📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

[MissDagger]

@dunlewy Your new dog is so cute.

---

June 4

Read non-fiction early. The things I’m reading first are newsletters and blog posts that I’ve slowly accumulated without reading. And it is so nice to slowly make a dent in that.

Then in the afternoon I read the second half of chapter 23 of Sailor Moon. And then I read chapter 24, and 25 and 26: finishing off the current story arc!

That also means I read more than 154 pages (since chapter 24-26 are that many pages and chapter 23 was about 40, so probably covered 20 of that today). My total number of pages was probably around 175.

I think that is the most I’ve ever read in one day. Even Yotsuba&, I’ve only so far read 1,5 chapters in one go. Although not saying I couldn’t have read that much of Yotsuba&, I totally could. Finishing off a longer story arc have its own momentum though.

Sailor Moon, kanzenban, volume 4 still have two short stories in it, so not finished with the volume yet.

---

I think my plan is: finished the current volume of Sailor Moon and Yotsuba&, and then decide what longer/bigger thing to tackle next. Going by my poll, next pick would have to be Zenitendou or next arc of Sailor Moon or Orange.

Even when I finish the current volume of Sailor Moon, there are six more volumes, each with (I think) about 7 chapters of 40-50 pages, so there is a laaaaarge chunk of Sailor Moon left (3 separate arcs apparently!).

Obviously, I’ll have Yotsuba& for any day when I want something easy and hilarious. So I’ll have that for a side read whenever I feel like it.

[dunlewy]

Thanks! She is already not quite as nervous, and has decided she can try to get into the food bag whenever she wants. I had to move it onto a higher shelf. She’s eaten four times already today.

[Redglare]

Summary post

June 4th

・ かがみの孤城（下） (2% → 17%)

I decided to pick up this book again. It has been a couple of months since I put this book away, so I figured it’d be better to start from the beginning instead of picking it up from around the 33% mark.

Has been a bit busy with moving to a new place and stuff since the challenge officially ended, so haven’t really read anything during the last few days, partially because I didn’t know what to pick next in addition to busy busy. I kind of dreaded picking up this book again, knowing how some of the main themes are stuff I’m sensitive to, but actually reading it now isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I’d rather read something light-hearted and funny, but another part of me wants to finish what I’ve started

I guess I’ll postpone writing the post-challenge summary post until I feel like wrapping up later at some point

[Daisoujou]

Checking in to simply say I read 6,500 characters, and haven’t quite finished the route, but I’m getting there. Might find more time later but I’m already moving slow because my sleep got interrupted, and I’m taking time to plan the upcoming VN club, plus I want to get out soon for what are becoming my daily walks. Good read though, went pretty smoothly.

Simply as it is, this is remarkable for being basically the only instance of bad weather in this game.

Off to go fit in responses to a lot of things in the aforementioned thread…

[Zakarius]

The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220605

No Longer Tanuki Progress: 0.06%

I was gonna say closing in on the first 1%… but that’s not a 1%, that’s 0.1% of a percent.

I’m keeping track of how many characters I’ve been reading (roughly) and it has increased slightly.

---

Japanese found in the tall grass

Learnthings

空腹「くうふく」ー Empty stomach; hunger. Additionally, 空腹感「くうふくかん」is the feeling of your stomach being empty / being very hungry.
衣食住「いしょくじゅう」ー Clothing & food & lodging; necessities of life
甘納豆「あまなっとう」ー Sugared red beans
カステラ ー Castella cake
おべっか ー Flattery
苦痛「くつう」ー Pain; bitterness; agony
末っ子「すえっこ」ー Youngest child
黙々「もくもく」ー Silent; mute
肌寒い「はださむい」ー Chilly; unpleasantly cold
昔気質「むかしかたぎ」ー Old-fashioned
末席「まっせき」ー Lowest seat, as in the seat furthest away from the head (of the household/company etc.); lowest rank; that seat that’s awkwardly right next to the door where your back is all exposed and no one wants to sit in it in case ninjas come in and stab you.
運び「はこび」ー progress; pace; step; stage
難解「なんかい」ー Difficult to understand; unintelligible
晦渋「かいじゅう」ー Ambiguous; obscure
営み「いとなみ」ー Activity; performance; action; occupation; since it means “to do activity” it can also mean to have sex
夜々「よよ」ー Every night
輾転「てんてん」ー Rolling about; tossing and turning (in bed for example)
呻吟「しんぎん」ー Moaning; groaning (all these words following each other is starting to give off the wrong impression… it’s not that kind of novel )
仕合せ者「しあわせもの」ー Lucky person (more common to see it as: 幸せ者)

Kanji Form
勿論 「もちろん」ー Of course; certainly
幾「いく」ー Some; several; how many/much

Uses
Can use 々 twice if you want to repeat a two kanji word. Here it’s: 三度々々 「さんどさんど」to emphasise that it is three times every day. Doesn’t seem to be all that common anymore though.

[lucylavelle]

June 5th!
Just a little bit of reading today, as with the JLPT less than a month ago I need to spend some extra time on listening practise!
But I read chapter 23 of Mitsuboshi Colors and I’m hoping to play a bit of Pokemon Legends: Arceus in Japanese later today since I’ve not played it in a while.

(Home Post)

[enbyboiwonder]

Home

I had trouble with the forums last night (luckily I saw the “drafts offline” before I tried to post…), so I wrote this up in a tumblr draft instead and am posting it now.

I don’t know if I was just misremembering that Spotify had lyrics on BURNOUT SYNDROMES’ 吾輩は猫である or if they really did take lyrics off some songs but not all of them, because FLY HIGH!! still has lyrics. But I am almost certain that 吾輩は猫である did have lyrics because I don’t remember ever looking them up before today. So, what, only the most popular songs get lyrics now? Why.

I read クールドジ男子 ch 20, a Mima chapter! He’s not good with video games or with horror, and Souta got the demo of a new zombie game and dragged him (along with a couple other coworkers, although they weren’t dragged lmao) into playing it with him. Apparently they/the company are doing the PR for it. Aw, and it’s a single-player, and he gets saddled with the controller. He hates horror and he doesn’t know how to work the controls, he is literally the worst person for this. “This is my first time seeing someone struggle so much just with walking.” / “What are you crouching for? Hit ‘em!” “I want to attack, but no matter what I do I end up crouching?!” lol oh, Mima. He’s still determined to give it another go and get through it, though. (Doesn’t happen.)

He’s sure he’ll have nightmares tonight, so he asks to go home with Souta. Once they get there, he learns that Souta and Souma were planning to watch some summer scary story special on TV tonight, so he excuses himself. Time of stay: 1 minute. lol. Next he goes to Hayate’s place, where he has more luck.

Since I read so that I won’t be bored out of my mind, not so that I will, I decided to just skip the rest of ch 2 of 海辺のカフカ and start on ch 3, reading 6 pages. This is definitely gonna be a book I sell once I’ve finished it, if I even finish it at all.

I never actually knew whether “to draw the curtains” meant to open or close them, but apparently it usually means to close them but can also mean to open them. How annoyingly ambiguous. I mention it because in the second sentence, we get カーテンを引く, which here clearly refers to opening them since the next phrase is about looking out at the scenery outside. But now I wonder if it could also refer to both…

Some vocab of note:

咀嚼 (そしゃく) [noun, する verb] This is the second word, the first being 噛み締める, I’ve come across that means “ruminate” in both senses of the word. They both refer to chewing, but can also be used for pondering something.
早とちり (はやとちり) [noun, する verb] jumping to a wrong conclusion

[MissDagger]

June 5

After the big read yesterday, I did a much smaller read today. I read one of the Sailor Moon short stories at the end of volume 4, there is one more left. It was very cute. Following a couple of days with Chibiusa. Could mostly understand it too, there were a couple of words early that was contracted or slang/slurred in a way I couldn’t figure out for sure what they were supposed to be, but nothing important. ^^

Also, I made a study log a few days ago and today I finished filling in the different sections I wanted it to have to start. So here it is: MissDagger’s (Final?/Ultimate) Study Log

I thought I could use it to talk about other parts of my Japanese study than reading. Since I talk about my reading here!

Non-fiction was read today, and I finished a short story and started a novel (in my regular English reading).

[Redglare]

Summary post

June 5th

・ かがみの孤城（下） (17% → 30%)

The language in this book is so much easier compared to 薬屋のひとりごと. It’s kinda crazy how the ratio of unknown vs known vocab in a book can make such a big difference in reading speed. But who knows, maybe it’s because I’ve already read this part of the book before Either way, maybe I still can finish this book within the next week, that would be cool. A milestone still yet to be accomplished.

[Daisoujou]

It’s the beginning of the end of the eternal summer! Reading was hard because I’m having bad tingling and similar sensations in a few limbs that keep getting worse the past few days, and is very distracting (I may end up back at a doctor soon… doing that finances vs. having healthcare calculation again, but I’ll leave it at that ). Nonethless, I managed to read another 8000+ characters today, finishing Shiki’s route and poking around a tiny bit at the true route. Or, as the title screen says…

ALKA! Whatever that’s supposed to mean. I pressed the button to alka, and am now in a mid-alka state. That big lineup of girls, one by one, has vanished, leaving me alone with this nice picture of an environment. Anyway, it pulled out a lot of its fancy words today, but despite a lot of lookups, it wasn’t so bad. I have to say, Shiki’s route actually ended up being one of the higher emotional peaks. I don’t think they did great with the character herself, but the plot that she’s wrapped up in gets pretty interesting.

Below here is a spoiler image, which I have to share because I think it looks really cool, and very much unlike anything you'd expect from Summer Pockets

[saidahgilbert]

となりの怪物くん １
I am seeing quite a lot of unfamiliar words. I keep having to guess what the characters are saying and my memory of the storyline is not all that good. However, I said that I would try to read more shoujo volumes in a series so I hope if I keep at it, the words would become more familiar.

[enbyboiwonder]

Home

I read 7 pages of 海辺のカフカ, finishing ch 3 almost before I realized it. I liked it aside from the last page or so lol. I’d wanted to read more (though not necessarily of this), but I’m tired. Tomorrow I don’t have work, so hopefully I’ll be able to read more then than I did today.

I like how fluorescence is 蛍光. Firefly light. Fitting. (Especially since bioluminescence is a type of fluorescence. I forget what it’s called when a specific term comes to be used as a general term, but I suppose this might be an example of that.)

Some vocab of note:

道連れ (みちづれ) [noun] fellow traveler; traveling companion
蛍光灯 (けいこうとう) [noun] fluorescent lamp; fluorescent light

[natarin]

June 5 Home Post

I’m very sleepy currently but regardless I read chapter 3 of 海辺(うみべ)のカフカ somehow so I’ll take it! I’d heard of the infamous Murakami scenes definitely got some interesting new words from that one haha. It’s still been a pretty comfortable read; I hit points here and there where I’m like “why don’t I know any of these words what’s happening” but then I read a few more sentences and all is okay again so that’s just life I guess

It feels good to be reading an actual book again! These days I’m bad about reading books in any language, so it’s been nice. Feels productive

[enbyboiwonder]

@natarin

the infamous Murakami scenes

What are these? I’m afraid I’m rather ignorant; I’d only heard of his name and that he’s a famous author, but nothing about his writing style or the content or anything

[natarin]

I don’t really know specifics but I get the sense it’s stuff like the last page or so you were probably talking about, I haven’t read enough to know how frequent they are or how bad they get but something to be aware of I suppose

[dunlewy]

I assume this is what you are talking about!?

Huruki Murakami scenes

And Huruki Murakami himself

There are loads of other scenes as well.

[Burnannator]

I officially started reading again, I guess actually being in a smallish city makes up for it but yeah…

[MissDagger]

June 6

Glad Nationaldag till alla oss svenskar här! (Okej, det där kändes skumt att säga. )

Read the second short story, Casablanca Memory, at the end of Sailor Moon 4 (kanzenban edition). (If you wonder why I mention the edition every time I say this, is because the short stories are in different places in each edition…) So nice to spend more quality time with just one character. Learning more about their life and such. More of this please!

This also means I finished volume 4. And I’m between story arcs. I want to probably finish Yotsuba& 2 next, and then…? I don’t know what I wanna read next. I’m a bit hype about Sailor Moon right now, but there is also a lot of series left there (I’ve finished 40%). Tackling Orange would take less time despite being same number of volumes (page counts per volume differ). Also a bit tempted with Zenitendou since so many recommended that to me.

When too many good things are a problem…

[polv]

Jun 6, Mon calendar post

Week 11 of Spring 2022’s planning

• Committed, and paced - for the sake of discussion
  • Night Cafe Ch.8 I still can’t promise this one.
    • And Ch.9 has started – should I catch up?
    • I would consider a chapter of other fictions (or non-fictions) as an alternative as well; but catching up and discussing is the best.
• Committed, with マイペース(my＝pace)
  • JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 2 vol.3 – from first Chapter to the end of AC/DC
    • And also probably Stroheim’s return arc
    • Of course, the reason I know what to expect, is because I have skimmed a little ahead.
  • Watch 2 episodes of Death Note
    • My listening is still シッティー(shitty), but I’ll see what I can do.
    • I wouldn’t want to turn on subtitles, even if I can. However, downloading subtitles and comparing with hearing isn’t out of question.
  • 1/4 of WaniKani Context Sentences - Level 2’s Breakdown = 20 vocab, 60 sentences
  • Read up on Japanese grammar on Wikipedia.
    • The goal is to learn grammar terms.
    • Focuses include verb conjugations, adjectives
• Considered
  • 1+ episode of something else. Probably anime because of confirmed subtitle.
  • Gaming - mobile (Android)? PC (Windows)? I’ll see what I can find…

[MaraVos]

Yesterday I read 8 pages of 霧島くんは普通じゃない and finished chapter three! (The days before that I could only read a few pages a day, so it felt good to read more.) I guess I conveniently forgot that it takes a while to adjust to the way a new-to-you author writes. Still enjoying the story! Miu has an innate curiosity about everything (especially 不思議なこと) that makes me really like her. In the last chapter, a mysterious small black weasel-like creature appeared on the school grounds, and Miu is now going to investigate. Maybe I can read the whole 4th chapter today! I’m going to give it a go at least.

I’m enjoying the after-challenge-party here with you all! I wasn’t really planning on writing an end of challenge summary, but now I’m thinking it would be nice to at least look back and see where I was at the beginning of the challenge. I probably made more progress than I remember making.