📚📚 Read every day challenge - Summer 2021 🏖🏖

[windupbird]

Summary post

Day 72: August 11th
What did I read?: 君には届かない Vol 3
How much did I read?: 90 pages (3 chapters - finished the volume)
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 50 min

My heart Not gonna lie, I was about to smack a certain somebody for ruining everything But Yamato’s freaking notes in the little guidebook thing killed me, that was just about the sweetest thing and I’m so glad Kakeru recognized it too and ran after Yamato. Honestly, Hosaka is the unsung hero of this volume, he’s basically screaming “TALK TO EACH OTHER” at both of them lmao and I love him for it. Shoutout to Hosaka. Fujino can get the heck out of here But now what’s going to happen??? I have a bad feeling. Something is going to undo everything that was accomplished in this volume, I just know it -_-

[rikaiwisdom]

Main post

Day 72
Satori Reader: Secret, Episode 26.

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3 days left.

[Aislin]

Summary post

Day 47
August 11

• 授乳 (0% → 4%) (Sayaka Murata Book Club)

Day 48
August 12

• 地縛少年花子くん1 (32% → 43%)
• 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…5 (86% → 100%), finished, more about my impressions in the extensive thread

I decided to drop Hanako. It was a hard decision, because I was already at half of the volume, but I got encouraged by @NicoleRauch dropping コーヒー and @sycamore post from some time ago:

@sycamore

2 - giving myself permission to drop things completely if I’m not enjoying them rather than feeling like I should finish them. This seems like the opposite of the above haha - but yeah this was something I found a lot when I was reading manga based more on whether people recommended it for beginners/whether they were ABBC or BBC club picks etc. I’d be like two chapters into a whole bunch of things that I wasn’t really loving but then would feel guilty about reading something else as I felt an obligation to finish them. Just removing them from my ‘cureently reading list’ helped a lot.

[sycamore]

I predicted that starting to play 逆転裁判(ace attorney) would halt my progress in everything else, and I was correct! I’m still having so much fun though. I have ended up needing to use a guide at some points, but have found one thats in Japanese and finding that okay so far. I have now finished the tutorial case and first proper episode,and am now in the second. I have come across the famous ミツルギ/Miles Edgeworth and…yeah, I can see why people like him. He’s been a bit of a jerk so far but he certainly has a certain flair!

@Aislin

I decided to drop Hanako. It was a hard decision, because I was already at half of the volume, but I got encouraged by @NicoleRauch dropping コーヒー and @sycamore post from some time ago:

Nice! Yeah, there’s sooooo many potential things to read that really no reason to push on with things you don’t enjoy. Hope you now get to fill that reading time with something you like more

[rikaiwisdom]

Main post

Day 73
Satori Reader: Secret, Episode 27.

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2 days left.

[windupbird]

Summary post

Day 73: August 12th
What did I read?: 日本のお城
How much did I read?: 2 pages (1 castle)
How long did it take me?: 30 min

Ugh, what a stressful day Didn’t have a lot of motivation to read this evening, but this still counts lol. Today I learned that Inuyama Castle was privately owned until 2004 - my first thought was “how cool would it be to own a freaking castle.” Like oh yeah, my family just owns this castle. No big deal.

[chrisosaurus]

@sycamore

I would say that it’s easier than I thought it would be

Drats, you’ve got me.
I’ve been thinking about this game every day since your original post.
I don’t quite understand why, I’d never reached to play this game in English, but now I am full of hype.

I watched some examples from the first case in Japanese.
Tonight I started going through the transcript to find common occurring unfamiliar Kanji words to make a mini Anki deck for myself.

Just bought the game and downloading it now…

@sycamore

however I’ve found that when I’ve tried playing things that don’t NEED me to read the text that I just kind of skim over it, even if I made an effort to play it in Japanese. You can’t get away with that here which is good for my lazy brain haha!

Definitely this, sometimes in Mario I find myself just reaching to dismiss text before even trying to read it out of habit >.>

@Aislin

I also did play the very first case in Japanese and I also thought it was […]

\o/

I think this will be my first attempt to consume material without furigana.
But at least looking at the first case it doesn’t seem ridiculous in terms of uncommon Kanji, seems to largely be lawyer / court terms.

Mildly related: Last night I ordered a (very cheap) Japanese copy of the first Prof. Layton game, I played it in English and loved it, will see how it in Japanese. It will at least have furigana, and in theory be familiar from when I played it in English (… before I then forgot it all presumably).

[Zakarius]

Realised today that yesterday was my planned last day, oh well, today can be a bonus reading day.

So, the total is 63 consecutive days of reading! Now thatsalotta Japanese.

I’m going to try to keep it up, maybe not every day but several days a week at least, as, as well as learning Japanese, it’s been fun learning about random topics (and places/people… horses ).

Perhaps I should start one of those study log things to keep track of everything I want done in a day…

！頑張って！ to everyone still reading!

[Scylie]

@chrisosaurus

Mildly related: Last night I ordered a (very cheap) Japanese copy of the first Prof. Layton game, I played it in English and loved it, will see how it in Japanese.

Ooh, I loved those games as a kid! Though I’ve only played a few of them.
I would be interested in playing one of them in Japanese as well but I figured the riddle parts might be a bit tricky
I’d be interested in hearing what you think once you’ve played it!

& I’ve had my eye on ace attorney for a while as well. Good to hear that it’s apparently not super difficult.

[Aislin]

@chrisosaurus

Last night I ordered a (very cheap) Japanese copy of the first Prof. Layton game, I played it in English and loved it, will see how it in Japanese. It will at least have furigana, and in theory be familiar from when I played it in English (… before I then forgot it all presumably).

I think Layton is even more friendly than Ace Attorney.
I played the Katrielle Layton game in Japanese (and first two regular Layton games in English) and it was quite easy, language-wise. My main problem was that I’m just not very good at the genre itself

@Scylie

riddle parts might be a bit tricky

The descriptions aren’t that long, so that helps. It’s less text-heavy in general than Ace Attorney in my opinion.

But! I was extremely angry about one riddle which required you to count the Sun as the star. And jisho tricked me here!

I know it says “usually” but still

[Natsuha]

The day before yesterday I was too tired to read anything. Yesterday I just read 10 pages ofイモリ２０１. Today I read the remaining pages of イモリ２０１.

Unfortunately I had no time to read 5分で読める恐怖のラストの物語 maybe tomorrow.

Speaking of videogames I really want to play the second part of Legends of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel. I only have the Playstation 3 version of the first game, which is english only. But the second part I want to play in japanese. There is just a little problem, people claim it’s one of the hardest games to play in japanese.

[rikaiwisdom]

Main post

Day 74
Satori Reader: Secret, Episode 28.

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1 day left.

[windupbird]

Summary post

Day 74: August 13th
What did I read?: 地縛少年 花子くん Vol 1
How much did I read?: 28 pages (1 chapter - finished the volume)
How long did it take me?: 55 min

Felt like a fast read today. Quite a cliffhanger to end the volume on I feel like I probably won’t continue this series though…at least not right now. It’s not bad, but I don’t love it, and I feel like there’s other stuff I’d rather read. I wouldn’t rule out coming back to it at some point, though. I kind of feel like this story might be better as an anime than a manga tbh. …Looks like the anime’s on Hulu lol, maybe I’ll check it out at some point.

[vonnutje]

@Scylie

Ooh, I loved those games as a kid! Though I’ve only played a few of them.
I would be interested in playing one of them in Japanese as well but I figured the riddle parts might be a bit tricky

I played the first one in French after completing it in English. At that point I was learning French in school for over four years. I still thought the riddles were not really doable so I gave up quickly after I picked it up xD Maybe Japanese is less tricky tho?

[Thud]

Main Post

Finished reading volume 12 of Yotsuba. It was nice. Liked how table of contents was incorporated into the manga this time. The camping trip was the highlight of this volume, but the other stories were also cute. Especially the halloween one. This volume had 6 chapters, but the next one has 8 chapters, so things will work out.

[Natsuha]

I started reading リトルバスターズ! エクスタシー 朱鷺戸沙耶 ～SCHOOL REVOLUTION～ but just ten pages and then I read two texts in the tobira book if that counts.

It was a horrible week I was really busy and people bothered me all the time.

[rikaiwisdom]

Main post

Day 75
Satori Reader: Secret, Episode 29.

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Aaaand done! Conclusion post coming tomorrow but right now, my bed needs me .

[windupbird]

Summary post

Day 75: August 14th
What did I read?: ふらいんぐうぃっち Vol 10 and 日本のお城
How much did I read?: 18 pages (1 chapter) and 2 pages (1 castle)
How long did it take me?: 12 min and 24 min

Super short chapter of Flying Witch this week, so I added on a bit more castles too. The cat creatures in Flying Witch are so angry They’re so cute though. As is Big Giant Cloud Cat. Just one more day of the challenge to go! Which is good timing, I think, I feel like I’m about ready for a break.

[vonnutje]

After seeing some people here talk about Satori Reader I tried using it today and I must say that it is really good for practicing reading skills and learning new words! Even with WK level 10 it is very doable since you can hover every word to get the translation, including additional notes! I really recommend everyone just trying the free stories and see if you like it

[rikaiwisdom]

Summer 2021 Reading Challenge Completion Post

Completion: 75 / 75 days (100%)

Work done:

• Satori Reader: 75 episodes
• NHK Easy News: 1 article
• コーヒーが冷めないうちに: 39 pages
• Final Fantasy III: 2h

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Thoughts on the challenge:

• Overall it has been a very pleasant experience and I’m glad I joined. It has definitely pushed me to read frequently, something I was very much in need of after getting to Lv60. I will still need to push myself after this, because I already feel Oh Lazy Me in the background.

• I decided that I wanted to make it 75 days, but these last two weeks have been noticeably harder (and a bit boring) than the previous two months. I was thinking that perhaps 61 days is the optimal time span for me, but I’m also wondering if that is because almost everybody else was already done and following alone was no fun. Perhaps 75 days is way too much in general to follow as a group, so one way or another I think 61 days is indeed the sweet spot. I could do those 2 months with no burnout, something to keep in mind for the next challenge. Working through it with everybody else definitely helped me to keep going strong.

• It has taught me even if just a little bit that no matter how little you do everyday, it still amounts to a lot over time. I have trouble myself with doing too little, I feel like I should be doing more, but honestly I needed to see how much I’ve done in the end, and wow, I know that other people have done a lot more and that is amazing, but I feel good for myself. Just for the 75 satori reader episodes alone it has been so much worth it. I hope this helps me change my mindset and understand that even the smallest steps everyday carry you a long way over time, no matter how little it is. I need this mindset in my life .

• I think many of us learned from this challenge to just quit reading something we’re not clearly enjoying. In my case, I started コーヒーが冷めないうちに with the IBC, and it’s not like I disliked it or anything, but it felt like a burden. Perhaps following book club schedules is not for me unless I really love what they’re reading. I’d much rather set FFXIV in Japanese and grab words here and there, personally.

• I got to interact with many of you I hadn’t interacted before and that’s awesome, it felt like a small family to come back to every day. It’s been great working with you all, discussing and getting to know a bit about yourselves. I’m looking forward to seeing you in the next one!

終わり