Ah OK, in that case maybe your value just popped from low normal to just under the reference range? That’s a thing. Or the doctor got some education in between 
Ooh so detailed, reading that feels like accompanying you reading, I love it!
Fun fact! While this is typically read and written as けいじ you will sometimes see it furigana’d with デカ which is a slang term for cop
December 5, Friday
I’m so happy you all like the new reading notes and tracking format!! 
I feel like I will remember this comment the first time that I see that happen! So thanks. 
Tsundoku Update!
Last time I had reached 18 points … Well, today I reduced it to -2!
Yup, I acquired the two murder mysteries for which I have been preparing by reading あなたも殺人犯になれる! It’s going to be a while before the club reads them, but that’s okay because they are (probably) both over level 30. Reassuringly, when I flipped through them they had lots of normal recognizable words, even though they are over level 30. 
あなたも殺人犯になれる！ tracking
| date | time | pages | minutes/page | vocabulary | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 30 | 58 | 18 | 3.4 | 一同、白状、凄まじい、仰天、うずくまる、ただごと、度胸、軒下、音を上げる、却って、神妙、カッカする、同調、野次る、潜む、勇敢、遺言状、防衛、渋々 | forgot to say last time - there were a couple moments that made me laugh out loud during this reading session! |
| Nov 30 | 30 | 8 | 3.75 | 引金、愕然、しぶとい、風変わり、降参、たしなめる、つのる、保養所、山荘、先手を打つ | creepyyyy! |
| Dec 1 | 31.5 | 8 | 3.9 | ナムアミダブツ、冥福、取っ組み合い、危うく、同情、言いがかり、~だの~だの、皮肉る (I didn’t know you could make this into a verb!)、けりをつける、照明器、うぬぼれる、思いやり、堅実、見込み、面食らう、唐突、ふさわしい、いささか | gah! so many vocabs! I guess partly because this was the first time there was an on-page corpse? there were also a lot of readings I’m not used to or haven’t seen before in this chapter. |
| Dec 1 | 36 | 12 | 3.3 | 土砂、もろとも、ためらう、もろい、およしなさい、淡々、言い張る、むきになる、逆巻く、恐れ入ります、インチキ、形式、養成、無謀 | a few leeches, a few new expressions. the story is turning up the heat again! I can’t keep reading right now, but I want to know what happens! |
| Dec 2 | 21 | 6 | 4.2 | 手一杯、孤立、逃亡中、動機、殺伐、ミシミシ、そばから、悲壮、ガウン、備え付ける、冴える、潜む | |
| Dec 2 | 34.5 | 7 | 4.9 | 色仕掛け、研修、後ろめたい、探偵、ざる得ない、犯人、連帯感、ばったり、詰る(なじる)、遠大、留置場、賛同、第三者 | yes, you read that right … 犯人 and 探偵 were new to me.  okay, 犯人 wasn’t completely new, I just temporarily couldn’t remember the reading, and when I looked it up in my dictionary I hadn’t marked it seen yet! maybe because I actually never needed to check the reading before, lol. |
| Dec 2 | 34.5 | 10 | 3.45 | ついていける、ダブる、心残り、たしなめる、脈 (meaning pulse)、プラス思考、亭主、踏みにじる、道義的責任、やけ気味、寝たきり、やしない、もだえる、きしむ、未明、もろに | it’s happeniiiiing!!! (this chapter (19) was exciting.) oh wow, I was just like “19? that sounds like a lot…” and suddenly realized I am more than halfway through the book! I’m not sure I’ve ever lost track of how far through a book I was in Japanese before! thank you 赤川次郎先生  |
| Dec 2 | 17 | 6 | 2.8 | 奪い合う、とあって、大それた、ふくれっつら、大の字、いばる | |
| Dec 5 | 35 | 9 | 3.9 | 訴える (leech)、野放し、無にする、むくれる、紛れ込む、猿ぐつわをかます、くくりつける、二枚目、自他ともに認める、すぼめる | needed a break for a couple days, now I’m back. was a bit unclear on what was going on in the first two pages of this chapter, but just sailed on past it. |
| Dec 5 | 32 | 9 | 4 | 紅潮、鎌、果せる、動じる、声はすれども姿は見えず、正当防衛、目にかかる、すぐれない、代表、裏打ち | |
| Dec 5 | 22 | 6 | 3.7 | しびれる、至って、落葉 (not used to seeing it without okurigana)、排水、溝、やりきれない (I remembered it this time!)、使いものにならない、波打つ | guh, I want to know what happened with さつき! |
The 内田康夫 one might be high 20s to low 30s at least. 十角館の殺人 landed in the mid-30s iirc but there was some contention about that rating (some people thought the book was easier, some harder 
)
Looking at your vocab list インチキ、逃亡(中)、引き金、動機、探偵、犯人、脈 will all become old friends the more of this genre you read. A lot of the rest are common in other books just generally, so excellent words to learn overall.
I used to make similar vocab lists when reading, I wonder if I can find mine 
I’m thinking of keeping some lists of words / kanji read based on this… it looks fun.
This happens to me all the time! If it helps… my tracking shows eventually these sink in even if it feels like an endless train of forgotten words
that is awesome! New milestone 
how do you calculate your tundoku score? I was trying to find your rules so I could have a go!
Ooh, fun. I forgot I haven’t transferred over any of my reference materials from my Natively study log!
Here's the tsundoku rules
There’s something a little screwy going on with how long you’ve owned the books vs how many points you get for them that I feel like I can fix with a little bit of work on the language … I may put it in my OP and work on it there a bit.
Yes! Thank you, Science!
Yes! Just based on vibes but I feel like it is helping with retention. But also, I think someday it will be fun to look back at how little I knew haha.
This made me think maybe I should try sorting the vocabulary … maybe into “general”, “genre specific”, and “leeches” … That could be fun. 
oh, I see, so we start with 0 points, and then add / subtract and keep a running tally?
And more follow up questions:
- Can I get multiple points for the same book ( e.g., read a book in a continuing series and it was owned one year or less = 2 points or just 1?)
- Do you mean something different when you write Read vs Finish? Is that when you are allocating points (start vs finish)? I’m thinking about whether my current reads count for both “read” and “finish” or whether if I start right now they will only contribute to the “finish” but not the “read”
- If you get points for a DNF, is that just stopping it or is it for when the intention is more permanent - I’m not coming back to this? I have some books I set aside with a loose - I’ll probably finish that someday, and others that firmly go on my “Stopped” pile on Natively. So maybe you just mean the latter?
- Does using Bookwalker points count as buying?
- Does the score start over at the end of the year? Or do you keep going? I’m guessing you keep going, whelp
- What to do about short stories? I’m thinking for Aozora Advent - consider the month challenge as 1 new series, and then each read as 1 additional “book” per series? Otherwise I’ll go broke if each short story is a new series lol
I was attempting to make a score for 2025 but it’s pretty hard in retrospect and at least -200, so maybe I better start fresh… I’ll have a think if that should be now fresh or 2026 fresh
I edited that a bit, and then continued (sorry!)
The cost of a new book is high, which is good since my tundoku is large enough to keep me going for 3-4 years 
I was just figuring out I can read lots all my continuing series to my heart’s content but I would need to buy Slam Dunk.
My owned tbr is currently 132 books (112 were free/deep sales on Bookwalker) and I feel like 40 is a more reasonable upper limit before imposing the -10 new book penalty. Then I could keep a paper stash of 5 books max, and time Bookwalker sales for my foreseeable reading. Conveniently, I read 30 volumes in 2025 so far… so I’ll propose a new rule:
You don’t have to forfeit 10 points to buy a new book if your owned books is less than [minimum purchase of physical books + 1] + [1.2*(# volumes read last year)]
It’ll take me a good long while to get there, but I think that would motivate me to keep up with the score and eventually reach a realistic goal that won’t feel punishing.
oooh, I think I misunderstood something. 1 point for reading a book in a continuing series (regardless of how long I own it?`). But if I’m reading a book that is not part of a continuing series, then the points depends on whether it’s been owned 1-3+ years? I think that is why I was thinking of the double accounting because I didn’t see that difference. So maybe Aozora doesn’t count as a series, it’s just a bunch of individual books owned less than a year. Although they are shorter than a novel, they are often longer than a manga, so it feels fair…
I love these questions! My answers are just based on my vision, so if something works better for you differently I feel like you can tweak it. But at the same time, it would be really fun to play by the same rules. Maybe we can come to an agreement on any tweaks!
- Whenever you start playing, you start at zero. Then it keeps going forever.
- My original idea was that you score once with each book, so you just choose the one condition that will give you the most points.
- So far I have used “read” and “finish” interchangeably to mean finish.
- DNF - I meant deciding that you do not plan on ever finishing the book.
- Bookwalker points: depends on how you view digital books! I don’t count them towards tsundoku as digital space is functionally unlimited, whereas physical space is limited/more bothersome when you fill it up.
- (At the end of the year) Keep going!
- I think your idea about the short stories (they can be counted as books) makes sense!
I don’t completely understand your proposed new rule, could you explain it a little more? (I’m not sure what “minimum purchase of new books” means and not sure where the 1.2 number comes from?)
Also, I think my “starting a new series” rule is maybe a little too vague to be carried out fairly. If you have a high price on new books anyway then that will already be “punishment” enough.
Also, one rule that I’ve used for buying books in the past is that series continuations only cost 1 point. So while the first book would cost you ten points, all the following ones would pay for themselves by being read …
ETA:
I put the revised rules in the OP, but will keep revising them til they are 
Also, it might be interesting to make an alternate rule where new purchases depend upon the percentage of your owned books that you have read. I’m approaching having read half of my owned books, and I think in the future I’d like to keep tsundoku at 49% or lower at all times …
As マラ積読 becomes a more crystalized vision, I’m thinking that I might start playing next year. I also don’t count my digital tsundoku (*hides Bookwalker library*), but my actual library (we have a room in the house we literally call the library ) needs some taming.
Definitely up for this!
I will be strong
Ah… ok, so on the one hand space is limited, but my core motivation will be to draw down my digital books because I notice my motivation for reading is higher when books are newer. Last year I managed to draw down my physical books to a manageable few before ordering more and it was so fun!
But on the other hand, often, digital books go on sale for such a low amount the -10 felt far too punishing (but I should note I was gearing myself up to agree to it, so maybe not that bad )
maybe buying physical books = -10 points, buying digital books/sequels = -1 points?
ok, so this is related to this point:
I was looking for an objective way to define - how big of a tundoku is acceptable? And at first I wanted to make it a relation between owned/finished books like you said, but the problem is, I’ll keep finishing books and that pile can grow extortionately big (since we’re doing this forever) which means the tundoku could too 
So the idea was to create some kind of “objective” acceptable tsundoku pile size (digital + physical). This is highly contentious but kind of fun
The idea was for physical books, I should allow myself to have a backlog of as many as I would tend to order at a time plus a spare (so that was the “minimum purchase of new books” part). Then for digital books, I wanted a much looser tether to account for what I am calling legitimate stockpiling during sales. So my first proposal was, say 20% more (that was the 1.2 factor) than I read the previous year, although, you could argue that you might read double the manga as you did the year before as reading speed improves. Essentially, I was attempting to come up with a way to justify having a tsundoku of 40 before having to pay 10 points to buy a new book.
On the other hand, a recent ruling has lowered the cost for sequels, and if we’re additionally going to say digital books don’t cost 10 points (waiting for マラ積読 ruling on that one) … then maybe the “free” tsundoku doesn’t have to be so generous. I revise my proposal to
Free tsundoku (no penalty for buying new books - digital or physical):
If digital + physical books < # books read in the last year.
Thoughts?
Q♣️ house rules!
I’m hoping to convince you both to join me in the outrageous step of including the untameable digital library in this 
but it could also be an optional modifier
I’d only join in digitally if nothing I bought for under a given price point counts. Definitely nothing I got for free can count bc there was maybe a 1% chance of me reading any freebies in the first place
I also kinda just like getting a deal, even if I don’t read it soon (or ever), but I do have some sale purchases that I made a while ago that still haven’t been touched that I now wish weren’t piling up back there, and I’d be very happy to count those.
This is my biggest problem with playing マラ積読. I just grabbed a bunch of 神風怪盗ジャンヌ カラー版 | L22 in the sale and am flying through them bc it’s exactly what I want to read right now. Maybe some sort of time gated rebate for a new book that’s read (or maybe read for a manga and through some percentage for a novel) within a week?
Also, book club purchases I don’t feel should be fully penalized, since I thing social reading can also be good for Japanese progress..
oooh, I like that. I agree, I don’t want to count the free stuff, and some sales like the 100 yen might as well be free. What would be your threshold for that???
yeah, this is totally the intention
you mean 4x points for reading something you got free 3+ years ago isn’t going to make up for that motivational gap you can buy 4 digital books for that 
ooh the speedy rebate clause, I like it..
Maybe we add a book club rebate of 5 points for finishing with the club or a reasonable timeTM after it ends?
This all seems very complicated But I’m glad you all are having fun!
I was thinking of setting up a 2026 積読 reading thread on here- not exactly a challenge thread, because I don’t want to stress people out, just a thread where the only rule is it has to be a book bought before Jan 2026. Maybe that would be fun? Everyone could then do whatever version of a 積読 challenge they want. 
I accept!
Interesting! I know I’m nowhere near this number, so it won’t be applicable for me anytime soon, but it seems like a pretty reasonable rule. Let’s do it!
Both great points. And I have definitely seen someone use a rule where they get points for finishing a book very soon after buying it … Maybe
Finish reading the most recent book you bought before buying (or reading?) another book: 2 points
?
I’m also okay with calling book club books free. I didn’t do that for myself with my last purchase, but I also had the points to burn. Maybe a rule like “if you don’t have enough points to buy a book for a book club you may get it for free”?
Yes! That sounds nice.
That was fun to get into, I like the revised rules!
Mitrac’s マラ積読 adventure - スタートします!
It also made me realise 8 of the 9 things I’m trying to read and 4/4 of what I’m actually reading are clubs. But I will only use the freebies rule if I have to… to avoid going negative at the beginning, lol.
Nice thread soggy! Pretty lists of books for people who have too many pretty books is soo dangerous
December 13, Saturday
Tsundoku update! +3 for あなたも殺人犯になれる! brings me to 1!!! (Which is great because I need to order the fifth volume of 夜の名前を呼んで pretty soon …)
Books until I have read half of my owned books: 4/10*
*I realized there’s a stack of 10 ish books that I probably didn’t count … so I might actually need 15 in order to achieve this goal.
| date | time | pages | minutes/page | vocabulary | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 6 | 25 | 9 | 3.1 | やっつける、くたびれる、結び目、前途、十字架、生涯、悲壮 (again)、ムチ打つ、遮る (leech) | |
| Dec 6 | 16 | 5.5 | 2.9 | 従って、もたれる、めまい、とどろく、しびれる、突っ立って、声楽家、当分、救援、決めつける、もつれる、めげる、人工呼吸 | (there’s probably some pattern to these 突っ- verbs that I could figure out if I took the time) |
| Dec 7 | 33.5 | 10.5 | 3.2 | ぐるになる、見込む、寄越す、立ち往生、場違い、かがみ込む、述べる、観測 (leech) | |
| Dec 7 | 27 | 8 | 3.4 | 書棚、未練たらしい、異議、かつ、もめる、捜索、かくて、遺書 (surmised the reading and meaning correctly before looking it up!)、涙ぐむ、追い払う、武装、対決、残留、失くなる (illegal kanji usage here)、出くわす、取りなす、しらける | |
| Dec 9 | 34.5 | 11 | 3.1 | 先頭、伝染、窮屈、失神、面持ち、納戸、ザッと、おめでたい、よせ、あがき、しぶとい、吸い込む、レトルト食品 | |
| Dec 11 | 31.5 | 9 | 3.5 | うずくまる、取り落とす (why??)、壮観、喘ぐ、良心、安らか、這う、折り重なる、すがりつく、酸っぱい (LEECH)、放心、観念、吹き付ける (I think I know what the pattern with -i stem + tsukeru is but I don’t trust it enough to not look up every one that comes my way)、成敗 (both fourth grade characters, when seeing them without the context of a known word I only recognized the first one  ) |
ooh, that was a really satisfying development! Excited to learn more about how it happened, but I won’t have time before work today. |
| Dec 13 | 31.5 | 5 | 6.3 | 先頭を切る、あばよ、ざまみろ、嘲笑う、命中、道連れ、へし折る、のす (meaning to knock down)、度胸、凄む、能無し、形相、端正 | slow pace either because I was still sleepy (reading early in the day) or because my partner who is usually a quiet person seems to always get super talkative whenever I am reading a book |
| Dec 13 | 49 | 14 | 3.8 | 突拍子もない、マスコミ、気苦労、暴く、声色、声優 (spoilery words!)、後ずさる、涙ぐむ、ひけめ、息を弾ませる、目がかすむ、貫く、うねる、安請け合い、猛然 | wow! I finished! |
Chart time!
“Short average” is the average number of pages I read in the last three days. My total average over the 15 days it took me to finish was 17.5 pages per day! (You can really see December taking a toll on me in the end haha.)
Very satisfying steep decline in minutes per page!
What’s next?
Possibly/Probably my Kaguya-sama and Bug princess (?) storybook, which I decided to try reading without look-ups … That would probably be a good fit for the month of December, when my job transforms from “hang around doing book stuff and keeping the store more or less in order” to “three different people want 5-20 minutes of your attention at all times”. (That’s three per staff member, not for the store as a whole. )
Congrats on finishing! That was pretty fast too!
And happy you that you have enjoyed the book
December 16, Tuesday
Reflections on あなたも殺人犯になれる
It’s not that often that you find a book that perfectly reflects the skills you want to work on at the level that you are at, that is neither too hard nor too easy, and also remains enjoyable throughout. I finished this book in probably about three weeks, with fifteen days of reading, which is definitely the fastest pace I’ve ever read an adult novel at.
So I got a little down when I finished it and was suddenly thrust back into the state of searching for a book that maintains my interest. I won’t get too worked up about it; since it’s December I just don’t have a ton of mental bandwidth available anyway. But it’s disappointing to think “hmm, what should I read?” and have the answer be “I DON’T KNOWWWW!”
I think I will try, if my brain will allow it, to finish up some half-finished books in series … Oh, speaking of which …!
Tsundoku rules discussion
So, I tweaked the scoring a little by making books in ongoing series worth 2 points when you finish them, and found that feels a lot more motivating to me. I only have to read five manga to buy one new book! To anyone keeping track, does this feel like a good change to you? If so, do other numbers need tweaking in light of this? (Like, maybe digital books should cost 2 points now?)
Also! Let’s say you are reading an ongoing series, and you are caught up. Does reading the last available book count as reading the “last” book in a series? Does that mean that if you stay caught up you can earn 3 points with every book from this series that you read? I ask because I have a half-finished volume of green yuri on my shelf and I really want to earn enough points for a new book.
Exercise
I have been doing it!
Music
I haven’t been practicing that much, but I have been going to the weekly learning sessions, and that feels significant. Like, the most important thing is just to not stop completely. That way when my ADHD-type brain comes back around to wanting to hyperfocus on music I won’t have lost ground to make up, I can just go.
I decided not to go this year to the big week-long music camp that I’ve been going to for the last three years straight. I think I actually had a dream about that decision last night. But I am intending to travel to Ireland in the spring, and that’s the source of the music that I play, so it may lead to other interesting music-learning possibilities.
Spanish/Listening practice
I found a podcast I like and that would work well for shadowing, but then I started listening to Miku Real Japanese Podcast while commuting instead. I like her topics and her way of talking a lot, and I’ve listened to so much that I understand her at nearly 100% most of the time. (Her guest speakers not so much. ) I think it’ll be great for my Japanese to have a greater quantity of input, but … now when am I going to work on Spanish? I seriously need to work on it though, especially because I have a co-worker who actually wants to practice with me! I think I might try inviting them to a Spanish chat meetup. But maybe in January, after the December madness is over …
@Akashelia Thank you so much! Like I mentioned in my reflections, this is definitely the fastest I’ve ever read an adult novel in Japanese. Out of curiosity, what did you read after you finished あなたも殺人犯になれる? (I need some inspiration haha)