Oooh, this has been hovering at the edges of my to-read list for a while but I wasn’t 100% on it, (tbh mainly because the cover put me off) but this has certainly bumped it up the list for me! I’ve had the similar trepidation (it’s what’s stopped me from getting further with series like Wandering Son) that things will be focused on the worst possible outcomes and/or they will be written by straight & cis for straight & cis people and so just kind of be…not great. But good to hear that you really liked it!
Also - you mentioned that reading with no furigana makes looking things up harder - do you still tend to look up every unknown word or do you find that it encourages you to get by on context as much as possible?
Continuing 氷菓, read 11 pages (p.131-141) in 1 hour 15 min.
Honestly, the book isn’t that exciting but I’m going to finish it anyway. I certainly expected more from a mystery novel. The stakes are so low in this story that it’s just laughable.
・Read 2% of Subete ga F ni naru. (73% → 75%) Have finished this week’s 分 of book club !
・Read 2% of Honzuki 4 as well. (68% → 70%) Reading out loud is fun, have gotten a bit better at doing that. Encountered one notable new kanji from the word 賜物 (たまもの), thought it was interesting that it’s a jouyou kanji, one of the less frequent ones Can’t say I’ve seen it before, at least.
Unrelated, but today was the day I finished my bachelor paper. I hope whomever has the duty of grading it won’t think there’s too much BS in there I feel like it’s either good or bad, I just don’t know which of them it is. But either is fine with me as long as I pass.
Same for me! I’m glad I read it anyway, since that fear was unfounded. It’s funny to see from the afterword that the author originally planned to keep that pattern with other covers but was convinced by the editor to go for something else.
I think it is? I have no idea about the situation of the author; it might have been mentioned somewhere but I can’t remember. And I think it assumes that the readership will be cis-straight, since it takes time introducing concepts like voice training and so on (so that people who don’t know about it would not be confused). It still turned out great!
I know what you mean, and in my experience at least (having finished the last volume yesterday), 不可解なぼくのすべてを is remarkably good on that front.
It doesn’t shy away from darker stuff in later volumes, but it’s always super unambiguously positive in the parts that matter (e.g., that the queer character’s experiences are valid and everyone should support them), which gives it an authentic vibe to me. Like if the author isn’t writing from the heart, they’re doing a very good job supporting from the heart, if that makes sense. It does have a “here’s a primer introducing you to transgender concepts” vibe somtimes, but it doesn’t do a bad job at that.
In contrast, Wandering Son is more like, “literary,” and definitely more complex and interesting from that perspective (less of a primer), but it definitely does feel like a traumatic gender feelings parade sometimes… and I do get more “cis writer writing about non-cis people” vibes from it (whether that’s actually true or not, I don’t really know). So it’s good too, but more stressful… like there’s no safety net since it’s nonstop adolescent uncertainty. 不可解なぼくのすべてを’s core simple positivity makes the intense parts feel a lot less harsh to me in comparison (even though if I just described the events it would sound way more stressful in parts).
So anyway, I second (third?) the notion that Fukaboku is surprisingly cool!
Day 3 down - only 10 pages of book today, but Thursdays have other commitments that aren’t spend a long time reading. Finished one chapter and started another in マジックツリーハウス. Will probably read a bit of Chi before bed, but unlikely to keep track then - I usually read until my eyes get sleepy, then pass out.
Ah, yeah! I mean you definitely get non-LGBT folks writing about LGBT characters that do the work and write them well. I guess I just always feel that my risks of encountering bad stereotypes etc are a bit higher than if it’s written by someone that identifies the same way as the characters they are writing about. So reccomendations help
I think this is actually a pretty good description of what is “good enough” for me to be honest! If it seems like it’s coming from a good place and the writer isn’t just dealing in stereotypes then it generally gets the benefit of the doubt from me. Anyway! Thanks both for the second and third reccomendations…I guess I will move the series higher up my towering ‘to read’ pile hahha. I do like that it’s only 5 volumes though, not too much of an undertaking!
June 3nd. Time: 30+ min. Manga Pages: 4
What: Manga からかい上手の高木さん (Volume 1), current pick of ABBC. Chapter 5, Pages 5-8.
Again, lots of pictures, and they are funny, highly recommend.
Day 3 brings my novel reading from the 9% mark up to the 11% mark, for an increase of
2%. I’m actually still on track!
Although it may be premature to say, I’m feeling this will for sure be the first novel I actually finish. The reading experience is quite different from my three prior attempts with other novels.
Today’s learning intersection:
1. I’ve been struggling a bit with 促す as a recent WaniKani lesson, and it came up in today’s reading:
子どもたちはコナンに 促されて 香春電話ボックスを見た。
I’ll still have trouble remembering the reading, though.
Sometimes I think it’s much easier to include the furigana in the reading mnemonic. Like, “When the leader urges an unagi with his feet, una-gas comes out.” Or something?
Day 3: June 3rd
What did I read?: 不可解なぼくのすべてを Vol. 1
How much did I read?: 1 chapter (28 pages)
How long did it take me?: 45 min…ish (man am I bad at time)
I caught up with the Yotsuba book club yesterday, so I thought I would revisit this book club pick today. (And it looks like I’m not the only one ) I started it with the book club, read exactly one chapter, and then just never…really…read the rest of it for some reason xD …Looks like the book club started mid-February, so I’m guessing the reason was work stress running me into the ground. I have a few of these unfinished book club books/series hanging around in my book piles. I think I will make it my mission to whittle that list down during this challenge.
Also added some fancy calendars to my first post
Started reading 1Q84, a book by Haruki Murakami. A friend of mine started reading it and recommended it to me so I gave it a shot. I quite enjoy it but it’s a bit out of my reach kanji-wise so I can’t read a lot of pages everyday. I manage maybe 10-15 pages before I take a break, so around an hour per day of reading.
I read another 70 pages yesterday, making me reach 300 pages, with 150 left (so 2-3 more days I guess).
Continuing my rant, we now figure out where the deadly virus comes from.
Ranty spoilers
… of course. Well, after that AI thing, you know, whatever I guess?
Gotta love how they sent it to Earth: in a bioengineered mammal that came out of an egg made of carbon fibers (to resist both the heat of atmospheric entry and the impact; thermal isolation is provided by fur, and the heat+impact is just right to crack the egg open, allowing the creature outside). Boy, that’s such an elaborate technical feat for, basically, no purpose? Couldn’t you just use your crazy tech to simply spread the virus everywhere at once? Or a single place, anyway, if you want to give humanity enough time to adapt to the virus and live in symbiosis with it instead, as seems to be the case.
I’m based in Sydney, so I had a similar thought process, it went from “my summer vacation is quite a while away…” to “oh wait, I’m not a student anymore, so I don’t actually have summer vacation…”.
Count me in. I’m currently part of an/the ABBC so I’m nominally reading most days. I will be taking a few days vacation soon, and at some point soon I have to move houses, so pretty much impossible that I’ll actually read every day.
Can’t say I’ve seen it before, at least.
I feel like it’s either good or bad, I just don’t know which of them it is. But either is fine with me as long as I pass.
) I started it with the book club, read exactly one chapter, and then just never…really…read the rest of it for some reason xD …Looks like the book club started mid-February, so I’m guessing the reason was work stress running me into the ground. I have a few of these unfinished book club books/series hanging around in my book piles. I think I will make it my mission to whittle that list down during this challenge.
= highlights