One of the changes in my reading routine was utilizing Satori Reader because some people I know kept raving about it.
Satori Reader: コナの大冒険 (21/45)
While reading this series, I translate sentences in my head or try to explain grammar points and check them against Satori’s. I also adjusted the settings to include all joyo kanji. It’s been a good activity for intensive reading so far because the scaffolded stories help reduce cognitive overload.
Book 2:夜市 (7%)
Out of the three books I previewed, this one appealed to me the most because it was the easiest! The others have been tabled for another day. How do you choose the books you read? What happens when you find them to be too difficult? I’d love to know.
So far I’ve been mostly coasting by either picking books already read by WK book clubs (mainly Beginner Book club), or picking books currently being read. xD
I did read a couple of things last year that wasn’t either. One was a manga I could read without doing look ups (except for maybe 1-3 each volume when I really needed to understand the word), because there were so few unknowns. The other one was zenitendou, and I struggled through the first short story, feeling like I was having trouble the whole way and not quite figuring out why (something to do with grammar, sentence structure/syntax more than anything else). And I ended up dropping it for now, and haven’t had a let up in book club reads since then to consider going back to it.
But I’m also reading the VN Loopers (I read it with the club for a little while but then fell behind and now I try to get to it whenever I’m caught up with book clubs), and I find I lack a ton of vocabulary for it, but I keep reading it anyway, doing tons of lookups. But I find it entertaining enough to be worth it.
So maybe the answer is that if I’m struggling too much with grammar I find it easier to drop for later, but if the amount of lookups don’t push me over the edge, then I will keep reading.
January 6th
What did I read?: にわにはににん
How much did I read?: 8 pages
(Started 4th Story: にわにはににん )
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 7 min
I like this story so far~ It has a strange house that you can lose your way in, passing through the same rooms again and again. And the main character’s laidback personality is a nice change. Although it means dealing with some slang and contracted words! (Never would I have guessed that こえー was supposed to be こわい!)
I will admit to not really following the first article. The first paragraph or so was fine and then the further I read the more lost I got until I gave up halfway through. Maybe I’m tired. I think it had something to do with now having electronic prescriptions and maybe something about avoiding medicine that clash with each other? Since I didn’t read to the end, I don’t fully know.
Second one was easier. For one thing, I think I’ve read a graded reader non-fiction booklet on that particular earthquake, and also it came up while at Japanese language school in one of the textbooks. So the fact that there is a website now to give a better idea of the damage done is pretty cool. Horrible thing that happened, just to be clear. Being able to get a better idea of just how devastating is both interesting and horrifying. The second of those is the reason I didn’t go check out the website yet. Not the kind of thing I want to put in my brain right before I go to sleep.
Edit: Upon a quick read of the NHK easy version of the medicine article, I did understand the gist of it correctly. Electronic prescriptions are very good, we have them in Sweden since several years.
Additionally, I picked the articles by going to the easy version to more easily find something interesting from a small selection, then I jumped to the regular version. I think I will continue like that for now because it gives me the option of going to an easier version if I need it.
I finished my first full manga today! I completed よつばと! v2 (I skipped volume 1 because the bookstore didn’t have any copies.)
Over the last year or so I’ve started and stopped this book multiple times; so I’m especially excited and proud to have finally reached my goal of finishing it.
And though I’ve read a couple volumes of Crystal Hunters, I consider this to be the first official manga I’ve finished because Crystal Hunters was written specifically for Japanese language learners.
(I’d still highly recommend Crystal Hunters to any beginner readers and I plan on reading the rest of the series during this challenge.)
What I read:
よつばと! v2 p.168-190
New Words
限定「げんてい」: limit; restriction
ゴーヤー : bitter melon (Okinawan specialty)
喜ぶ「よろこぶ」: to be delighted; to be glad; to be pleased
Some more 山猫 today! Again not as big of a read because I got distracted by Slime Rancher other things, but still like 6% of the book so nothing to scoff at. I think my lowkey goal is to finish it before the next BU$TAFELLOWS assignment starts on the 13th which should be feasible if I’m reasonably consistent, so we’ll see if I can do it!
Wasn’t feeling too well all day today so I didn’t read too much unfortunately. Starting off the challenge with multiple days of below-average reading has not been a great feeling so far.
Word of the Day: 水難 - drowning, flood, shipwreck. I like how a multitude of water-related disasters have simply been filed under ‘water difficulty’.
Thanks to the posters above who helped me puzzle out where 大味 might have come from… still quite a strange word but I think I sort of get it now.
Congrats! It feels great having that first book under your belt so all your studies feel like they’ve actually borne fruit!
I’ve got about 50 pages left… Hopefully I can read 'em all tomorrow. I’m thinking of playing some more Ni no Kuni after this. I’m just happy it’s the weeeekeeeeend.
Played BU$TAFELLOWS for 1h and read ユージニア for the longest I’ve read it so far (17% → 21%). I got pretty into it but had to stop since it was really late and had to do things in the morning.
Mixed it up today and decided to start my first manga! Well technically, I started this in November after making an impulse buy at Book Off, but didn’t get to finish a full chapter because I was too intimidated and felt like I didn’t have enough energy and time. This time around, I’m feeling a bit more motivated and well, this reading challenge has really given me the push! I’m using the ABBC book club to help me out and I’m incredibly grateful for all the questions and responses posted by everyone in the thread. I learned so much in one day, but I don’t know how much of it will stick with me…
Also just wanted to say how confusing that title is as already mentioned by a few people on the Chapter 1 thread… Of all things, how could you get the translation of the title wrong…
Anyway, I hope this will be a good warm up to the ABBC book club I’ll be joining for the first time scheduled in Feb!
Despite the challenge going on for some time, I’d be happy to join you all while slightly being late.
As I have just restarted with learning the language after a fairly long break I think this is a great opportunity to pick up the pace again. I’m going to progress just about 15-30 mins daily while also revising in the meantime. Planning to read よつばと! - Vol.1, bought the physical copy back in Japan but didn’t get to read it until now so it’s about time. Not sure if I’m going to be able to finish it during this challange, however, I’ll try my best to progress as much as I can while also learning grammar and vocabulary.
it’s the weekend which means it’s time for an easier read! after a bit of deliberation i picked 彼女とカメラと彼女の季節 which is a yuri manga about, well, the title says it all really asdfghjkl surprisingly easy to follow, managed a whole chapter!
some words of note, based on what i looked up: プリ, short for print(ing), printed copy, etc.; ピロティ, pillar, building raised on columns, from the french pilotis apparently; and my personal favourite 恋煩い, lovesickness, tho it was written as 恋わずらい in the manga
マジーク・ツリーハウス pg 41 → 72 - I realized I was actually pretty close to finishing the first story today (The e-book is actually the first 2 books combined into one volume), so I decided to push a little bit harder on this to finish it today! That means I have technically finished my first book in japanese! I definitely didn’t understand everything, and (like @NicoleIsEnough mentioned a while back) even in a kids book like this there’s a surprising amount of pretty difficult grammar. But! 100% perfect comprehension was never my goal here; I understood enough of what was happening to read through and enjoy it, and I picked up some neat vocab and grammar stuff along the way! Now we just rinse and repeat
Good Words
ホリミヤ
フラれる ＝ 振られる ー to be turned down (Weird katakana usage here but 2 different people say it like this)
お似合い 「おにあい」ー well matched (of a couple)
誤解「ごかい」ー misunderstanding
誘う「さそう」ー to invite someone
唇「くちびる」ー lips
マジーク・ツリーハウス
危うい「あやうい」ー dangerous, in danger
悲鳴「ひめい」ー shriek
カモノハシ ー platypus
吠える「ほえる」ー to bark, to roar
脱出「だっしゅう」ー escape
包丁「ほうちょう」ー kitchen knife
しゃがみ込む「しゃがみこむ」ー to crouch down (completely, face looking through knees)
鋭い「するどい」ー sharp, perceptive, keen
たどり着く「たどりつく」ー to finally arrive
街灯「がいとう」ー street light
congrats!
The english title is frustratingly ambiguous, and I think more people read it incorrectly than correctly (myself included ) The english titles of many series are, frankly, pretty bad, but sounds like you’re well on your way to understanding the japanese titles for yourself now!
Aria: the masterpiece volume 3 – progress report Yesterday: (Card Captor Sakura) Continued up to page 189, finished chapter 22 and volume 5 Today: Began reading volume 3 of Aria: the masterpiece, read up to page 16.
The person on the cover confused me for a second but it turns out that it is Aika who at one point apparently gets a haircut and thus, short hair. Problem solved!
I was relieved that I wasn’t once again greeted with several pages of world building which would have made me go back to the volume 1 word list yet again.
Instead, the chapter started like many others with Akari’s diary/letter(?) entries. Turns out that it is spring again and that Akari has officially spent one whole year on Aqua – time sure flies (despite having 24 months over there), huh.
I’ll simply feed on the scenery in this volume as it may take a while before spring arrives in my err vicinity…sigh, I don’t like winter, especially when snow is scarce and everything is just barren and grey.
I can only second @sddsdd : being able to finally read even one book or volume of beginner friendly manga is satisfying and motivating. I hope that this will motivate you to read much more for a while to finish more volumes and eventually a whole series. 頑張って。
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Word or expression of the day:
再び - (ふたたび) - again, once more, a second time
Honourable mention(s):
骨の折れる - (ほねのおれる) - to require much effort, to be hard to do, to be bone-breakingly hard
January 5th and 6th 
The others have been tabled for another day. How do you choose the books you read? What happens when you find them to be too difficult? I’d love to know. 
(Never would I have guessed that こえー was supposed to be こわい!)
夢みる太陽 Volume 2 (59% ➨ 100%)
からかい上手の高木さん Volume 10 (13% ➨ 33%)
名探偵コナン Volume 13 (30% ➨ 39%)
January 6 
I completed よつばと! v2 (I skipped volume 1 because the bookstore didn’t have any copies.)
Not sure if I’m going to be able to finish it during this challange, however, I’ll try my best to progress as much as I can while also learning grammar and vocabulary.
１月７日 
