Did I mean to write this post a couple days ago, yes I did. Did I temporarily die of exhaustion because I had to start going into the office again, also yes. I’m not sure how I ever did this 5 days a week. Anyway…
Challenge Completed!
During the challenge, I read every day for 76/76 days, finished 21 volumes of manga (2 of which I had started prior to the challenge), and made progress on 2 additional manga volumes + a kid’s book.
A Complete List of Stuff I Read
Finished
不可解なぼくのすべてを (all 5 volumes)
サメーズ -サメとアザラシ-
サメーズ
いつでもサメーズ
よつばと! Vol. 15
ふたりのライオン
レンタルおにいちゃん Vol. 2, 3, and 4
しまなみ誰そ彼 Vol. 1 and 2
ルックバック
君には届かない Vol. 1, 2, and 3
シメジ シミュレーション Vol. 2
地縛少年 花子くん Vol. 1
Partially Read
ねこねこ日本史でよくわかる 日本のお城 (book)
ふらいんぐうぃっち Vol. 10
囀る鳥は羽ばたかない Vol. 1
I read a total of 3546 pages of manga and 16 pages of non-manga over the course of approximately 5305 minutes (88.4 hours). That’s an average of ~47 pages and ~70 minutes of reading per day!
Enough with the random calculations, windupbird
Honestly, I feel very successful looking at those stats, though Going from 0 minutes a day to an average of over an hour a day is pretty freaking awesome.
Wins and Things I Learned from the Read Every Day Challenge
My goal for this challenge was to read something every day, even if it was just a page or two. Before this challenge, I would read (at the most) one day a week; I never read on the weekdays, and honestly, in the months immediately prior to the challenge, I was reading absolutely nothing at all. I didn’t really read outside of the book clubs, either. All of that changed during this challenge Even if it wasn’t a lot, I did read some every day, and I’m really happy about that. I have never been that consistent with reading in Japanese, like, ever. It’s also proven to me that reading on weekday nights does not need to be “off limits.” I usually have the energy to do something, and even if it’s not much, it can clearly add up. Hopefully that remains the case now that commuting has become something of a factor
I think this challenge has also given me more confidence about reading outside of book clubs. Nothing wrong with the book clubs, of course, but I think I’ve been leaning on them or using them as a safety net a little bit too much. With the book clubs, you know that what you’re reading is likely going to be appropriate to your level, and you have those other people reading along with you to ask for help if you need to. With other stuff, it’s pretty much unknown, and there’s nothing more demotivating to me than starting a book and not being able to finish it because it’s too difficult. That’s a big reason why some things have sat on my shelf for as long as they have – I glanced at them when I first got them, went “someday,” and never really reassessed. I’ve had some of these books sitting on my shelf for years, and I think there was a big part of me that felt like I still wasn’t good enough to read them because I hadn’t really advanced my formal grammar studies much at all. But surprise, I was good enough to read them, and I did. (I mean, was I able to read them without looking stuff up, no, but the burden of looking things up never became so great that I felt like giving up, which was how it felt with a lot of them when I first looked at them). I tackled some manga without furigana during the challenge as well, which is something I have been generally hesitant to do because it makes things sooo much more onerous to look up sometimes. But for the most part, it really wasn’t as big of a deal as I made it out to be in my mind.
I’ve also discovered a little bit more about how I prefer to read, or the conditions that make me feel more motivated to read. I think sticking to a book club pace is actually doing me more harm than good at times For one thing, I think reading once a week isn’t really the most effective way to make reading a habit, for me. You’d think that a book club schedule would help me stay on track, but it doesn’t really seem to work that way. I just keep getting caught in this cycle where I get behind a week, then binge a couple chapters in one day, then get behind again, binge again, repeat. And that’s not really what I want. I also seem to read way more/way faster when I can go at my own pace, because I don’t put the brakes on myself to keep to a slower schedule. I’m finding it more enjoyable to read at a quicker pace, because I’m more immersed in the story when I consume it over a shorter period of time.
Stuff I Want to Do in the Next Challenge!
One thing I did not really tackle this time around is a book. Like, a book book. I know that I am a lot slower at reading books, but it would be nice to finish one book during a future challenge. I know just the one I want to read, too My biggest “someday” book of them all…
I’d also like to increase my confidence/ability to read without double-checking myself so much. I think I rely too much on looking stuff up in Jisho and “double-checking” my interpretation of events with an English translation (whether that’s the English edition of the book or a DeepL translation of a particular sentence). Honestly, a lot of times I didn’t really need to check that translation. Sometimes I got it wrong, but most of the time I was at least close enough to get the gist, even if I wasn’t exactly on the mark.
Thank you @Redglare for having this genius idea and inviting us all to participate in this challenge with you! ^^ It was really fun, and it actually worked for me, which is a freaking miracle Thank you also to everyone who read along with the challenge and liked my rambling posts, because, not gonna lie, I’m very motivated by likes Seriously though, knowing that other people are “watching” and following along really helps me keep on track, so you guys were a big part of my success I look forward to doing another challenge with you guys in the future!
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