Count me in
Currently I’m reading 夜カフェ. Planned on reading it with the book club, but I read a bit ahead already. After finishing volume 1 I’ll either buy the second volume or I will read the second volume of ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 I think. Anyways, I have more than enough books and light novels lying around. May as well work on decreasing that pile a little (so that I can buy more books).
Thanks for making the new thread again @windupbird
Since I won’t be updating my main thread I won’t be using the super-nice calendar checkboxes xD But I wanted to share with you what I will be reading for this challenge (probably).
I started reading this in March and I’m now at 43% of the novel. It is really hard, but it is doable since I’m combining it with watching the anime (first watching a few episodes, then reading up to that point).
I started kino no tabi in Februari and I’m now at 38%. I love that it’s really episodic so I can pause reading this after every chapter. I don’t know if I will be able to read this, since I’ve got too much to read xD
美少年探偵団 1
This will be the read of the Minimersion bookclub next month! I’m really looking forward to reading this
I plan to keep up with both the absolute beginner and beginner book clubs. If I finish the part of the week for both of those (probably at most 1 day a week, unless magic happens), then I’ll read some Teasing Master Takagi-san.
Yay! A new victim …erm… book club member! Looking forward to seeing you catch up in the past books’ threads Please feel free to comment with your speculations, that’s so much fun!
For this challenge, I’m in again! I will keep track of my progress in my own thread and will link it from here with each of my (not-so-frequent) status posts, so stay tuned!
Current reading plans:
I’m currently reading 沖で待つ but I don’t expect to be able to finish it before the challenge starts, so there might be a little bit of it left over
I recently read the first chapter of 雲をつかむ話 for a reading circle and it was off to a very interesting start, so I will probably continue.
I still have my ongoing 大聖堂 (Japanese+English) with my Japanese friend. There was a bit of a disruption recently but I’m still hoping that he will pick it back up.
When we read 人間失格 somebody mentioned that it’s similar to Camus’ L’Étranger, so I decided to maybe give that one a try (in French). Then a (German) friend said she’d be interested in reading it as well, but in Japanese, so we will do a French-Japanese tandem at some point Which means I will read it in French and she will read it in Japanese, but I think I will also read each section in Japanese afterwards to double-check my French understanding (curious to see which version I get more out of ^^)
佐賀のがばいおばちゃん from the Intermediate Book Club
and if I get bored after that, there’s still a big pile in my BookWalker account
Here’s a question for fellow readers who may have put a book on hold for a little too long like I have: Do you start from the beginning, rereading the parts you have already read, or continue from where you left off? I always struggle with this decision. I tend to remember the parts I have read well enough that rereading is a little boring, but not so clearly that reading further doesn’t feel a little disjointed. I sometimes just choose to not resume reading for ages, until I have finally forgotten enough of the details to make rereading the beginning not as tedious, but I’d rather not do that now.
I usually don’t reread because like you, I often remember enough of the story to be able to pick it up again. I might reread like 5 pages or so but that usually worked well enough for me.
There was one case where I had struggled quite a lot with a text; in that case I decided to start over again. But that was mainly because I knew I had probably misunderstood (or not understood) a lot of the stuff, not because I had let the story sit for too long.
After helpful advice for participants in the last thread I’m going to attempt myself to step up from kids books and try a light novel. In previous challenges I’ve had a main book that I’m reading, plus an easier yonkoma one for days when I just needed read a page to be able to tick the box. In comparison to the kids book, I’m anticipating my reading speed is going to be slower for the novel and so my major problem is going to be keeping track of the story as I’ll have to stop mid-chapter. So my aim is to try to read this particular book everyd ay, arther than just something in Japanese, as it’s my best hope of finishing it!
Any tips you have on trying to keep two languages going at once would be much appreciated! I keep promising myself I’ll try to revive my German (I got to C1 level before I started Japanese) and we’re going to Berlin this summer so it really would be a good opportunity, but I really struggle with committing time to both languages.
Please post all the really bad puns.
Always from the beginning because I have the memory of a goldfish.
When I’ve done this I’ve generally just gone back to the start of the chapter I was on (if I left off in the middle of a chapter) or gone back to the previous chapter. It’s generally been okay but I’ve usually only been maybe a month or two before going back to it so a longer break might require more rereading. I agree with @NicoleIsEnough that it would also depend a bit on how difficult I found the book when I first was reading it. For example, I actually made it through the first volume of NO.6 but I remember it being so much of a struggle (it was my first novel in Japanese) that when I pick the series back up again I will probably start by rereading the entire volume as in pretty sure there was A LOT I didn’t get on first read. Not sure how helpful this will be as the TLDR is essentially ‘it depends’ haha
Here’s a post I wrote up about my Spanish journey that touches on some of this! It was in response to some advice shared about studying two languages at once.
It definitely can be hard, and you will of course have to make some sacrifices (time spent on one language is time not spent on the other, basically), but Spanish is just so important for my job, I really should be trying to work on it at least a little. The good news is that my Spanish is good enough that I can practice it by immersing without really having to do dedicated vocab/grammar study (which can get tiring). Because reading in Spanish is so much easier for me than reading in Japanese, that also really helps motivate me.
I haven’t participated in the previous ones because I am always a little late to the party, so I am very much looking forward to joining this time :33
When I reached the Hell levels, I finally felt the urge to start applying my knowledge - but I am a lazy and inconsistent boi… I’m hoping that joining others on a lil adventure here and attempting for a streak will get me reading more~
Sounds like a challenge for me.
I’ve been reading at the snail’s pace of one (1!) page a day Higashino Keigo’s 探偵ガリレオ as well as trying to translate it to make sure I actually think about what I’ve read. So far, so good - I think.
Thank you! My german is good enough that I should be able to keep it up by immersing but it’s mostly vocabulary that’s slipped away over the last few years so it’s a bit tiresome looking up so many words. Maybe I should try reading on a kindle instead so I can look up words more easily. There are also definitely too few hours in the day and work takes up a disproportionate amount of them! I keep making myself promises of when my Japanese gets to this level or that level then I’ll pick up german again but my japanese aways still feels like a fragile baby bird that won’t survive if I don’t devote so much time to it.
These threads always look so fun so I’m excited to join in! I’m really bad at building habits so my goal is to try and build a consistent reading habit that will hopefully help me still find some time to read when I get more busy around the end of May. I’ll mostly read manga and visual novels but I’m trying to start reading some books as well.
It’s back! I was looking forward to this, it’ll be my third challenge, and every time it has helped me with motivation to read. Part of that is the challenge itself, but the best part for me is reading other people’s updates and seeing everyone’s progress.
My goals for this round are:
-Read a whole lot of バリアブルバリケード, hopefully finish the common route and a couple of individual routes
-Keep up with the かがみの孤城 bookclub
-Keep up with the 夜カフェ bookclub
-Finish the オレンジ manga series (3 volumes left)
-Maybe: Keep up with the 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん bookclub
It might be a lot for the amount of free time I usually have but I have a break coming up so that should make it a little easier…hopefully.
In previous challenges I’ve updated my home thread almost daily but haven’t posted much, this time I might try to do at least weekly progress posts. Let’s do this!
Day 3: Read some バリアブルバリケード ~30 min
Day 4: Read バリアブルバリケード ~1h
Day 5: Read バリアブルバリケード ~1h
Day 6: Read some かがみの孤城 + read バリアブルバリケード ~30 min
Day 7: Read バリアブルバリケード ~15 min
Day 8: Read バリアブルバリケード ~15 min
Day 9: Read an NHK easy article
Day 10: Read some かがみの孤城
Day 11: Read some かがみの孤城
Day 12: Played a little Girl’s Mode in Japanese
Day 13: Read some かがみの孤城
Day 14: Read some かがみの孤城
Day 15: Read some かがみの孤城
Day 16: (Missed)
Day 17: Read バリアブルバリケード ~30 min
Day 18: Read バリアブルバリケード ~30 min
Day 19: Read バリアブルバリケード ~45 min
Day 20: Finished かがみの孤城’s Week 19 reading + read バリアブルバリケード ~30 min
Day 21: Finished かがみの孤城’s Week 20 reading + read バリアブルバリケード ~30 min
Day 22: Read a little 夜カフェ
Day 23: Finished chapter 2 of 夜カフェ (Weeks 2 + 3)
Day 24: Read バリアブルバリケード ~15 min
Day 25: Read chapter 3 of 夜カフェ without a dictionary, went well but will re-read tomorrow.
Day 26: Re-read chapter 3 of 夜カフェ and read chapter 4 (caught up!)
Day 27: Read free sample of 差がのがばいばあちゃん + read バリアブルバリケード ~1h
Day 28: Read バリアブルバリケード ~30 min
Day 29: Read バリアブルバリケード ~1.5 h
Day 30: Read バリアブルバリケード ~45 min
May summary
Day 1: Read some かがみの孤城 + read バリアブルバリケード ~15 min
Day 2: Finished かがみの孤城 Week 21 + read バリバリ ~30 min
Day 3: Read 1 chapter of オレンジ + read バリバリ ~20 min
Day 4: Read 夜カフェ chapter 5 + finished reading 差がのがばいばあちゃん chapter 1 + read 1 chapter of オレンジ + played バリバリ ~1,5h (wow, productive day! It shows I had some free time)
Day 5: Read 差がのがばいばあちゃん chapter 2 + read 1 chapter of オレンジ + read バリバリ ~1h (another productive day! Having free time is the key I guess)
Day 6: Read some 差がのがばいばあちゃん + read some オレンジ
Day 7: Read a chapter of オレンジ and finished Vol.4 + finished chapter 3 of 差がのがばいばあちゃん + played バリバリ ~30 min
Day 8: Played バリバリ ~1h
Day 9: Read 夜カフェ chapter 6 + read 差がのがばいばあちゃん chapter 4 (finished Week 3) + played バリバリ ~15 min
Day 10: Read some かがみの孤城 + played バリバリ ~ 45 min
Day 11: Read 3 weeks worth of かがみの孤城 (!!!) + played バリバリ ~1h
Day 12: Read 1 差がのがばいばあちゃん + read one オレンジ chapter + played バリバリ ~ 30 min
Day 13: Played a little バリバリ but ran out of battery and forgot my charger D:
Day 14: I was sick so only managed 1 NHK ease article to check the box
Day 15: Still sick, so NHK easy article again
Day 16: Randomly started DQXI in Japanese and played about 1h + read a chapter of 差がのがばいばあちゃん (Done with Week 4) + played バリバリ ~ 30 min
Day 17: Read this week’s かがみの孤城 + read 1 chapter of オレンジ + read some 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん + read バリバリ ~1h
Day 18: Read 2 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん chapters + played バリバリ ~ 30 min
Day 19: Fever came back so I couldn’t do anything
Day 20: Still sick
Day 21: Tried to read some バリバリ but I wasn’t understanding much as I was still sick
Day 22: Nothing again
Day 23: Read some かがみの孤城
Day 24: Read some かがみの孤城
Day 25: Finished かがみの孤城 !!
Day 26: Played Dragon Quest XI in Japanese for ~1h
Day 27: Read 夜カフェ chapter 7
Day 28: Played Dragon Quest XI for ~1h
Day 29: Played Dragon Quest XI for ~1.5h
Day 30: Read 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん chapter 9
Day 31: Checked out the JP sites of a couple of games
I’ve only been in the community for a couple of weeks so I hope I’m doing this right!
Discovering the book clubs here started my entire reading journey. Reading has never really been a hobby of mine but somehow I’m extra motivated when it’s reading in Japanese (it’s probably the learning and challenge that comes with it). This challenge will be such a fun way to track my progress along with everyone else!
I have a couple of Aoitori Bunko books and the collection of HoneyWorks light novels. I’d likely be reading Aoitori Bunko books for the most part as the HoneyWorks light novels are still too difficult for me atm.
(so that I can buy more books).
Reading Tiger, Blossoming Tanuki 
A new 
Please feel free to comment with your speculations, that’s so much fun!
(curious to see which version I get more out of ^^)
on
Books 
Manga 
Visual Novels/乙女ゲーム 
Are there other language-practicioners lurking in the shadows?
ハピナス (with ABBC)
夜カフェ（１）(with BBC)