I also watched the movie, was enthralled, and started reading the book with the reading club, but I found the writing style so bland and off-putting that I dropped the book during the first chapter.
So I would say, for building stamina you need some motivation. Either it is “I am absolutely determined to read x pages / y amount of time no matter how boring it is” or it is “It’s so good / I need to know what happens next, I can’t put it down”. Both are totally valid for me (and I’ve applied both to various degrees). If neither applies but you still want to read the book, you can read another book in parallel (like you seem to do), and if that still doesn’t cut it, then maybe defer it altogether?
OMG lol! I recently explained the French counting system to a few Japanese friends (in case you don’t know that: For numbers between 70 and 100, the French somehow lost their marbles and turned counting into an act that you need a maths degree for, e.g. they have the “number” four-twenty-ten-nine which means 4 * 20 + 10 + 9 = 99 ok that’s admittedly the most convoluted example but still ) and they were like oh! and ah! and incredible! - I should have known this example back then, it would have put things more into perspective
Hey! It’s been a while! How have you been?
Haha this week I found ユージニア equally brain-frying as 半落ち - for entirely different reasons though. Curious to hear what you think about it
Eyyyy, congratulations! I hope you absolutely smash your new gig! I usually wake up an hour earlier to get some reading done. Like you, I haven’t had much luck reading before bed during a work day.
When you find answer, let me know.
Hi, Nicole! <3 The latter was how I felt with おいしいごはんが食べられますように, which is probably why I overestimated what I am actually able to do. I guess for these books, I’ll have to Pomodoro technique my way through them until I can no longer stand the content. Sometimes I feel bad for the money wasted but then again, life is too short to be wasted on bad books!
Card Captor Sakura volume 5 – progress report Yesterday: Began reading volume 5, finished chapter 19, stopped at page 47. Today: Continued up to page 70.
Small read today. (Disclaimer: you will hear that more often from now on ).
Turns out that chapter 20 is the school play chapter. I have fond memories of it and it started on a funny note with Shaolan being completely upset over getting the role of sleeping beauty. Come now, Shaolan, you look great and so does Sakura as the prince because Tomoyo did a good job on your clothes.
And speaking of the latter: thanks to Tomoyo, wing(wo)man and problem solverTM, Shaolan became determined to see this through after all because she made a comment that him not playing his role would make Yukito sad.
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Congratulations on your new job! I hope that you will have a comfortable work environment and friendly coworkers.
The gushing has returned. And I love it!
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Word or expression of the day:
演目 - (えんもく) - programme (musical, concert, theatrical etc.)
Honourable mention(s):
公平 - (こうへい) - fairness, impartiality, justice, objectivity
阿弥陀籤 - (あみだくじ) - ghostleg lottery, ladder lottery (Now I know what these charts that were used in the Dragon Ball tournaments are called.)
I want to continue reading more difficult books that I really enjoy in combination with books together with the book clubs. Let’s all have fun reading together!
What I want to read:
(45 pages read) 働く細胞 or Cells At Work (Absolute Beginner Book Club) (0 pages read) 古見さんは、コミュ症です。 (Beginner Book Club) (203 pages read) うずまき by Junji Itou (Horror Manga) (15 pages read) 人間失格 by Osamu Dazai / adapted by Junji Itou (0 pages read) 約束のネバーランド or Promised Neverland (Manga) NHK Easy News
Thank you very much! I’ve considered getting up earlier since I’m a morning person. First I need to check if my work hours are flexible - maybe I can start early and leave early. Should be easier to squeeze in some reading then. I hope we can both find the perfect balance!
You got it!
Thank you! They seem pretty cool so far, so crossing my fingers!
debated between 3月のライオン and 蟲師 and chose 蟲師 mainly cos there’s fewer volumes but ooooh boy it’s turning out harder than i thought it would. i (naively) thought it was just gonna be loads of words i didn’t know, which it is, but there’s also some grammar i don’t know and a writing style which i’m struggling to parse in places. managed about 20 pages before my brain gave up, might try some more later.
Home post
Started doing this in my study log but will post from here on. Here are two days of reading!
1 月 1 日
コナの大冒険 第15話 from Satorireader
Questions: (already posed in my study log)
に出る which was translated to arriving to a room whereas I learned it as to leave, come out, or go out. Is it the particle that makes a difference? Or just based on context? Somewhat answered in my log but still a little unclear about it…
Words/phrases of interest:
寝心地 の良さそうな （ねごこちのよさそうな）seems comfortable/pleasant to sleep on
興味津々 （きょうみしんしん）very interesting, being immensely curious about
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 1 月 2 日
コナの大冒険 第16話 from Satorireader
Words of interest:
日向ぼっこ (ひなたぼっこ) bask in the sun or sunbathe
親子（おやこ）parent and child *kanji learned separately but vocab not yet learned
夢中で頬張っていた (むちゅうでほおばっていた) stuffing their mouths in a daze
Day 1
I finished an issue of a yuri magazine, read one story of ボッコちゃん and 70 pages U12 Vol.3.
Half the stories in ボッコちゃん are easy the other ones damn hard where I have a hard time even understanding what’s going on.
I have nearly finished the third volume of U12. The manga is about 12 girls I think they are all 12 years who are detained in a prison and have to fight against a bunch of pedos. They are searching for a way out. Again and again they are nearly caught by the pedos but something happens and the pedos are getting killed one way or another.
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
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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
ok that’s admittedly the most convoluted example but still 
It’s been a while! How have you been?
I guess for these books, I’ll have to Pomodoro technique my way through them until I can no longer stand the content. Sometimes I feel bad for the money wasted but then again, life is too short to be wasted on bad books!
I hope that you will have a comfortable work environment and friendly coworkers. 
And I love it! 
(45 pages read) 働く細胞 or Cells At Work (Absolute Beginner Book Club)
(0 pages read) 古見さんは、コミュ症です。 (Beginner Book Club)
(203 pages read) うずまき by Junji Itou (Horror Manga)
(15 pages read) 人間失格 by Osamu Dazai / adapted by Junji Itou
(0 pages read) 約束のネバーランド or Promised Neverland (Manga)
NHK Easy News
１月２日 
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 