What are you reading today?

Japanese Language Reading
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Inspired by What are you reading today? - Reading - Natively Forums - I’ll ask here too.

What are y’all reading today?

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I’ve been reading 灰と幻想のグリムガル level.10 ラブソングは届かない | L31 lately. Picked back up at book 7, and I’m book 10 now. I’ve been really enjoying myself with them, now that they aren’t super difficult for me anymore. I’m 40% through book 10, and so far it’s my least fav of this bunch, but we’ll see how the rest of the book goes.

Otherwise, book clubs:

I’m behind on most of those tho, cuz I got too into Grimgar the last week or so :sweat_smile:

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I am very slowly grinding through ひぐらしのなく頃に 第一話 鬼隠し編 上 | L33 (first novel)
In the last eight months I’ve only read up in truth up to page 22/328 but pre-learned extensively vocab up to 38 through jpdb (I don’t like lookups). I’m trying to reach the point where I can read at least a page a day and maintain a two to three weeks advance for pre-learning all the unknown stuff.

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方舟 | L32 - Fun murder mystery with a sort of twist about a natural disaster putting a time limit on deducing who the murderer is before everyone dies. Been very good up to where I am a bit past halfway.

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy - A game with some SRPG gameplay, but very primarily reading focused. From the Danganronpa creators, notable for being absurdly lengthy and having 100 endings. Maybe the longest VN and videogame script in existence now? Couldn’t tell you if it’s accurate, but the creator called it 60 novels long. So far I’ve seen 38 of the 100 endings. I love it but it’s a lot. Hoping to finish within the year? :melting_face:

SaGa: Emerald Beyond - More a straight up videogame, but with a solid chunk of reading so far. Weird experimental turn based RPG. Fun but the writing is kinda just silly and chaotically jumping around, we’ll see. I’m very early in this one.

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I am awaiting your review to see if I want to pull the trigger on buying this one :popcorn: it was all over my book recommendations for awhile

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You are the second person here today to tell me you’re waiting to hear! Starting to feel like an influencer :sweat_smile: I stumbled onto it totally on a whim and didn’t realize the book had some buzz behind it the way it seems to until I was already reading.

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WaniKani forums. Specifically at this moment, this particular thread.

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I picked up 雪国 | L46 on kindle unlimited on a whim and started reading it. I’ve heard mixed reviews about it, with some people telling me they thought it was boring and others saying it’s a classic. I’m only about 10% in so far and my initial impression is that it’s a bit dated, but not in a bad way. I haven’t read anything challenging in a few months so it’s a treat to dive into some solidly constructed prose. :slightly_smiling_face:

I also succumbed to all of the marketing hype around the movie and started 国宝(上) 青春篇 | L30??. It has a lot of things I theoretically like to read about in books in it, like yakuza, a post-war setting, and Japanese traditional arts, but I haven’t had the brain power to give it the focus it needs and am not very far in. It’s historical fiction, which always bumps up the difficulty a notch, and is also interestingly enough written in keigo with the narrative voice speaking directly to me as a reader. I don’t think I’ve encountered many fiction books written in keigo before, but I always welcome the opportunity to get exposure to it when reading, since it is typically constrained to dialogue only in fiction. Looking forward to diving deeper into it soon!

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I finished グリムガル 10 and 60% through 灰と幻想のグリムガル level.11 あの時それぞれの道で夢を見た | L31 . Vol 10 got 3 stars from me (which is the lowest I’ve scored, since I picked the books up again), but vol 11 is doing better, even though ランタ is around again now. He’s much more tolerably written at this point though. I just really hope he never rejoins the main party, bc they’ve been gradually maturing and bonding in ways that we’re not possible when he was around, and the vibe is just sooooo much more enjoyable without him. Also cuz ランタ is still a PoS

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I’ve been trying to read Japanese subtitles. My reading isn’t fast enough yet to read a whole one before it goes on to the next, but I guess practice helps. If I ever do get through a whole one, I’ll probably faint! :rofl:

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80番地の犬 1 | L29. Currently this version 80番地の犬 愛蔵版 | L28. About caring pet dogs, published in 1990s.

I got Vol.1-2 for free on Bookwalker (not time limited), but Vol.3-6 were paid. Then collector edition 3-4, 5-6 for 165 yen each. Then waited for another promotion to get collector ed 1-2 for 165 yen.

ヤケ食いだった
ヤケ食いだった910×765 172 KB

Trigger warning

Some dogs did die, and very early too. Sometimes just not very clean.

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It can be hard enough to read lengthy subtitles in your native language before they are gone, let alone in another language.

Much of what I watch (when watching shows or movies with my wife) is Japanese and has Japanese subtitles only. If subtitles are available we always turn them on for my benefit as my reading is better than my listening skills. Short stuff and common phrases are fine, but anything of length I cannot read all of before it is gone. I have gotten into the habit of parsing the first few words and the last few words and perhaps noting a significant word or kanji in the middle to tie it together.

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I’m doing a challenge at the moment that includes a goal of reading at least 2 pages of a regular JP book or 5 pages of JP manga every day.

Last night I started ひみつの魔女フレンズ. It’s aimed at 小学生 2年ー4年 so is incredibly accessible, with large font and furigana. It’s great opportunity to get more used to reading in a novel vertical format, as the other books I have been reading are non-fiction and use a more familiar layout.

The main reason I’m reading this one is simply that it was in the extra cheap section at Book Off! I’m actually reading Volume 2. The first volume wasn’t in the sale section.

The other things I’m reading are in this post. They are ひとりごはん, a konbini manga about food; 大人も知らないそのまわりの謎大全, a book exploring everyday objects in depth; and 小学生の野菜づくりブック, a vegetable growing handbook also aimed at primary school children. I’m also reading a My Melody fan club book, which I panic bought because I couldn’t find ひとりごはん and wanted a portable book. I don’t even like My Melody…

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I am slowly reading a side story from the 転生したらスライムだった件 series. Technically, its too difficult, but I can look up the unknown Vocab, my gramma knowledge is quite decent and I already roughly knew what the contents of this side story were going to be. All in all, I am having a good time with it.

(Except the fact that I lost my vocabulary notes for this book TWICE! I finally caved and and started typing them digitally. I really miss writing them on paper though.)

IMG_3790
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Btw. This is the first page of the side story.

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You need to make/source a book cover that slips over the outside of the book and includes a pocket for notes or even a fully attached notebook :thinking: I like writing my vocab notes on paper too, but I use an A4 notepad, so only do it if I’m reading something at my desk.

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I’m on the latter half of また、同じ夢を見ていた | L25. It’s technically my first actual book since all of my readings so far have been through textbooks and satori reader. Some of the sentences are relatively long compared to what I’m accustomed to so I’m glad to get lots of practice on that. I’m still quite slow at reading but I definitely feel that I’ve improved a lot since since I started reading the book.

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薄闇シルエット - Hana runs a small used-clothes store together with a friend. She’s 37 years old but does not want to get married. Sudden changes around her may make her reconsider some decisions… or maybe not, I don’t know - I’m only 40% into it :slight_smile:
Not a terribly easy read for me, but not a terribly difficult one either, in-line with a couple others I’ve read from the author - 角田光代 :man_shrugging:
Vocab deck is available on JPDB.

I only read one book at a time and I am a slow reader so won’t be posting often here, but I’ll sure be keeping an eye on this thread. Not that I don’t already have a huge list, but who knows what else I might pick up from the posts here :blush:

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That is such a good idea! Thank you! :folded_hands::sparkles:

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Finished 灰と幻想のグリムガル level.11 あの時それぞれの道で夢を見た | L31 and well, I’m probably ready to take a break for a day or two. There were some parts I liked, some parts I didn’t, and some moments I’ve been dying for. But there’s just been so much wrapped into these last few books (and so many long battles) that I wanna take a breather, even though it’s mid-arc. Edit: nevermind, I started book 12 :joy:

Caught up with 付き合ってあげてもいいかな 1 | L24 which I won’t continue on to volume 2 right now (but would recommend). Hopefully soon I’ll probly catch up with クラスで2番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった | L27 and try to stay on pace with まちカドまぞく 1 | L35

Goals tho. Surprised that book has a jpdb deck

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My main source of reading meowadays is

Huge thanks again to @pembo さん for recommending it in the first place. Took me a while to get used to it, but it is a great source of legally free manga with relatively short chapters, that is easy to read on a phone.

I’ve started several titles and keep starting more before finishing previous ones.
Currently the main titles I read are:

and

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