Hi everyone. I thought I would make a quick post just to celebrate having finished my first proper book in Japanese - hopefully this is the right category to post this in 
I finally completed the novelisation of となりのトトロ after about a month or so. (I did watch the となりのトトロ film a year ago in Japanese but at that point didn’t understand much of what was happening, so everything in the book was pretty much new to me.) I’m honestly kind of in shock since a year and a half ago, I couldn’t say anything more than これはすしです 
I say my first physical book because I’ve read a couple of books online prior to this. Up until recently, I did most of my reading practice using an app called LingQ where you can essentially import reading material like ebooks, articles, etc, and read them using a built-in dictionary where you simply click on an unknown word and the definition immediately pops up. I read コンビニ人間 and the first Harry Potter book there (before that it was lots of children’s stories, articles, that sort of thing). However I’m now switching over to just reading physical books, which is a lot harder but also way more rewarding I think.
Anyways, just wanted to write about my achievement here. I’ve only been in this community a short while, but it’s such a wonderful community and everyone is genuinely so kind and supportive here. It’s awesome to have somewhere I can talk about the language, since nobody I know in real life understands any Japanese. I’m moving on to 安達としまむら now which I’m beyond excited about, so I’ll be reading that during the readathon later this month.
Thanks for reading and take care of yourself 
This post inspires me to find a comfy spot and read for a while, too 
