📚📚 Read every day challenge - Fall/Autumn 2021 🍁🍂🦝

Recently, I have been a tiny bit lazy with my reading, so it’s good to get back on track with this challenge! :rainbow: :sparkles:

A few months ago I had started to read a book called 糞尿譚 because it’s on the Akutagawa Prize Reading Challenge and because it’s short (less than 70 pages) so I thought it can’t be that much of an issue to read it quickly in between other things. Well, I did not consider the fact that it was written in 1937 or so :sweat_smile:

Initially I was doing quite ok (the reading was slow but I think I got a good grasp of what was going on), but then (about 1/3 in) I hit a lengthy conversation where I neither knew whether two or three people were talking, nor who those people were :exploding_head: So I dropped the book for the time being.

As it happened, last week I mentioned that book to my language partner, and he got curious and read the thing in an evening :weary: We talked about what I had read so far (my understanding was indeed roughly ok), and he talked me through the conversation a bit. Freshly equipped with knowledge and motivation, I set out to read it again :muscle: I quickly realized that I should better reread most of the start as well, mainly to refresh myself on the persons’ names and some minor details. And that’s what my first book for this challenge will be!

Sept 1st: Read a tiny bit of 糞尿譚 because I was very busy otherwise.
Sept 2nd: Read a few pages of 糞尿譚.

From tomorrow, I will keep better track of how much I read each day.

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Thank you @windupbird for posting! I’ve always loved seeing how positive and supportive this community is, but was always a little too shy to actively participate. It’s my first time joining in on one of these challenges and I’m one day late, but hi everyone! ( ´ ▽ ` )ノ

For starters, I’ll be going through さめない街の喫茶店 (1-2) by はしゃ. I hope to make a habit of reading more consistently (´・ᴗ・` ).

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Oct
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Hello, nice to meet you! ^^ :wave: Good luck on building up the reading habbit.

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Home post

Day 1:

日本語: I read a lot of 乳と卵 (and finished it!), as well as a lot of ミステリと言う勿れ.

中国語: I read 睡觉.

eta: I forgot to record that I also had a readaloud session of 7SEEDS (two chapters).

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What a great idea!

I am also going to join the ABBC challenge on September 11th, but until then…

Currently reading 聞き耳ラジオ with Satori Reader. It’s a fun story with a nice pace, not too difficult, so I can slowly get back into my reading habits!

Sept
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Oct
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Summary

September 1
:maple_leaf: 1
total: 68/100

  • メタモルフォーゼの縁側4 (0 → 40%)

I want to rant about Bookmeter a little.
Btw I think I didn’t link my account yet, here it is

So, Bookmeter has this neat monthly summary option, right?

Last month, just after I proudly posted my July summary, I discovered that one of the books I finished had page count set to 0. It isn’t a big deal since someone (I think @NicoleIsEnough was being helpful again) showed me that I can manually change the page amount to any number I like in my own reading history, but since it was after I already posted my July summary, I was a little salty. But, I didn’t want to make a mess and repost my summary, so I decided that 仕方がない.
And now, this month - I was convinced that Bookmeter is using Japan time for setting the date. And everything seemed to support this - the stats for September appeared, the option for the August summary appeared… so I posted August summary. And then finished メタモルフォーゼの縁側 volume. At the moment it was still August 31st for me, but September 1 in Japan. Aaand Bookmeter added it to the August count. So my summary post was messed up. AGAIN. I know nobody cares and probably nobody remembers my data 3 seconds after reading it but it. is. so. frustrating. :expressionless:

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Main post
Day 2 :heavy_check_mark:

I read the volume 3 of Tsubasa. :cherry_blossom:

Ateji revelation

There were a lot of ateji in this volume. At first it was for the name of the country and the name of some characters so I didn’t pay much attention to it. But then I saw katakana on 母さん and 親父. After reading them out loud, I realised they added the Korean word in katakana!!! (because the characters just arrived in a fictional Korea). I don’t know if my explanation makes sense but it was so cool when I realised it was Korean written in katakana.

母さん

親父

Words I had to look up

情報網 intelligence or information network
堪能 enjoying; satisfaction
足蹴 kick
治める to govern; to manage
隠密 secret; clandestine
私利私欲 desire to act only in one’s self-interest
圧政 oppressive rule; tyrannical regime
暗行御史 Secret royal inspector, or Amhaeng-eosa (it was written in Katakana too!!)
偵察 scouting; reconnaissance
辻褄 coherence
無論 of course
葬る to bury
理不尽 unreasonable; irrational; outrageous

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Another day done! today I read some more harry potter. It was the bit where they go in the boats across the lake to Hogwarts and a bit of the sorting hat chapter - will probs read more before bed. Lots of nice descriptive vocab of glittering lakes etc etc. The most descriptive bits I had to look up a fair amount of vocab but in between that not so much which is nice. This book does feel like a really nice level of challenge for me right now. Nice easy introduction to reading novels in japanese.

Work is super intense rn so kind of purposefully not recording how much I read per day or setting page or chapter goals just now to encourage myself to feel like I can just read a little and that’s okay.

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Summary post・September 2

・Read Honzuki 5. (75% → 77%)

Learned the verb (たまわ)“to be given”, “to give”. Got my attention because during the previous challenge I learned the word 賜物(たまもの) “gift”. My reaction was "oh! It’s the tama again :eyes: "

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Today I read a little bit of まいてつ visual novel and continued reading 星と旅する volume 1. Reading visual novels is still really hard and it takes lots of time looking up words but I want to improve therefor I will need to endure regardless how hard it is .

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Do you think I could try giving it a read after I learn Genki 2 grammar or should I wait til I have a more expansive knowledge of grammar? For me, vocab isnt always a huge issue its mainly grammar.

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I haven’t been able to read in Japanese as much as I’d like lately so hopefully this will motivate me to read more frequently and get back on track, even if I can’t make it every day.

Sept
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Oct
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September Summary

Day 1: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。I
Day 2: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。I
Day 3: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。I
Day 4: Read 1 NHK easy news article
Day 5: Read 1 NHK easy news article (busy weekend and only had my phone but it’s something)
Day 6: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。I
Day 7: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。I
Day 8: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。I
Day 9: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。I
Day 10: NHK easy news
Day 11: NHK easy news
Day 12: NHK easy news
Day 13: Tried to decipher a website without a dictionary.
Day 14: Read random excerpts from VN.
Day 15: Read parts of a website.
Day 16: Read excepts from a VN.
Day 17: NHK easy news
Day 18: NHK easy news
Day 19: Read from Satori Reader’s free samples.
Day 20: Finally back to reading some 乙女ゲーム。。。
Day 21: Read a bit from a VN I hadn’t touched in a while + some 乙女ゲーム。。。
Day 22: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。
Day 23: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。
Day 24: NHK easy news
Day 25: NHK easy news
Day 26: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。
Day 27: Read some 乙女ゲーム。。。 and finished it !!
Day 28: NHK easy news
Day 29: NHK easy news
Day 30: NHK easy news

October Summary

Day 1: Read random texts from TGS videos
Day 2: NHK easy news
Day 3: NHK easy news
Day 4: NHK easy news
Day 5: NHK easy news
Day 6: NHK easy news
Day 7: NHK easy news
Day 8: Reading from VN
Day 9: NHK easy news
Day 10: NHK easy news
Day 11: Reading from VN
Day 12: Reading from VN
Day 13: Started オレンジ manga
Day 14: Read some オレンジ manga
Day 15: Read some オレンジ manga
Day 16: Read some オレンジ manga
Day 17: Read some オレンジ manga - Finished 1st volume
Day 18: Read from VN for ~1.5h and some オレンジ
Day 19: Read from VN for ~2.5h
Day 20: Read from VN
Day 21: Read some オレンジ manga
Day 22: Oh, no, I was sick and fell asleep forgetting to read in JP :pensive:
Day 23: Read from VN
Day 24: Read some オレンジ manga
Day 25: NHK easy news
Day 26: Read from VN + read some オレンジ manga
Day 27: Read some オレンジ manga
Day 28: Read some オレンジ manga
Day 29: NHK easy news
Day 30: NHK easy news
Day 31: NHK easy news

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The :maple_leaf:Fall :fallen_leaf: Challenge - I AM IN!
Sooooo, this will also be my first official post since joining WK community :cat2:
I hope that you won’t mind me challenging here with my baby steps :pleading_face:
It will be hard for me to join the challenge, but also fun (at least I hope so), since I started learning Japanese about 5 weeks ago, by myself, and there is still a lot of vocabulary and grammar to get throug. Nevertheless, since I was tired of reading boring textbooks example sentences, I started using Satori Reader and we’ll see how it goes.
We’ll se how it goes!

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|月|火|水|木|金|土|日|
|||01 :soon:|02 :heavy_check_mark:|03 :heavy_check_mark:|04 :heavy_check_mark:|05|:heavy_check_mark:
|06 :heavy_check_mark:|07 :heavy_check_mark:|08 :heavy_check_mark:|09 :heavy_check_mark:|10|11|12|
|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|
|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|
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Day one (9/2)

I read 1st chapter of かべの穴 (Hole in the wall) on Satori reader and really enjoyed the ratio between being able to recognize few words and connotations between them to the amount of new words or expressions. i added them to my SRS and plan to do this in the future as well. Obviously I also immediately noticed, that I need to i focus on conjugation, since I knew many verbs already, but I was unable to always recognize them correctly.

:open_book: :books:

**Below few words I picked up from this short text:

伸び
stretching (e.g. body when waking up) [noun, suru verb]

見つかる
to be found; to be discovered [ godan verb, intransitive]

起き上がる
to rise; to erect; to get up [godan verb, intransitive]

起きる
to wake up; to be awake; to stay awake [ ichidan verb, intransitive]

鳴る
to sound; to ring; to resound; to echo; to roar; to rumble [ godan verb, intransitive]

そろそろ
soon; momentarily; before long; any time now; by-and-by [adverb]

探す
to search (for something desired, needed); to look for [ godan verb, transitive]

狭い
narrow; confined; small [conj. adj.]

空洞
cave; hollow; cavity [noun]

そっと
softly; gently; quietly; secretly [adverb, suru verb]

出す
to put out; to reveal; to show [ godan verb, transitive]

立てる
to make (a noise); to start (a rumour); to raise (a cloud of dust, etc.); to cause [ ichidan verb, transitive]

確認
confirmation; verification; validation; review; check; affirmation; identification [noun, suru verb]

ルール
rule [noun]


a law [noun]

引っ越す
to move (house); to change residence [godan verb, intransitive]

かなり
considerably; fairly; quite [ na adj., adverb]

全く
really; truly; entirely; completely; wholly; perfectly [adverb]

窮屈
narrow; tight; cramped [ na adj., noun]

見つかる
to be found; to be discovered [ godan verb, intransitive]

しまう
to finish …; to do … completely (sometimes carries sense of dissatisfaction) [ godan verb]

Day 2 (9/3) & Day 3 (9/4)

Day 4 (9/5)

Day 5 (9/6)

Days 6-8 (9/6-9/9)

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Sept
01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
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Oct
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Day 2 done! I read another page from a manga. I understood the overall meaning/ jist, but need to look into some of the grammar a bit more.

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Summary Post

Day 2: September 2nd
Satori Reader: Secret, episode 31.
Final Fantasy XIV

Random words

出現 : しゅつげん (making an) appearance, arrival.
地点 : ちてん point, site, spot - (location) .
微笑む : ほほえむ to smile.
日に日に : ひにひに day by day.


Welcome to all of the newcomers :tada:

Also tiny welcome back @Redglare :eyes: To be fair, your “tiny” challenge is probably more than my normal challenge, so don’t feel bad at all, rejoice cause you’ll join us again !!! Praise the crab.

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Summary post

Day 2: September 2
What did I read?: ハイ☆スピード!
How much did I read?: 4 pages
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 22 min

Omggggg it’s Rin
It’s Rin, guys
Rin and his cherry blossom pool dreams <3 :cherry_blossom:

I’m sorry, I feel like me reading this book is going to lead to a non-negligible amount of fangirling so uhhhh apologies in advance. Maybe one day I will learn to talk about the things I love coherently and eloquently, but today is not that day.

Favorite words from today:
静まり返る (しずまりかえる) - to fall completely silent; to become still as death
根掘り葉掘り (ねほりはほり) - inquisitively; pryingly; nosily; thoroughly; persistently; through-and-through


I get notifications every time someone edits the participant list, and every time I see a new name pop onto the list it makes me happy :blush: Welcome everyone! :wave: And a special welcome to our first-time-posting-in-the-community-ever participants @Kez, @Mysbis, and @thezoyya, we’re glad to have you here! :confetti_ball: :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :confetti_ball:

:rotating_light::rotating_light: :oncoming_police_car: :rotating_light::rotating_light:
lol just kidding :hugs: Happy to have you on board!

starts chanting “tiny list! tiny list!”
I love your tiny summary post so much :rofl: so tiny~

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Thank you! :eyes: I’ve been so excited since I joined! :dancer: :sparkles: Praise the crab! :crabigator: :raised_hands:

At first I thought joining challenge while being busy would give me debuffs because it’s going to take too much of my focus and attention away from my studies, but it might not be a debuff after all? :eyes: Like @Thud mentioned when convincing me, taking some time to read can be a nice break from regular studies. I think it’ll be great; instead of going from 100% fulltime JP student to 0%, I can continue by reading a tiny bit every day.

tiny happyglare noises x3

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I’m glad you like it :rofl:
Thank you for hosting the thread this round!
:pray: :sparkles: Feels great to see so much activity and enthusiasm for this challenge :grin:

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Bookmeter woes

Hehe I noticed the same :slight_smile: I think they are just trying to be smart here. Because when you finish a book somewhat shortly after midnight (Japan time), they seem to understand that you read most of that book on the previous day(s) and so they still add it to the previous day. (Which I think is a good feature, but anyway.) If you want it to go to the September count (btw, why? if you read it in August…) you can set the finishing date on the dialog that lets you confirm the book and enter your comments etc.

You can delete your initial post (there is a small x in the upper right corner) and then you can safely repost your summary :upside_down_face: I’m pretty sure you will lose the likes, though…

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Another 6 pages today, but at lunchtime as I had conversation class before work (Japan/UK time differences do not work in my favour…). If it hadn’t been for signing up for this challenge, I definitely would have skipped reading today. This chapter had a lot of puns about Kanji readings and mis-readings that made me laugh and I had to look up the katakana サインペン, although I could roughly guess the meaning from the context (it’s a felt tip pen).

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