📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

Yes, it’s possible. I had tried looking at the gothic genre before (not in Japanese), but it seemed to me that romance and religion was much more prevalent than I’d like. I’ll look into it again at some point.

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Depending on when you did that last, you might find a lot more on the market (especially in the ebook market). The indie revolution have hit books (just like it hit music) from when the kindle came out. This means that most genres have expanded, as in books that wouldn’t have been published before because ideas like “gothic is only romance” are now getting published.

I can’t say if this has happened to gothics to be fair, because gothic is not my genre. :sweat_smile: But the possibility certainly exists, and I know it has happened to a lot of other genres. With new sub-genres coming into being every few months (previously I would have said new sub-genres seemed to come every day).

Being an author, I’m kinda plugged into what is happening in the publishing industry. :sweat_smile:

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Jun 27, Mon of Week 1 of Summer :beach_umbrella: (end-of-Spring :cherry_blossom:) 2022’s listing

Technically, I am planning for Week 1 of Summer Challenge, but I am posting in this topic for now.

  • 1 volume of manga
    • Happiness from Vol.3 (started from around 40%)
  • Death Note Vol.3 Ch.19 ( 屈辱(くつじょく) )
  • 進撃の巨人 Ch.2
  • JoJo Part 2 Vol.3/4 of monochrome version – solitary Caesar arc (from 2/6 to 6/6)
  • Considered
    • SHADOWS HOUSE Vol.1 (from 34%) to 66%++
    • SPY x FAMILY vol.2 – so that I can watch more Anime (EP.2)
    • A chapter of Night Cafe (or any novel)
      • 妖怪の子預かります Vol.1 from Ch.1
      • Night Cafe Vol.1 Ch.10

Unplanned extra materials

  • Manga
    • (21%) うらら迷路帳 Vol.1
  • Novel
    • 妖怪の子預かります Vol.1 Ch.1
Fonts / Pictorial differences
  • 焔王(えんのう) - it’s in my tabs for a while from JoJo’s AC/DC arc
    • 焔 is an alternate Kanji for 炎 – 「炎」が書きかえ字。
    • And, yeah, I stopped caring that AC/DC is supposed to be spelt as Eisidisi – official spelling is hard to be remembered, anyway.
教科書体 Actual text
焔-教科書体 焔-標準字体
:beach_umbrella:
第1週目 27 :writing_hand: 28 :school: 29 :school: 30 :school: 01 02 :heavy_check_mark: 03
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June 27

Reread the next 7 pages of Zenitendou. It didn’t feel as hard today. So probably the heat and a bit of tiredness did play in yesterday. Also, maybe a bit of boringness too, because the first few pages of the story is mostly set up, and once you know that, that bit can be a bit boring.

Will be cool to read the first story over 3 days instead of a week or so (would have been longer if I didn’t make a huge effort to read the last 8ish pages in one go).

So it means I’ll be done with the first story again tomorrow, and then only have a couple of days before summer challenge starts (as well as Orange book club. :tangerine: Come join us!). Will have to decide if I immediately start story two or maybe relax with Yotsuba& for a couple of days.

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:tiger2: :books: The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220627 :cherry_blossom: :raccoon:

No Longer Tanuki Progress: 53.43%

Finished chapter/note 2, now onto chapter/note 3, part 1!

:seedling: Japanese found in the tall grass :seedling:

Learnthings

冷汗三斗「れいかんさんと」ー Breaking into a cold sweat when embarrassed/scared
静謐「せいひつ」ー Peace; tranquillity
駈引き「かけひき」ー Bargaining; haggling (more common to see as: 駆け引き)
侮蔑「ぶべつ」ー Scorn; disdain; contempt
「かもめ」ー Common gull; seagull
我楽多「がらくた」ー Junk; rubbish; odds and ends (usually written in katakana)

Forms
大袈裟 = 大げさ「おおげさ」(Exaggerated; grandiose)
贋 = 偽「にせ」(Fake; phony; bogus)
聯想 = 連想「れんそう」(association; being reminded of)

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June 27th!

Today was a rough day at work. I’m half of a two man team at my company, and the other half is on holiday this week. If today is anything to go by its going to be a long week :sweat_smile:

But I still managed to do a little bit of reading this evening! I read Chapter 12 of Hana ni Arashi, which means I finished the first volume. It was very sweet, and I’m definitely going to read the next volume too. The simple language and short chapters make it a really nice read for days like today.

(Home Post)

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Summary post :bookmark:

June 27th :seedling:

・ 詩的私的ジャック - Jack the Poetical Private (23% → 27%)

Finished chapter 3! This is going smoother than expected o:

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In English, I just go by whatever I’m in the mood to read and choose from my huge collection of books that I’ve bought for free or at a very low price. If that fails, then I go to my favourite authors and either re-read their series and read the latest book by them.

In Japanese, I use anime to decide. I’m still a beginner so focussing on books with plots that I know in English is easier for me.

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(📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱 - #12 by DIO-Berry)

  • ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 17巻

6/27
39 - 68

I had in my head that I was starting from 30, so I thought I had read a lot more… :sob:

It was a good time reading, I pretty much only stopped because I needed to get some sleep.

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June 27 :cherry_blossom: Home Post

I read chapter 11 of 海辺(うみべ)のカフカ today; content aside it was a pretty easy read, so that was nice. I think it’s now officially the furthest I’ve gotten into an actual book, so yay for that :tada: the power of sticking with book clubs!

That was most of my reading today, but I played a couple of バディミッションBOND side stories too. It’s really cool having these one-shot stories further exploring the characters and their dynamics and backstories and such, very much up my alley :grin:

some BOND stuff

Hmmm doubt? ルーク didn’t call him out on it bc it was a pretty angsty situation all around talking about アーロン’s childhood and worrying about the other kids what with the ongoing unrest and just… yeah but like he’s definitely saved ルーク more than once, so either he’s a liar or ルーク’s family now, either way you’re a sap アーロン! Not that that’s news lmao, no matter how much he wants to deny it :eyes:

A sap, he had fun playing the big villain :')

Genuinely some of the most difficult parts reading-wise have been ルーク and モクマ’s side stories because they’re just ~gourmands~ and talk about yummy food and make me hungry, but like using super specific food words I absolutely don’t know :joy: This one isn’t bad really but it is ルーク going all food network on us but with like Hinata sound effects lmao:

ルーク is precious :')

OH this is completely unrelated to anything I read today, but another realization I had from the plot stuff at the big concert: the whole thing with ルーク’s dad’s gun that he made, that people were making fun of as pointless because it didn’t do any real damage… it’s because of the rat bruises… he needed a way to fight against normal people turned feral without hurting them… it’s all coming together :eyes: :eyes:

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Home

Ah, I should really read more previews on Bookwalker. The list of books I wanna check out just keeps growing longer and longer…

So after I posted yesterday, I just read The Love Hypothesis, the other book I picked up from B&N, and it’s so much better than Meet Cute Diary. It’s totally my jam. I’d wanted to read the whole thing, but I started getting too tired around 12:30 and had to turn in, unfortunately. I feel like I’m getting old. I didn’t even get halfway through :( I finished it after I woke up this morning. I’m really glad I bought it on a whim. There had been one other that caught my eye (Iron Widow), but as it’s a hardcover and I’m generally more inclined to get paperbacks I passed it over, but I’m kinda wishing I’d gotten it now lol. Well, my birthday’s in like two months, maybe I can get it then.

Y’know, I wonder if 11th Cat got translated into Japanese. Because that’s a manhwa I adored when I was younger, but in the first volume, there was a page that got reprinted instead of another page, and in the second there were more, and in the third, more… In the first, it was more just an annoyance, but in the others, there were definitely things going on in those missing pages that you miss. And I don’t know if I’ll ever learn Korean. But I have no idea how to find out if it did get a JP translation.

I continued with 明日をくれた君に, reading 8 pages and leaving off on pg 41. Another player is introduced, the bad-boy Sugiura Touma. We get some exposition on him right off the bat, with Midzuki saying how he’s always late with all kinds of rumors as to why, and how he’s good-looking but his honey-colored hair stands out even more than his looks, and how he definitely has secret admirers. Before you can wonder if she’s one of them, she’s like, “Incidentally, I want absolutely nothing to do with him.” lol I have a feeling she won’t be getting her wish.

I only just noticed today that, in this book, when there’s only one character of furigana, it still gets aligned with the top half of the kanji, rather than the center, even though this is definitely not the first time it’s happened. I don’t know why it stood out to me today. And then if there are three (or one more than twice the number of kanji), the last gets aligned over the top half of the next character, so the furigana still starts in line with the top of the furi’d kanji. In 2.43, if there are more than can fit fully over the kanji, it adds space before and after it, which is kind of annoying, tbh. But I think I prefer it to HQ, where the furigana gets squished together and you can barely even read it sometimes… Granted, I think that’s happened in every manga I’ve read where there was such a word with furigana, they probably have less leeway due to space restrictions, but HQ is by far the worst offender of all of the ones I’ve read.

I also started 青年ドリーミー, reading ch 1. This one’s got the あとがき on the front and back covers, and I had to force myself not to read them, especially as this is one I bought because I recognized the mangaka (もふもふ枝子) rather than because I’d already read it in English. It was pretty text-heavy right off the bat, but it got a little better. It’s about college second-year Kazunari who’s an idol otaku and first-year Wataru, who’s the little brother of the girl he liked in middle school. Wataru likes him and probably has since back then.

Some vocab of note:

化学 (chemistry) I learned today will be spoken as ばけがく in order to avoid confusion with 科学 (science), as they both have the primary reading かがく.
要領がいい (ようりょうがいい) [expression, い-adjective] knowing how to swim with the tide; being good at dealing with things
俗に言う (ぞくにいう) [expression, ア五] to be commonly referred to as; as people say; as the saying goes; they say
同い年 (おないどし) [noun] same year. It seems this is the only word where 同 takes the okurigana い; otherwise, it’s always じ.
隠れファン (かくれファン) [noun] secret admirer
思いを馳せる (おもいをはせる) [expression, 一] to think about; to send one’s heart out; to give more than a passing thought to; to think of something far away; to think nostalgically upon (esp. one’s hometown)
辻褄が合う (つじつまがあう) [expression, ア五] to be consistent; to be coherent
うん [prefix] some (as the start of a number in place of a digit). Will also be seen as ン or ん.
デキ婚 (デキこん) [noun, する verb] marriage due to unintended pregnancy; shotgun wedding. An abbreviation of できちゃった結婚.
豪雨 (ごうう) [noun] torrential rain; heavy rain; downpour

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Jun 28, Tue of Week 1 of Summer :beach_umbrella: (end-of-Spring :cherry_blossom:) 2022

Today, I read a grammar explanation in English, from Maggie Sensei, actually. Then, I revise the explanations and remove English sentence translation. In any case, I try my best to translate the sentences myself. Also, as I tried to revise the explanations, I am prone to making mistakes as well.

But isn’t knowing that I can make a mistake a good way to know how I can improve?

I summarized in Google Docs so that I can have rich formatting (also that I can easily share). (Furthermore, I avoid copying “wrong” examples.)

  • As a matter of fact, I made the whole folder public, so that I can add more contents
  • Also, I tried reading grammar once before, in the challenge, but now I should try to make it an everyday thing for now – so I set up a calendar.
  • I don’t exactly hate English – with English explanations, I might be able to understand better. – Still I have to be aware if I don’t yet understand anything.

I guess I should update what I read a little…

  • I quickly read Happiness from early Vol.3 to early Vol.5. Half of the reason? It got spoiled and got me curious. Not yet disappointed, though.
  • Played ATRI a little (about 20 minutes or something).
    • I guess if I don’t rush, this one is doable. It can be saved anywhere, anyway.
    • Another reason – I want a relatively easy game, not worrying too much about difficulties.
    • A turn-based strategy game might be nice, but one yet to catch my eyes (e.g. on Steam, or some devices that I already have). I can’t find Fire Emblem on Steam.
  • The music from ATRI inspired me to read 妖怪の子預かります Vol.1 Ch.1
    • I don’t care about Natively difficulty. A quick glimpse of another book recommended together seems harder.
    • Also, this one seems readable so far.
    • I chose with the hope that I could go through multiple volumes, not just a book club for vol 1.
  • 進撃の巨人 Vol.1 Ch.2
    • The manga version of this series looks interesting (more than anime) so far.
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Promised a picture of my book (and game) haul:

Will do my daily report later. I might read more today than I already have, so I’ll save it for later. ^^

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:tiger2: :books: The June Tanuki Den: Date 20220628 :cherry_blossom: :raccoon:

No Longer Tanuki Progress: 54.44%

The paragraphs aren’t too long at the moment but there’s a lot of law and legal jargon in this part so it takes awhile to make sense of it.

There’s also a character that I don’t even know if he gets a name, he just gets called ヒラメ because he looks like a flatfish.

:seedling: Japanese found in the tall grass :seedling:

Learnthings

じめじめ ー Damp; clammy; soggy
カチャカチャ ー Clattering; clinking; clanging
策略「さくりゃく」ー Scheme; tactic
銚子「ちょうし」ー Decanter (for sake)
卓上「たくじょう」ー Table-top; desktop
畳鰯「たたみいわし」ー Sheet of dried sardines (I seem to recognise this, no idea from where)
仄々「ほのぼの」ー Dimly; faintly
蔑視「べっし」ー Contempt; disdain
起訴猶予「きそゆうよ」ー Suspension of indictment
前科「ぜんか」ー Previous conviction; criminal record
更生「こうせい」ー Rehabilitation


That’s a lot of books!! :books:

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Twice I tried to start the second chapter of Spy X Family, and twice I dropped it in favour of 糞尿譚, a book where I have to look up every third word and where the end of the sentence is half an hour of reading away. :eyes: So I’m thinking I might drop the manga, at least for now.

In other reading news, I’ve been looking at the some horror award winners (夜市 was among them), and found several that people in reviews complain they weren’t scary enough, so I might be safe trying them out? Not sure yet. One I’m considering is 化身, about a man (I think) who falls in a lake and starts… evolving? Not sure exactly what’s going on, but the writing seems pleasantly straightforward, and the story pleasantly introspective, without much of the gore and shocking twists associated with horror. Probably.

Another one I’ve been looking at is あやし by 宮部みゆき. She’s written a lot of books, many of them mysteries, a genre I generally prefer. The most famous of hers seems to be 火車 (translated as “All she was worth”). あやし is a collection of ghost(?) stories set in Edo, and it’s been translated into English as “Apparitions”. Theoretically it sounds good, although I’m not very comfortable with historical fiction, especially in Japanese where I’m bound to have tons of unknown vocabulary. However, both the Japanese and English sample read a little too dry for me. I’m sure it gets better, but I lost patience.

She has also written another horror/ghost story series called 三島屋変調百物語事始. This is again historical fiction, and the ghost stories are connected to a central storyline about a girl overcoming trauma or something? I don’t know, I sometimes think I spend more time researching books than actually reading. :rofl:

I’m thinking I might just try a few Aozora short stories instead. Edogawa Ranpo’s 人間椅子 or Akutagawa’s 河童? But I’m sure the language will be quite a challenge, and I’m already reading one very challenging book…

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Akutagawa is much harder to read than Ranpo in my opinion. I loved 人間椅子 and will add his short story 幽霊 to that list if you’re going that direction! :smile:

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I’ve read about a dozen of 宮部みゆき’s books, including あやし. I find I can’t remember anything about it, which I guess means it was “fine” :slight_smile: If you do want to dip into historical fiction this author isn’t a bad place to start, since IMHO her stuff is fairly easy to read so you only have to deal with getting up to speed on the genre vocab, rather than that plus inherently difficult text… Of her historical stuff I think I liked 初ものがたり best, but it doesn’t have any supernatural elements.

I liked 火車 – it has some interesting social commentary on consumer credit and debt as well as being a good mystery.

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I’m not interested in historical fiction as such, it was more the supernatural element that I was looking for at this point (although I tend to avoid it usually). I guess I’d better leave those books of hers aside then, and put 火車 on my list for later. Thanks :slight_smile:

Both downloaded and ready to read! :+1:
the only question is when…

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I have read some of her other Edo-period ghost-story-ish books, but although I know I had fun reading them at the time I can’t remember enough about any of them to specifically recommend one. I don’t think
あやし was particularly atypical, anyway.

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June 28th!

I read chapter 75 of Yotsuba today, but found it too sad to leave it without finding out what happened next. (It was the Chapter where ジュラルミン gets washed and the voicebox inside gets broken)
So I ended up reading Chapter 76 too to find out what happened!
This meant I unexpectedly ended up finishing Volume 11 today. :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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