📚📚 Read every day challenge - Fall 2022 🍁🍂

:lady_beetle: Home :lady_beetle:

October 24

ニャンキーズ 2 Start to 42

I hate this website so much. Since when does the enter button have no purpose?
Basic functionality should not require extra steps.

If I can stop being pissed off for a moment, I’m not understanding the start of this volume well, but it’s bothering me how “other” coded the other gang is in this part. Before when it was just the twins against the protagonists, Ryusei and Tiger, I thought, ok the twins have dreads, maybe they’re meant to look like more modern delinquents? Especially given that Tiger has a very classic look and Ryusei also seems to have a more timeless, but less popular look. But now the boss of the twins has been shown in human form. If I understand it right, she’s a female calico (standard) and one of the plot points is that Ryusei is looking for a male calico cat. However, the boss has been drawn as this common stereotype of how muscular crossdressing men look in anime. So far in this volume, one of her good deeds is talked about, but I’m not a fan of villains being coded as “other” particularly in contrast to the protagonists who are often coded as normal or in-group. I’ll have to read further and I hope this manga doesn’t disappoint me, but it’s not like I planned to buy the 3rd vol. Whether I like it or not just influences whether I’m keeping or reselling it.

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I thought Conan was seven?

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Crud, I keep thinking ten for some reason! The body’s that of a five- or six-year-old boy, according to the police who found him. I think he tells Ran he’s in the first grade? I’ll confirm when I read later tonight.

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October 24 :maple_leaf: Home Post

Just read some more ブルーロック today! I’ve been watching the anime with my partner as well as it’s been coming out, so it’s been fun going back in time and seeing early story things in a new light :eyes:

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Only a little bit of time available today, so squeezed in a couple of pages of 死仮面. I should be able to finish off the rest of this week’s book club reading tomorrow. I thought I liked my book setup until I started it and now I’m noticing shortcomings. I don’t have a quick and easy way to browse my highlighted texts or view my notes in iBooks or Apple Books or whatever it’s called. I played around with Yomu but it’s note taking isn’t any better and actually a bit worse.
If anyone has recommendations for iPad apps that fit these criteria I’m all ears!

  • Either allows the native iOS dictionary or lets you use your own
  • Allows for highlighting and note taking - and you can easily pull these up from any page
  • Does not limit the number of highlights/notes you can take
  • Allows for loading in your own EPUBs
  • Supports Japanese books (ie, won’t choke on right → left style)
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:books: :maple_leaf: softlyraining’s spooky book stack :jack_o_lantern: :open_book:

October 24th:
:yellow_square: 名探偵コナン (53% → 69%)

Another two chapters read, and another case started as the first one draws to a close. In the end, while the little girl was legitimately kidnapped by some creepy guy who’s never named, she was also fake kidnapped. As it turns out, her father has been working like crazy ever since her mother passed away, and she’s gotten incredibly lonely. So, she convinced the butler to pretend she’s been kidnapped with the condition of her return being that he shuts down his company for a month.

The next chapter begins with Conan getting his first gadget: the bowtie that can alter his voice! I remember this from the show; interesting that he gets it pretty early on (I didn’t know when or where he got it from before this). Ran’s father has received another case, this time from an idol he’s a major fan of. We’ll see how this case goes.

@saidahgilbert Okay, Conan tells Ran he’s 6 years old, and then she asks him if he’s in the 1st grade, to which he says yes. May I finally solidify this information in my brain. :crossed_fingers:

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You can find the manga here, if you’re interested:

Looking it up on Wikipedia it seems the first novel came out in 2018 and the first manga in 2020, and there are more novel volumes out than manga volumes, so I guess it’s obvious the novel came first, after all. Still, it’s the kind of premise that probably works better in manga form for me, so I don’t mind. (It’s not specified as a light novel, but I think the premise, the cover, and the fact that it seems to be episodic would probably point towards that direction?)
There’s also a drama based on it. I know nothing about that, but from the poster the choice of actors seems a little jarring. I may be wrong.

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Why did they cast people who look like teenagers? :joy:

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24 October 2022

:house: Home Post



Taking the transcript pill. As much as I like chainsaw man, I think my time (the little that I have, haha) feels well spent reading more conversational Japanese. This podcast takes the style of teaching about nuances of grammar and various things related to Japan all in Japanese, so on top of being good reading practice I get to learn something. Highly recommend it!

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Right? :joy: I guess that’s where the 女性向け comes in, the main characters need to look “cute”? I don’t understand those things at all.

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Never mind, sorry about that, seems like it doesn’t actually support epubs :see_no_evil:

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Whoops, forgot to update for a few days. Not that there’s anything too exciting to report…

:books: :video_game: :maple_leaf: :fallen_leaf: October 21

Busy busy day so could only read a little bit of 狼と香辛料 (64% → 65%)

:books: :video_game: :maple_leaf: :fallen_leaf: October 22

狼と香辛料 (65% → 68%)

:books: :video_game: :maple_leaf: :fallen_leaf: October 23

狼と香辛料 (68% → 71%)

:books: :video_game: :maple_leaf: :fallen_leaf: October 24

狼と香辛料 (71% → 75%)

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Not much time for reading today, spent an annoying amount of time preparing my tax return.

25/10 3 pages 夜カフェ, 1 page Tugumi.

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:jack_o_lantern: October 25th :jack_o_lantern: (Home Post Link)

I spent a good 2 hours working on getting my old kindle set up for my next series (as much as I love physical media, I am a mere mortal with a limited amount of shelf space), and I think I finally got it working how I wanted. Got volumes 1-14 of からかい上手の高木さん set up and ready to go as soon as I finish よつばと! I was going to do しろくまカフェ next, but that got bumped up to level 19 on Natively. Doesn’t make a huge difference, because I was planning to read them both anyway. I also have a trip coming up that will be easier to pack an e-book reader for, so it just worked out this way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Read all of よつばと!volume 12! (Chapters 77-82) Very cozy volume. The Halloween chapter was already excellent, and then throw the whole camping adventure on there too? Flawless. I normally love going camping in the early fall after it starts getting a little cold, but kinda missed my chance this year because of all the smoke. Now it’s rain season here, and probably won’t get another nice crisp day until next year :sob: I will just have to live vicariously through よつば and the gang until then.
I also put on this fall video game music mix while I was reading, 10/10 autumnal experience.

Good Words

結ぶ「むすぶ」ー to tie
うまい棒「うまいぼう」ー brand of puffed corn snack (yet more snacks for the list)
かぶる ー to be similar (many definitions, but here it’s about beef and chicken)
挟む「はさむ」ー to put between, to sandwich between
花瓶 「かびん」ー flower vase
絵の具「えのぐ」ー paint
寄る「よる」ー to draw near, to approach
記念 「きねん」ー memento
ピリ辛「ぴりから」ー spicy
反撃「はんげき」ー counterattack
鬼ごっこ「おにごっこ」ー tag (playing demons that’s so cute :sob: )
むささび ー Japanese Flying Squirrel
悪戯 「いたずら」ー mischief; prank; trick;
そっくり ー spitting image of
油性「ゆせい」ー oil based
させて頂く 「させていただく」ー to have the privilege of doing (humble language)|
斜め「ななめ」ー slanting
揺れる「ゆれる」ー to shake, to sway
我慢「がまん」ー endurance, patience
炊く「たく」ー to boil, to simmer
キツツキ ー woodpecker
燃える「もえる」ー to burn
柔らかい「やわわらかい」ー tender, soft

not from よつばと!, but while i was looking up something else I saw that thermoses can be called “magic bottles” ー 魔法瓶「まほうびん」

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

20221025 - 吾輩は狸である progress: 61.58% :cat2:

Wagahai-cat is disappointed that he is not a tiger.

In other news I bought Sigh’s latest album Shiki today, and all the song titles are in kanji, so that’s been fun to try and work out what they all mean.

:fallen_leaf: Japanese found under the leaves :fallen_leaf:

Meowords

竜騰虎闘「りゅうとうことう / りょうとうことう」ー A fight between a dragon and a tiger aka a fight between two super strong opponents aka Kiryu Kazuma vs. Saejima Taiga

Bonus サイ word

生者必滅「しょうじゃひつめつ」ーAll which is born, dies / the impermanence of life (Buddhism)

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:fallen_leaf: Day 25, 25th of October :maple_leaf:

:open_book: Back to my Home Post

Today’s story by DrDru was about things you could see or hear. Which animals can you see, what noises do they make?

I found a phrase in it that I want to write down and memorize, because I find that it could be useful:

  • (ひだり)(がわ)から(みぎ)(がわ)()かって (from left to right)

and I suppose its opposite:

  • (みぎ)(がわ)から(ひだり)(がわ)()かって (from right to left)
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Home post :bookmark: Oct 25 :maple_leaf:

・本好きの下剋上 11 (91% → 100%)
I finished my first book this challenge! :partying_face: Feels like it’s been forever tbh :joy:

・狼と香辛料 (70% → 72%)
Also read a bit of spicy economy book.

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October 25 :heavy_check_mark: :eyeglasses:

准教授・高槻彰良の推察, vol2 69 pages

The storyline that stopped abruptly in the previous volume was resolved, and we learn some more about the main character’s past. You’d think that knowing when people are lying would be a cool talent to have, but the way he tells it, it’s made obvious why it’s such a burden, more a curse than a gift.

The characters’ backgrounds are very interesting, but I’m also loving the lectures on folklore. The next chapter is about 神隠し, or “being spirited away”. The professor gives a lecture on exactly this, then wouldn’t you know it, there’s a 神隠し case to investigate.

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:fallen_leaf::maple_leaf: October 25 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf: home post link🏡

I read 4 pages of ごんぎつね and finished up chapter 4. It looks like I’m a couple pages from the end. Chapter 5 is one page, and chapter 6 is two pages. Just a little more to go!

Summary

So far, from what I’ve understood of the story, ごん has been leaving little gifts of 栗 (くり - Japanese chestnuts) and まつたけ (matsutake, a type of mushroom) by 兵十’s house. 兵十 is obviously confused by this and talks about it with 加助 (かすけ). Some stuff happens in the meantime (I’m honestly not too sure what happened on one of the pages), and 加助 tells 兵十 that he thinks God must’ve given 兵十 the gifts. ごん overhears this and gets angry because they’re thanking the wrong person for the gifts. I’m not sure I read this right, but I think 兵十 and 加助 are going to try to catch ごん the next morning when he drops off the chestnuts and mushrooms.

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:lady_beetle: Home :lady_beetle:

October 25

ニャンキーズ two (because discourse can’t handle digits) 43 - 83

Well some of my fears were assuaged but then the boss of the rival gang non consensually kissed Ryusei and I think asked him out/offered to have his kids?? Something of that nature, which does not leave the best taste in my mouth.

I really want to ramp up my reading again to finish 2 vol weekly.

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