📚📚 Read every day challenge - Summer 2021 🏖🏖

[Nishi790]

I need to stop bingeing this manga. Just got a bunch of flashback/backstory episodes from the male lead, along with some minorly dramatic realizations in their relationship that led to me reading 2.5 chapters last night (and staying up rather later than usual), then going ahead and finishing the volume (another 2.5 chapters) this morning. Still wanted to know what was next, and spend my afternoon reading another 4.5 chapters. At ~6 chapters/volume, and ~30 pages/chapter… well, volume 11 is about 3/4 done and I did a lot of reading today.

Definitely had harder to understand stuff today - looking up more words and grammar points than usual - flashbacks had a lot more narration type writing, which is decidedly trickier for me. It didn’t help that I was invested in the story, so found myself looking more things up to make sure I was getting the details right, where I might have skimmed a bit more on less plot-heavy chapters. I think I need to read some more narration type writing (so, you know, books, instead of manga) to practice this more…

[vonnutje]

@chrisosaurus

I have been doing the same with Super Mario Odyssey, I considered purchasing Animal Crossing to play in Japanese but I was worried there’d be too much puns or wordplay.

Only if you catch a bug/fish, so I’m not trying to actively translate those sentences. The rest of the game is very doable luckily

[vonnutje]

@chrisosaurus

Super Mario has been great due to the abundance of basic action verbs (running, jumping, throwing, etc.), I was naively hoping Animal Crossing would be similar but for more day-to-day things - how are you finding the vocabulary?

The vocab is standard, not a lot of kanji in the dialogues and that throws me of a little sometimes, but for the most part it is random chitchat with some more difficult words at the owl, but those are words that you will frequently see when you talk to him (words like donation).

[chrisosaurus]

@vonnutje

Only if you catch a bug/fish, so I’m not trying to actively translate those sentences. The rest of the game is very doable luckily

Ohh that’s really helpful to know, in that case I might bump it up my list of things to play =D
I think I’ve only played Animal Crossing back on the DS so my memory of the dialogue isn’t great (beyond remembering being scammed by Nook, naturally).

@vonnutje

The vocab is standard, not a lot of kanji in the dialogues and that throws me of a little sometimes

What’s kind of funny to me is that before WK I would have considered a kana only game to be a blessing, whereas now it is something of a curse, I guess that means WK is working?

@vonnutje

but for the most part it is random chitchat

\o/ random chit chat \o/
Awesome, one of the things that Mario lacks is normal dialogue, characters conversing are usually talking about an objective, or giving the minimal story elements, so having a game where there is more ‘chatter’ sounds really helpful for reinforcing that every day vocab.

and since I’m here, quick update time.
Home post - July 19th からかい上手の高木さん chapter 7 - pages 9 and 10.

[rikaiwisdom]

Main post

Day 49
Satori Reader: Secret, Episode 3.

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@momoni

I’ve tried to avoid any spoilers until I finally have the time to sit down and properly play it myself. Tried playing it this spring with the Japanese audio and English subtitles for listening practice and I regret everything - it’s just so ridiculously high-paced that there was in fact no time to read the subtitles.

I see I guess that’s part of the problem that I have with FFXIV too. You can read at your own pace when there are dialogues between quests, duties and such, but when you’re doing something, the text flies away crazy fast and there’s no way I’m catching anything of the battle dialogues or pointers. One of the biggest reasons I don’t play it in Japanese is actually because I don’t want to kill my party because I don’t know how to read something most enemy spells have a fairly quick cast, and I simply can’t read katakana or kanji at that speed. Not to say that if I need to explain something to somebody or them to me, how are we going to communicate? “Avoid so and so when they cast X” … “when they cast what :’)” . So I end up putting it in Japanese, playing around for a bit solo, then back again to English after a short while because I’m extremely overwhelmed.

@chrisosaurus

What’s kind of funny to me is that before WK I would have considered a kana only game to be a blessing, whereas now it is something of a curse, I guess that means WK is working?

Same I can’t read full hiragana now, gimme that kanji.

[windupbird]

Summary post

Day 49: July 19th
What did I read?: しまなみ誰そ彼 Vol. 1
How much did I read?: 38 pages (1 chapter)
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 16 min

Quick/boring update today, since reading this took way longer than I thought it would Still very good though

[deejayyp]

1Q84 Book 2: 38 Pages, 1hr 35minutes.
Read about twenty pages, was close to the end so decided “Ah screw it, just read it til the end” and finished it off.
Man, this book series is so damn interesting. I went ahead and bought the rest of the series after I finished it so I have the rest of em to look forward to.

[Burnannator]

Reading the Novel version of Coco is going along noicely.

[chrisosaurus]

Home post

July 20th. Wow what a day!

TL;DR からかい上手の高木さん 9 difficult pages (and a few trivial / picture-only pages), this is a lot at least for me.

Longer version of my abnormal day

The longer version is that I didn’t get to sleep until 2am and then at 5am a nasty tooth ache woke me. I took the day off work to see a dentist, thankfully it looks to have just been my gum (?!?) and there is nothing wrong with the tooth, but after all that and only a few hours sleep I wasn’t feeling up to work even after the pain subsided.

I decided to instead spend what was left of the afternoon on the balcony reading and trying to relax a little so that today didn’t feel like a complete write off.

Reading からかい上手の高木さん, today all up I read the final 6 pages to finish chapter 7, and started chapter 8 )reading pages 2, 3, and 4). I then wrote out the next 5 pages to make tomorrow smoother.

I timed myself for part of it. Reading the last 6 pages of chapter 7 took me 1 hour and 40 minutes. This included writing out and breaking down every line by hand in a notebook. I didn’t time the rest, but I’d guess in the realm of 2.5 - 3 hours total today, although a lot of that was me being inefficient.

This means I’ve met my stretch-ish goal of finishing chapter 7 before the volume 2 offshoot club starts. Although now I’m a few days early… so I’m going to see how much of the remaining chapters I can squeeze in, or at least write down.

EDIT: I finished chapter 7 in 4 days =O

[Belerith]

19.7.
Yesterday I read 13 pages of 使ってはいけない日本語, finishing chapter 3.
I also read the remaining pages of chapter 6 and chapter 7 of 1Q84. Commencing catching up!
Then I read the free manga recommended in the extensive reading thread, ルックバック. I really, really liked it. Not gonna lie, I cried. Really good.
And then I read SとN, which is an actually very cute BL manga. Much appreciated after the roller coaster that was ルックバック.

What can I say, it was a slow day at work. Today’s log is going to be much shorter. Or at least contain less books.

[maykeye]

Extremely tired today, taking a nap didn’t help and feel only worse, as result read only 6 pages of Forbidden Scrollery(2). Well, actually it was 2 pages and 4 pages with no text to be honest, but whateves, I managed not to break the streak. I might lost the count for the streak, but I didn’t break it.

[Natsuha]

main post
Today I finished the first volume of the 聲の形 manga. What should I read tomorrow? Maybe that pervy manga. Shouko is so cute I would totally hug her. I’m sorry but cute things are my weakness. All this bullying made me really sad. Why can’t people be nice to each other?

[Belerith]

20.7.
I think I’m done reading for today, so I’ll do today’s log on the day!
Today I read a bunch of manga! Volumes 3&4 of 異世界妹 (the 電子版, which are only around 80-90 pages each), and chapters 1&2 of volume 1 of かしましめし, which is about food, and enjoying life or making life bearable by enjoying food. It’s actually nice so far. The art is kind of… Flowy? Stylish? I like it.
I also read a chapter of 1Q84. 3 more chapters until I’m caught up again.

[Redglare]

Summary post
July 20

・Read 冷たい密室と博士たち, ch. 6, part 3-6. (40% → 49%)

@Redglare

(38% → 40%)

^From yesterday
Bookwalker app told me I was at 40% in the book when I left it yesterday, but at 43% at the same location when I continue reading today? This is the third day in a row that the percentages have been inconsistent between sessions

[Belerith]

@Redglare

This is the third day in a row that the percentages have been inconsistent between sessions

You must be reading too fast, bookwalker just can’t keep pace!

[sycamore]

Summary

Today I was so exhausted before I even started reading and so it was difficult zzzzz. I read another 3% of NO.6 (which according to my rough maths based on page numbers listed on Amazon is around 6 or 7 pages) and I really wanted to keep reading as I was half way through a really interesting dialogue but could barely keep my eyes open. I will be back for you tomorrow, conclusion of interesting dialogue!

Something else that’s semi-related to this challenge (well, reading at least). When I first started learning Japanese, I had some spare audible credits so I downloaded the Japanese versions of harry potter 1 & 3 (if I knew then what I know now about some of JK Rowling’s views about trans people…maaaybe I wouldn’t have but at the time I was just like “oh hey I loved these books as a kid and they are available on UK audible”) Even though when I got them I pretty much could understand nothing, up until now ive usually put them on for half an hour when going to sleep at night (when I wouldn’t have the energy for.more active listening anyway). And then yesterday night I put it on and after a bit just kind of realised “oh wait, this is understandable content now?”. I listened to some more on a walk today and yep, while there are obviously some words I don’t get, on the whole it’s gone from “this is just pleasant noise with some names I recognise” to “I can follow along comfortably and get most of this”. I’m probably helped by having read them in English as a kid but still it feels very cool! I’m not sure I’d reccommend my method of “just listen to things even if you understand nothing”…but it does make for some fairly fun comparison lol.

[chrisosaurus]

@sycamore

(if I knew then what I know now about some of JK Rowling’s views about trans people…maaaybe I wouldn’t have but at the time I was just like “oh hey I loved these books as a kid and they are available on UK audible”)

I keep thinking HP might be a good way to eventually branch out into books rather than just manga, and that reading along with the kindle version while listening to the audible version might aide in looking up unknown words, but… eugh Rowling. I’m not yet sure how to resolve these conflicting feelings.

@sycamore

And then yesterday night I put it on and after a bit just kind of realised “oh wait, this is understandable content now?”. I listened to some more on a walk today and yep, while there are obviously some words I don’t get, on the whole it’s gone from “this is just pleasant noise with some names I recognise” to “I can follow along comfortably and get most of this”.

That’s amazing progress!
I’ve previously grabbed some shorter Japanese audiobooks (e.g. some version of the wizard of OZ?!?) to try this with, but I haven’t been able to stick with it enough to know if it actually works.

@sycamore

I’m probably helped by having read them in English as a kid but still it feels very cool!

I feel like I’ve forgotten most things except for the major plot thrusts and some random moments I presumably found particularly interesting as a kid.
Do you remember most of the details from your reading as a kid?

[rikaiwisdom]

Main post

Day 50
Satori Reader: Secret, Episode 4.

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Day 50, let’s go. I go on vacation for several days starting on Monday next week. I wish to keep reading one Satori Reader episode a day, which would just take 15 or 20 minutes at night, but I also don’t want the challenge to get in the way of my enjoyment of those days. So whether I find time to keep the streak from breaking will depend on how tired or relaxed I end up by the end of each day. But the idea is that if I can, I’d like to keep reading I’m sure I’ll find 20 minutes at some point.

[windupbird]

Summary post

Day 50: July 20th
What did I read?: しまなみ誰そ彼 Vol. 1
How much did I read?: 32 pages (1 chapter - finished the volume)
How long did it take me?: 47 min

Wow, this last chapter was really beautiful. Tiny gushing: Tasuku thinking about Tsubaki is just about the cutest thing - right next to the way that Haru and Saki smiled at each other. Omg ok the last page though xD Who the heck was that?? (Guess I have to buy the next volume and find out. Oh dear, I’m so sad about that ) What I’m actually sad about is that I don’t have the next volume right now D:

@Belerith

SとN

Ooh, Amazon was recommending this to me Maybe I will add this to my ever-growing list of Things to Order from Amazon. (It’s gonna be a big shipment, folks)

[sycamore]

@chrisosaurus

I keep thinking HP might be a good way to eventually branch out into books rather than just manga, and that reading along with the kindle version while listening to the audible version might aide in looking up unknown words, but… eugh Rowling. I’m not yet sure how to resolve these conflicting feelings.

It’s definitely a tricky choice to make! It is a very good audiobook, I like the Japanese narattor a whole lot. I’m not sure it’s a great pick for an early book to read, as JK Rowling has a pretty descriptive writing style and loves just inserting huge big long lists of nouns (eg if they are eating then everything on the table will be listed lol) as opposed to the light novel I’m reading now which has much more challenging vocab but the writing style itself is way more simple and straight-forward. I’m presuming there are probably better choices for first novels that also have audiobooks…but I don’t really know them hahah (I’m also reading Kikis and have the audiobook for that but I just don’t like the narration as much - that is probably mainly personal preference though!). I know a lot of folks in this thread use Satori reader which seems close to the combo of reading + audiobook so that might also be a good option, but I’ve never used it.

@chrisosaurus

Do you remember most of the details from your reading as a kid?

For these two (HP1 and 3), yeah, I remember them pretty well. I think I reread them a lot as a kid, especially 3 cos Remus lupin was my favourite character. I think this is helpful as if I lose track a bit in the audiobook (ie. after one of those previously mentioned massive lists of nouns haha) it doesn’t take much for me to get back into the story. But at the same time it probably gets in the way sometimes as well in that my brain can be lazy and not actually try to figure out the Japanese as much.