📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

:house:

Day 44. I haven’t updated here for a few days. I didn’t make much good progress — only one page a day in 銭天堂, but at least I’m keeping the streak, lol. I just read page 143 today.

24 Likes

Day 35: February 13

  • 魔女の宅急便 Chapter 2
23 Likes

:tiger2: :books: Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220213 :books: :raccoon:


Tanuki Scroll XLIV: 吉四六さんと猫 :cat2:

Read today’s folk story, about a man using a cat to get him fish to eat (the cat also gets to have some fish so all is well).

Today is 銀行強盗の日!
Bank robbery day! So go rob a bank… I guess? (please don’t)

It’s bank robbery day because on this day in 1866 was the day of Jesse James’ first bank robbery.

☆ Learnings ☆

New Word

ノラ猫「Sometimes seen as: 野良猫 or 野良ネコ」ー Stray cat; Alley cat

Forgotten Meanings

そろそろ ー Gradually; Before Long; Soon


such little fluffy holdy hands :pleading_face:

21 Likes

If anyone is interested Honto is having a mega sale for Valentine’s day. It’s mostly romance and cook books but there’s a scattering of other things available. Manga/light novels/business books/novels/etc are all there.

Today’s reading was 『鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅』はアニメ史に残る一作に 息を呑むほどの動物表現に注目 which I chose because I know the book version is quite popular on these forums. I actually read a few pages of it when it was on sale the other day and vaguely considered picking it up, but fantasy has always been very hit or miss for me.
But I’m interested in what other people like so I figured this would do for now :sweat_smile:

It actually didn’t talk much about the plot, but rather the detail of the animation and the attention to natural movement in the animals in particular. Hope ya’ll that read the book and opt for the movie too enjoy it. :slight_smile:

19 Likes

Day 44!

Today I read Chapter 8 of Yotsuba, which continues to be super cute!
But Chapter 14 of The Way of the House Husband will have to wait until another day, because my boiler is still broken and its SO COLD that while I was reading my fingers went numb. :sob:
So I’m going to go and huddle under some blankets to warm up my poor frozen hands!

(Home Post)

23 Likes

Home post :house:

Day 37:

I read three pages of よつばと! today :four_leaf_clover::slightly_smiling_face::four_leaf_clover:

地球温暖化 :scream:

23 Likes

I stand slightly corrected. The epiloge chapter 29 was very nice. The artstyle was a bit different (though not bad) but overall I really liked that chapter. Subverted some of my expectations with how Meiko again talks about leaving her job and you think its the same old story but its revealed its because shes pregnant and actually likes her job. But why the hell did he draw 加藤 that way. He ruined my image of him forever…

The 春よ来い chapter I really didn’t like though. One chapter of unrelated people. Didn’t click with me where the connection was other than that they were in a similar point in there life as was meiko and the others in the main story?

The afterword was interesting. The version I read apparently only exists because he liked the american release version and when he had the chance (10 year anniversary) wanted to do something similar with the japanese version ^^. That’s apparently also when he added the 29th chapter.
His thoughts on Taneda were also very interesting. Definitely worth a read for anyone who read the manga.

This was the first Kanji compound that blew my mind ^^.

16 Likes

The last three days I forgot to post so I will write in the post what I read in the three days.

Monobeno
Every day I read some of this visual novel and it gets easier and easier every day. To make reading easier I use some tools, which make looking up words easier. But of course I add unknown words to my SRS and learn them.

Prison School Vol.1
I finished reading it on Friday. It was strange but still interesting I
always wondered what weird situations will happen next.

Air Gear Vol.1
I thought it would be easy too read but it was harder than expected. It included lots of slang. Not really into action manga I don’t know if I will continue reading it.

君のいる町 Vol.1
A romantic slice of life manga I only read the first 30 pages and not much happened yet. The protagonist has a cute girl from Tokyo moving in. He is afraid that people think that they are a couple. They are the same age and because it’s in a rural area I’m sure they will end up in the same class.

21 Likes

Is it okay if I pop-in? I got my hands on all volumes of おやすみプンプン. Hoping I can finish before February ends!

25 Likes

Water’s warm, jump right in!

10 Likes

Oh, just in a few chapters Jumbo is going to use a compound of 9 kanji or so :joy:


Summary post

February 13 update:
Read chapter 20 of よつばと! today. Quite unusually for this mange, the chapter ended in a cliffhanger – not a dramatic one, but still, I barely stopped myself from peeking :sweat_smile: I’m wondering whether the Jumbo-Asagi situation is going to be resolved any time soon, because it has been drawing a lot of focus lately.

22 Likes

Summary Post

Day 44: Today I read 4 pages of よつば&! and finished volume 4!

20 Likes

That was the ufo one right? Such a useless word since japanese people undersand ufo as well -.- (Ps still remember it and can write it in IME ^^)

10 Likes

Yeah, it was something like “UFO detection.” I guess a lot of the more complex words are on the less useful side, because even if they don’t have a more common equivalent, I don’t think they get used all that often. But in this case is can also be quite hilarious :grin:

Wow, that’s quite a feat! Did you know all the constituent kanji when you read it?
(I just looked it up again, and there’s just one kanji that I don’t know – and even that one I’ve certainly seen before… I guess it just looked too scary :joy:)

6 Likes
Collapsing many responses

Wow those are amazing pictures, thank you.

Oh that’s awful! I hope it’s fixed soon, and you can stay warm :worried:

I adored that chapter, but it’s an early reminder of just how often uncommon words are going to pop up EVERYWHERE, haha. Commonly recommended beginner manga? Here’s a chapter on global warming right away. Also wow, I just learned 暖 this level so I finally can read all of that! Thanks for that reminder, that’s cool; I remember it being terrifying before.

Welcome! More is always better, and best of luck!


Summary post

Summer Pockets: ~2300 characters, ~190 lines, a little over an hour. This is a pretty steady pace for me now, and about the time it takes to grab somewhere in the 20-25 words mined zone that I shoot for (I’m good at dumping problems onto future-Daisoujou so it’s always hard to stop mining words hah).

Today was fun! I had another choice of where to go without つむぎ available so I went to the shrine, and it was just a tiny opportunity to donate some money. Wonder what that’s about :thinking: . Then we hung out and began plans to umm… build a veranda out of not-Pringles cans.

I certainly do appreciate highbrow literature. This led to lots of little encounters together with more of the cast which are always a highlight. Another memorable thing was the VN using furigana for the first time ever, on 盛者必衰 (じょうしゃひっすい), a Buddhist expression apparently from the Humane King Sutra meaning “even the prosperous inevitably decay.” I kinda love the juxtaposition of that with not-Pringles can nonsense.

Zoo 2: 2 days and I’m already at 9% and page 18, which is great for me. It’s still a little tougher because there are two old men now, but the story has a lot of dialogue which makes for more gaps in the pages, and also I’m just having a great time reading it, so I’ve been going as long as my stamina allows. This has blown past horror into absolute slapstick nonsense.

A slightly spoiler-y discussion of the first Zoo 2 story

So, this guy who lost the ability to feel pain wakes up to realize he’s covered in blood, and soon realizes there is a knife in him, while he’s somewhat isolated at a mountain vacation home with a few family members and his elderly (95 years old!) personal doctor. And then it’s just absurdity after absurdity. The whole family is either incompetent from freaking out or just outwardly like “Hooray, he’s dying; let’s take his things!” The doctor’s shaky hands can’t properly operate with the rusty scalpel he brought, and he lost the blood he brought specifically for this purpose. So this guy is just sitting around, knife is his side, blood constantly leaking out of him, while everyone around him is doing everything short of falling over on banana peels or talking about how excited they are.

Reading is fun! Coolest new word is 都市伝説 (としでんせつ), urban legend. Very self explanatory kanji there.

22 Likes

Summary post :bookmark:

February 13

本好きの下剋上 8
Progress: 90% → 100%

Finished volume 8 of Honzuki light novel series :partying_face: That was fun, from the prologue all the way to the end. Definitely felt like I was reading faster today.

I started this book three weeks ago, hoping I could balance the other books I was reading as well, but I kinda got stuck in the Saikawa&Moe book while Kagami no Kojou felt a bit heavy thematically for me. I’ll definitely get back to both of those.

Though I’m a biiiit behind in one of the book clubs (three weeks behind? :durtle_durtverted_lvl1:), I’m happy that I spent time on Honzuki too. Enjoyed it a lot :durtle_noice:

24 Likes

Summary post

Day 44: February 13th

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 10 min
Today’s color: 薄香 (うすこう) - kind of a light beige-y color

Dyeing clothes with clove gets you this color (and some good-smelling clothes)

Good words
  • 色味 (いろみ) - shade; tone; tinge; hue; color; tint
  • 丁子 (ちょうじ) - clove
  • 香木 (こうぼく) - fragrant wood; aromatic tree
  • 常緑高木 (じょうりょくこうぼく) - tall, evergreen tree
  • 熱帯 (ねったい) - tropics
  • 珍重 (ちんちょう) - prizing; valuing highly; esteeming

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 6 min

Today’s reading was about ダイヤモンドダスト and how pretty and 幻想的 it is (I like this word - 幻想的 [げんそうてき] - fantastic; magical; wondrous; whimsical; fairytale-like; romantic). It can be written in kanji as 細氷 (さいひょう).

What else did I read?
海のどうぶつが可愛すぎて!
Amount read: 8 pages
Time spent: 38 min

Oh nooo, now we’re on seals :pleading_face: I love seals D: I think I say that about every sea creature lol but it’s true, I love them all

This is probably the cutest thing I have seen today: orcas holding baby seals :rofl:

And also this friendly-looking walrus

Some good words

Creatures:

  • スナメリ - black finless porpoise (why is this the most friendly-looking porpoise :pleading_face: I love it so much)
  • アシカ - eared seal (esp. the California sea lion, Zalophus californianus); sea lion
  • オットセイ - fur seal (esp. the northern fur seal, Callorhinus ursinus); Alaskan fur seal​​
  • トド - Steller sea lion (big bois)
  • セイウチ - walrus
  • オタリア - South American sea lion (this sea lion pretty much writes kanji better than I do :sweat_smile:)
  • タテゴトアザラシ - harp seal (smol :pleading_face: :pleading_face:)

Words:

  • 飼育員 (しいくいん) - caretaker (at a zoo or aquarium); keeper; attendant; breeding staff
  • おねだり - begging; pestering; pleading; coaxing​
  • 器官 (きかん) - organ (of body, plant, etc)
  • 脂肪組織 (しぼうそしき) - adipose tissue
  • 発する (はっする) - to let out; to utter; to produce; to emit; to give forth; to discharge
  • パッと見 (ぱっとみ) - (at) a glance; (judging from) appearances
  • 表紙 (ひょうし) - cover (of a book, magazine, etc.); binding
  • ややこしい - puzzling; tangled; complicated; complex
  • ビュンビュン - with a whoosh; with a swish; with a whirl; whizzing by (my new favorite onomatopoeia)
  • ふさふさ - in tufts; tufty; bushy; thick; luxuriant
  • とぅるとぅる - couldn’t find this in the dictionary, but according to this, it probably meant “smooth” in this context (fur seals are ふさふさ, sea lions are とぅるとぅる)
  • 這う (はう) - to crawl; to creep; to go on all fours​
  • 耳たぶ (みみたぶ) - earlobe the fact that this sounds like “ear tab” lol
  • 混同 (こんどう) - confusion; mixing; merger
  • いかつい - stern; grim; rough; rugged; forbidding; overbearing; square (shoulders)​
  • ぺたぺた - sound of a flat surface repeatedly making contact with something​ (the ぺたぺた of sea lion flippers xD)

But of course! Welcome! :wave: :smile:

23 Likes

Home Post

Today I finished the main story and the epilogue of ティアムーン帝国物語 2!!! I’m done! Whoo!! I feel very accomplished, haha. This was my second book in Japanese, and it was definitely easier than the first one (which was ティアムーン帝国物語 1).

Thoughts on the Reading Process

There were still a LOT of lookups even though book 2 was easier overall, ahaha. About 10 per page on the harder chapters, 8 per page on the easier ones. I have a high lookup tolerance and a low tolerance for dealing with ambiguity, so… lots of lookups (often of the same words ahaha). But anyway, hopefully book three has less unknown stuff. I know the author’s writing style, regularly used expressions, etc. which is quite nice. I might not start book three for a few days though.

24 Likes

Oh it’s me, looking up every unknown word I ever see :sweat_smile:

Fantastic job! :tada:

I dunno anything about the series honestly, but reading challenges aside, I take it you enjoyed it if you’re off to read 3 in a few days? Haha.

8 Likes

Oh it’s me, looking up every unknown word I ever see :sweat_smile:

I’m glad it’s not just me :joy:

Fantastic job! :tada:

Thank you! It’s a very fun, light series. I’ve read it in English before and I loved it so much I started rereading it in Japanese after I’d only read a grand total of 1 - yes, 1 - volume of manga. (The first volume was a bit of a slog, as you might imagine, haha.) But I would highly recommend the series to people who are fans of the rebirth genre and like funny, heartwarming stories.

6 Likes