I’m glad to hear I’m not crazy the only one! Yes, the cadence is also a big thing for me too.
I have no problem in sharing it (I’m already sharing it in other places too), but I think you will be mostly disappointed (mostly be cause I would not recommend a lot of the things I read, especially considering the things I want to read now). The main thing was that, when I started reading light novels, I went for stuff that were popular, since I figured that would mean I would enjoy them too. But, generally, that has not been the case. That also skewed my past reading towards 男性向け stuff, since those are the one that sells apparently? And those often come with an annoying protagonist and/or tons of fan service. I didn’t know I had more choice, so I kept going with those series for way longer than I should, and they are cluttering a bit my Bookmeter.
Well, that being said, two of my favorite series technically belong to the 男性向け category (本好きの下剋上 and 薬屋のひとりごと). I’m not quite sure why. I guess that, in the mind of the people making the categories, gender neutral = 男性.
(In the 女性向け category, my favorites are 伯爵と妖精 and かくりよの宿飯. Additionally 悪食令嬢と狂血公爵 looks promising, but only 2 volumes out so far. I also enjoyed わたしの幸せな結婚 and 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった…)
I decided not to do the winter one because I was working on getting my 900+ reviews down to 0 <.< >.> So I’m looking forward to starting this one! I’ve been impulse buying a lot of Japanese books and manga recently. Once they come in, I’ll probably be doing graded readers (as I am someone who stopped and restarted learning Japanese at least 3 or 4 times over the past like 10 years or so.)
Until then, I’m thinking either ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 (Zenitendou, The Mysterious Sweet Shop), ふらいんぐうぃっち (since both of these have already been read in a book club) or maybe the Aoitori bunko version of 獣の奏者エリン (because I just really love the anime so much)
Ooh, now that’s a glowing recommendation! I’ll definitely have to reread it when my french is better and I can actually appreciate it! I only saw 3 books in that series - are the others spin offs? Ooh, wait, there’s at least 3 books titled les mondes d’ewilan! Sounds like a year’s worth of reading material, hehe.
Eh, I was young, I don’t know if I’d like it as an adult. But it certainly feels nostalgic.
They are grouped by trilogy for some reason. There are 4 trilogies in total according to wikipedia.
Oh, this is an interesting idea! Probably would be good for me to let go of the guilt of not finishing all the books I start I will try to approach it with this mindset tomorrow Hopefully I will wander into something that grabs my attention. (Something much easier said than done recently, my brain is literally everywhere this week)
It’s trueeee
雨と君と was the first tanuki manga I read, and that is the one I was referring to - as you’ve seen, it contains what may in fact be the cutest tanuki in the whole entire world. Highly, highly recommend for the cuteness factor It’s not super text heavy, so depending on your level it might be a bit easy, but it definitely had more text than the Fox and Tanuki book that you probably also saw on my Bookmeter If you’d like something with slightly more narrative substance (雨と君と is pretty slice of life-y), I really really enjoyed お前、タヌキにならねーか? as well. I’m planning to get the second volume of that whenever I get the third 雨と君と ^^ (I posted about that one in the winter challenge)
Actually I remembered just now that I still have yet another tanuki series in my reading stack Maybe that one will make an appearance in this challenge…
So this is very interesting to me as I’ve read (or attempted to read and got bored) a few light novels and this seems like me right now. Both the protagonist tropes and the fanservice are tiring so I kind of just gave the genre up. I might have to give 伯爵と妖精 or かくりよの宿飯 a whirl, as well as 本好きの下剋上 at some point.
Oh it’s April! Something I’m grateful for the last challenge is that reading has been ingrained as a habit. Now when I read, I don’t think about having to read for this challenge. I just found the time to read and realized afterwards that I can start the April challenge posts from today!
We continue from the cliffhanger in the last chapter where Red appears to be eaten by the Utsubotto (Victreebel). We learn that he’s okay and just barely escapes from being turned into acid. More good news: the mecha Poppo (Pidgey) is also okay and helps Red figure a way out by examining his items.
They use the PokeFlute to wake up all the sleeping Utsubotto and Utsudon (which need to stay asleep to complete the evolution ceremony which also requires digesting “living things” for needed nutrition - pretty brutal considering they’ve got some animals and a human on their menu but so is the real world of Pokemon). While they are awake, Red then throws the Pippi (Clefairy) Doll to get away while the Utsubotto has its guard down and loosens its grip on Red.
They run into Nidoking which was also awaken by the PokeFlute, and Red uses his quick thinking to pull the Utsubotto into the battle to weaken it and capture (Utsbutto). Even without it being at full power, Red uses its vines to stop Nidoking’s movement and capture it as well. He seems to be doing alright for himself while the Safari Zone employees frantically search for Red. Pikachu comes across his hat. Thinking the worst, they are at once surrounded by wild Pokemon but are then saved by Red who’s been on a catching spree. Bet it was a first time for them!
It’s funny because you think Red is in real trouble this time, but he’s Red, so of course it ends with him increasing his team. All the Pokemon that were threatening his life are now super friendly smiling like he does.
第２２話VSウツボットの単語
ほどける to come loose; to come untied; to come undone; to unravel
繁殖 はんしょく breeding; multiplication; increase; propagation; reproduction
儀式 ぎしき ceremony; rite; ritual; service
栄養分 えいようぶん nutriment; nutritious substance; nourishment
しくじる to fail; to blunder; to mess up; to screw up
片目 かため one eye; one of one’s eyes
奪う うばう to snatch away; to dispossess; to steal
どさくさ confusion; bustle; turmoil; trouble
退治 たいじ extermination (e.g. of pests, demons, bandits); elimination; eradication; destruction; suppression
計算 けいさん calculation; reckoning; count
生息地 せいそくち habitat; home (eg of the tiger)
It’s been a while since I’ve read PokeSpe (since the last challenge actually), so it’s nice revisiting it after a while. I noticed I could get through it much quicker than usual too.
This book is really nice so far! The sentences are a bit long, but overall I can follow the story. Up until now with the descriptions it gives me Ouran High School Host Club vibes, and I really like it ^^ I’ll probably read some more later today and update my post.
I’m in!
Day 1 - Japanese Graded Readers (ASK publishing) - level 2
象のトンキー
I love these books. As I read there are some words I kinda recognise but can’t quite remember. Then I look carefully at the picture and read it again, voila, I remember the meanings of a few words. Magic - no dictionary needed!
I finished ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 #2 tonight, but it’s still “tonight” for me rather than “this morning,” so not checking off the calendar box yet.
I read the 3-page prologue of 三毛猫ホームズ too. Just to look at the difficulty. If the rest is like this, I think I’ll be okay. It looks like it’s going to have all kinds of stuff I haven’t seen in the kids’ books I’ve been reading.
Ok so having sought everyone’s advice on whether to step up or down with the next book I read, my plans have changed a bit… I’ve been in bed with covid since Wednesday Thankfully (?) I seem to have got the aches and fever version rather than the brain fog one but I also think this might not be the right time to be starting a more difficult book. So for now I’m going to be chilling out with some kids books after all.
I started reading ぼくは王さま last weekend, intending it to be a speed read before the challenge started so continuing with that for now. I picked it up on UK eBay as part of a mixed lot of kids books and all my Japanese friends replied 懐かしい！ when I posted it to Insta. So far it’s very easy going, the only words I’ve had to look up are くわ hoe and かまど a traditional Japanese stove. It’s also very funny. In the first story the King wanted to make a huge omlette so he sent his ministers off to get an elephant’s egg I’d recommend it to those of you looking for a next step after Yotsuba.
Thank god for dialogue - I still have shit to do and I still have to go to work so squeezing it in worked well. I wanted to translate it as well but I think I’m going to run out of time before I need to head to work.
Anyway, first day down, looking forward to the other sixty! I might even finish 燃える If I hurry a bit
[EDIT: It was page 18 not 19. Corrected the typo ]
Was busier than I expected, and did not manage to finish 銭天堂 in time
Currently I’m on Chapter 6, page 138/161. I’ll be travelling from Sunday onwards, so I’ll have lots of time to read then! Maybe I can complete it before Monday.
Today I read only two pages. Going to sleep early today, because I have a fun and busy day with friends planned for tomorrow.
I started reading 透明カメレオン a little ahead of this challenge, so today I read pages 29-40.
It’s getting interesting now seeing how there’s a strange girl that bursts into the bar on a stormy night, just saying the word コースター over and over again. They hand her a coaster, for resting drinks on, she looks at it and stumbles out of the bar. Momoka-chan, a regular at the bar, is pretty sure the girl was actually huskily saying 殺した〜, so now everyone is freaked out and wondering if they should go to the police or not. There’s more that’s happened, but in case anyone wants to read it I don’t want to get into too much detail!
Cool words and phrases I learned today:
• 油断は禁物 = Be on your guard! Take care!
• 反射神経 = reflexes
• 最寄り = nearest
• 付け根 = joint, as in finger joint or crook of the neck
• 本格化 = proceeding at full tilt, in this case it was a (full-on) cold
• 掠れる = hoarse, husky (voice), be blurry, to scrape
• ツンツン = aloof, morose, standoffish. Alternate meaning; to have a pungent smell.
Read 13 pages of こぐまのクーク物語 and finished the first chapter. 16/147 (10%) done
Noticing how some words keep coming back, for example:
うきわ - lifebuoy
ながら - while
I’m also impressed with the amount of kanji I recognise. This sentence in particular:
「。。。」父さんの声と いっしょに、車のまどの向こうには、どこまでも広い海
I’m using ichi.moe for sentences with structure I struggle to understand. Is this OK or does it mean I should pick an easier book? Even with this tool, there are some sentence parts I don’t understand. I just skip them, thinking that with more grammar it’ll become understandable in the future.
I only saw 3 books in that series - are the others spin offs? Ooh, wait, there’s at least 3 books titled les mondes d’ewilan! 
Sounds like a year’s worth of reading material, hehe.
I will try to approach it with this mindset tomorrow 
Hopefully I will wander into something that grabs my attention. (Something much easier said than done recently, my brain is literally everywhere this week)
It’s trueeee
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Thankfully (?) I seem to have got the aches and fever version rather than the brain fog one but I also think this might not be the right time to be starting a more difficult book. So for now I’m going to be chilling out with some kids books after all.
I’d recommend it to those of you looking for a next step after Yotsuba.
Congrats to everyone who made it on day 1!