📚📚 Read every day challenge - Fall 2022 🍁🍂

November 29 :heavy_check_mark: :open_umbrella:

体育館の殺人, 37-45%

Yesterday I read (along with the audiobook) this week’s portion of 体育館の殺人. We’re now almost halfway through the book, yet we still know nothing about the victim, other than his name. Not because it’s a mystery, but because we don’t care, I suppose. Everyone is so busy trying to figure out who had opportunity to do it, that we don’t care at all about why anyone would want to do it. Oh well. It’s strange to know nothing about the victim and everything about a forgotten everyday object in the vicinity of the crime, but so be it.

Today I should be reading this week’s おばちゃんたちのいるところ story, and hopefully I will, but for now I’m wasting time browsing online bookstores in case I find a suitable book of short stories to read as part of an advent calendar challenge starting tomorrow. One idea is 叙述トリック短編集, a collection of short stories that contain a narrative trick, and the reader is challenged to figure out the solution before the end. It sounds good, but I’m also looking at other options. And trying to ignore the fact that the best option is not to add any more reading to my already busy reading schedule. :roll_eyes:

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November 29th!

I feel asleep without posting yesterdays update so I’m doing it this morning instead!
I read this weeks ABBC assignment of Cells at Work. It seems incredibly difficult for an ABBC pick as it contains loads of really specialised vocabulary - but the vocab sheet was very well populated so I struggled less than I expected to.

(Home Post)

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:house:

Nov 29 & 30 (because I didn’t post yesterday)

かがみの孤城 68 → 72% (page 340)

Aaand it’s the end of the challenge for me! :partying_face: My goal this time was simply to read more days than I did last challenge, and I think I managed to do that. At the very least I was much more consistent this time round, with 17/31 days in October, and 16/30 days in November.

I began the challenge 43% through かがみの孤城(上)and now I’m at 72%. Which doesn’t seem like a lot, but my reading ability and speed has definitely improved! I think I’ll be able to finally finish かがみの孤城(上) before the 10th of December, then have 21 days to also finish 人間椅子 and perhaps start 世界から猫が消えたなら at/before New Year.

I did call it my end of the challenge :eyes: but I’ll keep posting here throughout December, especially while working my way through the rest of かがみの孤城. But not so much focusing on consistent reading, more so finishing off the books I’m partly through so I can have a fresh start to a new year.

Here’s to many more read every day challenges :tada:

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

20221130 - 吾輩は狸である progress: 86.21% :black_circle:

Chapter 11 begins with a game of go, Wagahai-cat, having never seen a go board before, is confused.

:fallen_leaf: Japanese found under the leaves :fallen_leaf:

Meowords

狭苦しい「せまくるしい」ー Cramped

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Nov 30, Wed of Week 10 of Fall 2022 :maple_leaf:

  • Pocket Monster Special Vol.1 Ch.4-8

For yesterday’s post, thank you to @natarin for correction. The Pokedex entry suddenly makes sense.

It is said that Pikachu is pretty smart.

image

Ch.4 features a flyer with Furigana. Otherwise, Pokemon moves feature lots of Kana words otherwise replaceable with Kanji, just like A-nya talk. Well, early Pokemon games too.

HP has a Furigana of Hit Point . Gym really being a training gynasium.

The next chapter has a rat man.

  • かがみの孤城 (上) 91% (Ch.8 December)

Barely touched this one. My listening is further now.

Interesting vocabularies
  • 臨場感(りんじょうかん) realism, but 臨場(りんじょう) is simply just appearance on stage.
  • 電光石火(でんこうせっか) lightning speed, from Pokemon move
  • 精鋭(せいえい) good seed. Has a related vocabulary 少数精鋭(しょうすうせいえい), probably like (えら)ばれし(もの).
  • 体力満(たいりょくまん)タン the latter half ((まん)タン) is actually full ((まん)) tank (タン)
  • 先制攻撃(せんせいこうげき) Why did sensei attack (攻撃(こうげき))? Of course, first half (先制(せんせい)) is a qualified vocabulary of its own. The meaning similar to 先手必勝(せんてひっしょう) perhaps.
  • 強暴(きょうぼう) not that hard to guess, but the dictionary presents two other variations with slightly different meanings (凶暴(きょうぼう),      狂暴(きょうぼう)).
  • とっちめる to teach a lesson. Kanji form is ()っちめる, shortened version of ()って()める.
  • 権威(けんい) an authority = rights + menacing
  • 生体実験(せいたいじっけん) experiment on a living person or animal
  • うろこ scale (of dragon-like). Like loitering child. Kanji form is (うろこ), so yesterday featured 鱗粉(りんぷん) (of an insect).

Phrases

  • 馬子(まご)にも衣装(いしょう) perhaps Japanese people likes to dress ponies.

Forgotten ones

  • 水族館(すいぞくかん) I definitely have seen this one before like 水族館デート.
  • もろに sounds like まるで?, but actually more of もろとも or 諸々(もろもろ)
  • ()がる can mean to step back; and (はず)す can mean to dodge.


As for this Challenge’s recap, I get a feeling that I still need to read more to collect vocabularies; even if I want to improve my listening first. I can collect vocabularies much less via listening, although grammar might be observed either way. So, I would continue to read most days, next month too.

About light novel or manga, perhaps it is not as important in my current stage as I have thought before; but having attached audio, like VN or subtitle, should help a lot. It still matters as for ease of reading, or comfort.

18 Likes

November 30th!

Today I started Volume 4 of Flying Witch, and read Chapter 19.
I’ve been playing a bit of Pokemon Violet each day too this week, so I’ll probably do that later today.

(Home Post)


End of Challenge Summary: 100%

Oct
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
Nov
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

Books Completed

Happiness - Volume 5-6
Orange - Volume 3-4
Shadows House - Volume 2-3
Teasing Master Takagi-san - Volume 8
Mitsuboshi Colors - Volume 5
耳をすませば - Volume 1
Yoru Cafe - Volume 2
Flying Witch - Volume 2-3


Wow, I didn’t realise just how many volumes I finished during this challenge until now!
The 12 volumes I read during this challenge brings me to 52 volumes so far this year which massively surpasses my wildest expectations.

As always, thanks everyone for keeping me motivated with your updates, recommendations and encouragement.
I’ll be carrying on with posting in this thread throughout December, and am hoping some other people will be too, but for anybody who is taking a break until December - I look forward to seeing you again for the 2023 Winter Challenge!

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November 30th

:maple_leaf:Home post:maple_leaf:

Card Captor Sakura volume 1 or Aria: the masterpiece volume 2 – progress report

Yesterday: Read up to page 146 in Card Captor Sakura.
Today: Read up to page 163 in Card Captor Sakura, finished chapter 4.

Not too much progress today but at least I finished chapter 4.

I don’t plan on turning this into a rambling or even rant post but I’ll just say that chapter 4 served as a reminder of the – in my opinion – kind of messed up things (mostly (romantic) character relationships and some other character interactions) that are sprinkled across this series because this chapter already had some of it.
I vaguely remember some things I found weird even back when I read it the first time all these years ago, but I’ll probably get an urge to gag once I get to some especially unsettling parts…looking at you, implied romantic relationship (to come) between primary school student and primary school teacher. :nauseated_face:

Since I didn’t start my challenge in October but in November instead, I will continue my challenge until the end of December to still have 2 months worth of reading practice. That’s why I won’t do a challenge recap yet.

If it’s okay, I’ll keep posting my daily reading progress in this thread (unless there is a Read every day-winter challenge starting in December instead of January?). If not, I’ll just update my weekly progress in my study log.


Word or expression of the day:

困惑 (+する) - (こんわ) - bewilderment, perplexity, embarrassment

Honourable mention:

取り替え - (とりかえ) - swap, exchange

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:maple_leaf: :turkey: November 30th :turkey: :maple_leaf: (Home Post Link)

We made it!! Congratulations to everyone!! :partying_face: It was really encouraging to see so many people posting their progress, and I definitely wouldn’t have read as much as I did without this group here, so thank you to everyone who posted and thank you to @windupbird for hosting! I will be sticking around and posting through december probably; I have no plans to break my reading streak unless something goes horribly horribly wrong. Not feeling like I’m really hitting a wall yet with reading without more focused kanji or harder grammar study (yet), and I would like to push this up until I get closer to that point. Honestly, not doing anki or wk reviews for two months has been refreshing, and I’m enjoying reading way more without them. I might need them again someday, but for now I just am enjoying reading. :grin:

Over the course of the challenge, I read 12 volumes of よつばと!, 4 volumes of からかい上手の高木さん, reread about half of Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide (starting from the grammar parts that mattered to me), the one volume of 耳をすませば, my first short story 赤い手袋, and 2 volumes of ホリミヤ. My original goal was to read at least one chapter of manga per day, and enjoy myself doing it. I ended up reading every day, averaged ~2.2 chapters/day (and change, didn’t go count up any online chapters I read for stuff like イジらないで、長瀞さん, or 古見さんは、コミュ症です), and absolutely enjoyed myself doing it, so I’d call this an unqualified success of a reading challenge. Still a long way to go before I’m reading unassisted and with the speed and comprehension at the level I’m after, but progress is progress. No doubt about that.

Moving forward, I’d like to keep up the minimum 1 manga chapter/day goal, since that seems to be manageable for me even on days where I’m not feeling the greatest (and based on my SLA research review,15-20 minutes a day is already more than enough to see considerable benefits from extensive reading programs). But I’d also like to start incorporating NHK easy articles to get some more practice reading more formal writing without the image context in manga (with the goal being to eventually transition this into jp wikipedia or full jp news articles.) The jump from manga to light novels and novels is going to be pretty big, I think, but I’m moving in that direction.

Finishing ホリミヤ before the end of December seems doable, so I think that will be my series reading goal for now, plus one NHK easy article per day.

Read:

  • ホリミヤ ch 14 - more and more cuteness GUUUH
  • よつばと!ch 23 - this was the first chapter I read during the challenge, and at the time I considered it to be the hardest chapter of the series that I’d read so far. I thought it would be fun to go back and do a direct comparison. Now I’d say it’s probably easier than most of what I’m reading. Grammar is noticeably simpler, and I picked up on some parts of the conversation that totally went over my head 2 months ago. In short: remarkable improvements!

image
Mood.

Good Words

ホリミヤ
無断「むだん」ー without permission
拍子「ひょうし」ー tempo, beat, rhythm (here metaphorically)
塞がる「ふさがる」ー to be closed up, to be healed

よつばと!
養殖「ようしょく」ー aquaculture
飲み込む「のみこむ」ー to swallow, to gulp down

25 Likes

:fallen_leaf: Day 61, 30th of November :maple_leaf:

:open_book: Back to my Home Post

Last day! I read another DrDru story (soo~ many left to go), and this time it was about the て-form. Admittedly not the most exciting end to this challenge. :sweat_smile: Let’s hope I have enough time and energy with all the advent stuff to get through some more.

All in all, I’ve completed 52 days of 61. This was a lot of fun and I definitely read more than I would have wothout this challenge. But I think having a month off until the next challenge is necessary to decompress and decelerate.

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November 30 :heavy_check_mark: :dancer:

おばちゃんたちのいるところ , 30-37%

I did manage to stop browsing bookstores long enough to finish this week’s story after all. And this concludes the official challenge, but I’ve already added a December calendar to my home post. I’ll continue to be very busy in terms of reading, and of course I’ll keep posting here until the next challenge starts.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking that I might not do a reading advent calendar on top of everything else after all. I have so much to read already, and so many books I have bought and not even opened yet, that it’s crazy to go looking for another one just because. On the other hand…I guess I have until tomorrow to change my mind. We’ll see. :eyes:

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:fishing_pole_and_fish: Home :bacon:

November 30

人間椅子 -

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険53
113 - 151

I really wanted to finish last night but I didn’t want to chance waking up for work late

I’ll be continuing through December with the challenge as usual

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Home post :bookmark:

Nov 29 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf: :snowman_with_snow:

・本好きの下剋上 14 (7% → 18%)

Nov 30 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf: :snowman_with_snow:

・本好きの下剋上 14 (18% → 21%)

Still have two exams left, but I think the most stressful part is done now :3
Will continue posting unless I get struck with more fatigue.

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No seperate thread, lots of people just keep posting on here so go for it!

I thought I’d posted last night but clearly didn’t.

30/11 21 pages Spy Family (finished mission and book 3)

So I’m currently up to date with 3 clubs, behind in 2 and haven’t even started the 2 new ones from this week.

I missed 2 days each month which isn’t too bad.

At a quick glance I seem to have read 5 manga and 2 books during this time (though some I started before, but on the other hand I’ve started new ones since).

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I have so many things I’m trying to read before EOY I’ll also probably keep posting and reading in this thread as well. I read a decent chunk of 異世界の名探偵 last night, don’t think I updated on that. But it’s going smoother for me now as we’re in the familiar territory of “dead body, solve the case”.

I also started 黄金仮面 last night, and it’s actually doable this year! :tada: Reading without lookups and keeping pace with the audiobook last year was just way too hard and I made it about 1/3 of the way in before I was hopelessly tangled and felt I’d lost the plot. This time there’s still definitely a few sentences that I’m ??? on, but it’s maybe one sentence every few pages as opposed to all over.

Also, I don’t think I noticed last time that the pearl that had been stolen was shaped like an eggplant?! :eggplant: :joy: I suspect I didn’t know 茄子 last year. While there are many varieties of eggplant, I’m going to continue to imagine the most ridiculous one I can for this pearl.

Also, just an aside, I think my audiobook might be based on the original text and my paper copy has been modified. Some words and/or sentences are different, and I know my book has been modified as it contains inline notes, ex: 五十円 at this time (1931) is now (now being 1993) 二万円. I looked it up and 20000円 in 1993 is ~21600円 today.

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:maple_leaf: :jack_o_lantern: :snowflake: :christmas_tree: November 30 :christmas_tree: :snowflake: :jack_o_lantern: :maple_leaf:
Home Post

Loopers :infinity:

Read most of chapter 8 today. I did start it a little last night. Since I’m trying to get through this quickly. I have two more weeks and then Bustafellows starts, and the more I can have read by then, the better. And I’ll be super busy soon, so I won’t have 2+ hours to read like I had today.

I think this 7000 character chapter took me about 2.5 hours to read. So I probably need to schedule double that for 9-nine- that starts right before new year.

So yeah, I have no plan to stop. I have too much to read. I’m also behind on Kamisamagamachigaeru, but I’ll catch up when I want a break from Loopers, or when I break for a chapter of Orange. Volume 5 of Orange starting this weekend! Getting towards the end of that story.

For Loopers, I’m almost halfway through the chapters 8/17, but the VN was peppered with the short chapters in the early portion, so reaching 8.5 chapters won’t mean I’ve read half of it.

I missed 9 days in November (8 in October), but I’m making up for it now, by spending 2 hours more or less every day reading. Some days more than that.

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Summary Post

Challenge Wrap-Up

Not me failing my own challenge :upside_down_face:
I really lost a lot of momentum with all my traveling during this challenge. I was gone for like a week out of each month, and then I failed to pick things back up again when I came back. I just felt like there was so much going on, between the traveling itself and all the work I had to cram into the time before and after my traveling ><

I only read for a grand total of 15 days this challenge :upside_down_face: I finished 3 manga volumes in that time. BUT I did very much enjoy the things I read, and I met the love of my life, my sweet baby angel Rei :pleading_face: I still have one more volume of that left to read, I kind of wanted to leave it for a time when I had the mental space to actually get into it and enjoy it

I’m happy to see that even though I fell down on the job, the thread continued to thrive :heart: Congratulations to those who are finishing up their challenge today - おつかれさまでした :bowing_woman: I will be taking full advantage of the month-long hiatus, as I have even more travel coming up :joy: But good luck to everyone planning to continue! As usual, feel free to keep posting here as long as you like, it’s always nice to read everyone’s updates :grin:

26 Likes

2022-12-01T01:37:00Z

After I did so well with the last challenge, I got slack with this one and missed 10 days. Those were days when I got too engrossed in reading my usual English novels that I just didn’t feel like stopping to practise Japanese. However, it has been proven (to me) over this past year, that I learn better when I stick to a specific routine. (I don’t know how I am going to finish the rest of the year off, though. I will be getting so many books that I will read immediately and so Japanese may get pushed aside again. :disappointed:) Well, I will continue as best as I could. (That’s all anyone can do, after all.)

Anyway, just like last year when I first started this reading challenge, I am reading オトメン(乙男). The dates almost match as well (it’s just a week earlier than last year). Given my pace in reading, (and provided I take no breaks), I may finish this volume before next year unlike with volume 1 which I only finished in January this year. I still struggle with shoujo manga as compared to shounen manga. The vocabulary and grammar tends to be more complex in my opinion but the gap in comprehension has narrowed for me over this past year with all my shoujo manga practice.

ᴺᵒʷ ᵒᶠᶠ ᵗᵒ ᶠᶦⁿᵃˡˡʸ ʳᵉᵃᵈ ᴹʸ ᴵⁿˢᵗᵃⁿᵗ ᴰᵉᵃᵗʰ ᴬᵇᶦˡᶦᵗʸ ᴵˢ ˢᵒ ᴼᵛᵉʳᵖᵒʷᵉʳᵉᵈ, ᴺᵒ ᴼⁿᵉ ᶦⁿ ᵀʰᶦˢ ᴼᵗʰᵉʳ ᵂᵒʳˡᵈ ˢᵗᵃⁿᵈˢ ᵃ ᶜʰᵃⁿᶜᵉ ᴬᵍᵃᶦⁿˢᵗ ᴹᵉᵎ ¹² ʷʰᶦᶜʰ ᴵ’ᵛᵉ ᵇᵉᵉⁿ ʷᵃᶦᵗᶦⁿᵍ ᶠᵒʳ ʷʰᵒˡᵉ ᵈᵃʸ.
ⁿᵒᵖᵉ, ᶜᵃⁿ’ᵗ ʳᵉᵃᵈ ⁱᵗ ⁿᵒʷ. ˢᵒᵐᵉᵗʰⁱⁿᵍ’ˢ ʷʳᵒⁿᵍ ʷⁱᵗʰ ᵃᵐᵃᶻᵒⁿ ᵃⁿᵈ ⁱ’ᵐ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵍᵉᵗᵗⁱⁿᵍ ᵗʰᵉ ʷʰᵒˡᵉ ᵇᵒᵒᵏ. ᵇᵒᵒʰᵒᵒ

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Home Post

I read 4 novels and 4 volumes of manga in Japanese during this challenge. I also finished 2 novels in Mandarin. I did miss 2 days completely, and read in only 1 language 5 days, but all in all, I’d say it was a pretty successful challenge. Most days, I read at least 20 novel pages in Japanese, which was nice since thanks to previous challenges, I was already reading every day, but not as much as I wanted to be. So I’m happy about that. See you all in the winter 2023 challenge!

25 Likes

30 November 2022

:house: Home Post


  • Chainsaw Man (Chapter 59)

Hey! We did it!

I’ve come to make huge leaps and bounds in my comprehension from this challenge, and I have you all to thank for keeping me consistent and motivated. Even so, I do feel the fatigue taking it’s toll. Best of luck in the winter reading challenge and all other endeavors!

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November 30 :maple_leaf: Home Post

Finishing off the main challenge pretty neutral with just the last chapter of ブルーロック volume 18, which is certainly setting up some interesting things for future reading :eyes:

And with that the challenge is technically over, isn’t that wild :joy: this one was definitely a bumpier ride for me; it started during a really busy time for me and I never actually did anything with my home post whoops which made for an interesting start, but even so I ended up making some solid progress! Looking back I read 17 volumes of ブルーロック over these past two months which is… quite a bit :laughing: so that’s pretty cool, it’s definitely been a lot of fun! I also read 人間椅子 back on Halloween, throwback to that, still pretty wild that I managed to get through that one. I also had various chaos (of course) with some different games, and the バディミッションBOND drama cds that I still need to get back to!! Once I have more brain energy lmao.

But yeah overall pretty successful I think! Definitely some different reading habits than I’ve had in previous challenges, I never tended toward manga as much, but ブルーロック found its way into primary position haha. I imagine I’ll be hanging out here until the next challenge like usual; that one starts while I’m on break so hopefully I’ll be less scattered :joy: great job everyone, onward and upward! :tada:

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