This week was a bit of an up and down, but in the end it turned out quite okay.
Finished Tuberose Age32 (welp, NOT my favourite book, sadly), continued a bit with 1Q84 (until Ch. 15) and started Flesh&Blood Vol. 11.
And! I reached the break-even with my yearly reading goal, i.e. if I read in each subsequent month as much as I have read in this month, then I will make it. (And in case you didn’t notice, there are still two days left in this month! )
In other words, 834 pages down, 9,166 pages to go!
I guess I failed the challenge big time. I fell into a deep hole and did nothing for a couple of days
But getting back to it now. Started volume 2 of Spirit Circle and continuing Yoichi.
It’s a nice book, one of my favorites. I also love the anime. Studio Colorido did a stellar job with it.
January 30th
新書太閣記 progress: 05.43% // Volume I: 63.01%
There’s been a few skirmishes so far, but today had the first large-scale battle happen.
Words found under the kotatsu
拙者「せっしゃ」ー I; me // (Humble & Archaic, mainly used by samurai) 諄々「じゅんじゅん」ー Earnestly; repeatedly; patiently 雑兵「ぞうひょう」ー Common soldier 空馬「からうま」ー Unburdened horse 旗本「またもと」ー Direct retainer of a shogun 苗代「なわしろ」ー Rice nursery; bed for rice seedlings 口達者「くちだっしゃ」ー Talkative; eloquent; fluent 猿楽「さるがく」ー Form of theatre popular from the 11C - 14C Japan
Character Name List
Probably some spoilers, but this is a historic novel, so can spoilers really exist for things that have (for the most part) actually happened
Family
木下弥右衛門「きのした やえもん」- Father
– – 乙若「おとわか」- Old friend
筑阿弥「ちくあみ」ー Step-father
大政所「おおまんどころ」// also お奈加「おなか」ー Mother
おつみ - Older sister
小竹「こちく」- Baby brother
加藤清正「かとう きよまさ」// also 弾正「だんじょう」- Ojisan (only distantly related (before marriage))
– Married to: おえつ (sister of お奈加)
Friends & Acquaintances
仁王「におう」- Big kid friend
於福「おふく」(Nickname - full name: 福太郎「ふくたろ」) // 楊景福「ようけいふく」(Chinese name/birth name) - Timid kid friend (older than Hideyoshi)
– 五郎大夫 「ごろ だゆう」// 祥瑞「しょうずい」(Chinese name) - Father
– 梨琴「りきん」- Mother
捨次郎「すてじろう」- Previous servant to 五郎, later the adoptive father of 於福, and owner of a tea ware shop - and employer of, and master to, Hideyoshi
Hachisuka Clan
蜂須賀小六「はちすか ころく」(also 正勝 「まさかつ」) - Head of the Hachisuka clan
– 七内「なない」- Younger brother
– Married to 松波「まつなみ」
– – 亀一「かめいち」- Son
白楽天「はく きょい」ー Chinese poet (Bai Juyi / Bo Juyi) also known as: 白楽天「はく らくてん」in Japan. (Late 700s)
道元「どうげん」(or 道元禅師「どうげん ぜんじ」ー Japanese Buddhist Priest, writer & poet (also known as 栄西禅師「えいさい ぜんじ」) (Early / mid 1200s)
空海「くうかい」ー The one and only Kukai or Kobo Daishi - a Buddhist monk. Posthumously given the title of: 弘法大師「こうぼう だいし」born as: 佐伯 眞魚「さえき の まお」(late 700s / early 800s)
源頼政「みなもと の よりまさ」ー Prominent poet and warrior (1100s)
Oh, I’ve actually bought it on Steam! So I don’t know how the Switch version plays. I find it really easy to check on Steam whether games can be played in Japanese or not. According to this site, it only supports English, French and Spanish, but I know people buy on the Japanese store without any issues. Unfortunately, I don’t have any experience with doing that.
It took me 4 days (january 26, 27, 28 and 30) but I finally got through the first chapter of the とらドラ manga! It did take some time, but I can say I understood a good 90% of what was said so I’m pretty happy with it. It didn’t help that the image quality was pretty bad, which sometimes made the furigana unreadable, but overall it wasn’t too bad.
I was adding the new vocabulary/vocabulary I felt I needed to revise in a list as I went, and it slowly added up to 112 words I’ll probably study this list and reread the chapter in a bit to try and read it more fluidly, but for now I’m ready to start working on the second chapter
I thought this article was gonna be so interesting, to learn about a robbery gang that is so widespread and hit so many places, but nope. No info on that at all, only on the fact that a police task force or conference/meeting was gonna take place to figure some of this out. They seem sure there is a gang but don’t know the leader, I think.
My problem with NHK news is that I feel like I read the same thing repeated 2-3 times. At least when I read the regular version. I might have to look for another source of free news article reading. Geez, talk about being conceited, it is free after all. Not saying you can’t complain about the quality of free stuff, but if it is free, I can’t really expect the most amazing content/writing, can I? ^^
Before I go hiding under replies, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who answered my question about crime/mystery manga. I now have several interesting ones to check out when… when you know I’ve actually finished some of what I already own. I got a bit ahead of myself there.
Also want to say that if I mention that I’m not interested in a specific manga someone recommended, it isn’t personal. If I’m gonna read a manga, I have to like the art. And art is a very subjective thing. (For example I kinda like the 90s style of shoujo manga which I know a lot of people hate, not saying I love all of it, but I like the style in itself.) Beyond that, I’m going on sample, if the premise sounds interesting to me, if there are any anti-reader cookies* in reviews.
*anti-reader cookies are tropes, stereotypes, themes, settings, etc. that I/someone don’t like reading about. In the same way that reader cookies would be the tropes, stereotypes, themes I/someone love reading about.
So now that I’ve prefaced that, I’ll jump into my replies, which aren’t all about the amazing answers I got to my manga question.
Replies
To those who read チュベローズで待ってる, like @NicoleIsEnough@Greti33@pocketcat@omk3 (sorry for tagging so many of you, I wasn’t sure who to pick ), does the first one stand alone? I’ve peeked enough at the reviews for the second one that I don’t think I wanna read that, but I saw everyone tearing through the first one and enjoying it, so I wondered if reading only that one would be a satisfying story. Thanks in advance!
While I suffer every time I pick up the VN I’m currently reading.
The premise and everything seems very interesting, but the art from the sample was a bit boring. Mostly heads talking to each other without setting. So I wondered, where did you watch the show? I’m hoping it is on Netflix, but I would need to know the English title or whatever I could search for it on, because with Japanese I found nothing.
Thanks!
I’ve looked through the sample, aka looked at the art, and seems interesting. I’m gonna find some time to actually read the sample. Thanks for the recommendation!
This is the exact reason I have a feeling I’d find Conan pretty frustrating. It is one of my anti-reader cookies. I think even more so when I as the reader know the person isn’t really a kid, but even when they are a kid, the trope often comes off as the adults being too stupid to listen when they should. I’m not saying Conan is like that, but it doesn’t inspire me to read it. Not to mention the whole teen to child thing feels me with the heebie-jeebies. Sounds like a horror movie. xD
Honestly, this is another negative factor for me; not the being sucked in part, but the length. I’m with @polv, unprogressing story lines always kills my interest after a while.
In this way, it is even better for me that Conan doesn’t really appeal to me. So much money saved and time for many different things to read. Although I suspect I’d probably enjoy several of the cases. Maybe if I get the change to borrow a copy at some point, or pick up a few really cheap ones, it wouldn’t be bad. ^^
I remember vaguely when you were reading this that it seemed interesting, and now that I’ve seen more of what the kind of chaos you like is like myself (bustafellows!), I’m totally on board trying this. I didn’t even feel like I needed to read the sample, I only checked the art, and some reviews and went: yep! Thanks!
Also, pretty boys may or may not be a selling point for me. ^_~
@pocketcat Thank you! You went above and beyond honestly!
I think I remember when you were reading this (the book I mean), and it made me put that on my to be read list. The manga looks pretty amazing actually, but I think I want to read the novel first? Sometimes it is annoying that I prefer to read the source material first, because honestly the manga just looks so amazing, both the art and storytelling. Just from looking through the sample.
I kinda hate that the art looks amazing for this, because this kind of memory loss trope is one of my anti-reader cookies, because it tends to lead to no overarching plot, and/or you know, the mc has a pretty harrowing life in front of them, since they would never be able to actually form any lasting relationships (from their own side, after all a lot of affection and relationship stuff is entirely based on shared memories…). So I do have a question that I did not manage to easily find the answer to… The manga is finished, so the story has some kind of finish/arc (it doesn’t seem to be abandoned), do you know how the memory stuff ends? Does she get cured or anything like that? (Obviously this would be a huge spoiler, but it is the kind of spoiler that would need spoiled to decide if I’d even enjoy the read in the first place, so I’m all for it, but I guess blur it for other people if you do know the answer. xD)
It went on my yes list because it looks really amazing and everything else with the premise seems super good. I just can’t imagine finishing reading it and knowing that for the rest of the mc’s life, she will never have any new memories. Because she’ll forget all at day’s end. (Maybe the memory loss isn’t that complete, but I wouldn’t know because I haven’t read it. ^^)
I was trying to figure out where to even start with this. The different manga adaptions seems to be more about them being separated into different sub-series, rather than actually adapting the same material or actually being separated. But I didn’t look into it deeply. I am planing to read the sample of one version I picked to potentially check out. ^^
I looked at the manga covers and they looked so horror-y. I’m so squeemish, I didn’t look any closer.
This list was really cool. Thanks for the nice find. I only looked through the top 10 so far, and found some more potential candidates like Ouroboros which I feel like I’ve seen mentioned at some point somewhere on the forum, so I should probably go looking to see what people have said about it. ^^
I do love a lot of that stuff. Sherlock Holmes (many different adaptions and spin-offs), Hercole Poirot, and so on. I tend to enjoy those that work more closely with the police more, which is why I think I leaned more towards mentioning that. Also because I was curious since I felt I hadn’t seen anyone read any police manga. ^^
Serves me right to forget how very good this community is at recommendations. Has anyone looked at my Bookmeter 積読 recently? I already have just below 200 manga (and a few books, but mostly manga) that I own and need to read. I don’t need more.
Read this week’s 半落ち, finishing chapter 2. This section was a little longer than the previous ones, and it felt harder too. Not so hard that it hinders enjoyment (I really like the book), but hard enough that I probably need to stop trying to fit the whole reading in one day. There’s really no earthly reason to do so, only there’s so much else I want to read too and there are only so many hours in a week.
So I may or may not have picked up book 1 part 1 of 1Q84 and read the first chapter Feels like a slightly harder read than チュベローズで待ってる, but I am liking it so far :3
Also, so much music (in a typical Murakami fashion) that just flies over my head.
Replies
This is such a great idea - I think I need me a Wall of Defeat, too. Having a list of unfinished Japanese books to look at may just irritate me enough to boost my motivation. I mean, those books cannot go unread forever, right?
I really liked Kafka on the Shore when I first read it, so this one should be a blast then. You convinced me. I’m in :3
I’d say so :3 I think it tied up nicely enough to be a stand alone story, very much recommend.
Good to hear! The difficulty varies a bit depending on the chapter, but I guess you are used to that already. (It never gets as hard as the interviews at the start of Kafka, though.)
Did you miss that I called it an anti-reader cookie? Meaning I really hate these kinds of memory tropes in general. xD
When they are done well, they are devastating emotionally (which has its charm… sometimes), and when they’re done poorly they’re just annoying.
Sounds like this one is done super well. I’m not sure I’m up for that kind of emotional rollercoaster of the variety. But I will keep it in mind.
Although you called it heartwarming, so maybe it isn’t as sad as I imagine it will be? (To me, romance plus regular memory loss sounds like constant heartbreak to the one who remembers. Spoiler based on what genre the book seems to be and my interpretation of what that will mean for the story.)
Day 29
I continued reading Kindaichi Shounen vol.1. Finally got back to reading the Monobeno visual novel and finished chapter 16 which was pretty much only filler.
Sometimes it’s hard to decide what to read when you have a huge backlog.
6 pages remaining of Chapter 3 of Re:Zero 16. T-T I swear I will finish this, but omg this is definitely made for high schoolers, which I am not. I think I am finally ready to grow up now xD
What I wanted to say, this book can show you that there can be a different side to these stories, i.e. no “no overarching story” and no “their life is so hard” tropes are anywhere to be seen.
No, it was not devastating, it was very satisfying and fulfilling.
No, it’s absolutely not sad, I only cried once, promise!
Please somebody correct me in case I misremember (or misinterpret), but I did not perceive it as “romance” at all. I don’t want to accidentally spoiler you, so I better shut up here, unless you explicitly ask me for more information.
Weird, because I literally saw that in the description of the story. xD But whoever said publishers know what books they are publishing. (I’m not joking, honestly sometimes descriptions are so off, you wonder if the person who wrote it read another book entirely…)
Huh. Well, maybe I will consider it then. The premise just sounds so heartbreaking to me. Like can you imagine never remembering stuff for more than 80 minutes… I guess someone who lives with that just kinda have to accept it if they want to in any way enjoy their life, but dang…
)
The Tanuki Kotatsu Reading Den 
Feels like a slightly harder read than チュベローズで待ってる, but I am liking it so far :3
One day…
variety. 