📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

You’d be surprised how often vocab like that comes up :joy:

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Just four pages of 本陣殺人事件 and I’m still not done with the book for this week’s book club goal.

vocabulary
玉の輿 たまのこし money and social status gained by marrying a rich and powerful man
何でもかんでもなんでもかんでも anything and everything; all sorts of things; by all means
ほこり dust N3
ほお cheek (face) N3
もじゃもじゃ dishevelled; disheveled; unkempt​

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Summary post

January 5 update:
Finished reading よつばと! 1. In the last two chapters they finally started revealing some of Yotsuba’s and her father’s background, but when the father finally got to speak about it, I think I lost my ability to comprehend Japanese :joy: Apparently his explanation was intentionally hard to make sense of, because Fuuka also didn’t quite get it. Still, I think I’ll take a look at the book club’s thread now – perhaps they discussed this. (I specifically avoided reading the book club’s discussion so far – to give myself a chance to figure out things that were unclear initially from the context that’s introduced later.)
The ending was cute! :durtle_love:

Interesting! Have you established some sort of routine around reading? I mostly find myself postponing my daily reading to almost bedtime, even if I have some free time earlier in the day. Not sure why, too, as I tend to enjoy it, and with よつばと! it wasn’t tedious at all.

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Thanks for the advice @Thud :slight_smile: (You’re the one who encourages me to read SPYXFAMILY haha)

Stay safe everyone :mask:

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January 3 - January 5 :heavy_check_mark:

Read a little bit of orange on each of these days.
Orange is one of those novels that uses fewer kanji than an average book for adults, that’s a little annoying :laughing: I forgot to pay attention to that before buying it. It’s probably good practice though, since I sometimes tend to rely on kanji too much…

so cute :3

Happy birthday!! :tada: :birthday:

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Summary post :bookmark:

January 5
・かがみの孤城. I finished the fourth week.

Progress: (21% → 27%)

It’s getting really late. And I have early class tomorrow

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I think this might just be a typo, but in case you’re making flashcards from these - dust is ほこり (埃) :slight_smile:

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Sort of! :relaxed: I’m reading after lunch, so when I’m done eating shortly after I start my reading time. The time varies depending on the day but the consistency has been the same: I know this happens after lunch. Then I set a timer of one hour on my phone, and read until it rings. I don’t have any goals other than just work through it; whatever happens in that hour so be it, whether it’s 3 pages or 10, whether I need to look up more things or less things, check grammar, etc. I really like it because every day is dynamic, some days I don’t look up grammar at all because it’s not necessary but instead I encounter more unknown words than usual, and viceversa. I think I would feel a bit anxious if I aimed for a goal like “read 10 pages everyday”, personally. It also helps tremendously that I’m enjoying the story and I’ve already seen and liked the movie.

It’s actually the first time I’m doing this. In the two previous challenges I had a very chaotic schedule: I would read when I felt like it. Naturally, this clashed with other activities that I wanted to do in the evening too, and I ended up reading at night many days before bed, when I was sleepy enough already, just to keep the streak going. Looking back, I’m glad I still did anyways, because it kept fueling the habit, but now it feels so inefficient. Not only was I reading very late, but also anxious with the thought at the back of my mind that “I still have to read”. I’m trying to morph that feeling into one of “this is when I read” and honestly?, so far I love it. It’s still very soon to jump into conclusions, but I feel like not only is this working much better for me already, but I can clearly see myself reading a lot more than I used to. If you asked me to read one hour before bed I would cry, but one hour in the afternoon, now that’s a much different story :slightly_smiling_face: . I think overall I don’t enjoy studying or doing mental work other than in the morning or afternoon; I think I realise more and more that I prefer to reserve the evenings for leisure and chill.

In conclusion, I think that defining the moment of the day when I do this has removed all of the pressure, because I know it’s happening, so I don’t feel anxious at all neither before that time nor after that time. I think this is exactly why I find it quite enjoyable.

I think it’s also worth noting that currently I have more time than usual so all of this is possible without any schedule problems. Also I say after lunch, but that is usually 4 or 5pm, which would be early evening I guess? I don’t know, English is hard :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: .

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In my country, 4 or 5 pm would be late afternoon. It only becomes early evening when it starts getting dark. However, I live in the tropics so it never starts getting dark before 5:30 pm for the earliest and 6:30 pm for the latest. In other temperate countries where the daylight hours after noon fluctuate much more, their evening times would be different, I guess?

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Alright, well :pensive:

I managed to get through 1 more page of よつばと! in 1 hour tonight, but I had a rough day personally so I’m just happy for that. There were 16 bubble-sentences on the page, and 15 on the next page, so I knew I could not keep going tonight. I’m just happy I kept reading.

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Seems about right! At that time it’s still daytime where I live, and it starts getting dark at around 5:30 pm currently, but in Summer it can be as late as 9:30 or 10:00 pm. I would have used late afternoon too myself, but I’m hoping I could get my point accross! :slight_smile: We also typically have lunch very late here. It’s not unusual that we have lunch between 1 and 4 pm. I usually have lunch at around 2:30 or 3 pm.

I think after 6 pm I’m generally already tired to do anything that requires a lot of focus :skull: .

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Main Post

January 5th
Read pages 10 - 11 of the Naruto Manga. The main characters are still talking about the graduation exam (卒業試験) whose kanji is very intimidating to look at considering my level lol. I was able to recognize 分 and 何 at least. I also recognized some other phrases like めんどくせー and どうしたの. I might stop translating every sentence and just translate a couple words per page or panel. Idk, I’m still figuring this out.

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Summary post

Day 5: Had a bit more energy today, so I finished chapter 8 of 極主夫道!

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Summary post

Day 5: January 5th

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 29 min
Today’s color: 朱色 (しゅいろ) - pretty similar to 銀朱 but maybe a bit less vibrant, presumably because it’s a more natural pigment?

A color of power and authority :muscle: And also apparently an expensive/valuable color in olden times - the reading mentioned the 朱座 (しゅざ), which the shogunate-controlled market for cinnabar (which is used to make 朱色).

Some good stuff I learned
  • 寄り (より) - as a suffix, means having a tendency towards; being close to
  • において - in; on; at (place); as for; regarding​ (yay grammar)
  • 朱塗り (しゅぬり) - painting something vermillion; lacquering something vermillion; vermillion-lacquered object
  • 顔料 (がんりょう) - pigment, paint, color

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 22 min

Today’s reading was actually about…colors also xD Basically talked about various pine tree-inspired colors - 常磐色 made another appearance, but it also mentioned 松葉色 (まつばいろ), 老緑 (おいみどり), and 千載緑 (せんざいみどり - I think it’s more commonly written as 千歳緑 since I keep getting that when I try to search it lol). I like how 老緑 does kind of look like “old green” to my eye xD

I also learned that 狩衣 (かりぎぬ) refers informal clothes worn by the nobility from the Heian period - apparently looks like this:


Seems like pretty fancy informal wear if you ask me :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

I also learned a great grammar point (is this a grammar point? idk lol): にちなんで, meaning named after; associated with; connected with

What else did I read?
Nothing…again. I’m so tired today :disappointed: I’ve been tired from the moment I woke up.

Oh that’s awesome!! Glad my links could be of help :grin:

Happy birthday!! :partying_face: :cake:
I’m very jealous of your cat cafe snuggles

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Jan 5 update :snowflake: summary post

Read a bit more of Akiko’s American Foreign Exchange on Satori Reader today. For some reason today’s episodes seemed more difficult than usual… I had a hard time comprehending what I was reading without constantly looking at the definitions and translations. Hopefully it goes better tomorrow!

My goal is to catch up by the time the finale is uploaded and I’m so close… tomorrow I’d like to be 10 episodes from the end. It’ll take a bit more reading than usual, but I think it’s doable

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January 5 :snowflake: Home Post

I finished up volume 2 of ラストゲーム today! 九条(くじょう) is as oblivious as always, but she’s like aware of it? Idk I’m wishing her the best, and of course (やなぎ)'s life is suffering :joy: someone help them

I might read some 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ later (very invested in mushroom boy and his GIANT RIDEABLE CRAB?? fascinating), but mostly I started messing with jpdb today so that took over my reading brain a bit. I’ve got fun stuff to look forward to in ラストゲーム though; 合宿(がっしゅく) next volume !! :eyes:

On to more books!

Cool words

だらけ - full of, riddled with
チョロい - easy, simple
()れる - to wither

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5th January:

I got side-tracked from 嫌われる勇気 because I found this manga 「かげきしょうじょ!!」and got super into it. The English version at Seven Seas only has it up until vol 3, so I spent the day reading vol 4 - 7 of the Japanese version.

The manga is really interesting and I really recommend it to everybody. The story follows Takarazuka system very closely, from the 2-year Takarazuka Music School, the troupe, the star system, etc. It gives you a closer look on Takarazuka. The characters are really interesting and each one of them is developed really well. The mangaka did a great job with the scenes. The whole vibe and the feels this manga is giving me reminds me of Act-Age. I love this manga so much, every time I finished a chapter, I wanted to clap my hands and sang praises.

Note:
For anyone who is interested, make sure to read the prequel first before the series (Kageki Shojo: The Curtain Rises / かげきしょうじょ!!シーズンゼロ)

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Today I read three(?) pages of a graded reader over coffee, then at lunch I read half a page of my new Haruta magazine (so much kanji!) and then after dinner I read a few pages of Flying Witch vol 2 and a few pages of Yotubato vol 6. There are just so many things I want to read at the same time!

:sparkles: That looks so cute and relaxing!

I’m doing the opposite! First reading over coffee, then WK over breakfast!

Thank you so much! My main concern would be wading through all the easy and very common words I already know … Do you know if there’s any kind of setting that lets you eliminate the most common words?

This is perfect :blush:

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:snowflake: Main Tracking Hub :snowflake:

1月4日〜5日

Materials:
:green_square: 月刊少女野崎くん3
:red_square: 地球星人

After 4 months of sneaking in micro reading sessions, I finally finished reading the 3rd volume of 野崎くん! :confetti_ball: :tada: It feels like the end of an era. Of course, there are several more volumes waiting on my bookshelf for me still, and don’t get me started on the volumes I haven’t bought yet…

One of my favorite things about the 野崎くん series are the hidden comics underneath the dust jacket. It’s such a fun idea. I always save those for last as a bonus treat for finishing. :blush: The takeaway from both the front and back covers is that Kashima is clueless when it comes to her 先輩. :laughing:

For today, I finished Week 1 in the 地球星人 Book Club! 奈月, the protagonist, has an interesting conversation with her cousin involving his mother. She apparently told her son that he’s an alien from another planet and they picked him up one evening. This is probably not true, in which case, his mother sure did tell him something really f’ed up. :upside_down_face: I’ve been told this book gets pretty dark, so I’m eager to continue reading and find out how true that is.

Vocab - 野崎くん

ぶっ潰す [ぶっつぶす]: to smash violently; to crush​
:「そこだ!!!王子なんかぶっ潰せ!!!」
稽古 [けいこ]: practice; training; study​
:「今日も御子柴と稽古するんですか?」

Vocab - 地球星人

あっさり: easily; readily; quickly; flatly (refuse)​
:私の願い事に、由宇はあっさり頷いた。
せかせか: restlessly, hurriedly, agitatedly, fidgeting
:由宇も同じみたいで、俯いてせかせかと歩いていた。

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um, going to need more details here. Tell me all about the kitties.

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