| Title | Today | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
玉藻の恋 | 1 chapter | 75% |
 |
小熊のクーク | 6 pages | 32% |
 |
ウスズミの果て | 26 pages | 15% |
 |
薬屋のひとりごと | 3 sentences | 2% |
Finally, a productive day.
15 Likes
August 15 | Home post
Island today too - 2500 characters.
15 Likes
| 08月015日 | Type: | Progress: | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
ブルーロック 戦いの前、僕らは。 潔・凪・蜂楽 | Light Novel | 022 → 028 / 208 pgs |
 |
鋼の錬金術師 Vol 1 | Manga | 075 / 179 pgs |
 |
すみっコぐらし | Children’s Book | 019 / 107 pgs |
|
ブルーロック Vol 5 | Manga | 013 / 192 pgs |
6 more pages of the Bluelock light novel, felt like I was on a bit of a roll today 
18 Likes
August 15 | Home post
 |
Club | Title | Type | Natively | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
IMC | 鋼の錬金術師 1 | manga | 31 | pg 36-55 |
caught up with this week’s IMC reading LETSGOOOOOO
still mostly using just jotoba for my lookups (lots of them), but when it didn’t have server issues claude helped a lot to doublecheck tricky stuff (paycheck arrived, premium bought). but i might be missing on conversating in the club itself… damn i’m outplaying myself
18 Likes
Home post // August 15 
・本好きの下剋上 21 (47.9% → 76.0%) | 55.3k characters (149 602 / 196k char.)
Today was also a good day for reading. Since it’s the end of an arc, the epilogue chapter started at 65% in the book this time (usually starts after 80%). This time it’s followed by 9 chapters with the perspectives of other characters, instead of just 2.
As for the story: I knew it was going to be sad TuT 切なくて仕方がない。 But it was also kinda satisfying in a way. フェルディナンド and ローゼマイン giving each other farewell gifts and especially the gift from him made the people around them think “oh god, if not for ローゼマイン looking like a little child, you’d think he was proposing” 
He even left his mansion in her care, library included. Isn’t it typical that their relation is closer than ever just before he has to leave? …When will they meet again? 
And the mention of being able to sense and react to another person’s magic is something which happens during adolescence. I feel like the setting is that it might be an essential part of falling in love with someone? Or at least choosing one’s partner. I can’t get over the scene I "oho"d about yesterday where ローゼマイン felt that フェルディナンド’s magic was similar to hers. Does ローゼマイン even know about the magic/adolescence thing? Gah! So many questions. So many things to look forward to x3
Lookups (51)
| Word | Notes |
|---|---|
| 愉しい | |
| 長らえる | |
| 不足分 | |
| 不測の事態 | |
| 眇める | to scrutinize |
| 有益 | |
| お払い箱 | |
| 書見台 | |
| 万感の思い | |
| 探究心 | |
| 10 | |
| 甘言 | |
| 献身 | |
| 柄にもなく | |
| 感傷的 | |
| 如実に | |
| 酌み交わす | |
| 芳醇 | |
| 重し | |
| 功を奏する | |
| 詰る | to scold |
| 20 | |
| 捻くれる | to grow bitter |
| 面映ゆい | |
| 兄貴風を吹かす | |
| 突っ撥ねる | |
| 固執 | |
| 自ずと | |
| 理に適う | |
| 陳述書 | |
| 飽き性 | |
| 切り揃える | |
| 30 | |
| 英断 | すぐれた決断 |
| 泥のように眠る | |
| 似通う | |
| 訛り | |
| 流用 | recycling |
| 四角四面 | |
| おざなり | |
| 解す | |
| 名手 | |
| お茶請け | |
| 40 | |
| 非協力的 | |
| 怪しからぬ | outrageous |
| お門違い | |
| 殺気立つ | |
| 如実に | hah! twice just today, would you look at that |
| 通い合う | |
| 見せつける | |
| 肩透かしを食らう | I’m pretty sure this is not the first time |
| 悲壮感 | |
| 声を大にして言う | |
| 50 | |
| 凄惨 |
17 Likes
16 August | Study Log
 |
Title | Type | Natively | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
ダンジョン飯１1 | manga | 30 |  20% → 30% |
 |
逆転裁判1 | game | ??? |  1/5 cases |
 |
鋼の錬金術師 1 | manga | 31 | 32% |
- Shortish chapter of だん飯, a few confusing constructions here and there i’ll have to check against the english later.
17 Likes
08月15日
 |
Club | Title | Type | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
グースバンプス 恐怖の館 | prose | 144 → 144/189pgs |
Ok I read until the end of Goosebumps without lookups so I’ll go back so I can actually learn vocabulary. I was cool with the plot right until the end.
complaining about the plot of a children's book
The town is full of ghouls/walking dead people. We established that they can be destroyed with bright light (like a bright flashlight), but the flashlight is broken. It’s daytime now and all the dead people in the whole town are congregated in a sunken theater in the graveyard with a big tree hanging over it providing shade. Several chapters ago, we spent a lot of description on just how big this tree is, just how gnarled, just how old, that it hangs over this whole space. Then the two kids are like I know, we’ll push over the tree, so the sunlight hits everyone, and they’ll die! And then they do it, and it works?? I’m sorry but ain’t no 10 and 12 year old going to knock over a giant tree…by pushing on it. Especially not one that’s so big it’s providing shade for like a hundred townsdeadpeople. I was so confused.
18 Likes
August 15
| Type | Done today | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| 逝く夏と還る秋 | 600 characters | 2.8% |
| 夜の名前を呼んで | Chapter 11 12 | Finished |
| 幸せのマチ | Chapter 1 | 5% |
17 Likes
Probably. 12 clubs = giving me trouble
11/8 26 pages とんがり帽子のアトリエ (read chapter 15), 27 pages ホリミヤ (finished page 27, read page 28), aDoIJG ところが
12/8 8 pages ホリミヤ
13/8 9 pages 玉藻の恋
14/8 12 pages 玉藻の恋 (finished week 9), aDoIJG というのに
15/8 17 pages 老女的少女ひなたちゃん (read chapter 17)
Day off on Sunday was fine then rest of the week so far has been reading small amounts before or after work.
Today I’m planning to finish the week’s reading for those manga I’m keeping up with. I was hoping to finish Spy Family but I got up after lunch due to being at work for most of the night. (Mixed feelings about shift. Some challenging cases at work but last night we genuinely saved someone’s life which is less common than you’d think even in medicine.)
Off over the weekend so do plan to catch up and finish some of those clubs that should be over.
20 Likes
16th august
|
Title | Type | Natively | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
江戸時代大百科 1 | kids non-fiction | high 20s? | pg 38-40 |
 |
ブレイブリーデフォルト | game | N/A | none |
 |
raven strategem | eng book | N/A | 175- |
 |
aDoAJG | grammar | N/A | pg 208-218 |
 |
寄生獣 9 | manga | 25 | 126-end |
aDoAJG entries were 且つ and きらいがある
this nhk article
only one volume of parasyte left now, it’s gone by so quick! was jumpscared with an on-page (brief) sex scene but other than that it’s going pretty well.
in other news i hit level 60! 
i think technically i hit it sometime earlier this week but my icon didn’t update and i didn’t get an email so i forgot 
15 Likes
| Title | Type | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| 本好きの下剋上２ | Book | p337‐p393 (86%‐100%) |
Hmmm… got a bit worn out and found this book a bit of a slog near the end. A few thoughts:
本好き２(spoilers)
I think I enjoyed this first book more, even though I think this one is slightly better potentially. The first one had the advantage of introducing the world which made things more engaging. The fact that it’s a pretty refreshing take on isekai meant that its points for originality carried me though a lot of the first volume.
Most of my thoughts are probably just a reflection of myself and my preferences, I’m not saying the book is bad fundamentally. Also, I hear that there are more political aspects and plotlines connecting from previous volumes later in the series, which sounds more appealing to me than where I’ve read up to so far. I’m focusing more on the negatives because feeling exhausted was my prevailing emotion from reading the last 30% or so of the book, but there are definitely things I like (general premise, some of the perspective of the daily life of Myne, learning about some of the world’s customs, I like the idea of us not knowing about the world as a whole yet because of the fact that Myne’s world is very small at the moment) so it’s not like I hate the book.
The book is at least 50% longer than the average novel, but it feels like not that much happened. I feel like the book is both detailed and undetailed. It’s detailed in that it recounts a lot of specifics of what Myne does, with only occasional time skips, but it feels like almost any time anything happens it has to be recounted step by step in the moment as opposed to skipping ahead to it having been completed. I thought that Myne making the paper prototypes was alright near the beginning while my willpower was strong, but then all the stuff with making the Kanzashi took ages but at least there were a few characters introduced.
However, I find it undetailed in that the writing style is very matter of fact, just saying what people say or do. There is not really any of what I would consider as proper description or “literariness” to the writing. This is a bit of whiplash coming off 月の影影の海, which had a plot that dragged in the middle, but the writing felt vivid which meant that I was still enjoying it as I felt immersed in the world, but with 本好き I only have a very vague mental image of the scenes. The writing style also means that my brain sort of switches off when reading it and I have to backtrack a few lines because I realize that I wasn’t paying attention. I hope that the writing style improves, I read that the author hadn’t written anything prior to this series, so I would expect the potential for the quality of writing to potentially improve significantly after the first few volumes, up to a point. Some of the issues in terms of writing, pacing and feeling like a slog can probably also be chalked up to my being a slow (bad) reader.
I don’t feel particularly attached to the side characters. I liked the tension of ルッツ confronting Myne about being not the original Myne, but after the confrontation at the end of book 1 and in this book, that issue seems to be evaporated and didn’t really change their relationship much from what I could tell, except making them slightly closer. Although he acts somewhat childlike, I still think in general these very young characters don’t act in a way I’d expect children to act, which confuses me. Obviously the adults are suspicious of the way Myne acts (although we know why she acts the way she does), but at this point there’s been no payoff to that.
If I read more, I am excited to get to where there is more worldbuilding. There are definitely bits and pieces here and there, but in terms of lore it feels rather drip fed, as are significant plot developments. Perhaps the web novel origins are to blame, but I feel like the book could have been trimmed down significantly, leading to a better overall experience, at least in terms of what I’d enjoy.
16 Likes
August 16 | Home post
Island and Island and more Island - 4000 characters today. I think my next VN will be a shorter one!
15 Likes
August 16th
Missed a day yesterday, unfortunately. Was dog-tired.
Did a bunch of reading today to make up for it though 
 |
変な家 | L28 | p. 127-158・12%・7479 char |
16 Likes
| 08月16日 | Type: | Progress: | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
ブルーロック 戦いの前、僕らは。 潔・凪・蜂楽 | Light Novel | 028 / 208 pgs |
|
鋼の錬金術師 Vol 1 | Manga | 075 / 179 pgs |
|
すみっコぐらし | Children’s Book | 019 / 107 pgs |
|
ブルーロック Vol 5 | Manga | 013 / 192 pgs |
 |
十三機兵防衛圏 | Game | 1 hour 30 mins |
No book today, but I did play an hour and a half of 13 Sentinels. I bought this 4 months ago and played for about 4 hours in total. I’ve restarted it this time and am pleasantly surprised by how easy I’m able to follow along with the majority of the speech, compared to the first attempt where I had to switch back to English VO frequently. Progress!
Some new words from my playthrough
通信 つうしん correspondence
誤解 ごかい misunderstanding
単なる たんなる mere
安定 あんてい stability
投薬 とうやく dosage
16 Likes
Summer vacation is over: back to work today. It was looking unlikely I would get any reading done, but between baking a birthday cake after work and waiting for takeout dinner to arrive, I managed to finish Chap. 31 of よつばと！ Vol. 5. Streak preserved!
16 Likes
Home post // August 16
・本好きの下剋上 21 (76.0% → 100%) | 46.4k characters (196k / 196k char.)
End of arc 4! I could write an essay with my thoughts, but that’s not what I’m here for (I’m a super slow writer).
Book thoughts: That was a really good book filled with action and heartfelt moments TuT The characters are growing. I was so surprised when I saw the illustration of ローゼマイン and ヴィルフリート after they returned to the 貴族院. He’s suddenly so handsome?! (Se spoiler illustration.) And she has definitely grown a bit taller, just like the 側近達 at the church noticed. I’ve never really thought of ローゼマイン as gorgeous, but after one of the characters (ハルトムート?) described her to other characters, I’m in no doubt. Also, because of her beauty, magical power and compassion to the people around her, her reputation is being upgraded from 聖女 to 女神! Which incidentally seems to make sense as it’s in the name of arc 5. (トゥーリ is undergoing heartbreak? カミル has become a fellow 本好き? Potential meet-up with ローゼマイン in the future? 
) And just how many people where purged for there to be 17 homeless children to enter church?!? So many stuff that has happened, it’s about to turn into an essay in here.
Lookups (44)
| Word | Notes |
|---|---|
| あずかり知る | |
| 艶然 | |
| 寵臣 | |
| 抗う | |
| 鑑 | |
| 垣根 | |
| 画策 | |
| 肩身が狭い | |
| 何がしか | usu. なにがしか = 明確でない数量を言い表す表現 |
| 心証 | |
| 10 | |
| 違える | |
| 登用 | |
| 思い入れ | |
| 意を汲む | |
| 専ら | |
| 乳飲み子 | |
| 神々しい | |
| 眼鏡にかなう | |
| 清廉 | |
| 紡ぐ | |
| 20 | |
| 畏れ多い | |
| そり | sledge, sleigh |
| 氷室 | |
| 労う | |
| 身贔屓 | |
| 融通が利く | |
| 目をかける | |
| 湿る | |
| 滅私奉公 | 個人的な感情や欲求、利益を捨てて、社会や国家などの公のために尽くすこと。 |
| 無作法 | |
| 30 | |
| 機密 | highly classified information |
| 気丈 | courageous, tough. / Not to be confused with 着丈 |
| 近況報告 | |
| 中身 | |
| 嵩張る | 重さの割に体積が大きい。E.g. clothes |
| 感傷に浸る | |
| 溺愛 | 相手を客観的に見る目を失い，むやみにかわいがること。 |
| 餞 | 餞別 |
| 悖る | to act contrary to, to deviate from |
| 急場を凌ぐ | to tide over a difficult situation |
| 40 | |
| 反りが合わない | unable to get along |
| 着丈 | dress length. / Not to be confused with 気丈 |
| 哀願 | 切に願い頼むこと。相手の同情心に訴えて頼むこと。 |
| 寂寥感 | さびしく、わびしい様子 |
17 Likes
08月16日
|
Club | Title | Type | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
グースバンプス 恐怖の館 | prose | 144 → 148/189pgs |
Starting the lookups run for what I read over the last couple days.
15 Likes
August 16
| Type | Done today | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| 幸せのマチ | Chapter 2 3 4 5 6 | 27% |
15 Likes
17 August | Study Log
|
Title | Type | Natively | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ダンジョン飯１1 | manga | 30 | 30% → 43% |
|
逆転裁判1 | game | ??? | 1/5 cases |
|
鋼の錬金術師 1 | manga | 31 | 32% |
- Second weekly chapter for だん飯, this was a bit of a challenge… lots of talking, and will probably remain that way for a bit.
16 Likes
| Title | Today | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
空の軌跡 | 1400 characters | 8900ish |
Just under 1000 characters today, the rest is from yesterday and the day before.
15 Likes