📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

Summary post

February 28 update:
As I planned after yesterday’s reading, today I decided to re-read the whole eighth story of きまぐれロボット, which allowed me to catch up on some details that I missed when reading in in haste over the weekend. This is another fun, even if predictable story. Honestly, I’m still amazed that I can often predict the outcome of a short story in Japanese, even when I’m reading it with few to no lookups (meaning that I’m certainly not getting a lot of details, because not a single story so far wasn’t riddled with unfamiliar words, some of which weren’t even guessable from the context). Granted, these are stories written for kids :sweat_smile:

And, here it comes – the end of this challenge. I feel both slightly relieved and a bit sad. It’s been a great experience, which pushed me to read a novel (or maybe more like a novella? but still, my first!), three volumes of manga, and a quarter of a short story collection. Thanks to consistently reading I’m no longer intimidated by Japanese text, which was one of my goals for this challenge.

The other goal was building a habit of reading, which I consider only partially successful, because even though I read consistently, I had a hard time to carve out a part of the day to do it, often ending up reading late at night. This isn’t really sustainable in the long term, so I’ll have to think about ways to address it.

Yet, surprisingly, I haven’t missed a single day, even though I contemplated the idea on quite a few occasions!

一月
Week 00
Week 01
Week 02
Week 03
Week 04
Week 05
二月
Week 05
Week 06
Week 07
Week 08
Week 09

Reading everyone’s updates was both fun and motivating, to which I attribute a large part of the above streak. So thanks to everyone for reading along with me and sharing your thoughts and achievements, and congratulations to those who met their goals or just read a bunch of things – you’re all doing awesome! :durtle_noice: And I’m grateful for all the advice and book recommendations, as well as the inspiring VN chat – I’m definitely going to try one myself at some point, hopefully, in the near future.

I’m definitely planning to keep going until the spring challenge, even though I might tone down on my updates until then. To be honest, writing updates was probably the most taxing part of all this for me, but it definitely allowed me to connect more with everyone else here and build up motivation, so they were definitely a significant thing.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all and your updates in the next challenge! :durtle_love:


Haha, I guess this applies to me as well, although my routine of reading is less structured than that of posting :joy:

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Home Post

Thank you for the great challenge! In a way I’m happy it’s over but I’m also looking forward to the next one :wink:

I started a little late and thus I only collected 45 sheep:

Jan
Week 52 01 02
Week 01 03 04 05 06 07 08 09
Week 02 10 11 12 13 :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
Week 03 :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
Week 04 :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
Week 05 :sheep:
Feb
Week 05 :sheep: 02 :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
Week 06 :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
Week 07 :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
Week 08 :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
Week 09 :sheep:

One got lost (sadly) but I’m sure it’s found its way to one of you :heart:

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Happy end of challenge day for everyone that is finishing up their challenge today :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face::partying_face::partying_face: Good reading everyone :muscle::books::muscle::books:

As for me, it’s been kind of a fun thing that each challenge has had quite a different reading vibe for me.

The first (summer?) challenge I read a whole bunch of manga. The second challenge I read my first two novels. And this challenge unexpectedly became the challenge of playing games! According to my switch I played over 55 hours of ときめきメモリアルGS4, and I’m now about 14 hours into Persona 4. That’s a lot of hours lol. It’s been a lot of fun! ときめき in particular I think was really pretty much the perfect game to drill a lot of everyday vocab into my head in a way I didn’t mind at all cos it was so cute and fun. I fully intend to go back and play through another route at some point.

Aside from all the games, I read 8 volumes of 呪術廻戦 at the start of the challenge, 世界から猫が消えたなら (which while it was my 3rd novel in japanese, I think it was the first one where I got swept up in the story and properly loved reading it.) and I’m currently 72% through 鏡の孤城(上) which I’m also really loving. I also read bits and pieces of other things (Kikis, よつばと) and fell very behind on most bookclubs (ハイキュー、death note), woops. Too many things to read, too little time! A situation made even worse by all the very interesting manga, books, games shared by people throughout this thread, including all of the crime fiction reccs that were kindly provided when I requested some, which I have lined up for after かがみ。thanks all! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts::books::smiling_face_with_three_hearts::books:

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Summary post

Day 59: February 28th

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 9 min
Today’s color: 二藍 (ふたあい) - deep purple; reddish indigo

I think this color is super pretty, but apparently it’s a color for ~old people~ D: Am I old? honestly…yes :rofl:
I like how it’s named for how it’s made - first a bluer indigo dye, then a redder one dyed over it.

Good words
  • 趣深い (おもむきぶかい) - elegant; charming; refined; enchanting; tasteful
  • 掛け合う (かけあう) - to throw on each other; to splash (water) on each other; to pour on each other
  • 蓼藍 (たであい) - dyer’s knotweed (Persicaria tinctoria, used to produce indigo dye)​

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 4 min

Today’s reading was about 鶯の初音 (うぐいすのはつね) - the first song of the Japanese nightingale in the spring :3

What else did I read?
猫のようなナニカ
Amount read: 18 pages
Time spent: 17 min

Finished this off today - the last chapter made me so emotional, what the heck, I was not expecting this kind of drama today :sob: Luckily everything turned out ok but my god, I am too attached to the small void kitty :sweat_smile:

On a less emotional note - here’s ナニカ with a watermelon on its head :rofl:

Good words
  • よくばり - greed; avarice; covetousness; greedy person
  • 不法侵入 (ふほうしんにゅう) - trespassing; intrusion
  • 取り外す (とりはずす) - to dismantle; to demount; to take something away; to detach
  • 感謝感激 (かんしゃかんげき) - being terribly grateful​
  • 恐悦至極 (きょうえつしごく) - extremely delighted​
  • 心境 (しんきょう) - state of mind; mental state; mental attitude

Wow, I can’t believe this challenge is over already! Seems like it went by fast. I’ll make a summary post in a bit, but tonight, I need to prepare for something else that’s happening tomorrow :eyes:

I’m glad so many people joined, because this challenge really would not be as effective (or as fun!) without all your participation! I enjoyed reading about what y’all are reading, and seeing all your successes :smile: Congratulations and good work to everyone who’s finishing up today, and 頑張って to everyone who’s continuing on ^^ I personally am ready for a break - I do plan to continue reading my daily books, but I probably won’t be posting about them. But I will definitely be here to cheer you guys on until the next challenge begins!

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Summary Post

Day 59: Hurrah, finished! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :tada: Today we read aloud a chapter of ハイキュー!!
This was super fun, great work everyone! It was really nice to see everyone’s posts! I’m gonna continue on with daily reading, really enjoying よつば&!and ハイキュー!!- it’s definitely been helping me to make it a habit.

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February 28 :snowflake: Home Post

Well guys, we’ve done it :tada: Today was a fairly minimal reading day for me so not a whole lot to say on that front, but that’s okay because I’ve got retrospectives to do!

I played some 999 to finish off the challenge bc of course I did, and that’s put me right around 50 hours in the game which is… a lot :joy: I looked and I started right around the beginning of the month so that’s a non-negligible amount for sure. I’d guess I’m around 2/3s of the way through a playthrough? So that’s honestly making pretty good time for me, I’d definitely be way faster in English (obviously) but that’s progress baby! Considering this is the first game I’m really committing to like this, I’ll call that a success.

Progress-wise, I finished 4 manga (ラストゲーム 1-3 and the first volume of アゲイン!!) and that’s all I actually completed because I’m a chaos gremlin lmao. I’m about 100 pages into both (かぜ)つよ and 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ (god that feels like forever ago, I miss them) as well for novels, which is pretty wild! I didn’t really expect to be able to read 100 pages of any novel at this point so that’s something for sure. Lastly, I’m also like 2/3s of the way through the first volume of ヴァニタスの手記(カルテ), so all in all lots of stuff!

It’s really wild looking back at some of my old posts. Like I know when I started this challenge I felt like this:

but it’s still just hard to fathom how far I’ve actually come in just a couple months. The magic of consistency :sparkles: Seriously, if you’d told January 1st me that I’d be midway through multiple novels and close to completing a playthrough of 999… I don’t know what I would’ve thought :joy: This challenge has been an incredible experience; seeing everyone else’s journeys and sharing my own has been so motivating, I really can’t imagine being where I am now without it. Genuinely, thank you to everyone here :blush:

This is… relatable :joy: I’m glad some of you guys are continuing, I definitely think I benefit a lot from having this structure and accountability! That said, I’ll probably be sticking around too :eyes: gotta keep you all updated on サンタ’s hijinks obviously

Some (not so final) words

不憫(ふびん) - poor, pitiful
境遇(きょうぐう) - one’s circumstances, environment
脈打(みゃくう)つ - to pound (eg. heart)
(みぎ)(おな)じ - like he said, same for me, ditto (at first I was like ??? why right, but it’s from like vertical text where stuff to the right is what came before, so it’s just like “above-mentioned,” very intuitive actually)
()てしない - endless, boundless
絶句(ぜっく) - lost for words
とてつもない - extravagant, absurd, enormous
(こころ)もとない - uneasy, unreliable

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Home post

Day 58:

日本語: I read some of ミステリークロック and a bit of 冷たい密室と博士たち.

中国語

中国語: I read an intermediate entry on Mandarin Bean and one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学.

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Here is my summary. The end was pretty meak because I had a surgery, then fell ill with serious fever and after that… well, current geopolitical situation does not help, instead of reading I spend time on finding a way how to move to other place… Still, I think I done pretty well for the first time and if there will be a spring reading challenge, I intend to get 100% accountability there.
I got two nice books before the post closed, so I’ll start it soon (10分で読める伝記 2年生 and 10分で読める伝記 3年生)
изображение
結局, 丈夫な決心はとても大切ですよ。そして、あたし負けない。

Upd: I switched 失う to 負ける, cause in English there are two meanings to “lose”.

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Update February 28 a little late

  • それでも歩は寄せてくる chapter 52
  • ~1hr reading moments on Hellotalk
  • Animal Crossing. ~2 hrs

The challenge was fun and motivating.
When does the Spring challenge start?

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Summary post :bookmark:

March 1

薬屋のひとりごと
Progress: 5% → 6%

Turns out the first two chapters were not that long! That means I’ve finished the reading assignment of the first week. I might reread a bit later, so many new words and comprehension needs some loading time. loading screen rolls in redglare’s brain

Otherwise, I will have to pick up something else to read in the meantime - I want to follow book club schedule this time.


Let’s go~! :eyes::sparkles::fire:

We’ll get there eventually! :joy:

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Oh, no, it’s over already :fearful:
I’ve been enjoying reading in Japanese and seeing everyone’s updates so much that I’m kinda sad it’s over. I’ll still be checking whatever people post in here and maybe I’ll keep updating my progress…we’ll see.

For a little February recap:

  • Unfortunately I missed a bunch of days because (sad stuff) my 15 year old dog got a lot worse and after many visits to the vet and unsuccessful treatments we were advised to put her down so Japanese was not a priority during that time, but otherwise I’ve stablished a good habit of reading and I’ll probably keep it up for now.
  • I read 2 manga volumes
  • I’m almost done with かがみの孤城
  • I’ve put the first few hours into the VN バリアブルバリケード, which I’m planning on making my main reading resource for March

It’s perhaps not as much as I wanted but taking into account all the setbacks and how busy I’ve been, I’m pretty happy I’m still making some progress. And I’ve been inspired by how much some of the people posting have managed to do! Can’t wait for the next challenge, this has been fun.

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:frowning: Totally understandable to take a break. There will be future challenges, take care of yourself first. :heart:

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:high_touch:

I guess I’m back, pretending it’s not over! Read another ~5000 characters and ~465 lines today. Kind of frustrated that seemed to take me about 2 hours? There are so many words I don’t know, such that it doesn’t really feel like they’re decreasing in frequency. Gonna have to make myself not think too short term somehow. All the same, fun times. There are more possible hints at something potentially upsetting brewing in the background? But it usually gets pushed away soon enough. If things go well, apparently we’re taking a day trip off the island, so that’s neat. Kinda didn’t expect the game to ever leave this island.

A couple faces of pure judgment, here.

Learning new kanji words on my own without WK has been ok so far, I guess? I’m burying myself in a few too many anki cards considering WK has only dropped review count a bit (my norm was roughly 160, it quickly dropped to around 120, tomorrow is my lowest day at 94), but I’m getting by. In the short term, I’m remembering these words. The only downside seems to be that I feel a bit more psychological pressure that I didn’t anticipate, my dumb brain feeling like I’m doing something I’m not ready for after deciding I might be ready. Going to have to see how this transfers to longer term memories and what I think about the experience of eventually encountering these kanji in different words.

A word that interests me today is 今日明日 (きょうあす), intuitively meaning “today and tomorrow” or “in a day or two / very soon.” Mostly that あす, which I’ve seen before… but the voice actor read it as きょうあした, and while that gets recognized by my IME, in a brief search, I didn’t see evidence of that being recognized as a correct reading? I’m out of my depths though :person_shrugging:

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Day 60!
I was genuinely sad at the thought of not doing my nightly ritual of writing a little update and checking a box on my calendar - so if other people are planning to carry on through March then count me in!

Chapter 24 of Yotsuba today, page 78’s うんこしたいのか? …でちゃったのか? had me giggling like a child :smile:

(Home Post)

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I can’t find anything at all suggesting きょうあした is an accepted reading and the Forvo pronunciation is also only きょうあす. I also noted that a plain search of the word got me mostly online dictionaries, Google matching on “今日・明日” and only two sites in the first two pages actually using it as a word. I think this might be one of those words that’s uncommonly used enough that you can probably just roll with not knowing it perfectly.

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Congrats everyone on making it through the challenge!! I popped in to lurk once or twice, just to admire everyone’s progress :laughing::sparkles:

I wasnt able to join this time, since life imploded, but I fully intend to be around for the next one! :cherry_blossom::seedling: (That gives me about a month to find a book, right?)

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(Slightly belated) happy end of challenge!! :snowman_with_snow: :confetti_ball:

Recap stuff:

January went a lot better for me than February did. I also missed 6 days overall :face_with_spiral_eyes: Gotta work on that consistency thing! :smile:
My goal was to be caught up with book clubs by now (地球星人/Death Note), I failed pretty spectacularly at that (oops :see_no_evil:), but at least made some progress towards it.
Anyway, I did still read a bunch: I read 2 full light novels (NO. 6 #2 / orange), around a third each of two other novels (地球星人 / NO. 6 #3) and a couple manga chapters (Death Note). That’s already more than I read over the entire last year, so I’m gonna call this a win :tada:

Was very fun to see what everyone else is reading and playing! Congrats to everyone who reached a goal or finished their first [insert thing here] etc etc :yellow_heart:
Also special mention to the cute manga pictures that got posted sometimes, always appreciate those :3
See you guys in April :muscle:

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I’m sorry to have missed the last week or so. I only managed to read four pages of my Dragonball Manga. I spent the whole time studying so much grammar that I put off reading. I am really glad, however, because I learnt so much. I’m going to try and start reading my manga again, even if I can only manage a little each day. Thank you all for sharing your progress :slight_smile:

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March 1 :snowflake: Home Post

Ah, it continues :blush: I’ve been a little under the weather so not a whole lot of reading energy, but I played a bit more 999 so all good! Hopefully I’ll have the energy for a heavy reading day soon, I wanna know what happens :joy:

(I’ve also been thinking that once I finish a playthrough of 999 I might slow down on it a bit and try picking up 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ again, I miss them)

((I also didn’t save any words today rip))

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Home post

Day 59:

日本語: I read some of ミステリークロック and some of 伯爵と妖精 32.
Read-aloud: We read a chapter of ハイキュー.

中国語

中国語: I read an intermediate entry on Mandarin Bean and one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学.

oh right put the calendar here because the challenge is over!!!

J A N
:books:
:clinking_glasses:
:woman_cartwheeling:
:roller_skate:
:parachute:
:dog2:
:hamburger:
F E B
:books:
:lotus:
:medal_sports:
:surfing_woman:
:seedling:
:sunrise:

DONE.

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