November was …bad. It started strong enough, then I got covid, then another cold, and by the time I finally recovered my reading stamina had somehow vanished. I missed 14 whole days of reading, half a month. Reading is normally my favourite pastime, never a chore, so this is really not normal for me. I’m trying to ease back into reading now. Hopefully December goes better.
I did finish two books this month, one of which I started this month too, but I had plans to finish more. I’m now at 9262 pages read this year. Let’s see how December goes…
I count pages based on the paperback versions. Books are always shorter on my iPad, but that’s because a screen isn’t necessarily a page, right? It’s possible you’ve read more than me, actually. We’ve been reading lots of the same things, and you’ve read lots more besides.
@Naphthalene You’ve read this series, right? On a scale from 1 to 5 how much did you enjoy the later volumes? I’m enjoying this first volume a lot. To buy more or to not buy more…
@windupbird Thank you for hosting all this time, I appreciate you Your well-being comes first. Even if you’re not participating in the next challenge, feel free to visit forum to keyboard smash and offload in complaining thread whenever you need to :3 (I’m just saying cuz I feel like you’re going to feel guilty for visiting forum Reading is not everything, we have cute cats and birbs too, you know )
(I know you didn’t ask me, but) That would be great You will get to be the next seasonal emoji chooser
I was hoping to do lots of reading since it was the final day of the challenge - but then I fell asleep!
Luckily I had already read a page of コンビニ人間 before that happened, or it would have been a sad end to the challenge
Only 5 volumes finished during this challenge, which is lower than usual, but a lot of my time has been eaten up with work stress (to the extent that I quit my job ) and JLPT prep, so I’m pleased with myself for racking up those 5 volumes. I’ve also been slowly chipping away at コンビニ人間, which is a struggle for me, but I’m glad that I’m sticking it out, even though its taking me a long time.
As always, enormous thanks to @windupbird for being our host - while its sad to see you step back after two years, I’m really glad to see you prioritising your wellbeing. Please look after yourself, I hope to still see you around
As usual, I’ll be continuing to post updates throughout December, because I’m a creature of habit - but for anybody who isn’t going to hang around for the off-month - See you in the New Year for more reading adventures!
…So uh, I did a lot of studying last night… but afterwards decided to check if any fanfic of my otp had been posted recently… I was just going to read one, but apparently I’ve been messing up the filters because I found 5 I missed between now and May, so I feel asleep reading English fanfic lol whoops
I forgot to update my daily log yesterday (or rather I was too lazy) so I will do that this afternoon as well as a proper wrap up post for the challenge, update my graphs etc
Dec 2
Read some 極主夫道. Maybe I can side load some Yakuza vocab for when I try and play Yakuza Zero in Japanese or something.
That would be lovely, thank you I’m happy to leave it to you, I know it’ll be in good hands
Thank you tanuk friend The way I STILL TRY TO TYPE :TANUKI: TO GET THAT EMOJI
Thank you friend At the least I will probably be lurking on and off, even if my capacity to interact is minimal - so definitely no one be shy with their cute animal pictures I have a hard time staying away too long, I feel like my most long-lasting Japanese learning-related habit is coming to these forums
Thank you, I will! And I’m sure I will be around, even if only to lurk and like for a bit. ngl I felt a tiny pang of jealousy when I heard about you and javerend quitting your jobs one day
I didn’t even process that it’s December now until I just changed the date on my template. I’ll keep posting in here because how else will you all see my progress move one percent at a time?
NaNoWriMo is over, so I am finally free to catch up on this thread! I’ll hopefully post my own, uh, two-month roundup post soon (did I really not even post a single update?? oops)
Congrats to everyone for your accomplishments, big and little!
Old school Runescape has trained you well
Honestly, I think adding English to Natively would be awesome (though the site itself would be potentially difficult for learners to navigate without other language options). Personally I’d love to see how books I remember struggling with as a kid would rank on there for learners!
(I also had trouble with Redwall as a kid; I think I finished the first book (though I remember almost none of it now), but I didn’t read more, and it was difficult enough and the story didn’t hook me enough that I barely got through it).
I liked that series a lot! Maybe not my favorite ever, but still really fun. Also, the quality was stable throughout, so if you enjoy it so far, you should enjoy it until the end.
I ended up reading the end of the story from the web novel version, which I regret a little bit. The published version is much better (plot holes were fixed and a lot of extra content was added)
Thank you for being a great host and keeping this up and running for so long! I hope things end up getting better soon!
It’s not quite the same as natively because it uses some algorithms to guess a level based on samples from the text, but the hip thing in education right now is Lexile scoring (although, this is primarily for first language reading teaching):
I personally like natively rating better, because the perception of difficulty in a book is based on so so many more things than a machine can capture (It rates Ulysses at about the same as A Wizard of Earthsea… which like… no? one of those books you need a companion guidebook to read and one of them you do not)
The Redwall series on here score about the same as the Dune books, which does feel about right to me.
Lexile scoring is still a thing?? I remember it being popular when I was in elementary school, which was, uh, a long time ago, haha .
Looking at the website, a lot of the numbers seem honestly wonky, so I’m not sure how much I trust their ranking. Though it’s funny; they put Redwall at 800L and the first Dragonriders of Pern book at 940L. I attempted both in elementary school, but bounced off of Redwall completely, and didn’t have trouble with Pern at all. It also ranks Harry Potter at 880L, and I definitely found HP way, way easier than Redwall.
I remember my teachers in school trying to use lexile scores to help us find appropriate reading material. I remember finding the system kind of flawed, but part of the issue was that I was already reading at the upper end of the scale, so I don’t think I was ever really able to get much use out of it. I distinctly remember it recommending War of the Worlds as a level-appropriate book for me, but I tried it and found it terribly boring and did not get far .
I feel like lexile probably doesn’t take into account some issues that second language learners might struggle with that native speakers would find less of an issue, like fantasy/sci-fi vocabulary. I read lots of fantasy (in English) as a kid and don’t remember struggling at all with it, whereas it’s way harder for me in Spanish and Japanese. Like you said, Natively’s system accounts for these other factors a lot better.
Home post
Your well-being comes first. Even if you’re not participating in the next challenge, feel free to visit forum to keyboard smash and offload in complaining thread whenever you need to :3 (I’m just saying cuz I feel like you’re going to feel guilty for visiting forum 
Reading is not everything, we have cute cats and birbs too, you know 
) 
You will get to be the next seasonal emoji chooser 
12月01日 
) and JLPT prep, so I’m pleased with myself for racking up those 5 volumes. I’ve also been slowly chipping away at コンビニ人間, which is a struggle for me, but I’m glad that I’m sticking it out, even though its taking me a long time.
I’m happy to leave it to you, I know it’ll be in good hands 
I have a hard time staying away too long, I feel like my most long-lasting Japanese learning-related habit is coming to these forums 
ngl I felt a tiny pang of jealousy when I heard about you and javerend quitting your jobs 
one day
１２月１日 
I hope things end up getting better soon!
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