Wow! … your collection of Mara quotes …? 
:snicker:
yepyepyep :nods:
Definitely. For the USA in general, not just the health care either.
January 25, Sunday
Sadly, Silent Witch didn’t happen, BUT Harta and 魔女犬ボンボン have been a huge success!
Tsundoku was -3
+2 for Harta 90
+4 for 魔女犬ボンボン
New tsundoku score = 3!
I’ve been noticing lately that when I finish a book in Japanese that I’m really into and the reading is going well, then I get a little forlorn. Yesterday I was like :ears down: I could try reading that other book I have by the same author as Bonbon … but it’s not the saaame …
I think next I will try:
January 28, Wednesday
I guess I didn’t post the above mini-update on Sunday because it didn’t feel very complete. Nothing’s going to feel complete though. I’m gearing up for another round of difficult treatments relating to the side effects of the chronic pain (which is now thankfully fully treated). So I don’t have weird random pains all the time anymore, but there is still stuff going on that was triggered by all the pain that I need to deal with. And it’s not going to be a walk in the park. I’m dreading it for sure, and that’s making me less resilient to all of life’s general stressors.
If anyone has recommendations for a super-iyashikei and/or good-for-bedtime full-furigana children’s book that would be lovely. Not to be super picky, but it would be great if it were relatively easy to get ahold of a physical copy as well.
OR maybe I should just go for it and order the 魔女犬ボンボン full set? Will involve researching how to order proxy through mercari, as it’s all out of print except for maybe the 8th volume.
OR should I try reading 魔女宅急便 (Kiki) before bed first?
And no, I haven’t even tried 妖精ナビLuna yet. It’s just that I get a lot more trigger-happy about buying new books when I’m feeling sorry for myself. 
I’d like to try to get a few more tsundoku points before I order Bonbon anyway …
…
Okay, obviously I’m all over the place right now and I should stop procrastinating and just do something!
More soon. *
*Making this my official sign-off xdd
I hope your treatments go well.
Something iyashikei sounds like such a good plan. Your existing stories sound good. If you’re looking for something new I can recommend a partial furigana girl’s detective club series (the monodama series I gush about now and then, and I recommend going in blind without reading the blurb). Furigana from grade 5 kanji, and it’s all very common easy daily life vocab, mostly dialogue, and anything challenging gets a character asking about it. You literally can’t get lost
I can save you the research trouble!
I’ve bought from Mercari through the proxy Neokyo (link to my experience using this proxy service to buy used books) before. 2 great experiences. 3-4+ books is the sweet spot to get your money’s worth because shipping is the crunch.
Congrats! 
I’ve been wanting this book ever since you first wrote about it! It’s definitely on my short list now.
Thank you! That helps so much! That’s cool to know that you can get things from different sources in the same shipment!
Okay, so now I have a plan …
- Read 魔女の宅急便〈その2〉キキと新しい魔法 (I really prefer the cover of the edition I own but Natively won’t let me add it.) at bedtime for my iyashikei children’s novel.
- Delay ordering more books until I finish 怪人二十面相 so I can get two points for it!
- Order Bonbon and Kiki books, both of which are series I have already started so they only cost 1 point per book!
(4. Buy Monodama 1 someday when I make it through one of the Bonbon or Kiki series.)
I bought the first one a while back (after one of mitrac’s gushing sessions) but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. Let me know if/when you start it and maybe I’ll finally read it too 
✩⁺˚ January 31, Saturday ˚⁺✩
Reading data for 怪人二十面相 🦹 (Intermediate Book Club) [ongoing, week 5/15]
Goal Aspiration: 6 pages per day to catch up in 10 days? Or 5 pages per day to catch up in 14? I’m not sure, math is hard.
| day | time | pages | m/p | day total | notes | vocab |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/28 | 14 | 2 | 7 | 2 | My stamina for this book is so short! I started checking the timer at 7 minutes |
とじこみ、ろうじょう(籠城)、女中、巡視、てっする (徹する)、さしず (指図)、けんじゅう (厳重)、腕力、ねずの番 |
| 1/29 | 14 | 2 | 7 | - | Slightly better stamina today at least! I didn’t look at the clock until 9 minutes!  |
赤銅、買いかぶる、じょじょに、賛美、かんじん (肝心)、くっきょう (屈強)、なしとげる、からいばり、目をかすめる、さも |
| 1/29 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 3 | Whoa, it’s a little freaky how constant my pace is  Okay, and got my live pivot chart running! (Updating it and watching the graphs build themselves is really motivating to me.) |
鑑賞、台座、金剛石 (I’m certain I looked this up before while reading this book)、くらむ、拝見 (did we seriously need another word for this?  ) |
| 1/30 | 9 | 2 | 4.5 | - | Wow! Pace improvement is great. I thought about continuing for another page before stopping, but then I decided I wanted the record of 4.5 minutes per page, just in case the next page lowers my average. |
ひんぱん (頻繁)、はずみ、はつかねずみ、息遣い、食いしばる、豪胆 |
| 1/30 | 7 | 2 | 3.5 | - | やった！ Now I want to keep reading in order to find out how it was done! | 消えうせる、蒸発、由緒、ほとばしる、異様、違約、異状、息づまる |
| 1/30 | 11 | 2 | 5.5 | 6 | Only three more pages til the end of the chapter, but I’m starting to get tired … Not sure if I will keep going or not. First some graph making! | さだめる、えたい得体、うろたえる、とっぱ突破、とえ十重、おうむ返し |
| 1/31 | 14 | 3 | 4.7 | - | Took a minute to get back into it. Finished book club week 2! I need a snack. | 正夢、のこぎり、出し抜く、ぞうさ (造作)、からくり、種明かし |
| 1/31 | 13 | 2 | 6.5 | 5? | Had cheese and crackers. It’s finally snowing out and perfect weather for curling up on the couch and reading but it just feels like my heart isn’t quite in it today … (Maybe I’m dehydrated …) (Actually, maybe I have cabin fever.) | 弾丸、手に手に、総勢、功を奏する、もんどりうつ、あんのじょう (案の定) |
Mostly posting this to experiment with text decoration 
.𖦹₊⊹
Love your notes as always! And text deco!
I’m concerned I barely recognise any of those words 
either I guessed in context or forgot after the lookup. Your notes are making me aware just how far extensive reading can go
I mean, I barely recognize them myself and I’m the one that took the trouble to write them all down.
Wait, am I spamming everyone’s activity feeds every time I edit my OP? If so I’ll do it another way. Please let me know. 
Editing a post doesn’t send notifications.
Phew! Thank you!
And even if it did, it’s your study log, use it the way that works best for you. The day any of us would be disappointed about a notification that your log is updated would be a sad one indeed.
Aww, thank you!
˗ˋˏ February 7, Saturday ˎˊ-
Since the year started I have been mostly reading novels and Harta. Which is intentional, and exciting! But also frustrating because I get the satisfaction of finishing something SO MUCH LESS FREQUENTLY.
Currently reading
Reading data for 怪人二十面相
Current average pages per day: 4.6
| day | time | pages | m/p | day total | notes | vocab |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2/1 | 14 | 2 | 7 | - | There was a lot of various people running around in those two pages, and I found it a little difficult to follow. | 引き上げる (meaning to withdraw)、げんじゅう (厳重) (leech that wouldn’t be a leech if it were written in kanji lol)、またしても (=また but .. with more emphasis maybe?)、ただちに、すべ (=方法)、腕に覚えがある |
| 2/1 | 12 | 2 | 6 | - | That was a good part.  I switched my dictionary to show Japanese definitions first, trying to lean on that a little more. Especially because sometimes they actually make more sense to me than the English definition. |
てがら (手柄) = えらいことをしたこと、つつ (筒)、とっぴ (突飛) = とてもふつうと違う |
| 2/1 | 18 | 2 | 9 | 6 |  THE DOG DIES??? This maniac brought a toy gun because he doesn’t hurt people, but POISONED THE DOG??? He is dead to me.  :flips table: I guess maybe Mr. Ranpo (correctly) guessed that the reader might side with the thief if he didn’t do something despicable. Introduce us to the person we are supposed to sympathize with please! I want to meet the detective!! |
死がい (死骸)、所轄、てんまつ = 物事の始めから終わりまで、びっこ |
| 2/2 | 16 | 3 | 5.3 | - | Guy in tree discovered. Womp womp. I wish I had a way to format the vocab better. It’s kind of overwhelming in just one big lump, but I don’t think you can use line breaks within this type of table … Boo. I’m enjoying writing in the Japanese definition too, and feel like the vocab is more useful that way. | さいぜん (最前)、おかかえ (お抱え)、息たえる = 呼吸が止まって亡くなる、横たわる = 横になる、とんきょう = 調子はずれなさま、用意周到 = 準備がしっかりできていること |
| 2/2 | 21.5 | 3 | 7.2 | 6 | By the way, when I put the kanji in parentheses after the hiragana it’s because it was written without kanji in the book, but the kanji seems to be the normal default way of writing the word. Good crime fiction vocab in these last 3 pages! | 鳥打帽、消息、ようしゃなく (容赦なく)、非常線、ふくしゅう (復讐)、ゆうかい (誘拐)、格闘、とっぴ (will I learn this word because of this book??) |
| 2/3 | 18 | 2 | 9 | 2 | Wasn’t able to read in the morning, pushed through the last two pages of week 3 of the club this evening (with lots of distractions going on as well as being tired from the day). The thief’s way of writing is so hard to read. |
詮議、虫のよい、承諾、参上、所蔵、拙宅、人質 (mystery vocab ゲット!)、賠償 |
| 2/4 | 13 | 2 | 6.5 | - | Sticking to 2 pages at a time to keep it feeling manageable. | あらだつ、おめおめ、まざまざ、善後処置、おくまる (奥まる)、小使い (NOT the same thing as 小遣い) |
| 2/4 | 10 | 2 | 5 | - | Boy detective makes an appearance!!! Yay! | 会見 (grr)、さもあらん、ちゅうちょ (躊躇)、さじ = とても小さいこと, どうでもいいこと |
| 2/4 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 6 | Rushed for time cause I have to leave for work so no comments! | ふける、急所、こきみよい (小気味よい)、込み入った、応接室 |
| 2/5 | 11 | 2 | 5.5 | - | Finished a chapter! | 見て見ぬふり、本望、違える、及ぶ、試験済 |
| 2/5 | 16 | 2 | 8 | - | Running out of time before work again … Long lists of treasures that rich people keep in their basements, the vocab for which I was not previously acquainted with. … I’m annoyed I didn’t manage to get 6 pages in before work. | 気が引ける、合掌、柔和、円満、安置、びょうぶ、甲冑、よしありげ、どかどか、こちとら、間取り、すてぜりふ、しり目、荒くれ男 |
| 2/5 | 10.5 | 2 | 5.25 | 6 | I am hanging in there, but it doesn’t feel much like I am getting better at reading this book. Aside from the like 2 words that I’ve learned that have been repeated since I learned them. I’m happy that the boy detective has made his appearance, he’s a fun character to have in the mix. | やにわに、ほおかむり、こじき、傍若無人 (why does it mean what it means??) |
| 2/6 | 9 | 1 | 9 | - | I kind of like how, if the rich guy had just left his house and spoken with the beggars out front he would have been able to get his son back easily. But of course he didn’t. | 隠居、しらが (白髪)、儒者、礼服、あてがう、虐待、さして、それとなく |
| 2/6 | 20 | 3 | 6.7 | 4 | I accidentally spoiled myself for this reveal a while ago by looking forward in the book (terrible habit) and seeing a spoilery illustration of it. I feel like I would have been pretty darn shocked if I hadn’t gotten spoiled though. Of all the things Boy Detective could do, impersonating a statue in order to get snuck into the Thief’s hideout is not something that would have occurred to me. | たじたじ、はす (lotus)、赤茶ける (great example of a word I couldn’t help checking and turned out that it means what I thought it meant and was pronounced how I thought it was pronounced)、先に立つ、手下 (minion)、あれはてる (dilapidated)、すぎ林 (Japanese cedar forest)、巣窟 (lair)、かくれが (隠れ家) (hideout)、でたらめ、やり口 (how many ways of saying “way of doing” exist in Japanese??)、こころにくい (refined, admirable, superb. But why??)、用意周到 (周到 = careful, thorough, meticulous) |
So far the graphs for reading this book just look like squiggly but basically flat lines. Interpretation: No Improvement.
With regards to bedtime books, I am reading Kiki, but I’m going through it at a pace that will have me finish it at the same time as if not before 20 Faces. So I think it’s not practical to wait to finish 20 Faces before ordering more bedtime books.
…
… And with that, I have ordered a Bonbon full set and the next BBC book through Neokyo. 
I’m a little nervous about the shipping costs, but willing to take a risk for Bonbon haha. They gave me a 1000 yen coupon too, so the actual cost of the books was pretty much negligible.
(Thank you Mitrac for giving me the courage to try proxy shipping!)
Nothing finished or acquired this week means tsundoku points holding steady at 3.
More soon!
怪人二十面相
Your reading notes are so fun to look through since we’re reading the same book. Honestly this book would be so hard for me on paper due to the slightly older style, you’re doing great. Did you know its on jpdb?
Summary
I don’t use it heavily, and unfortunately it shows a lot of words in kanji that are actually in kana, but at the beginning of reading something I find it helpful for a few chapters to pick off some of the most common words (I like sorting by frequency to get a feeling of how many to learn, and then sort by appearance to decide in situ if they are relevant). And… be careful sometimes you get spoiler words. So not a strong rec from me after all, but I thought I’d mention it!
I think I used it for the first 6 chapters for this book and then forgot about it
I’m not sure if this is helpful because it’s so subjective, but I feel like this book didn’t get easier for me until recently, like chapter 13 or 14. Whereas for the Cocoa book we read together it felt like it got easier by the time I read half the number of pages.
Oh the Japanese definition is way more helpful for this one
my thought as well, I’ve looked it up 6 times and it will not stick
Really like these definitions and yes this one will come up again
I hope it goes well!!
I’d be scared, too
But… If it guess well, a new, reliable relationship can grow! 
°☆•° February 14, Saturday °•☆°
Another weekend, another iteration of “nothing finished, nothing acquired”. I am very close to finishing Harta 91, though! AND I made my first ever packing request from Neokyo! So it will probably take them up to a week, but then they’ll let me know what my shipping options are. Ack! Even if it’s exorbitant it will be worth it, but if it’s not exorbitant then it may open up a whole new world of options in terms of book acquisition. :ahem: Not that book acquisition is what I’m thinking about all the time, definitely not, usually I’m planning out my tsundoku reads, right? Right?
So, speaking of which, I have reached the sweet spot with Kiki. I noticed this before but didn’t mention it. But I can read it really smoothly, I can parse the hiragana really quickly, I average less than one look-up per page (that’s a big deal for me). I’m also loving it story-wise and it seems that more of the elements that inspired the Ghibli film show up in the second book which is interesting to see. Book-Kiki feels pretty different from Movie-Kiki. In a good way. (Will we still meet that artist girl living in the woods? Is she in the books too?)
So yeah, I am kind of plotting to finish Kiki その二 and then finish the Bonbon series as bedtime reads, and then acquire the rest of Kiki for my next bedtime series. (And then Monodama???)
What else am I plotting … Not too much. I’ll probably start reading ahead of the book club now that I’m caught up on 怪人二十面相. If I can finish it by the time the Mystery Series Book Club starts that would be really great. I guess at the moment I’m kind of all in on this murder mystery genre reading arc. At the same time I’m a bit bummed about neglecting Silent Witch. I don’t think about it day-to-day, but when I’m in planning mode I do think “but where does that fit in?? When will I polish my fantasy genre reading skills??”
Yeah, there are only so many hours in the day, and I am also trying to work out every other day (current major goal: acquire the ability to do just one full pushup ), practice flute every day, go to music jams (sessions), do crafting, get minecraft on my computer so I can let my nephew teach me how to play, make travel plans, travel, etc etc etc … Life is good when you’re just overflowing with things that you’re interested in and excited about.
°☆•° Reading data °•☆°
| day | time | pages | m/p | day total | notes | vocab |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2/7 | 16 | 3 | 5.3 | - | Ooh, Boy Detective carries a Real Pistol! This has been a fun interaction so far. | しわがれ声。きもったま (肝っ玉)。気を引く == それとなく相手の心を探る。形容 == 物事の性質や様子のどを言い表すこと。一寸法師 == とても小さいけれど、かしこくて、鬼をやっつけた男の子のお話。大胆不敵 == 大胆でどんなことも恐れない様子。たじたじ == びっくりして、どうしていいかわからない様子。 |
| 2/7 | 23 | 3 | 7.7 | 6 | So many words for different types of understanding … So many words … just in general. … If I read six pages tomorrow then I’ll be caught up. | 不覚 == 油断して失敗すること。。負け惜しみ == 負けたことを素直に認められず、言い訳をする。。おうしゅう (応酬) == 相手がしたことに対し、やり返すこと、またそのような相互のやり取り。。さとる == 物事の本当の意味を知る、はっきり理解する。。明察 == 本当のことをよく見抜くこと。。会得 == あることの意味や内容を理解し、自分のものとすること。。裏をかく == 相手をだまして、びっくりさせる。。切り札 == とっておきの手段。。なにしおう (名にし負う)。。牢屋。。かぶとを脱ぐ == 降参する。。 |
| 2/8 | 24 | 3 | 8 | - | ピッポちゃん!  … ~~~ He carried with him the most essential items for a detective. A small flashlight, a pocketknife, a notebook … and an adorable dove. ~~~ I love it. Was not expecting him to have a mascot, but hey, this is Japan. Why wouldn’t he have a mascot? |
のこぎり (this word has been coming up surprisingly frequently for me lately)。。ズック == 麻または木綿の生布の一種。。としはもいかぬ (年端もいかぬ)。。嘲笑 == ばかにして笑うこと (see also: あざける)。。 |
| 2/8 | 16 | 3 | 5.3 | 6 | Caught up with the club! Now to see if I can stay caught up … | 鋭気(英気)をやしなう。。長いす。。監禁。。 |
| 2/9 | 21 | 3 | 7 | - | It really felt like I was reading faster this time … But no, I was reading at an average speed I guess. … Vocab: bolded words are ones I read recently in Kiki! | おあつらえ向き。。かまぼこ。。きわだつ (際立つ) == 他のものより目立つ。。収穫. == ある事をして得られた成果。。みこみ (見込み) == 将来の成功の期待ができること。。なんなく (難なく)。。かぎ (鉤) == 物を掛けたり、とめたりするのに用いる先が曲がった器具 (hook)。。すれすれ == ほんとうにちかいところまでいく。。明かりとり == おひさまの光をとりいれるためのまど。。 |
| 2/9 | 15 | 3 | 5 | 6 | This time was faster though … | いさましい (勇ましい) == 危険や困難を恐れずに向かっていくさま。。捕縛 == 犯人などを捕らえて縛り上げること。。熟睡 == ぐっすりと寝ること。。ひっそり == 非常に静かで人の気配が感じられないさま。。 |
| 2/12 | 18 | 3 | 6 | - | Missed two days of reading! Partly because I got caught up to the book club and knew that I could afford it, but mostly because I had shit to do. This reading was one full chapter, 奇妙な取引, so that felt nice! It was an entertaining one as well. | 気が長い == ゆっくりしていて、あせらない。。とりこ(虜)。。たぐり上げる == 両手で少しずつ上に引き上げる。。てまどる (手間取る) == 時間がかかって困る。。ひもじい == ひどく腹が減っているさま。。計略 I tried looking it up, but this is still a little overwhelming for me. I think, basically, it is 計画。。おうじる (応じる) (leech)。。申し出 (leech)。。しょげる == 失敗や失望で元気を無くす。。滞在 == どこかにしばらくいること。。あざける == バカにして笑う。。 |
| 2/12 | 18 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 3 pages into the chapter, 3 to go til the end of the chapter and the week’s reading. I bet anything there is a secret passage out of the house that somehow starts in that upstairs room and that 賊 escaped through (with his cook, of course) (is anyone else getting “secret gay romantic relationship” from 賊 and コック?) | まちかまえる == ちゃんと準備して待つ。。要所要所。。うたわれる == みんなに知られている。。がき (I’m not sure if I parsed this correctly, but if I did then the Japanese definition really helped) == 欲深い者を意味する罵倒言。。ぎょうてん (仰天) == 非常に驚くさま。。ふいうち (不意打ち)。。ばかり (found ending a sentence and the Japanese definition helped me figure out what kind of grammar thing was probably going on) == くらい。。はたして == 予想通り。。うじゃうじゃ。。絶頂 == 最高の状態 (JP definition indispensible!)。。はずむ (弾む)。。 |
| 2/14 | 11 | 1 | 11 | - | くよくよしています。* Ack, this single page was so hard! | 殺到 == rush, flood, deluge (なんで？but why??) 。。なだれをうつ (雪崩を打つ) == 山などに積もった雪が滑り落ちてくること (らしい)。。今しがた == 今少し前。。 |
| 2/14 | 5 | 1 | 5 | - | ほっとしてます！ I much prefer five minutes per page. Also, I feel like there’s a strong possibility that the person they think is the 賊 is actually the コック. So much for my gay romance theory I guess. Well, it could be a tragic romance? |
ひったてる (引っ立てる) == 無理やり連れていく。。首実験 (good detective vocab!) 。。ことごとく == ぜんぶ、すべて。。 |
| 2/14 | 9 | 1 | 9 | 3 | Just a classic chapter wrap-up with a “reader, what do you think happened?” moment. | 申し分 == 不満な点。。かくして == このように。。 |
*くよくよ
Tsundoku points: 3
More soon!
By the way, their shipping estimator is pretty good, ie, guess the size and weight of the books and for me it’s always been bang on.It could still be different, but at least it’s not such a harrowing wait!
And from the point, remember to check in more often there, as from the point they pack it you only have 7 days to confirm (I don’t know what happens…), not the original 30 something free storage days.
yay, that sounds perfect for an easy read, congrats!!
l love this, so glad you are planning lots of exciting adventures
quiz time!
ooooh, nice one, I was aware of the ‘attract attention’ meaning, but not this one!
ka’ching yay!!!