📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

Japanese Language Reading
#182

Summary post

January 3 update:
Read chapter 5 of よつばと! 1. Some slang was a bit hard to figure out, but otherwise it went pretty smoothly, and was super fun. There were hints to this before, but now it’s obvious that よつば clearly took after her father :joy:

Thanks for the pointer! Too bad I saw this after ordering a different one :sweat_smile: I was actually considering it (as I have another book in Tsubasa Bunko edition), but in the end I went with the 新海誠ライブラリー edition, which seemed to be nicer and more durable than the bunko ones. Now I’m wondering if this was the right choice, because I imagine my lookup time will increase dramatically without having furigana…

On the other hand, my experience with having furigana for every kanji is ambivalent: my eyes tend to automatically look at it even before seeing the kanji because it’s much easier, and then I only look at kanji to confirm or disambiguate the meaning. I’m a bit worried that this hinders my progress with internalizing kanji vocab by not getting me to apply the effort to actually recognize the kanji/words first. I do try to consciously stop myself from doing that, but that doesn’t always work, and it takes away some focus from what I’m reading.

18 Likes
#183

Okay, so despite not reading any new よつばと! tonight, I did read it (and other things throughout the day!). Today turned to be all about re-evaluating my study habits (with the help of some pals in my study log below!). I spent a good hour inputting the kanji I encountered in the first 13 pages of Yotsubato! into koohi.cafe, a website I just learned about earlier today! In essence, I re-read most of what I’ve read over the past week, and, in essence, got more out of it than the first time! I still plan on reading more tonight, but if not, hooray for new learning methods! :slight_smile:

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:fallen_leaf: Shenmue Tree (a Journal / Study Log!)

Natively.com - Shenmue
I have started よつばと！over the past few days, and it’s my first manga ever!. I’d also be super appreciative of any interested soul that wants to stop by and join the fun in my Journal / Study log. I always need guidance as I post what I’ve been attempting to read each day!

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#184

Hello and happy new year everyone!!! So glad to be able to read with y’all again! Thank you so much for hosting this again @windupbird
The fall challenge was so great, and honestly, whenever I reflect on it, only positive things and memories come to mind! <3 Definitely, the winner of it all though would have to be how I actually formed a habit of reading daily-- and I only kind of broke it during the holidays…
Looking forward to this!

:snowflake:Winter Reading Challenge :snowflake:

Jan 月 火 水 木 金 土 日
Week 52 1 2
Week 01 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Week 02 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Week 03 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Week 04 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Week 05 31
Feb 月 火 水 木 金 土 日
Week 05
Week 06
Week 07
Week 08
Week 09
What I'm reading

歴史366
暁のヨナ （bookclub)
キノの旅 第01巻
idolish7 game story
Hukumusume website stories
and some manga volumes I have lying around left and right and hadn’t got to complete…

Fall reading challenge post
bookmeter

For the first three days of the year so far, I’ve just read my daily 歴史366 page, and that has been it :sweat_smile: showing up still counts, so I’m content with that!

24 Likes
#185

Main Post

January 3rd
I’m going to start putting page numbers for any pages I read. The Naruto book’s main story started on page 7. I “read” pages 8 and 9, but there was only one speech bubble on page 9 lol. Didn’t recognize any of the kanji but was able to read “Academy” (アカデミー) from the katakana. 卒業試験 means “Graduation test”, apparently.

16 Likes
#186

I have started 山田くんと７人の魔女 now. This is the second shounen manga I am reading and I am finding it very easy to get through in terms of understanding the dialogue despite not knowing some of the words. Is it that in Japan, they think that boys have a lower level of literacy and need easier dialogue? Or is it the fact that I’ve watched the anime for this manga and can still remember the show? オトメン(乙男) was easy for me to get through but only because there were lots of blank space so the pages were easy for me read through. In terms of story, I still have only a vague idea of what happened and only because I remember the plot. I didn’t get it from comprehension of the words.

11 Likes
#187

Well if there is a dog to look forward to, then I think that that has helped me make up my mind. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Thank you!

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#188

January 3 :snowflake: Home Post

Today got slightly out of hand :joy: I started off with another chapter of ラストゲーム which was a great time as always! I absolutely LOVE 藤本(ふじもと); she’s always up to some mischief or other and it’s really the best. It’s just always full of hijinks and fun characters and cute moments and I’m down for all of it :blush:

But then I went wild and picked up 錆喰いビスコ again and got sucked in and before I knew it I’d read two pages, as painful and slow-going as it definitely was :sweat_smile: but man I am really intrigued and I don’t think I’m even out of the like prologue yet; the realization that the 旅僧(たびそう) we’d been following this whole time is actually the main mushroom man himself was perhaps obvious in hindsight but was a really fun turn! “Reading” it (as much what I’m doing can actually be called reading lmao) is rough for sure but it’s good when I have the mindset to do it! Whether I stick with it very long or not, it’s all still good practice for getting more used to reading in general.

All in all today was definitely a good day for this challenge! I feel pretty accomplished :+1:

Cool words!

拒否権(きょひけん) - right of veto; I’m always getting weird words like this from 藤本(ふじもと) :joy: I love her but god can she be hard to understand
手(て)に乗(の)る - to be fooled, taken in (like by a scheme)
精神力(せいしんりょく) - emotional strength, force of will; poor 柳(やなぎ) talking about his ongoing struggles to get 九条(くじょう) to register his existence lmao
殺風景(さっぷうけい) - tasteless, dreary
事(こと)も無(な)げ - careless
青(あお)ざめる - to turn pale (I was a little unclear what was happening in this part tbh but I think dude was afraid of a ムカデ which like very relatable, horrifying)

I also ran into ～げ and read up on that which was cool! The author of 錆喰いビスコ seems to like to use it a lot so hey if nothing else I’ve learned something

17 Likes
#189

Today I read one (4 page) story from 10分で読めるお話１年生. It wasn’t exactly easy, but it wasn’t exactly hard, either. I used to read 10分で読める books every morning over coffee, and it was such a struggle. Somehow I feel like maybe the struggle made the experience better. Or maybe it was the coffee. :thinking: I want to go back to that, but at the moment that’s the time I use to do WK. So then when do I do WK?

Basically I’m having big internal struggles over how to use my Japanese study time, which unfortunately is not infinite. And I’m glad I finally put it to words, because now I have an idea, and I’m going to give it a try.

Anyway, besides that I also finished よつば volume 5, which has been a really fun one!

This order actually was from Amazon Japan, so that’s partly why I was so surprised. I guess I’ll call DHL in the morning if the status still hasn’t changed and see if they can give me any additional information.

I also feel like doing this! I realized that the reading level isn’t quite as unapproachable as I originally thought it would be, and then after my manga got stopped in customs I went and impulse bought it…

16 Likes
#190

I loved that book. Highly recommend - you can also check the ongoing book club threads and post questions in them if you don’t understand something. AND the audiobook is so incredibly well done. Listening while reading along definitely helps!

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#191

oh man oh man oh man …

5 Likes
#192

Summary post

Day 3: January 3rd

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 30 min
Today’s color: 常磐色 (ときわいろ) - evergreen :evergreen_tree::evergreen_tree:

I love the way that this color is described - the color that never changes :relaxed: So comforting somehow…

One thing I really liked learning from this today was the suffix み, which is basically like “-ness” (in this case it was “brownness” but can also be for other sensory/subjective adjectives and for things like “deepness/depth”).

Some more words I liked learning
  • 不滅 (ふめつ) - immortal; undying; indestructible (what an intense word lol, I love it)
  • 不変 (ふへん) - eternal; everlasting; unchangeable; immutable; immovable; constant; permanent; indestructible​
  • ものともせず - in the face of; in defiance of​
  • 常緑樹 (じょうりょくじゅ) - evergreen tree
  • 常磐木 (ときわぎ) - evergreen tree (from a brief google investigation, I think this is an older/more traditional way of referring to it maybe?)

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 29 min

Today I learned about a bunch of traditional New Year’s activities/games, such as:

  • 羽根つき (はねつき) - similar to badminton :badminton: idk why this is an emoji but I’m gonna use it
  • 凧あげ (たこあげ) - kite flying :kite: I’m not sure how I went so long without seeing the kanji for kite? Is this not in WK? Anyway, I like it, I’m a fan, it looks like a kite on the wind
  • 双六 (すごろく) - can refer to two different types of board game but I’m guessing they meant the one that’s supposedly similar to snakes and ladders (絵双六) since (per Wikipedia) that’s the one mostly played today
  • 福笑い (ふくわらい) - game in which blindfolded players place cutouts of facial features onto the outline of a face (because the western equivalent is Pin the Tail on the Donkey, my mind now thinks of this as “Pin the Mouth on the Face” and that’s going to be its name in my mind forever now)
  • 坊主めくり (ぼうずめくり) - a game played with hyakunin isshu decks I tried to look up the rules - basically what happens is you flip cards over and depending on the picture on the card you drew, you either get more cards or lose cards. The winner is the one with the most cards at the end.

Also, I think I learned a grammar? ならでは - distinctive of; characteristic of; uniquely applying to; special to

What else did I read?
Nothinggg, I went back to work today so I’m a bit tired :sweat_smile:

Remember when I said I was going to make my update posts less extensive? Yeah me neither, apparently :upside_down_face:

23 Likes
#193

Thank you for sharing! I loved reading about the color evergreen. :slight_smile: And now I know at least three words on the spectrum of immortal/eternal.

不死身 ふじみ
不滅 ふめつ
不変 ふへん

If you say them one after another they kind of sound like a magic spell …

Edit to add: I got very little sleep last night.

7 Likes
#194

4th January
Continue reading 嫌われる勇気

Page: 31-34
Time: 15 mins

Book content (Warning: Spoiler)

Today’s topic is about how people “fabricate” the feeling of anger.

In order to prove that people’s action is controlled by the cause and not by the purpose, the young man told a story about when he was in a cafe and a waiter spilled coffee on his clothes. He got so angry that he started shouting. He argued that this behaviour (shouting) is caused by the cause (getting angry at the waiter spilling coffee on his clothes).

The philosopher argued that his behaviour is driven by a purpose. The purpose is to shout at the waiter. Then, he “fabricated” his anger as a mean to achieve this purpose.

“Nonsense!”, the young man said. Anger is an emotion that appears in a blink. He doesn’t have the time to stop and think that he wants to get angry so that he can shout to the waiter.

The philosopher then gave an example of a mother who is fighting with her daughter. The mother was very angry, but then there’s a phone call from the school teacher and the mother spent 5 minutes talking to the teacher in a polite tone. After the phone call, she went back to shouting at her daughter. From this example, he argued that even though anger comes in a blink, it is still a tool to achieve your purpose. The young man can calmly talk it out with the waiter and get a compensation or something, but he decided to use the “anger” as a tool to achieve his purpose (shouting at the waiter).

I don’t really agree with the term “fabricating anger” because the feeling of anger comes naturally and you can’t really help getting angry. The question is then, what do you do with that feeling? We naturally want the feeling to subside, and the easiest way to relieve that anger is by shouting at people, breaking things around, or doing something violent. Or we can try to find another way, e.g. by meditating, taking a deep breath, etc.

I somewhat agree that you can’t really say “I can’t help but to shout at him because I was driven by my anger”. I agree that he set “shouting” as his purpose and used “anger” as the tool to achieve it.

Notable word for today’s reading is:
不可抗力 irresistible force; inevitability; act of God

哲人 つまり、あなたは怒りの感情に突き動かされて、怒鳴ってしまった。普段は温厚な性格なのに、怒りの感情に抗することができなかった。自分にはどうすることもできない不可抗力だった。そうおっしゃるわけですね？

I remember this 不可抗力 appeared when watching a Vtuber clip last time. She was like, “Oh no, I can’t make anymore excuse! This is an inevitable event!”

16 Likes
#195

I’m de-lurking to join the winter reading challenge. Hi everyone!

What I'm reading

七世物語 (finished vol 2)
怪盗探偵山猫 (finished)
窓際のトットちゃん
わたしの幸せな結婚 vol. 2 (Manga)
伊豆の踊り子
旅猫リポート

On my shelf

七世物語 vol 3
ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 (vol 1)
鹿の王 (vol 1)
少年H (not sure if I’m ready for this)

I’m also hoping to get further through my So-Matome N1 grammar book.

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23 Likes
#196

too late, totally snoop your reviews on Natively already :smiley:

5 Likes
#197

Summary Post

Day 3: Today I read aloud chapter 17 of ハイキュー!! and nothing else because I was very sleepy

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#198

Day 4: January 4

  • 君の名は。page 20-21
  • Queen’s Quality page 135-195 (end of volume 1)

In the last chapter Queen’s Quality became really dark… The MC’s other personality was using her power to command someone to not close their eyes again as torture and later tried to make her stab out her own eyes ^^" I love how this series can be so dark and at other times really funny and lighthearted! It’s also full of kanji and words I have not encountered before so that was really nice! I won’t be able to read the other 4 volumes before the end of tomorrow so I will continue it later on when some volumes become free for limited time again on Bookwalker.

Now I have to make a hard choice: do I read more of Kimi no na wa or start reading nana since the first three volumes are free on Bookwalker until January 15…

I do my WK reviews in the morning, now followed by 2 pages of reading. If I want to read more, I do it later on the day. I don’t know if that is an option for you?

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#199

I’ve been reading your reviews too :grinning: I think we might have similar tastes. I’ll probably raid your book list when I get a bit better.

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#200

Home Post!

How is everyone doing with their reading?

image<-time spent on また、同じ夢を見てた (again!)

I haven’t been touching my SPYXFAMILY, which is something I really regret but I think I may have to put it on hold (again :frowning: ) due to private reasons :,(

Also, I find that it’s a teensy bit too hard for me :sweat_smile:

image
Good luck everyone! :four_leaf_clover:

I may post a motivational picture everyday so I hope you don’t mind :slight_smile:

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#201

:house:

Day 4 — Read pages 29-32 of 銭天堂. It took me about 15 minutes, and I finished the first story. (For those not familiar with the book, it’s comprised of a few stories, each with its own adventure brought on by a sweet from the mysterious candy shop.)

I was supposed to start reading Kiki today, but I ran out of time, so I just read 銭天堂 instead lol. Oh well, I can read Kiki tomorrow.

Also, for some reason, I was expecting 銭天堂 to be slightly creepy with negative endings (for the protagonist) but it’s quite lighthearted, actually. :thinking:

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