Following the advice given by @NicoleIsEnough of setting the mindset where “I am absolutely determined to read x pages / y amount of time no matter how boring it is,” I decided to set a few Pomodoro timers as I read today. Usually, I just let myself naturally take breaks, but I figured knowing how to pace myself should help in the long run.
I didn’t like how the first two chapters started, but I also didn’t understand how this book had high ratings on Amazon. After doing more research, I found an anime movie of it came out in 2019. I watched it today, liked it, and started the book over. Hopefully, it sticks this time.
Do you count re-read pages as pages read? I will today because effort matters.
I did a little thinking on my other reading goals and settled on 100 books (eng+jp combined) and 100 articles (mostly linguistics probably) as a nice round goal for the year. I’ll count japanese (but not eng) manga volumes towards my book count, with the hope that by next year even japanese manga will be too quick for me to really count as a full book! For now, they definitely still require enough effort for me to count them, and also it’s my count so I make the rules
Read:
ホリミヤ ch 48, 49, 50, + おまけ - 2 days into the challenge and already 1冊 done!
マジーク・ツリーハウス１ chapter 2 - first full chapter! Took about the same amount of time as a chapter of manga, I’d guess it’s actually a lower character count but I do have to check a few more words (at least for now, I think a lot of these will be common in the series)
Good Words
ホリミヤ
罪「つみ」ー crime, sin
論「ろん」ー theory, doctrine
睨む「にらむ」ー to glare at, to suspect
刃物「はもの」ー cutlery (here, chef’s knife)
顛末「てんまつ」ー course of events, the whole story
上達「じょうたつ」ー improvement
男前「おとこまえ」ー handsome man
般若「はんにゃ」ー noh maks of a demon grinning (represents a woman’s rage and jealousy)
やきもち ー jealousy
飼い主「かいぬし」ー pet owner
マジーク・ツリーハウス
しおり ー bookmark
表紙「ひょうし」ー book cover
それよりも ー more importantly, rather than that
布「ぬの」ー cloth
コウモリ ー bat
床「ゆか」ー floor
I had to look up what these were, and then also look up how to use them because I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it extremely cool though, I sent it to one of my math friends and he got really excited in a way only people who study topology can get excited about groups of lines
right? I was kind of complaining to myself today “why don’t they include links to the real articles? I know these have to just be simplified versions of news they already have, so where are the real articles?” and then I scrolled down to the bottom and saw there’s a 普通のニュースを読む button that does take you to the real articles literally never noticed it there, but lo and behold: it takes you straight to the real news 温泉から「金」取り出す特殊な方法を開発 研究チーム | NHK
Hello everyone! Wishing all of you a very Happy New Year! It’s my first time posting in a WaniKani thread as well as my first time participating in a challenge here. One of my major goals in Japanese this year is to immerse myself in the language as much as possible, and so I wish to slowly build a regular reading habit by participating in this challenge.
What I'm Reading for This Challenge:
Short Stories in Japanese: New Penguin Parallel Text
コンビニ人間 〜 村田沙耶香
ドラえもん第１巻
Both of these books are a little challenging for me, so on days where I wish to take a break from them I’ll probably read a graded reader on Tadoku or a story on Tongari books. I might also read an NHK Easy News Article. My main goal for now is building a daily reading habit, so whatever helps me stay consistent will do, I guess😅
I think you just need to get into the groove of it. I feel like new writing styles can be a bit rough at first until your brain figures out how they ‘flow’. The book really pulled me along, I hope you enjoy it!
I heard people say it wasn’t very good as a book. I listened to the audiobook and didn’t read the text and loved it. It may not be a stamina thing and more a ‘the medium suits the story poorly’.
Today has really just been a day for me learning obvious things
First I “discovered” a huge button that takes up like 75% the column width, and then I also just solved my issues with using yomichan with the in browser reader for bookwalker; all I needed to do was hold down the mouse a little bit longer when I want to hover a word
But, at least now reading things should be… significantly easier lmao. like you said, yomichan/safarikai OP
January 2nd
新書太閣記 progress: 00.06% // Volume I: 00.65%
Start chapter: 日輪・月輪
I didn’t get as much time to read today as I had hoped I would either, I’m all excited to read again but things keep getting in the way. But, even though it was short reading I learnt so many new words about childbirth today
Words found under the kotatsu
日輪「にちりん」ー The sun 月輪「げつりん」ー The moon (when full) 神領「しんりょう」ー Shrine/temple property/territory 戸数「こすう」ー Number of households/houses 藁屋根「わらやね」ー Thatch roof (straw) 嬰児「えいじ」ー Infant; baby 皺「しわ」ー Wrinkle; crease 氷柱「つらら」ー Icicle 産褥「さんじょく」ー Bed used by a mother during childbirth; postnatal へその緒「へそのお」ー Umbilical cord (also: 臍の緒) 産湯「うぶゆ」ー Baby’s first bath お襁褓「おむつ」ー Nappy/diaper 呱々「ここ」ー Cry of a baby at birth 襷「たすき」ー Kimono sash used to hold up the sleeves
Character Kanji-Name List
for easy referencing later, because these will take some remembering
People Hideyoshi: 豊臣秀吉「とよとみ ひでよし」// 豊太閤「ほうたいこう」
Old Places 尾張「おわり」ー Owari province (now part of Aichi prefecture)
Day 2: January 2nd
What did I read?: 夜の名前を呼んで Vol 3
How much did I read?: 20 pages
How long did it take me?: 41 min
This chapter was a ride Mira finds this old locket that Rei hid away - it has a mirror inside, and if you look into the eyes of your reflection in the mirror, a locket demon takes over your body and does whatever it wants looking like you. Obviously this is not ideal
Minor spoilers and major gushing
Rei is like…so sincerely concerned by this locket demon, I love him I feel like I say this about everything he does LMAO but I do, I love him To him, I feel like it’s justified, because it sounds like he had a bad experience with the locket demon in his youth, poor babe Side note but baby Rei is absolutely adorable, look at him
But like…in reality, the locket demon doesn’t really do much of anything except mess with him specifically, like from Rei’s reaction I expected some sort of diabolical mastermind or evil incarnate but instead we get this on the next page:
I mean I guess how much can a locket demon really do in the body of a little girl but still, it never even got outside xD I still feel bad for Rei though, he did not have a good time this chapter, his emotional distress was very real
Replies!
I wish I had an answer because this is such a mood The struggle to prevent work from overtaking everything (either time-wise or energy-wise) is real. Congrats on your new job though! Hope everything goes well
It has, it is back I mean, he’s just…there, looking like that and being like that, like what am I supposed to do xD
January is going to be chaotic with a lot of traveling, so I’m giving myself credit for pretty much anything beyond WK and Duolingo.
Reading List: Isabella Bird in Wonderland (physical manga) SatoriReader (phone app) - etc NHK News Easy (phone app)
means I kept reading whatever I’d read the previous day
Thoughts: The first couple pages was a bit of a struggle as it was very dialogue heavy, but then after a few pages the sentences eased up and I was able to read more without having to look up every second word. I might have a refresh of my grammar, just because it’s been a while since I last did grammar and I’m probably a little rusty.
Didn’t have much time to read to start the year but I did manage to read a little ユージニア. I fell behind the bookclub pretty hard so I’ll be trying to make my way through it this month.
1月１日
We had a lot of guests so it was hard to find the time to read. I read a page of 夜カフェ3 but by the time I realized I had already read it before, Tan-chan was off with my book.
1月2日
Luckily I had caught up on my sleep so I spent the evening reading a chapter of 絶叫学級 4 which I bought with accumulated points on Line Manga and also a chapter Orange 5.
I read a bunch of volumes in the former series and it’s sequel with no break before so the horror sort of lost its impact after a while. It felt a lot more interesting this time around so I’m going to try not to binge read it.
The latter was also a nice chapter. We do finally get more perspective from Suwa, and the comparison between the future and the present was nicely done. I think the other club readers will enjoy this chapter.
I read Chapter 44 of Shadows House today. It’s definitely getting more and more intriguing in this volume
I also spent a bit of time reading summaries of books on CD Japan and some preview pages of books on Amazon because its nearly my birthday so I’m choosing some books I’d like as gifts!
By the way if anybody is looking for their next book to read: The Intermediate Book Club has just started voting! The book will be read from Feb 18th., so it will still cover a bit of this challenge
I’ll look up the proper name for this one later. I wanted to read more but there’s bs drama in other places. I feel quite done with some people and it’s only 1/1.
I felt pretty ill yesterday, so I started chapter 7 of 海辺のカフカ and read a few paragraphs. No Russian, as I found out that staring at a screen for any length of time resulted in a headache
Today, I’ve managed to read the rest of chapter 7, and 1/5th of chapter 8 of 海辺のカフカ - which was probably the most Japanese I’ve ever read in one sitting to date. I’ve neglected my studies for a while, and I haven’t read anything since July, so the start was a little clunky and slow - but it got better by the end. I’ve even managed to immerse myself in the story - too bad I didn’t have more time to read.
As for my side quest readings, I’ve read Мильтон и Булька, which is (I believe) a short passage in a collection of short stories for children about two dogs, Milton and Bulka. It was really refreshing to read for a change - although I started studying Russian very recently, it just feels so much easier. I think I feel ready to switch to reading something a little more challenging once I am finished reading this collection of stories.
January 2nd 
１月２日 
extremely cool though, I sent it to one of my math friends and he got really excited in a way only people who study topology can get excited about groups of lines
literally never noticed it there, but lo and behold: it takes you straight to the real news 
To him, I feel like it’s justified, because it sounds like he had a bad experience with the locket demon in his youth, poor babe 
Side note but baby Rei is absolutely adorable, look at him
The struggle to prevent work from overtaking everything (either time-wise or energy-wise) is real. Congrats on your new job though! Hope everything goes well 
I mean, he’s just…there, looking like that and being like that, like what am I supposed to do xD
Isabella Bird in Wonderland (physical manga)
SatoriReader (phone app) - 
etc
NHK News Easy (phone app)
