[2024] 多読/extensive reading challenge

they’re not always any better about it

3 Likes

I feel dumb but I can’t figure out where I’m supposed to add my information (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)

I’m reading a super easy kid’s book (「星の王子さま」) to get myself back in the groove of things, but it’s a book nonetheless!

Edit: Thanks @seanblue, I understand now!

1 Like

Don’t worry, you’re not missing anything. You can’t edit wiki posts until you earn “member” status. If you copy the template from the first post and just post a reply here, someone will be able to add it to the wiki for you. It doesn’t take long to earn “member” status if you’re fairly regular, so you should be able to do it yourself soon enough.

2 Likes
Username Yearly goal Daily page goal Current book Current page
krystalgch 0/5 20 星の王子さま 19

Added! :grin:

1 Like

Not always, of course. But generally yes. I hate that books/authors get super popular and then you read them and see blatant sexism that’s just somehow overlooked because the male characters are interesting. If you can’t write characters that are 51% of the population well, then you can’t write well.

11 Likes

Spent about an hour in a bookstore reading parts (mostly beginnings) of various books. :smiley: Last time I was in a bookstore in Japan, I mostly walked around intimidated by all the Kanji in the titles :joy:

I even finished the prologue in one book (like, all 20 pages of it), and it went really well. I just ignored all the Kanji and words I didn’t know to not be that foreigner spending 10 minutes on one page. :blush: Felt like I understood all of it at least, even if not all the details, so… maybe easier than 時をかける少女 feels at times? Was just the prologue, but I’ll definitely be checking that one out… when I’m done… with all the other books… :eyes:

Anyway, long story short, reading every day has really helped my reading speed - and ability to ignore and/or infer stuff. Also, Kanji recognition is way up from before I started WK!

Very happy with that progress! :slight_smile: :slight_smile: Thanks everyone, I wouldn’t be reading this much without this forum. :joy:

8 Likes

It’s not always “just the prologue”… I’ve secretly started to pre-read キノの旅 to get a feel for what it’s like, and when I read the prologue, I was sure I’d die from exhaustion if the book was to continue like that - don’t know why, but it was really hard to understand for me… (Luckily, the first chapter seems to be much more digestible, though.)

4 Likes

Let’s hope it won’t fluctuate! That would be pretty bad in terms of getting used to it. :sweat_smile:

But thanks for the reminder - the main part doesn’t have to be harder than the prologue. :slight_smile:

(psst, don’t tell anyone… I also read through skipped over the prologue and first half of chapter 1 :eyes:)

1 Like

Just finished エクサスケールの少女 and it was meh. It was sold as a SF book focusing on AI, but in the end, it’s pretty much a manifesto for “let’s put more money in supercomputing and AI research”, with barely any plot. And when plot happens (after 200 pages) everything (including reaching the singularity, i.e. having a boom of AI) is done in 50 pages. Then we have 50 pages of “look at how cool Japan is now”. Mkay. Also one (1) dragon, one (1) mermaid and two (2) immortals are featured in this book. Also old poetry and the creation myth. What.

I should probably put all of that behind spoilers, but seriously I don’t see the point. Spare yourself and do not read that book. The only good thing that came out of reading it was making that thread to motivate myself to finish it.

19 Likes

Well, I finished ハピネス a couple days ago and it had a SUPER unsatisfying ending in which NOTHING was resolved.


Arisa’s husband came back and they basically talked it out and decided everything was cool?? Even though he cheated on her??? It ends with them just hanging out enjoying life with their kid like nothing ever happened. Arisa got to say hi to her son from her previous marriage but that was more or less the end of that whole plotline. Yoko banging Hiromi’s husband also didn’t really turn into anything. I think I’ll have to read this one again just to see if I get a better grasp of it the second time around

Not sure what to read next. I need to make a trip up to Seattle to go to Kinokuniya!

2 Likes

We all make poor choices in life, and then serve as examples for future generations to not make the same mistakes. You done good :+1:

8 Likes

It’s usually been my positition that the prologue and/or first chapters are the most difficult of any book. But I’ve also already mentioned that there are exceptions, because 佐伯沙弥香について lulled me into a false sense of security that way.

5 Likes

Just finished the last volume of Death Note which also means that I finished reading a complete manga series for the first time. Yay me. Very happy about reading the whole thing in Japanese after only watching the anime. Didn’t expect all the rather big differences included that did not make it into the anime. Now I can finally focus hard core on reading a book for a while…:sweat_smile:

17 Likes

How long did it take you to read the whole series? Also, for those of us interested, do you mind posting a few of the major differences behind spoiler tags?

1 Like

It took me pretty long to finish since I began reading it last summer. At that time I would read maximum 10 pages a day. Sometimes not at all, it was my first native reading challenge.

Recently I’ve been able to finish a volume in about 4 days, sometimes even in 1 if I really dedicate my day to it so it’s hard to say how long it took due to my inconsistency and the change in ability along the way.

Death Note anime and manga differences MAJOR SPOILERS
  • Lights death in the end is different. In the anime Mikami kills himself and Light runs away from the warehouse and later dies on some steps. In the Manga Light is shot by Matsuda and begs for Ryuuk to kill everyone right there on the spot. Ryuuk instead decides to write Lights name in his death note since it would be boring to watch Light dying in jail, etc. Mikami survives but goes crazy and kills himself in jail later.

  • The manga has an epilogue consisting of a few pages explaining what the situation is like after a year has passed.

  • The rainy rooftop scene with Light and L only exists in the anime, not in the manga. As L dies, we get to read his final thoughts “I wasn’t wrong” regarding Light being Kira.

  • The whole third arc with Mello and Near is better paced in the manga while feeling a bit rushed in the anime.

In general, some scenes are shortened in the anime or completely omitted while the manga has a lot more detailed internal dialogue that we get to take part of as readers. The anime has a few exclusive scenes such as Misa’s song, rainy rooftop scene etc.

Here is a more detailed post regarding the differences.
How different are the anime and manga versions of Death Note? - Anime & Manga Stack Exchange

7 Likes

As far as Anime adaption from Manga I’d say it is very close though! I agree on the differences, just that other has a tendency to be much more different =^_^=

END SPOILER

The anime adaption, where he dies on the steps, it is still assumed that he writes the name I believe. Been a while since I saw it, but it sort of hints to it, while the manga made it much more direct :wink:

I bought the manga, intending on reading it. I have the anime on DVD and the Manga in English, so got it in Japanese too. I found it harder than the other mangas I was reading at the time. A bit text heavy in the beginning, with lots of political/police jargon =P

It’s still on my reading list though, just after reading a bit more =)

2 Likes

There’s plenty of anime that I enjoyed, like Death Note, but still have no desire to read the manga. Many seem like too much work, are too long, or both. I think the only completed manga I’m interested in reading to the end right now are:

  • Hourou Musuko
  • Aoi Hana
  • Koe no Katachi
  • Aria
4 Likes

Oh yeah it’s text heavy for sure and pretty much stays that way the whole way through. It felt as if almost every chapter had a few pages with walls of text due to inner dialogue or a character explaining their master plan.

I have a few volumes of 亜人 and it’s sooo muuuuch easier. I’m glad that Death Note was my first cause now I can enjoy how light most other manga are in comparison :raised_hands:

1 Like

This is kind of how I felt reading two volumes of ご注文はうさぎですか and now 放浪息子.

ご注文はうさぎですか = :exploding_head:
放浪息子 = :blush:

1 Like