusing on kanji in isolation to see if that helps with knowing reading and discerning meaning from unknown words that contain known kanji.
I can see how often I’ll be looking up words in a series, allowing me to determine in advance whether a series is more fit to read on the bus (difficult lookups) versus at home (easy lookups).
Next step: Develop easier tracking of where I am on the volumes I’m currently reading, about to read, or would like to read, including listing the highest frequency unknown words across said volumes.
Edit: Wow, there’s a nifty new built-in Discourse table editing tool. I can see that coming in handy.