📚📚 Read every day challenge - Fall 2022 🍁🍂

Looks more like a crime/mystery novel with grotesque/violent descriptions to me, maybe similar to Out or In the Miso Soup? If it’s done well, I’m all for it. But…when are you planning to read it? :sweat_smile:
It could be a nomination for the mystery club (reading the reviews, there’s supposed to be a big twist) but so far I’ve seen the club seems to prefer cleaner mysteries and avoid outright violence

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…Vaguely 2023 :joy:

Yeah, I’ve noticed that trend too. I wonder if it will change over time as the forum grows :thinking: or if eventually will just need a Horror Book Club :scream:

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Thanks for the answer Down :smiling_face:

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So if you and @omk3 are into proper horror, then I heard that リング should fit the bill quite nicely :scream:


Yesterday I finally finished 海辺のカフカ! An odyssee of a thousand pages (no, really!) has finally come to an end. We started reading this chonker on May 28th with the Advanced Club, and it officially ended last Friday, i.e. more than 5 months :sweat_smile:

The ride was a bit rough, with all sorts of disgusting and otherwise unpleasant moments, but the end contained so much warmth for me that I’m still all fuzzy inside. Makes me think that after all Murakami is just a little boy searching for peace and harmony and friendship. Just below layers upon layers of really weird thoughts and ideas :face_with_spiral_eyes:

Anyways, have some statistics!
For the first part, I only tracked my reading from page 155.
Read: May 27th - Aug 16th
Reading pace: 9,55 pages/h
Total reading time: 34:45 hours (p. 155 - 486, i.e. ~70% of the book)
Avg. per reading day: 12,7 pages
For the second part:
Read: Aug 25th - Nov 10th
Reading pace: 13,3 pages
Total reading time: 39:30 hours (528 pages)
Avg. per reading day: 16,4 pages

My reading timeline for both parts:

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I thought I wasn’t into proper horror normally, but sometimes the mood strikes me, like it has lately. And after having read several “horror” books and stories in Japanese, I’m now almost convinced that horror is an elusive beast that doesn’t really exist. :joy:
(I did carefully select the horror I read though, and it may have been intentionally on the lighter side. I’ve been avoiding リング because the movie trailer I’ve seen seems to be proper scary horror, but maybe I shouldn’t be avoiding it given my experiences so far. I may nominate it for the Halloween club next October, actually.)

Let me check my calendar. Yes, there seems to still be some free reading time in 2023 :sweat_smile:. I’m sure I can fit it in. If you ping me when you start it, we might get to have another impromptu little club. These are always fun.

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I read sooo many Stephen King books when I was younger :sweat_smile: but I’m not sure I could still stomach them nowadays :scream: (also, just books, never movies! :cold_sweat:)

It’s also nominated in the IBC currently: Intermediate Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: あなたも殺人犯になれる! - #3974 by NickNickovich but it’s not very well-received tbh, so maybe the Halloween club might be a better home for it indeed!

I’m also actually wondering whether Japanese authors can indeed do real horror :sweat_smile: Guess we’ll find out…

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Yeah, movies are a different beast altogether. I always prefer books because even as the words creep into my head and refuse to come out, I still have a level of control over them. A movie can just bombard you with all sorts of horrible images along with creepy music and sudden jump scare tricks, and you can either turn it off or keep watching. Although, I dared to watch IT while in bed with covid in the summer, and it was nothing as scary as I expected. Like I said, I may need to adjust my preconceptions about horror :sweat_smile:

That’s what I was thinking too. Presumably in an intentionally creepy context like the Halloween club it will get more votes.

By the way, do you (or anyone else of course) know of any way to search in Aozora by genre? I’m sure there are good horror stories in there, but I have no idea how to go about searching for them, if I don’t already know about them.

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Are there genres in Aozora? :thinking: Never paid attention to that tbh…
What I usually do if I want to find a certain genre is that I look at the genre’s prize(s) and then pick those books or other books from the same authors. In our case this would e.g. be 日本ホラー小説大賞 - Wikipedia but they only started in 1994 so you might not actually find any of those authors on Aozora, I’m afraid…

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I’m managing a bit of reading in the evenings on my road trip. Mostly reading the IBC book then rewarding myself with reading ahead in シャドーハウス. But I’m getting a bit far ahead…

10/11 2 pages おばちゃんたちにいるところ, 12 pages シャドーハウス

11/11 5 pages おばちゃんたちにいるところ, 17 pages シャドーハウス

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I don’t think Aozora itself is very searchable, but bloggers love to make list of Aozora books so I typed in 青空文庫 ホラー おすすめ and found these:
青空文庫で読める怖い小説5 - Horror好きが行く!

Which immediately starts with two authors I don’t like :upside_down_face: I refuse to read any more 夢野 after 冗談に殺す which was nothing but graphic descriptions of animal cruelty and killing

芥川 just has a writing style that I don’t like and find tedious to drag through.

However this one looks more promising as it gives more choice and more detail.

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Thank you, this is perfect :smiley:

I see the first link also lists 金の輪 by 小川未明 which we’ve read with the Beginner Club. And while I may sound like a broken record by now, it was in no way horror, although it was indeed very surprising as a story for small children… Spoiler summary: A sickly kid watches a boy pass in front of his house playing with two golden hoops. After a few days he dies. The end.

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Nov 11, Fri of Week 7 of Fall 2022 :maple_leaf:

  • かがみの孤城 (上) 54% => 62% (Finished Ch.4 August)

Finished “first semester”. Although I didn’t look up that much, it takes quite some energy and time to read; but continued because it’s a peak of the story (引き()った笑み :smiling_face:).

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:tiger2: :books: The Tanuki Autumn Onsen :hotsprings: :raccoon:

20221111 - 吾輩は狸である progress: 73.04% :cucumber:

The new guest leaves but Master’s friend remains, the conversation continues and they become an unstoppable conversational entity from which there is no escape.

:fallen_leaf: Japanese found under the leaves :fallen_leaf:

Meowords

贔負「ひいき」ー Favour; patronage; favouritism
奮発「ふんぱつ」ー Strenuous exertion; spurt; splurge

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11 November 2022

:house: Home Post



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Home post :bookmark: Nov 11 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf:

・本好きの下剋上 12 (71% → 78%)

Either the side stories are super long or it’s me who don’t have enough time to read them :durtle_durtverted_lvl1:

Spoiler: A bit bummed out finding out that ダームエル and ブルギッテ didn’t get together during the 星結び. Oh well. I thought it would work out after the sneak peek of them talking together in the woods a year back, but I guess fate has something else in store for them instead.

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:maple_leaf: :teddy_bear: :carousel_horse: Carouseal’s Home Post :carousel_horse: :teddy_bear: :maple_leaf:

Coming into this late but I want to start reading more n_n

Nov
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Links

BookMeter
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Reading List
Currently Reading
:shinto_shrine: 神さまがまちがえる Manga 神さまがまちガえる Home Thread (Beginner Book Club)
:calendar: Hobonichi Weeks Quotes 📆 Hobonichi 2022・Translating a quote a day - #3 by carouseal
:purple_heart: Pokemon Violet Game
Want to Read
:coffee: 夜カフェ Novel 夜カフェ ☕ Home Thread (Beginner Book Club)
:carrot: 大好きな野菜大好きな料理 Cookbook Available at library
:microbe: Cells at Work!! Manga Cells at Work! 🦠 Book Club ・ Starting November 26!
:sleeping_bed:t4: また、同じ夢を見ていた Novel Available at library
Overview Log
11.11.2022 :shinto_shrine: :calendar: :nesting_dolls: :roller_coaster:
11.12.2022 :shinto_shrine: :coffee: :nesting_dolls:
11.13.2022 :broom: :speaking_head:
11.14.2022 :broom: :speaking_head:
11.15.2022 :calendar: :owl:
11.16.2022 :broom:
11.17.2022 :broom:(done!)
11.18.2022 :purple_heart:(start!)
11.19.2022 :shinto_shrine: :purple_heart:
11.20.2022 :shinto_shrine: :purple_heart: :speaking_head:
11.21.2022 :purple_heart:
11.22.2022 :purple_heart:
11.23.2022 :purple_heart:
11.24.2022 :purple_heart:
11.25.2022 :purple_heart:
11.26.2022 :shinto_shrine:
11.27.2022
11.28.2022 :speaking_head:
11.29.2022 :microbe: :calendar:
Additional Studying

Because I’m not really doing enough yet to make a whole thread about it but I still want to keep track of my non-reading studies

:nesting_dolls: Cure Dolly
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:roller_coaster: リラックマと遊園地
01 02[IP] 03 04 05 06 07 08

:speaking_head: Nihongo con Teppei

:owl: Duolingo

Daily Template

Home Post
:maple_leaf: :teddy_bear: :carousel_horse: 2022 :carousel_horse: :teddy_bear: :maple_leaf:

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:fallen_leaf: Day 42, 11th of November :maple_leaf:

:open_book: Back to my Home Post

Managed to read two DrDru stories today, one about counters, which was very helpful, and one about the Rattenfänger von Hameln. Interestingly he demanded to be payed in €uro, which didn’t exist back then, so no wonder nobody paid him. :laughing:

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November 11th
:maple_leaf:Home post:maple_leaf:

Aria: the masterpiece volume 1 – progress report
Last time’s progress: read up to page 113
Today: read up to page 127

Do I have access to Aria again? Yes. Did my work trip murder my sleep schedule leaving me too tired to read much yet again? Yes. That’s why I only read a few pages today. :disappointed:
I hope that a good night’s sleep can restore some of my energy to make it possible for me to make a bit more progress tomorrow.

Some words of note

妖術 (ようじゅつ) black magic, witchcraft, sorcery
どうせ after all
電動 (でんどう) electric
迷いこむ (まよいこむ) to go astray, to lose one’s way

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I’ve read a couple pages of また、同じ夢を見ていた. Not as many as I wanted to because I read this on my kindle before bed. So I’m always fighting against falling asleep, especially if I get to bed a bit later. :sweat_smile:

I read almost 2 volumes of Wataten. Which is more than the average over the last days. It’s fun and a fairly easy read so chourning through a volume can be quick.
I wanted finish volume 6 today but I’m watching CS:GO Rio Major instead.

The other manga I’m currently progressing through is Nausica and it’s quite the opposite. Lots of text and a lot of it isn’t so easy. Definitely more taxing and a lot slower to go through. Haven’t touched it for a few days because I’m addicted to the other one at the moment.

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November 11 :heavy_check_mark: :rose:

ユージニア, 10-17%

I started reading this week’s Eugenia today, intending for it to take a couple of days, then all of a sudden I had finished the whole chapter :eyes:
It continues to be perfect - I love the writing style, I love the vague air of intrigue, the very slow trickle of little clues, the constant feeling of uncertainty and double-guessing over nothing in particular. Just perfect. I really hope it continues as well as it started.

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