📚📚 Read every day challenge - Summer 2023 🕶☀

[fallynleaf]

I technically started this challenge on July 1, but just didn’t get around to making my home post for it until now .

July	月	火	水	木	金	土	日
Week 26
Week 27
Week 28
Week 29
Week 30
Week 31

Aug	月	火	水	木	金	土	日
Week 31
Week 32
Week 33
Week 34
Week 35

= Japanese
= Japanese and Spanish

As usual, I’m aiming for reading something in both Spanish and Japanese every day! So far, I have maintained a perfect daily reading/listening streak all year. Will this be the challenge that finally breaks me? Guess we’ll have to see. (Don’t expect this checklist to be kept up to date, though ).

I also have a Notion page with my reading progress and a bunch of other stuff recorded, though I’m not good at remembering to update the checklist there, either .

What I'm reading in Japanese

As usual, my main priority is translating in-ring promos and backstage comments for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. This counts as “reading” because I’m working off of written transcripts of the Japanese.

Everything else has to be secondary to my TJPW translations, but in addition to those, I’ve also been reading and translating some stuff for Pro Wrestling NOAH (specifically for one single tag team, Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima’s tag team AXIZ) on the side, albeit way, way more informally, and not really for the public’s benefit.

I also have another wrestling translation project that has been backburnered for a while, which are those Big Japan Pro Wrestling deathmatch Shakespeare shows… Eventually I’ll get around to translating stuff for Romeo vs Juliet…

Besides the pro wrestling stuff, I have some manga in progress (still…), and have been working my way through Read Real Japanese Essays, which is one of the reading goals I’d set for this year.

Actually, I’m going to go ahead and move up that goal: I want to finish Read Real Japanese Essays by the end of the challenge period!

Other stuff, like textbook reading, A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar book club, twitter, etc. I am NOT counting for the purposes of this challenge.

What I'm reading in Spanish

I found out that a book that I’ve had on my English to-read list for ages, Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamín Alire Sáenz, also has a Spanish edition! It’s titled Aristóteles y Dante descubren los secretos del universo. I bought it on kindle because I can use the kindle dictionary to do fast look-ups that way.

So far, it’s going pretty quickly, haha, so I suspect I’ll be buying the sequel pretty soon . I might have to look for a third book to finish out the challenge, assuming I don’t end up slowing way down on my reading…

[lyricaluck]

home post

Another 30 pages of さくらいろの季節 yesterday, bringing us to page 98 and 33% finished! The conflict from the last section had a surprising resolution (I feel like the logical response to “my friend is getting everyone in trouble for having dyed hair at school” is not usually to dye yours, too, but it worked out somehow), and going into the third section was a pretty drastic tone shift.

It took me until the end of the second section to realize that I didn’t actually know either of the main characters’ last names, and until the third to realize that I didn’t even know the protagonist’s first name lol

today's vocab

グダグダ - exhausted, worn out
雑談 (ざつだん) - chatting, idle conversation
照れくさい (てれくさい) - awkward, embarrassing
連帯責任 (れんたいせきにん) - collective responsibility
子機 (こき) - portable (telephone) handset

[Clovie1]

July 3rd
(Home Post)

Read the second half of chapter 64, and chapter 65 of シャドーハウス vol 6.

[ChristopherFritz]

Day 3: July 3rd

Nephew wanting to swim in the pool = perfect opportunity for me to get some reading in poolside while keeping an eye on him.

夢みる太陽 Volume 10 (83% ➨ 100%)
ひよ恋 Volume 2 (0% ➨ 33%)

[picklejar399]

July 3rd: [Home Post]

I had a lot of fun reading the rest of chapter 5 today, so much so that I didn’t even realize there were only two chapters this volume. I did a much needed review of verb tenses before diving in and was surprised that there were a few times I was able to read without stopping! I can only imagine how much better my reading ability will be by the end of August!

Besides once again enjoying the chapter, I have picked up a surprising amount of N4 grammar, so if anyone is a beginner like me, I would recommend giving the series a go. I also will probably have to adjust my plans as it seems like I will be through Crystal Hunters much faster than I anticipated.

Reading
Crystal Hunters (Natural): Volume 1 [100%]
Crystal Hunters (Natural): Volume 2 [100%]

[omk3]

Yesterday I finally read the titular story from 穴らしきものに入る, after having the book for, I don’t know, more than a year? (I just checked and yes, I got it last year in June, with the intention of reading it immediately - ha).

Once again this is a book categorized as horror (it even won the horror award), that wasn’t horrific in the slightest. The first story was totally absurd and often funny. People from older Read every day challenges may remember me describing the sample: A man, while washing his car, suddenly realizes he can enter the hole of the water hose. As in, enter with his whole body, without the water hose extending at all, and come out the other end. From there starts his obsession with holes: he will try to enter anything even resembling a hole, from the punch holes in work documents to a series of train handles all at once. His obsession with holes becomes a compulsion, and he can’t stop himself doing it even in public, running the risk of being observed and… well, shocking people. It’s crazy, it’s absurd, and it’s fun to read about.

For those who have no intention of reading it but are still curious, here’s what happens next:

While this adventure lasts, he looks happier and more confident. He gets a promotion, and becomes way more popular with coworkers, superiors, and women. None of that interests him as much as holes do though. After a few weeks he has explored almost every hole there is, and feels empty. He needs the challenge, the exhilaration that comes from entering the most difficult of holes. One day in a cafe he gets excited again when he realizes he could challenge himself to enter the hole formed by his forefinger and thumb. Of course he can only go halfway through before the waiter appears and his contorted body unravels (as I said, crazy).
In the end, he decides to conquer the most dangerous holes of all: the plug holes. He even orders a full diving suit to be protected, and decides that if he comes out of this alive, he can maybe put this hole obsession to rest - this is the final boss. He goes in, and is surrounded by electricity, floating as if in space. He is safe for now though, and tries to exit through the second hole, when something is shoved in - his wife has plugged in the vacuum cleaner. He waits her out, and tries again, but cracks his goggles in the process. His wife plugs in the iron next, whistling as she goes about her chores, and this shatters his goggles completely. Next his oxygen tanks explode, and he is dying in a sea of electricity, thinking of the holes he can enter after death, while his wife is happily ironing a few meters away. The end.

I don’t have the slightest idea what the remaining 4 stories are about, but I’m looking forward to them.

[taiyousea]

taiyousea’s reading challenge
→ study log → natively

July 3rd:
天気の子『小説』 (15 pages / end of prologue)

Listing this one in tandem with my listening challenge update for the day. I’ve been reading the 天気の子 novel along with the audiobook for my listening practice, but choosing not to make it my reading challenge material since it’s not really unimpeded reading. However, I wasn’t able to make it to the やがて君になる manga today, so I’m using what’s at hand.

This novel is about 5 Natively levels above my actual level, presenting a bit of a tough challenge mostly because there is no furigana, but I’m really liking the pace of the story so far and I’m extra excited to be reading my first Japanese novel. There is also quite a LOT of onomatopoeia which is something I haven’t yet touched on in my studies, but who am I if not overconfident in my ability to learn quickly. It is very scary to look at 308 pages with no furigana but I’m liking the story so far and I have motivation from the reward of a movie waiting after I complete it (¯▿¯)

↑ zoom back to home thread

[mo_ji]

25% way through コーヒー and half way done with a light novel I found today :). finished the first short story inコーヒー and i liked it a lot more than i thought i would. the ending was very gentle

[mo_ji]

i had no idea tenki no ko was level 30, that’s insane. even the adult fic i’m reading hover at 25 ish lol. wonder why they chose to make the language more complex for a movie adapted book.

[mo_ji]

what a story holy thanks for the summary LOL

[Akashelia]

@mo_ji: You just posted 3 times in a row so you can’t post in this topic until someone else does (me, in this case!). Another option to reply on the forum without making multiple posts, is to highlight someone’s post, and then a “Quote” option appears. If you click it, the quote will be in your new post:

@mo_ji

what a story holy thanks for the summary LOL

You can do that with as many quotes and posts as you want and have everything in the same single reply

[DIO-Berry]

July 3

季節を愉しむ366日
July 4

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険37
start - 27

桜蘭高校ホスト部1
107 - 122

Seasons was about a fish called こはだ that used to be used in sushi before the Edo era. Although now I think you’re not allowed to eat it?

JoJo was just the first chapter. Finally got to see Kira!

I almost didn’t read JoJo in order to focus on Ouran , but I got about halfway through this week’s reading and then decided that I’d probably get just a bit better mileage out of reading JoJo before bed.

Trying something a little different with my formatting this challenge

[mo_ji]

my bad :). didn’t read the rules carefully. will notes for the future

[Akashelia]

No worries, you didn’t break any rule, it’s just easier to read that way

[WaniTsunami]

Won’t be joining the challenge this time, but good luck to everyone doing it! I am a big fan as doing a years worth of this challenge got me reading Japanese everyday.

[iterimpius]

Just really wanted to thank you for sharing these! Your templates are what I used for the previous challenge as well, and I really loved the neat look of them

[NicoleIsEnough]

@omk3

穴

How do you keep finding these??

[omk3]

Oh this one I had found in last year’s search for light horror (and ended up reading the other 穴 instead) . It was already part of the joke about my (supposed ) 穴-mania. Actually I need to find something new 穴-related soon!

[enbyboiwonder]

Home

・７月３日・

87 pages of あの空はキミの中, reading ch 4 thru part of ch 8 and leaving off on pg 165. Halfway done! It’s been really good so far. I actually meant to finish ch 8 when I started it, but I ended up passing out. I haven’t been sleeping well lately, and the tiredness has been building up.

lol I’m so used to hearing “○○かいのうらのこうげきは” (from oofuri specifically; I can hear it clearly in that woman’s voice) that when I saw “二回の○,” I automatically read it as “二回の裏,” and then immediately I was like, wait, that’s not right! I’m sure I have heard “○○かいのおもて” before, it just never, like, sunk into my brain, so I have zero memory of it.

I’m glad this is a proper hardcover (and with a smooth cover besides) because I don’t feel like I’m gonna ruin it with my sweaty hands. Augh, it’s too hot… I feel like my hands are always at least vaguely sweaty in the summer.

Some vocab of note:

スコアラー [sports term, n.] score keeper; record keeper; scorer
三遊間 (さんゆうかん) [baseball term, n.] the area between the third baseman and the shortstop. From their Japanese names: 三塁手と遊撃手との間.
静電気 (せいでんき) [n.] static electricity
目くそ鼻くそ (めくそはなくそ) [expression] pot, meet kettle. Short for 目くそが鼻くそを笑う, which is the equivalent of “the pot calling the kettle black” and is literally “the eye boogers laughing at the snot.”

[NicoleIsEnough]

@omk3

Actually I need to find something new 穴-related soon!

I half-jokingly entered this as a search criterion into Bookwalker, and it turns out there is a lot of material

文芸・小説の電子書籍無料試し読みならBOOK☆WALKER