I know that technically English reading isn’t quite in the spirit of this challenge since I’ve been fluent for over a decade, but that is all I got for the 8th and today, I read nothing on the 9th. I was too busy and then too tired. And honestly will be tons of busy tomorrow too, but will probably do more English reading (required reading).
I did want to check in though.
Oh I love/hate that feeling. It means I really loved it but also want more. xD I look forward to having that experience or the lost in book feeling with a Japanese book.
Day 10: January 10th
What did I read?: おでかけ子ザメ2
How much did I read?: 8 pages
How long did it take me?: 2 min
Honestly this barely even counts, there were like three whole words, but I’m counting it No pictures today either, sorry I’m so stressed out, I have a very busy and stressful period coming up (starting in earnest with tomorrow) - last Friday, my stress over this coming up kind of ran rampant until it burned itself out, so I was ok for a few days, but now it is back and I’m just
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Oh, I have more opens trenchcoat filled with cute manga
Lmao but in all seriousness, I love sharing my cute manga so I’m glad you enjoy them Though I can’t take full credit for the aquarium manga, I know I got that one from someone else in a previous challenge I didn’t realize it was a book club nomination too lol
Whoa, that’s a lot! Yay indeed, congrats on finishing your technical first novel
Ok but actually though, English is my first language and I still find myself wanting to somehow incorporate this into the challenge sometimes I don’t read in English at all anymore even though I used to be such a bookworm when I was younger, I don’t like it I stg my brain is just broken, I hate adulthood so much
Anyway - what I think I’m trying to say is, it’s ok, I’ll allow it
One of my goals for this year is to be more consistent with my English reading, so I hear you like a lot!
So I definitely plan to keep tracking it here, I just don’t generally do updates if all I read was in English. But right now I’m super busy and there is no room to add in reading in language I’m not fully comfortable with…
Continuation of 1月9日
I actually started and finished chapter 1 of チュベローズで待ってる. No joke, it reads fast even with all the kanji and vocab that stumped me. I wasn’t even going to check it out at first. An idol writing a book just sounded like a good way to collect more money from fans
And then the sudden popularity continued to nag me until I looked up the synopsis and more about the author. (Apparently he cranks out a novel about every year) I honestly thought it would be a dramatic romance but the idea behind exploring the depressing reality of the job hunting experience in Japan and the even less acknowledged hosting life intrigued me. And with the special Bookwalker sale at the time I was bought.
1月10日
I finished chapter 1 of 世界から猫が消えたなら, and the dark humor makes it fun to read. My expectations of the book changed while reading, but I think it was for the better. I was kind of expecting a more depressing tone with philosophical musings. While there are things the author muses about that make you feel sorry for him, his exchanges with the devil can be downright silly, so it feels light-hearted.
There’s a lot of dialogue exchange so it reads fast. There’s not too many lookups either, so it’s manageable to read as a paperback.
I’ve been so busy today. Just errands and to-do tasks and N1 prep and ugh. I dragged myself through the ユージニア reading and now it’s past time to get into bed. I have a social engagement tomorrow so I don’t know if I’ll even have time for チュベローズ, but if nothing else Friday should be clear for reading! Maybe. A friend might be coming into town…
I had that thought to until the first line That is not a pretty boy trying to be pretty at all. It was clear from his interview too on the book channel that he really, really enjoys reading and he likes reading dark things. I wanna say he said something like “I hate happy endings” when talking about Catcher in the Rye.
Belated update for the last couple of days. Although it looks like one day was much better than the other they sort of morph into one as I was on a plane.
So I did get quite a bit done, only book club reading left for this week is おばちゃんたちのいるところ story 11 which I’m planning to read on the Shinkansen. So,if I do any reading tonight it’ll probably be チュベローズ。
The day kind of got away from me (translation: distractions EVERYWHERE), so I read a story on Satori Reader to keep the streak going. Hopefully I’ll focus more tomorrow so I can chip away at one of my books (maybe 冬物語, maybe 授乳).
My vacation that I thought would provide ample reading time did not. I read a ton on the plane to the US, and then spent 2 weeks rereading the same 4 pages because I didn’t have any time to myself (not a bad thing per se). The flight back I got a big chunk done, but going forward I now know realistically what I can and can’t do when traveling. Even just watching Netflix was a tough one. Luckily my family was really into Violet Evergarden, so while I couldn’t get reading in, I got my listening in.
TODAY, I got one sub chapter done in 青ブタ. My hope is to finish one more today, and just keep this pace for the next week or two and finish either by the weekend or some time next week. I finished Stone Ocean and binged Chainsaw man, so I am on a reading kick (which is naturally what happens after binging a series apparently xD).
Sorry for the long post, just haven’t been updating anything since getting back on a normal sleep/eating/work schedule. My routine was totally shattered by this trip, but I somehow managed to retain what I was learning before the trip, which is a relief.
In classic fashion, finishing my previous project threw me for an absolute loop as to what to read next So I did a little bit of everything today. I started ノッキンオン・ロックドドア in keeping with my recent mystery theme, and I’m sure it’s doable but I always forget how rough starting a new book is so I didn’t get very far before I decided to play 13 Sentinels instead, where I was of course immediately dropped in the middle of an unprecedented amount of sci-fi mech jargon As such I only played that one scene before I was mentally over it, and then I finally went back to the バディミッションBOND drama cd I’ve been working on! It’s been a while lmao; I got through one more track with my whole listen-only-first then follow along with the scenario method and it was a good time as always.
Then I finally got somewhere and decided to fill my currently empty manga slot with some 地縛少年花子くん! I watched the anime/read some of the manga in English ages ago and I remember really liking it, so I thought it’d be a fun read and it definitely is. I love a manga with good art and it definitely delivers, it has great aesthetics and even the panel layouts are cool So yeah I read most of the first volume today, who knows what I’ll end up doing tomorrow but I certainly have options
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Haha thank you!!
Thank you! I really don’t know where it came from lmao, it absolutely wrecked my brain but I had to know
Same, it’s especially rough when it’s a standalone story, but thankfully 山猫 has plenty more to offer so I can placate myself with that knowledge It’s a matter of time! Not a book exactly but I suspect BU$TAFELLOWS will feel that way when we eventually get that far
Thank you!! I have no idea how I pulled it off haha, at what cost feels powerful though!
Finished my last sub-chapter for the day. I am happy I am not doing an audiobook this time because I can skip the needless long pauses and don’t have to desperately search for the part am supposed to be on but somehow lost track of.
Being caught up I feel less pressure to read, so I am able to just kind of consume it the way I want and when I finish the book, I will be done with the series until the next entry. So I can focus on other book series.
Actually just a nominal reading day which is pretty sad because I wanted to finish the book… oh well.
Word of the Day: 鰯 - pilchard, sardine. Nothing particularly special about this one but you get a keen idea of how important fishing was to Japan based on the number of very specific fish kanji out there…
Rushed through reading today but I still did it even with my brain barely functioning… Nothing much happened this episode anyway. Just running through the 自然界 with more 鹿.
God this week’s been tough and it’s only Wednesday…
Hello everyone. I would like to join, even though I’m late. Actually I am not even late with reading, I have read every day since around christmas. Just late with joining here. I started to read Harry Potter, where I had a mini edition of the first half of the first book laying around for a while. Even around two months ago it was just to overwhelming just looking at the first page. But now it seems to be very doable for me do read it. Of course it helps that I still know a bit how the story goes…I also got the audio book and sometimes I read along while listening, which is also great help. Right now progress is around 63 %
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Finished Books:
13.02.: Harry Potter Book 1
Edit:
Oh and see what just arrived. I guess I’ll be reading a bit longer than the 2 months '
Funny, 鰯 also occurred at my reading yesterday (but in hiragana only), as Harry and Ron eat these Beans that can taste like anything in the Hogwarts train.
Aria: the masterpiece volume 3 – progress report Yesterday: Continued up to page 73, finished chapter 22. Today: Continued up to page 82.
Well, I wanted to try reading a NHK easy news article today but upon seeing the topics (e.g. bird flu?, price increases? or COVID ) of the last few days, I decided against it.
I clicked on another article that mentioned something along the lines of a bunny being appointed police chairman in honour of the year of the bunny or something, only to notice that it was tough to read and understand – and that the article belonged to the ‘regular’ NHK news. Long story short, today’s attempt at reading news was a failure. I’ll probably just look at the latest articles on NHK easy here and there until I find one whose topic I can stomach.
Therefore, I went back to Aria but since I had even less time to dedicate to reading, I didn’t get that far.
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Hahaha, I may as well turn this into my mental image of you in regards to any (coming) reading challenges.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Word or expression of the day:
肌触り - (はだざわり) - the touch of, feel of, texture
and i’ve finished 蟲師 vol 1! except the 後書 but it’s long and handwritten and my brain doesn’t have it in me rn. this chapter actually related to the first, which i wasn’t expecting, and it gave the whole volume a nice circular feeling. on the whole even though lookups were occasionally tough with this one i had a great time with it and i’m really looking forward to the next volumes! i might go back to kiki for the rest of the week, it’s sitting at 50% finished and it’s kind of weighing on me ngl
words that stuck out to me: 沼 (ぬま, swamp, bog) just cos it was in there A Lot, 成れの果て (なれのはて, the mere shadow of one’s former self), and the ‘what is that’ kanji of the day 蠱 (まじ)
January 8-10 
It means I really loved it but also want more. xD I look forward to having that experience or the lost in book feeling with a Japanese book.
No pictures today either, sorry 
opens trenchcoat filled with cute manga
Though I can’t take full credit for the aquarium manga, I know I got that one from someone else in a previous challenge I didn’t realize it was a book club nomination too lol
Yay indeed, congrats on finishing your technical first novel 
I stg my brain is just broken, I hate adulthood so much
I have a social engagement tomorrow so I don’t know if I’ll even have time for チュベローズ, but if nothing else Friday should be clear for reading! Maybe. A friend might be coming into town…
so I didn’t get very far before I decided to play 13 Sentinels instead, where I was of course immediately dropped in the middle of an unprecedented amount of sci-fi mech jargon 
So yeah I read most of the first volume today, who knows what I’ll end up doing tomorrow but I certainly have options 
夢みる太陽 Volume 3 (78% ➨ 100%)
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