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

softlyraining · November 2, 2021, 6:00pm

Reading Update: 10月14日〜11月2日

Materials:

授乳
月刊少女野崎くん３
どうぶつの森 (Switch)

Despite the lack of updates, I managed to finish the challenge. That being said, I’m not fully satisfied with how I did. I’m happy that I only ended missing one day out of the two months, but one of my goals was to build a good reading habit. To me, reading a page of manga right before bed a lot of the time wasn’t quite what I envisioned. Maybe if that page took more effort on my part, then I’d feel differently. In the moment, it also felt like, “whoops, gotta read something quick to keep the streak alive.” There’s nothing wrong with that, per se. I just wish I hadn’t used it as a crutch as often as I did.

With that said, I’m going to continue the challenge into November. My goal is to have fewer “keep streak” days (i.e. read for longer than two minutes before bed). I hope to build a stronger reading habit, as well as make some more meaningful progress with my book list (I’ve really only done that with 野崎くん). Another goal for the month is to update more frequently. I think of things to add to my update posts as I read, but by the time I get around to actually writing one, I forget what those things were…

Just a brief update for today. I finally finished the first story in 授乳. It’s not my favorite of 村田’s short stories, but I still think there was enough there to keep me interested. The discussion in the Murata Book Club helped me shape my opinion. I’m honestly so grateful for the book community on WK, both here and elsewhere on the forums. I think trying to up my reading skill would be a lot more arduous without all of the sharing and support people contribute.

(click for home post)

Redglare · November 2, 2021, 10:14pm

My tiny End of Autumn Reading Challenge summary

I tried to read a tiny amount everyday, tho I realize that the “tiny” amount had to be at least 1% of the book I was reading, because that would “look like” progress. Not sure how I feel about that, all I know is that I got reading done. Which kinda was the point, wasn’t it ? yeah xD

What I read:
・Honzuki 5 (75%-100%)
・Honzuki 6
・Kono Oto Tomare vol. 18
・YagaKimi vol. 8 (almost forgot I read this on the very first day)

Was originally planning to read the rest of the Kono Oto Tomare series, but was too busy for sitting down for a reading session like that. I’d rather binge a volume of manga instead of reading it a tiny bit every day. That’s just my preference tho. So when I finished Honzuki 5, I started reading Honzuki 6 instead of focusing on manga.

What made reading Honzuki perfect for me during this challenge, is that the books have many chapters and most of those are good chunks for a tiny read. And also because I really enjoy this series, makes me wanna read more. (Except for the less exciting part in the middle of Honzuki 5, but that’s fiiiine)

I’m happy to have participated in this challenge - at first I thought I’d be way too busy, but was convinced it’d be worth it (thx @Omun & @Thud :3 was worth it! ) I’d write more, but I have something ramble-y in mind and this is becoming a tiny bit longer than a “tiny” summary already xD

I’m looking forward to the next round of challenge!

Redglare · November 2, 2021, 10:45pm

I like how your quote from September 6 is still relevant xD I love it!

Natsuha · November 2, 2021, 10:51pm

I read some more 四月は君の嘘 manga yesterday. But today I was too lazy to read any japanese outside of texts in the tobira book.

During the challenge I read every day and I will continue to read on most days until I finish all my japanese reading material, which will take me at least until 2030.

windupbird · November 3, 2021, 1:09am

Summary post

Day 59: November 2
What did I read?: ハイ☆スピード!
How much did I read?: 4 pages
How long did it take me?: 44 min

The first day of the tournament is here! (It is a two-day affair, apparently, which I did not realize before) The team mood/atmosphere is awkward and lacking in confidence Not the best way to start out a competition…

A lol moment and an "ow my heart" moment

The lol moment: when they go to check in for the tournament, the check-in person sees their names written down and starts looking for them on the girl’s list Poor babes. Girly names, every last one of 'em xD And this person gets all the way down the list of girl’s names before they look up and realize, oh…it’s boys xD After they finally get checked in and head toward the locker rooms, Nagisa blames this incident on Rin’s name (because there was some female animal in the zoo named RinRin apparently?? Nagisa, what are you on ), but Rin’s like, it’s not just my fault, you have a girly name too, dumb butt xD (I mean, not literally that, but I imagine his tone to be something like that)

The ow my heart moment:
We run into Sousuke(!) in the locker rooms and he has a tiny catch-up with Rin.
…I feel like this thing that he says and my reaction to it is a pretty major spoiler if you haven’t seen the anime already (at least the first season), so I’m gonna blur it too, just in case.
He asks Rin, おやじさんとは会えたのか?
exCUSe me, Sousuke, you cannot just do that
You did not just casually ask Rin that
Sousuke knows about Rin’s pre-meet thing of going to visit his father’s grave I don’t know if I realized that before, that he knew that Rin did that, but if I did, I certainly forgot about it. Rin My sweet baby angel

Good words - some useful sports ones today

競技場 (きょうぎじょう) - field; sports stadium; arena (in this case, the pool where they’re having the tournament)
屋内 (おくない) - indoor (court, pool, etc.)
口数 (くちかず) - number of words a person speaks ~~mouth number lol~~
不審 (ふしん) - incomplete understanding; doubt; question; distrust; suspicion
気を抜く (きをぬく) - to lose focus; to let one’s mind wander; to relax one’s attention
手近 (てぢか) - near; close by; within reach; handy (I love how literal it is)
切り上げる (きりあげる) - to close (at a certain point); to cut short; to stop early; to finish (at a convenient spot)
見合わせる (みあわせる) - to exchange glances; to look at each other
準決勝 (じゅんけっしょう) - semifinal
決勝 (けっしょう) - finals (in sports) (again, the logic of this word and the previous word is just )

NicoleRauch · November 3, 2021, 5:31am

Don’t worry! By 2030 you will have acquired so many books on top of that pile

windupbird · November 4, 2021, 12:14am

Summary post

Day 60: November 3
What did I read?: じじ猫くらし
How much did I read?: 17 pages
How long did it take me?: 28 min

Kittyyyyy
The first part of today’s reading was the adoption moment, and it was super cute :3

Look at how happy the cat looks when he's being adopted <3

Then, 12 years later - the way the cat's face looks in this panel kills me xD

Apparently, this is based on the author’s actual life, so there were pictures of the irl cat too, which were adorable.

I also learned some interesting words today:

里親 (さとおや) - pet caretaker (but can also mean foster parent)
首輪 (くびわ) - (animal) collar
ありきたり - common; ordinary; conventional; customary
写ルンです (うつルンです) - a disposable camera made by Fujifilm (there’s even a Japanese wikipedia page on it that I was too lazy to read all of xD)
現像 (げんぞう) - development (of film); photographic processing
のどか - tranquil; calm; quiet; peaceful
夜更かし (よふかし) - staying up late; keeping late hours; sitting up late at night; nighthawk
寝かし付ける (ねかしつける) - to lull (a child) to sleep; to put a person to sleep

rikaiwisdom · November 4, 2021, 1:55am

Summary Post

Post Challenge Extras: Update 1

I’m back! I wanted to take some days off, and guess what… I’m kinda hooked to reading . I was missing it quite a bit already, I’m surprised the habit is actually forming, big success! And I told myself: hey, now that the challenge is over, why not try something completely new for fun? I don’t feel like I need to log anything anymore right now, so might as well just try something and if it’s a complete failure then that’s it and I move on. So I did. I’ve been playing NieR:Automata for the last couple of days, and actually… guys, it actually is not that bad! Like, sure there is hella fast text sometimes, but I’m surprisingly able to parse a good chunk of it, and it also helps A LOT that most of the dialogues that are automatically advanced are voiced. But seriously, it’s actually. not. that. bad. It even seems much more reasonable than FFXIV. Sure I don’t know many words but the sentences are so far quite forgiving, in the sense that the words I don’t know are not thrown at me at the same time, and they are spread in different sentences that I’m able to understand because there’s only one word that I don’t know, and so on. It’s made mining new vocabulary super easy. And on top of that, the game is so much fun. If I miss any crucial part, I can always just watch that part from any Let’s Play on YouTube and stop it anywhere. It’s looking very good. These challenges are working, you guys .

Random words

Way to many to list them all, but I’ll put a few nice ones:

端末 = たんまつ terminal, computer terminal, information access device.
格納庫 = かくのうこ (aircraft) hangar.
機能 = きのう function, faculty, feature.
機密 = きみつ secrecy, highly classified information.
合成 = ごうせい composition, synthesis.
回路 = かいろ circuit (electric).
解放 = かいほう liberation, release, unleashing.
報酬 = ほうしゅう reward, recompense, remuneration.

Also, unrelated, but I wanted to add something. For the ones of you that after completing the challenge might not feel very satisfied, honestly I can understand where you’re coming from. I also had days when I just read very little to mark the day and that’s it. And you know what? It’s precisely because of those days I kept the flame alive that I’m able to do much more right now. It’s because the commitment of just coming back everyday that my habit of trying to read everyday is forming. It’s what made it a part of my daily life a bit more, and right now I’m looking forward to it even after the challenge is over. If that means that I read just a paragraph everyday for a whole month, so be it. And that’s why I say, regardless of the amount that you managed to work on in this challenge, rejoice. You still worked many days (which perhaps might have been empty otherwise), and in this long-term endeavour that is learning Japanese, it’s progress, and that’s a big success. You will have the energy to push that amount up a bit more whenever you have the time and the drive, and it will be in big part because of all of these seemingly meaningless days that will create the habit that will let you do that.

I know my Japanese learning journey has been (and is) a complete roller-coaster, a constant fluctuation of “wow I feel so proficient! How is it possible that I can understand this language!” and “wow I’m literal garbage, I thought I knew and I’m literally a beginner after this long”. And once I’m temporarily out of the “wow I’m garbage” phase, I’m so grateful that I kept pushing even a tiny bit despite those feelings. And grateful that @Redglare joined the challenge despite knowing they couldn’t read as much as the summer one, and still they ended up doing so much anyways, proving this whole point I’m rambling on and on about.

Everything seems very mood dependant, so try not to whip yourself too much when in low spirits and just do what you can. You will be able to do much more when the proper time comes. For now you completed a read everyday challenge .

That was long, I’m so sorry lol.

Also @windupbird those cat pics are adorable. Stop it before it’s too late, save everyone’s wallet! It’s happened once, it will happen again!

fustian_garb · November 4, 2021, 9:15am

kitteh!!! I like to think that was how my cat looked when we adopted her 15 years ago, but…when we went into her pen at the sanctuary to collect her and put her into her cage, she was more like ‘I don’t know what’s happening here, let me just go and have some more kibble, just to be on the safe side’. And that’s pretty much been her modus operandi ever since.

I’ve had this book on my amazon.jp list for a while but I already have ahem a few cat-related manga waiting to be read at home.

Redglare · November 4, 2021, 7:31pm

Smol read, big fruit :3!

I think you are spot on with your statement of how showing up to do your thing every day, even if it might not be fun all the time, still helps you form a habit in the long run. That’s exactly what I’ve learned from doing WK every day too. “Buckets of sand can make a mountain” or however that saying was. This was basically something @jprspereira preached and I took his word for it and I’m so glad I did.

windupbird · November 5, 2021, 12:53am

Summary post

Day 61: November 4
What did I read?: じじ猫くらし
How much did I read?: 40 pages
How long did it take me?: 36 min

Today I learned what ツチノコ is

ツチノコ - a mythical snake-like creature with thick midsection

Ok but this is probably my favorite face

Good words:

仮眠 (かみん) - nap; doze
肉球 (にくきゅう) - (sole of the) paw; pad
湯船 (ゆぶね) - bathtub (a boat of hot water I love it)
細心 (さいしん) - meticulous; careful; discreet; scrupulous; prudent
すやすや - (sleeping) peacefully; quietly; soundly
潜り込む (もぐりこむ) - to slip into; to crawl into (under); to conceal oneself (under)
快晴 (かいせい) - clear weather; cloudless weather; good weather

Last day! I’m gonna do a separate end-of-challenge post a bit later, though, since I still need to set up the home for my new plant tonight I don’t have pets, I have plants lol

Success!

No one can stop the CATS

Aww I’m sure she was happy on the inside

jprspereira · November 5, 2021, 4:43pm

Japanese has a proverb for it:

MaraVos · November 6, 2021, 11:57pm

I am loving everyone’s summary/reflection posts, and also the idea of a low key Tanuki Cuteness Brigade book club!

I also just had to say that I came across this phrase for the first time today: 目の下のクマ !!! In Japanese you don’t have circles under your eyes, you have bears! (so cute)

chrisosaurus · November 7, 2021, 9:02am

I’ll make a proper update one day I swear, took last week off work to try recover my wrists a bit, might take part of this week - so I’m minimising computer & phone usage for a while.

I finished the challenge and for now at least I’m going to keep going… one day I’d like to reach 100 days continuous reading, not sure if now is the time, but I have so many things that I’m excited to read (in particular demon slayer) that reading currently isn’t a chore.

Thud · November 7, 2021, 3:25pm

Main Post

Finished reading Spy x Family volume 1. Probably the toughest thing I have read so far, but made it through. Had to relax my goals a bit as the first two chapters were really too much for me to read in a single reading session. The interview in the last chapter was also a lot of things at once, makes it a bit hard to follow the flow of conversation. That said, it is not impossible and I’d like to continue reading it.

I already ordered some more manga to stimulate myself. In the meanwhile, I’ll start reading from the hero Avan series. I have no experience with this manga at all, but I do follow the anime it is spun off from and I have been meaning to get into DQ more recently. I think it would be a fun new experience, as I haven’t read any shounen manga in Japanese before.

Natsuha · November 7, 2021, 10:17pm

I’m sure that will happen. Finishing my japanese books won’t be that hard I only have probably around ten books and ninety manga volumes (most were free on bookwalker).

But finishing all visual novels on the other hand should be near impossible. There are much longer than a book and imo the average visual novel is way harder than the average book. Not even knowing all grammar in the tobira book is enough to understanding visual novels.

Speaking of visual novels I started to play Island. Compared to the other visual novels I played, this one seems to be pretty easy. While playing I look up all words I don’t know and put them into my anki deck, including the sentences they appeared in the vn.

softlyraining · November 9, 2021, 7:18am

Reading Update: 11月3日〜11月8日

Materials:

授乳
月刊少女野崎くん３
かがみの孤城

It figures that I become busy the moment I make loftier goals for myself. Despite that, I’m still fitting in reading where I can.

授乳: I started the next short story, 「コイビト」. Right out of the gate, Murata slaps you with a peculiar scenario: a girl making out with a stuffed hamster. Honestly, I really liked the buildup to finding out what exactly ホシオ is. I’m definitely curious to see where this one goes.

月刊少女野崎くん３: Read through a whole chapter of Valentine’s Day shenanigans, starting off with Chiyo eating a chocolate from the box she was going to give to Nozaki.

かがみの孤城: A new book for my list! I’ve been wanting to read this ever since I bought it in Japan, but it’s thickness was too intimidating. Since a book club for it started up this past weekend, though, I thought I’d take a crack at it. Not too much to say about it yet, though it took me a second to realize that こころ is the name of the protagonist, and not referring to the narrator’s heart/mind/whatever.

As a side note, I recently found the twitter account for the writer of 夜は猫といっしょ (for those who are fans of the manga). It looks like they have a blog, if you feel like you need more for your fix of cute kitties.

(click for home post)

deejayyp · November 9, 2021, 7:28am

Finished reading ノルウェイの森 the other week, overall kinda meh. Way outta my depth kanji/vocab-wise but still finished it. I’ll probs read it again next year when I’m at level 60.
Right now I’m reading 新海誠’s first (or one of his earlier?) books, 雲の向こう、約束の場所. I haven’t seen the movie so I’m kinda bored but overall, not too bad so far.

fustian_garb · November 9, 2021, 9:47am

thank youuuuuuuuu. More kittehs to interrupt my twitter feed.

Zakarius · November 9, 2021, 10:57am

OH NO it’s animated?! This is the best, thanks for sharing!!

There’s also plushies on the twitter!

OH NO x2