EDIT: Sorry @Vanilla I was originally replying to you, then read the rest of the discussion, deleted my response and saw it was still replying to you, but the forum won’t let me change it to replying to the thread because the ‘contents of the post are too similar to what you just posted’
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So I decided to give myself a break from 赤川 books last night and indulge in my guilty pleasure hobby of picking semi-randomly from this list of 青空文庫 works that can be “read in 10 minutes”. I read along with YouTube readings/朗読 as I usually do for these. The pick of the evening was 黄金風景 by 太宰治 because the short stories I’ve read by him before I’ve all liked. This one was a bit tricky for me, I think because I haven’t touched such poetic writing in a while. I had to read it twice to feel like I fully understood the story…and then I read it a 3rd time just to enjoy it and actually take it in without doing lookups. It’s only a 12 min read 朗読/read aloud so honestly not that time consuming over all.
This turn of phrase gave me a giggle:
無精髯のばし放題の私の顔
It sounds less funny in English when I try to translate it “My unchecked, slovenly 2 o’clock shadow of a face” I suppose. I mostly associate 放題 with 食べ放題 / 飲み放題/聞き放題 though, so mentally, for me, it’s more like “ALL THE GROSS SCRAGGLE BEARD YOU CAN HANDLE”.
I answered for books only and didn’t really think about VN maybe being included in that and so said no to using yomichan - but as you’ve brought up textextractor, I know that myself, @natarin , @Daisoujou and I think a few others on this thread are also playing VNs and have mentioned using textextractor, game2text, yomichan for those. So if VN/games are included then the number of folks using those tools here is probably somewhat higher than for books alone.
I would love to have instant lookups for everything, but I like having physical books more. For VNs it’s totally different and I’ll absolutely use something like textractor (which may be part of why I’ve tended towards them more lately), but I just don’t particularly enjoy ebooks
Really nice photos!! I love the last one with the fire pit looking out into the lake, so tranquil!
What on earth ??
I know you didn’t actually write-write this but it was easier than trying to quote the picture without it vanishing into the unknown when putting it in a details tag
ohhh, yeah that’s what the chapter was about, tho I must have missed something because I can’t remember the part you mentioned in parenthesis That’s probably why I couldn’t remember, kinda felt like nothing special happened. I’ll have to do a reread
Last few days have been very full on work-wise. I have some ridiculous deadlines that I’m pretty much for certain not going to be able to meet and as a result been having to work 9am till 9/9.30pm last few days of the week. My big deadline is Tuesday midday so will either be way less stressed after then or way more if I miss it
Anyway, this is relevant cos it means I’ve barely been reading, just been managing a sub chapter part of すべてがｆになる each day (which are generally pretty short, maybe 5-10 pages). I’m at 81% now and one of the main characters keeps being like “I’ve solved the case!” but not actually sharing what has been solved, and I’m getting very impatient lol.
The only other reading I have done is some Japanese tweets, both tokimeki fan comics and also some Japanese folks talking about ‘Our Flag Means Death’ cos me and my boyfriend finished that show the other day and I’m 100% obsessed. Need to find me some gay pirate manga or LN to tide me over to S2
Today I really needed to get some housework done before we have friends over tomorrow.
So instead I read Chapter 4 of Happiness, though I was only meant to read the first half for the ABBC!
Then I also read the first chapter of Volume 6 of Teasing Master Takagi-san.
Today was a good day for reading: I read the remaining part for Week 3: 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん 👵🏼 (11 pages). The book is okay. A fairly easy read with slice of life scenes of the author living with his grandmother.
Day 16 / Calendar
I had a lot to do today, it was about 11 pm when I got to my PC (that’s where I find reading the most comfortable, which is important if you’re struggling with reading). Luckily, since this is the easiest week of ABBC imho, it was quite easy to get through this week’s material. Took me 30-ish minutes to get through 6 pages worth of dialog, great progress.
I would love to go back and see how I did the first week. We’re at the end of the first quarter of the challenge and it would be nice to see how much I improved in only 2 weeks or so. I feel like a lot, but would be great to have some data.
Read about worlds biggest flowers that smell like poop and rotting flesh to attract insects that normally eat this. I was tired and only looked up 3 words (there were more unknown words than that). I think I got the gist anyway, as illustrations helped.
死骸 - dead body
うんち - poop
臭い - smelly
みんなの日本語初級I: 0% → 4%
Also read through first chapter of first part of みんなの日本語. I came back to it because I had my first one-on-one lesson with a Japanese tutor and most of what I was able to say came from what I learned from MNN (drill exercices seem to work) or Tobira Beginning Japanese. I hope I stick with the textbook this time.
Today I chose to keep reading about コナ, having it “easy” is pretty motivating. Whereas before I looked forward to reading よつばと！every day, I now compare it to Satori Reader and go “… nah, I’d rather do that” … Well, I’ll get back to よつば eventually. The important thing is I’m maintaining/reinforcing a reading habit and learning a lot
The flowers above the “Day #” links to my post for the previous day, and the flowers below link to the next day, except for the latest day ofc, they link somewhere special
I reread chapter 11. Also reading the comments in the book club thread helped. Can’t believe I missed the part where Maomao literally says the lady probably faked the whole sleepwalking situation. So turns out court lady didn’t want to be a court lady and woo the emperor, but would rather prefer to be with her childhood friend the military officer. Unless I misread again, 1 am is not a good time to be awake.
Yay, can continue reading as normal tomorrow. Rereading stuff due to confusion is not my favorite activity.
oh btw, this word sounds so not English, like a deep sea creature dwelling in the land of cursed words creeping its way up on the shore to show its face. Like one of these especially cursed durtles.
Is it ironic that I missed a day just on the same day I posted last time… when I had JUST posted that I found the material pretty good for every day reading? Oopsie. Well, never mind. Luckily I have not missed another day since. Though yesterday when I wasn’t at home it was also more of a last minute thing…
I’m mostly reading ハピネス and am like three quarters through volume 3! I did not really look up anything about the series before reading and I was caught a little of guard by how dark it actually is so far. Still pretty hooked though! After I found Death Note pretty draining I actually thought I wouldn’t read a manga for a while… then I thought “wellll, first three volumes are free, I should at least give it a try”… and now here I am, fairly certain I’m gonna read the whole series and it will be most of my reading for this challenge
Japanese found in the tall grass 
That’s probably why I couldn’t remember, kinda felt like nothing special happened. I’ll have to do a reread
Home post 
Well, I’ll get back to よつば eventually. The important thing is I’m maintaining/reinforcing a reading habit and learning a lot 
and thanks for the belated birthday greeting 
