Several book clubs are coming up in late October and November ( おばちゃんたちのいるところ, ユージニア and possible new mystery?) plus I have a couple of books on the go and many others waiting (im)patiently to get their turn. I want to try fitting in some short spooky stories too, but we’ll see how much I can actually find time for. why won’t someone just pay me to read for hours and hours on end? I’d be willing to work unpaid overtime!
After a very spotty September, I want to get back to every day. And remind myself that I don’t have to read a whole chapter, I could just read a couple of pages. I also want to avoid grazing to be able to tick the box, tiny reads of my currently in progress reading projects is so much better.
This should help me catch up with the book clubs I’m behind on.
And if I catch up, I get to either read ahead (if I want), or start digging into something else alongside my book club reads. There is a lot of reading ahead of me though to get to that place.
Things that will be challenges to reading every day: my brother will visit for a long weekend in October, [redacted] happens shortly after that (this is the surprise I mentioned in the summer challenge thread), and (since I plan to continue this into December) a 1 week long vacation to the UK will happen.
Also Christmas is my favorite time of year, so starting very soon I will start to read holiday stories (in English) to get myself in the mood. Probably also watch holiday movies. In late November and in December, I’ll take up more baking (probably). I just love celebrating this season. Warmth and light, something very needed in dark northern Sweden (when at its worst the sun is only up for like 3-4 hours), and lots of cold and snow.
Skipped out on the last one, mostly because I wouldn’t have been able to keep up the streak throughout exam phase, but I feel like joining for this one again
10月
月
火
水
木
金
土
日
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
11月
月
火
水
木
金
土
日
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
These last weeks I’ve been trying to read upwards of 12500 characters per day (for my current book that’s 35 pages per day, but it varies a lot). I’ll try to keep that up throughout the challenge as well. I’ll use for days on which I’ve had a dedicated reading session and for days on which I’ve also hit my reading goal. (The other way around looks better, but always having to edit is a pain)
EDIT - Oct 12th:
Just finished my second novel of the challenge. Generally things are looking good, though I’m starting to feel a little overwhelmed with the giant task that is learning Japanese once again.
With lectures starting again next week, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up my 12500 characters/day pace. Starting tomorrow I’ll go down to 10000 and see how it feels.
EDIT - Oct 29th: Decided earlier that I’ll be dropping out of the challenge after today.
Reasonings
I’ve been hitting my reading goal of 12500/10000 characters every day of the challenge, and that wasn’t always a good thing. Even when I didn’t really have the time that day, I sat down and read those 10000+ characters. I don’t wanna keep putting Japanese in front of other aspects of my life like that, so I’ll drop out here.
I’ll still be reading something every day, I’m certain of that much, but the challenge doesn’t hold much value to me in that regard. If anything counts, than the challenge in reading every day is missing :b
Joining again!! Though my goal will rather be to read more days of the two months than last challenge! The end of my two-week break will mark the beginning of my most important academic year, so Japanese in general has become more and more a lesser priority, unfortunately.
I’ll mostly be reading かがみの孤城 (currently 43% through), though I did recently grab three books from Kinokuniya in Singapore and might be tempted to try those! It was my first time in a Japanese bookstore, and I ended up spending two full hours in there
Post Mortem
This is the graph for just Fall. The blank bits are when I read human chair on kindle and therefore didn’t have a number of pages, but %s instead.
Overall it looks good and like I’m making progress, but I can’t help but to feel like it’s only because I was pushing myself so hard to meet my goal of 50 volumes for 2022. I wonder if I’ll be able to keep this positive trend in 2023… I want to spend more time on studying grammar and practicing speaking with my friends.
I need to get into the habit of reading more to prepare for the JLPT N4 in December, so I decided to take part in this challenge!
What I Plan to Read
よつばと！ - Volume 1+
Read quickly through this book last month (my first book in Japanese!), but I was able to understand most of it. I would like to go through this book more in-depth this time around. Looking to eventually purchase the next few volumes as well.
この音とまれ！ - Volume 1
Watched the anime for this and loved it. So I bought the first three volumes of the manga and looking to try reading the first volume. Surprisingly there is no official translation of the manga, although the anime did get official subtitles.
NHK News Easy
I tried reading a few articles a couple of years ago, but it was still too difficult for me. Hopefully this time around, I can actually read some articles.
Miscellaneous Readings
In case I did read something in Japanese, but it wasn’t any of the sources mentioned above.
During September I’ve been busy and then on vacation so my reading has suffered and I’m behind on all my bookclubs
Hopefully this challenge is a good excuse to get back on track with some comfy fall reading. I’ll set up a home thread later.
I remembered to make a home thread this time around, haha. I might not make very many updates this time around, but I’ll try to do better at keeping track of daily reads.
10月
月
火
水
木
金
土
日
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
11月
月
火
水
木
金
土
日
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
I’ve got some books to finish for some book clubs. And if I’m really feeling up to it, then there’s a few books I want to start reading as well. (I mean, I do feel up to it. The problem is having the time to do it.)
I had a busy September, so hopefully this will help me get back on the reading wagon. I’m trying to use Natively properly so that I can read at my level, so I’ll probably be trying to do 30 pages a day or so in Japanese during the challenge. I’ll also (as usual) try and track my reading in Mandarin (probably not French or Spanish though, which I’ll keep more casual).
@fallynleaf I’m currently reading a Julia Alvarez book too! En el tiempo de las mariposas.
10月
月
火
水
木
金
土
日
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19[]
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29[]
30
31
11月
月
火
水
木
金
土
日
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Challenge Reads
Japanese
西の魔女が死んだ (started on 27 of 161, finished on October 7th)
麗子の風儀 (started on page 133, DNFed on page 177 of 280 on October 12th)
かがみの孤城 (DNFed on page 89 of 567)
かくりよの宿飯 二 あやかしお宿で食事処はじめます (282 pages; finished on November 15th)
ごくせん vols. 1-3 (read November 13th-14th, 2022)
ティアムーン帝国物語 5 (read November 15th-30th, 2022; 353 pages)
指輪の選んだ婚約者２(on page 71 of 156)
Mandarin
Wizard and Cat graded reader (started on episode 10, read through episode 44 of 72 and moved on)
You know what, I’m feeling like trying this out. Not sure I can manage every single day, but I been trying to read whenever I can anyway, so this will be nice.
Will hopefully make some progress and finish most of these, but I’m not gonna pressure myself about how much I’m gonna read, as long as I just read even a few pages a day that will be great. Especially since most of my manga is not the easiest. haha
Had to readjust the calendar to start on a Sunday, glad I figured that out now i just need to remember to update this, too.
meagstudies’ autumn summary post
previous: summer 2022
I stopped reading as much halfway through the summer challenge but as September’s come to an end I’ve begun reading more again!
My goal is to finish four books during this challenge: two in October and two in November. My average is two books/month anyway so I’m confident I can do this!
Just like last time, I don’t have any specific goals aside from reading in Japanese for at least a little bit for every day of the next three months. I might do a bit of listening practice, which I’ll also keep track of here.
I would like to finish at least one novel this challenge though since I didn’t over the summer one. I have three started right now (2.43 清陰高校男子バレー部 代表決定戦編①・空への助走 福蜂工業高校運動部・明日をくれた君に、光のラブレターを), plus I should be getting vol 2-4 of 夜カフェ early October.
- 糞尿譚 (on hold)
Holiday/Christmas reading in Swedish/English 
よつばと！ - Volume 1+ 
この音とまれ！ - Volume 1 
NHK News Easy 
Miscellaneous Readings 
but as September’s come to an end I’ve begun reading more again!
