It is now a thing:
Because why not procrastinate on important things by starting a WK book club? Amiright?
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The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220615 
No Longer Tanuki Progress: 22.61%
Quite a bit of speech in the section today which is a little bit easier reading, almost a quarter of the way through!
Japanese found in the tall grass
Learnthings
アンコール ー Encore; and also Angkor, Cambodia
へとへと ー Completely exhausted; dead tired; knackered
頬張る「ほおばる」ー To stuff your cheeks; to fill your mouth
ロイド眼鏡「ロイドめがね」ー Round glasses with thick plastic rims
(had to look this up, seems the ロイド comes from Harold Lloyd, an American actor in the 10s-40s, who was well known for his comedic round-glasses wearing character)
I just spent awhile looking this up and then in the very next sentence of this book it explains to me who Harold Lloyd was… it also explains that he was popular at the time in Japan.
蚯蚓「みみず」ー Earthworm (usually written in kana)
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june 15 home post
I finished up 極主夫道４ this morning just in time for Volume 5 to start! Then I read chapter 5 of 夜カフェ. It’s getting a lot easier to read that book, to the point where I barely have to check the dictionary or vocab sheet! Now that I’ve gotten used it, it’s feels on par with something from Satori Reader. But there’s still some parts that are a bit tricky (I’ve especially noticed it with dialogue)
I’ll likely be joining y’all with Orange 
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June 15th!
Chapter 71 of Yotsuba today. I loved this one! In it Yotsuba tried pizza for the first time, which was super cute 
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You don’t know how often I’ve had that happen. 
Mostly while I was reading graded readers, to be fair, but after a few times it was bonked into my head enough that I remembered to glance at the next sentence to see if something I didn’t understand was explained there. 
We’ll be happy to have you! 
June 15 continued
So because I can’t wait until tomorrow to say this, I’ll just finish off my reading post from before.
I did finished off Best Selection 2 by Yuu Watase, aka read the last story. I actually enjoyed most of the stories in the collection. Now I wonder if maybe I just wasn’t good enough to get the stories in the first collection. Maybe I didn’t do it justice, last time I read it. Also, maybe… my expectations were a lot higher, so they got seriously dashed.
And after setting up the Orange book club and realizing there are 7 volumes, so I need to buy another of that, and I need to buy at least one BBC book (and probably a couple of the proposed ones), well… I figured my next read will be:
銭天堂
And now you are all like: WHAT?! How did that happen?
Well, let me tell you. Beyond the original poll I did in this thread, showing that Zenitendou was very liked because book, that series also happen to have many books in it. I happen to own the first three, but how do I know if I’ll want more? Read it, of course.
So I’m reading that next so I can learn if I like it and therefore should add it my next physical book order that I’ll probably do early July.
And because I was impatient to try it, I read the one page prologue today and it wasn’t hard, except my brain didn’t remember how to read narrative sentences anymore. So I was all confused about how the shop was expanding to fill up some space somewhere. Super magical and mysterious…
Oh no, actually, it was all talking about a murmur expanding to fill the space of the shop. Not as mysterious or magical.
In other words, longer sentences are now actually connected (aka one sentence) unlike in dialog/manga when long sentences tend to mean multiple sentences put together. My brain need to adjust…
21 Likes
June 15th
・SAO Progressive 1 (30% → 38%)
I finished the first part (+ intermission). Very engaging so far, defo much better storytelling than the anime. Point of view switched every chapter between Kirito and Asuna. Usually I don’t like it, but here it was done pretty well as it lets the reader know what they’re thinking/experiencing and to describe what the other character looks like, how they’re behaving, etc. Complementary, I guess one can call it. Well done in my opinion.
Look-ups has been okay too, surprisingly. With one hand I hold the book, with the other hand I take a potato chip and eat it search jisho on my laptop. Only one monster kanji gave me trouble today and had to search by radicals (殺戮の戮). Sometimes there’s furigana which is cool, sometimes there’s a gairago for furigana (usually gamer lingo) which has mostly been okay, but a tiny bit annoying when I want to search the Japanese word but don’t know the reading.
The plan was to read the first part of this book while waiting for the Saikawa & Moe book club to start up again on Saturday. I guess I’ll keep reading for now 
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Paging @sycamore with a quasi-relevant post to this thread just cause it was mentioned here last: did you know there’s a new episode of Given up on crunchyroll?
apparently it’s an OVA that was made available to those who purchased the manga awhile ago, but it only showed up on crunchy 2 days (going by the comments). no knowledge needed from the movie. i just watched it, and i didn’t notice anything that would be a content warning like i had with the movie.
it’s listed as “season 4” on crunchy, but there might not be any more coming.
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I finished となりの怪物くん １ in exactly two weeks! I’m amazed that I finished a shoujo manga so fast. Well, it wasn’t so bad reading this manga in Japanese. There were a lot of words that I didn’t know but worse than that was the handwritten Japanese sprinkled here and there which I gave up trying to decipher. However, I understood most of the plot based on context clues.
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(📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱 - #12 by DIO-Berry)
- ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 15巻
6/15
65-104
I didn’t make it through the whole arc. I need to more strictly follow my rule of no messaging past midnight. I went to bed before 2am, but I really need to be asleep before 1am… Funnily enough I did start reading at 11 something but I got distracted
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Oh man, I missed that preorder. This style of ova seems to be becoming more popular. Due to the way it was released, I would be surprised if it wasn’t meant to be a stand alone
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I discovered 上北健 (relatively) recently (it was a few months ago, but I’ve barely listened to any new music since then, so it kinda still counts?), and I finally got around to listening to some more of his music today while reading (and working on two new fics; pry the only reason I didn’t play any DQ until this afternoon). I love his voice so much. I think my favorite of his songs so far is still Share Hearts/心分け. idk it just makes me feel things.
Anyway:
Today I read ch 21 of クールドジ男子!
This one's a Shun chapter.
I’m dying, Hayate calls Shun to apologize for running late (they’re meeting at Mawarimichi to help him do his summer homework) because he lost his cell and was looking for it, but couldn’t find it. “Eh? Then how are you calling me now?” / “…I’ll be right there.” (Cue Souma trying not to die of laughter.)
Right, they did mention summer homework last chapter, too. So it’s August already. Shun’s birthday (7/7) is in this chapter as a flashback. And I am back to not really knowing when anything is set. I wonder if this whole volume is set in August, then.
終わった!!
数学だけね。
He’s such a dork lol I love him.
It seems the next chapter will be a 夏祭り!
I played about 5 to 6 hrs of DQXI today—I got distracted at a few points while the game was still going, so it’s hard to judge just how long it was lol. I made it to the ruins of Yugunoa Castle and obtained the Seven-Colored Branch as well as the Red and Yellow Orbs and got Rab/Rou and Jade/Martina to join the party, and then made it to Saltico. The next step is to sail The Sylvia through the channel and out into the outer ocean, but I decided to stick around in the city for a bit longer and try the casino. That’s where you get the bunny suit, which I need for a quest. I had zero luck, though; I think I’m just gonna buy the coins needed for the prizes rather than try to win them, since that’s clearly gonna go absolutely nowhere. Guess I’ll be pinching and forging a bunch of weapons to get the gold—it’s 20 GP per coin, and some of those prizes cost several thousand coins. Ugh, I dread when that one floor of the tournament hall in Grotta gets turned into a casino; that took me absolutely forever to complete that last time.
Some vocab of note:
緑閃光 (りょくせんこう) [noun] green flash (optical phenomenon occurring shortly after sunset or before sunrise)
おまじない [noun] good luck charm
末っ子 (すえっこ) [noun] youngest child
甲冑 (かっちゅう) [noun] armor and helmet
あたたかい [い-adjective] considerate; kind; genial
笑止千万 (しょうしせんばん) [四字熟語, noun, な-adjective] highly ridiculous; quite absurd
二言 (にごん) [noun] going back on what one has said
ピカイチ [noun] something or someone that stands out above the rest
一望 (いちぼう) [noun, する verb] one sweep (of the eye); sweeping view; unbroken view
言いっこなし [expression] let’s not say (such things) to each other
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Aw thank you! I had not noticed that and will definitely want to watch 
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June 15 Home Post
I played some more バディミッションBOND! It’s been a good time; the characters a lot of fun, plenty of like over the top shounen nonsense vibes ルーク is just so aggressively good and wonderful, I want good things for him only but hmm… bad feeling about that lmao. And アーロン… he’s so much 
He’s so pointy! I know the like “anime boy with red hair and sharp teeth” is a thing (for some reason??) but this man takes it to the extreme, and he’s just so aggro, it’s a good time.
some screenshots for funsies
He’s so sweet :’) this is a serious criminal investigation, the perfect time for plot-relevant meowing lmao
This is a good game You can only kinda see here but he’s so pointy!! Even like his coat lmao, his whole design is absolutely wild but it’s fun 
This is a serious investigation, the code to open the door to the electronics company’s storage unit definitely isn’t a dumb oven pun, no way
So yeah that’s been fun; I also read some 風つよ which was nice as always. They’re actually about to run in an actual meet so yay for them! 走 is having a complicated time He ran into his old teammate which… yeah, not a great time. But he has friends now!! ハイジ supports his spite, just like not in a fighty way lmao. Pretty good all around!
24 Likes
The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220616
No Longer Tanuki Progress: 24.89%
I wanted to keep reading so I could get to 25%, but my brain has become tired and no longer wants to cooperate.
Japanese found in the tall grass
Learnthings
形貌「けいぼう」ー Appearance; shape; figure
持参「じさん」ー Brining; taking; carrying
原色版「げんしょくばん」ー Tri-colour printing
口絵「くちえ」ー Frontispiece; illustration in the first few pages of a book
自画像「じがぞう」ー Self-portrait
印象派「いんしょうは」ー Impressionism/impressionists
鑑賞「かんしょう」ー Appreciation of art/music/writing etc.
裸婦「らふ」ー Nude/naked woman - 裸婦画「らふが」for nude painting
暴風雨「ぼうふうう」ー Storm; rainstorm
お手本「おてほん」ー Example; role model
一揃い「ひとそろい」ー A suit/set [of something]
Artist’s Japanese Name Guessing Game
ゴッホ ＝ Vincent van Gogh
ゴーギャン ＝ Paul Gauguin
セザンヌ ＝ Paul Cézanne
ルナアル ＝ Jules Renard
モジリアニ ＝ Amedeo Modigliani
26 Likes
June 16th!
I read chapter 72 of Yotsuba today. It was a fun chapter about blowing bubbles. There was some really nice art for some of the panels.
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June 16th
・SAO Progressive 1 (38% → 40%)
Smol read, but started part two of the book. Was focusing on getting reviews done and before I knew it the day was done. This is why we don’t let reviews accumulate 
Even if it was because I was focusing on reading instead
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June 16
I wish I’d had more time to read today, but I’ve spent over an hour, so…
I read 2 pages of Zenitendou. 
What a come down after finishing 1 chapter of manga a day. The reason isn’t the difficulty though, or not because it is difficult for me. Instead it is more or less +1, so I’m taking the opportunity to fine-tune my understanding of the grammar.
I think I spent about 20 mins trying to figure out if adding も at the end of より changes the meaning in some way. And after floundering around (I wasn’t sure if the whole phrase というよりも was the thing to search for or only parts of it), I learned that も doesn’t seem to add anything, instead it is an optional part of より. So whether it is there or not seems to be stylistic choice. 
The second factor for why I am slow is that I haven’t read narrative sentences for a month, so need to get used to that again.
Honestly, I didn’t expect Zenitendou to be this easy for me to read. So that is a happy realization. Though, I do hope I’ll be able to pick up speed, even with some grammar deep dives to fine tune my understanding.
Also, starting a book club takes a lot of time. And tomorrow I have to spend a ton of time on yard work since it will rain all weekend. 
So rain will make tomorrow suck, but I look forward to cozying up with a book when it is raining. 
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I think よりも is just more emphatic than より, a lot of cases where も isn’t really doing anything specific it just emphasizes stuff. Kotobank agrees:
［連語］《格助詞「より」＋係助詞「も」》「より」を強めた言い方。
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Thanks! In context, I think that makes sense too.
I might be posting about the sentence(s) with よりも in the Zenitendou book club, I will see after I finish what the first week covered. Basically, I will see how I feel tomorrow since I need to read 2 more pages to cover the first week’s reading. xD
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