📚📚 Read every day challenge - Summer 2021 🏖🏖

[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

[Aislin]

@vonnutje

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?

I did learn French in school for 8 years, but the teachers (and some other circumstances) were so bad, I wouldn’t even dream of touching Layton in French

There you have an example of Layton riddle in Japanese. When I played Katrielle, it was on Switch, so I had a nicer text resolution.

@rikaiwisdom

終わり

おめでとう!

@rikaiwisdom

it felt like a small family to come back to every day

@rikaiwisdom

Perhaps following book club schedules is not for me unless I really love what they’re reading.

On the other hand, when you really love what they’re reading, you can get impatient about the pace

That’s why when Sayaka Murata Book Club started a new book now, I also started a second one by the same author to resist reading ahead in the first one

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Summary post

Day 49
August 13

• 生命式 (0% → 5%)

Day 50
August 14

• 生命式 (5% → 8%)

[Scylie]

Ah thanks for posting an example!

It’s the shadows isn’t it

I think if all the riddle descriptions are on a similar level then that’d be okay.

Have you come across any riddles that require actual langage knowledge aside from the instructions? As in the solution requires you to understand wordplay or something.
On the one hand I think that’d be really fun, but also probably hard

I feel like on an old DS, the tiny font/screen size might not be ideal from a language learner’s perspective, but it might just work out okay

[windupbird]

Summary post

Day 76: August 15th
What did I read?: 日本のお城
How much did I read?: 4 pages (2 castles)
How long did it take me?: 42 min

Last day! (What an odd number of days to finish on…if I had realized that, I might have set yesterday as my stopping day so that it would be a nice round 75 days. But ending on the 14th of the month would also feel weird so…oh well ). This book has some looong sentences in it. Not the easiest to parse, when you’re also not very familiar with the various major events and personages of Japanese history lol. Luckily no one’s going to be testing me on any of this

Separate overall reflection post incoming a bit later!

[Axazel]

Just want to drop in to say say everyone still reading is doing so great!! Congrats to those who are finishing up!!

Also, now I wanna try the Prof. Layton games too✨

I haven’t been ready every single day, but I have been reading more often than not. Making progress in 深夜特急1, finished the first chapter. Other than that, I’ve now had confidence to pick up magazine articles in the waiting room and other such things! Can firmly thank this thread for being able to do this.

I’m trying to maintain the reading habit, while taking some “rest” until our next serious reading challenge! Hehehe

Til then, I’m reading all of your progress and cheering for all of you wonderful people.

[Belerith]

@sycamore

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!

Yes, that’s him!
Loving all the Ace Attorney and professors Layton hype here, two of my favorites.

@Zakarius

thatsalotta Japanese

So much Japanese!

[Aislin]

@Scylie

It’s the shadows isn’t it

I was thinking it was the animals, but you’re right, shadows are much more reliable answer! (I got the screenshot itself from the random article, which used it as an illustration, so there wasn’t any answer provided ).
I said before that my main problem with Layton series is that I’m not good at the genre

@Scylie

As in the solution requires you to understand wordplay or something.

There were some language riddles, but the words they used were on the easier side, like N5 vocabulary.
And I mentioned before the dilemma if the sun counts as 星 which jisho insisted it doesn’t, but the game assumed it does
But there were only a few, most relied on logical thinking, not wordplay. And there are also in-game hints available and also you don’t have to solve every single puzzle.

[Aislin]

Wow, it’s so quiet here now…

Summary post

Day 51
August 15

• 生命式 (8% → 12%)

Day 52
August 16

• 生命式 (12% → 18%) (short story 1/12)

Day 53
August 17

• 生命式 (18% → 22%)