I’ll probably be able to start 三毛猫ホームズ this weekend. But I don’t think I’ll be able to read it very quickly, especially at the beginning.
I visited NYC bookstores today. I got a couple of 東野圭吾 books at Book Off.（ナミヤ雑貨店の奇蹟 and 容疑者Xの献身） They’re going to sit on the shelf for now. Flipping through them quickly, I think ナミヤ雑貨店 looks like it’s probably easier.
Kinokuniya was disappointing. I wanted a fashion magazine but
today they didn’t have any of the ones for middle-aged ladies. The whole fashion magazine section has been halved, and only a few titles were there. Just college and starter OL magazines like Zipper, ViVi, CanCam, and 美人百科. (edit: I liked those magazines when I was younger but it’s time to move on) And a few makeup magazines. What happened to Classy, Marisol, Story, and all the others? Now that I think about it, that’s a good question, and I should have asked the store staff instead of going home and griping here.
Hurray!
I’m done with my book club reading for next week, so today and tomorrow I’ll probably go over the part I’ve already read to refresh my memory. I do remember most details, but it will be worth taking note of names and such. I’m also curious if it flows a little easier now I’ve read several more things in the meantime.
Quickly? I wish I could . Did I mention I’m following three book clubs?
(not to mention I still need to look up a dozen words per page or so, plus a grammar point or two)
Finishing up some books this week for a ‘fresh start’ in April. I still have a couple books I’m in the middle of, but only one japanese non-bookclub book. I want to make it a bit easier on myself to make time for french reading regularly and haven’t opened my french book in like 5 days thanks to that. xD
The other day I went by the local bookstore and picked up some easy graded readers at A1 and A2 level for low effort days. Also getting an audiobook of a youth fantasy novel to ‘read alongside’. It’s definitely above my level so I’m not hoping to actually understand it. The idea is to get used to French pronunciation, since reading won’t teach me that. And maybe going back to the book in like a year and actually understand stuff would be cool. (Still going to count it as french reading time since I’ll be looking at words, haha.)
!!!?!?!?! I read that series when I was a teenager! I loved it! I read volume 2 in a single seating! (Edit: there are 9 books published in the same universe past the point where I stopped reading)
If you like the story, there are a bunch of similar series I was reading at the time. Hopefully I can remember their titles.
I’ve seen a bunch of people throw around bookmeter links; how do you guys like the site? Is it easy to use? Easy to find your books to add to your page?
finding the books can actually sometimes be a pain since it likes to suggest the kindle ver, but you can just search by isbn or whatever so its not a problem. Theres just no better site that I’ve come across so theres no reason to use anything different ime.
It’s pretty convenient to keep track of stuff I read, yes. It’s also fun to see the numbers go up over time (I feel like it means I’m accumulating XP and my level is increasing… although, considering I’m usually reading garbage… it doesn’t mean much). I also like seeing what others are reading and get (indirectly) recommendations.
It’s easy enough to use. Sometimes, there will be a bunch of weird versions of a book showing up when I want to add something, but I can then just click on the author’s name to get everything they wrote, or use the ISBN if I’m really not finding it.
I know you probably aren’t learning a whole lot language wise from your books, but have you thought of specifically training your speed? Its something you can do while reading those garbage books that will give you an extra benefit and more speed will obviously have practical benefit, but I haven’t seen you really talk about it despite you (and valkow perhaps) be the two other people it seems pretty relevant to.
At some point. But I’m usually fine with my reading speed. Also, one of my favorite things about reading is subvocalizing, which is the number one thing they tell you to stop doing to read faster. That kinda killed any interest I had in learning speed reading.
I feel you. I don’t really have a problem with my reading speed per se in the sense that I feel slow, but the idea of just reading the things I wanna read in less time is more appealing. Especially now that its like I wanna focus on other areas of the language, it would be nice to knock out the easy garbage fast.
Interesting you like sub vocalization, though. Especially enough to say its one of your favorite things. To me I guess I never really thought twice about it, so I don’t mind cutting it out.
I even have an internal voice for everyone, including the narrator. It’s part of the fun, for me.
One problem I have with audiobooks is when they do a voice “wrong” (i.e. the cadence or intonation doesn’t match what I would have gone for).
In terms of knocking off garbage fast, I sometimes get that, though. Like, I found many “100 top 女性向け light novel series” lists and whatnot, and it’s going to take me forever to even get to them, since I already have piles of stuff I want to read first as well. But, heh, life is long.
Oh man, you’ve got it going over there. I guess now that I think about it I also do slightly different voices in my head for different characters, but its honestly 適当 af. Best of luck on all of the 女性向けs. I’ll be over here sipping on my degenerate harems
I’ll likewise be at the library this weekend and will check for the book, and I have two other books in progress (with a combined ~400 pages left) so also may be a slow.
You might already know this, but 容疑者Xの献身 had a book club here, and I’ve seen @NicoleIsEnough say that the threads are left open for such a long time specifically so that people can ask questions long after the original reading times end. Also, if you come across the movie version I’d recommend not bothering with it. It wasn’t very good IMO.
I love your philosophy towards reading. I like to subvocalize too, not so much for voices, but more to feel the natural cadence of the writing, which now that you mention it seems like a pretty big thing to give up just for speed.
I also feel like I might enjoy some of the same books as you … If you don’t mind sharing your bookmeter I’d love to peruse your reading history. No pressure, though!
The whole fashion magazine section has been halved, and only a few titles were there. Just college and starter OL magazines like Zipper, ViVi, CanCam, and 美人百科. (edit: I liked those magazines when I was younger but it’s time to move on) And a few makeup magazines. What happened to Classy, Marisol, Story, and all the others? Now that I think about it, that’s a good question, and I should have asked the store staff instead of going home and griping here.
The money I spent there when I was in Japan…
I like to subvocalize too, not so much for voices, but more to feel the natural cadence of the writing, which now that you mention it seems like a pretty big thing to give up just for speed.