I have a confession to make. . . I may have succumbed to Book Off mania over the weekend. A friend asked me to look for something for them in my local store, so I went in, blacked out, and when I came to I was standing outside with a new manga in my hands
It was the first volume of Witch Hat Atelier, which has been on my TBR list for awhile now. Seeing the pile of them in @Kelsy’s post made me remember that I didn’t own any of them yet, and the art is very pretty. (@Ayara012 sorry if this makes you more tempted to buy it as well!).
In terms of reading, I did manage to get a few chapters of Apothecary Diaries vol 5 done this week. Plus the readings for Kiki book club.
Dangerous perhaps to introduce this in this thread, but have you heard of the concept of Tsundoku? Rather than shaming people for buying and not reading a lot of books, I personally like the positivity behind its usage as well which amounts to buying them for later and the joy that springs from having them there.
At least it was just one volume! I think we all know how perilous book off can be, really.
Look I’m safe from Atelier until I’m next at a book off… Then all bets are off.
It really is pretty, and I keep seeing drawings of what I’m presuming are two of the wizards from the series on Tumblr…
Ooooh I didn’t realize the 170 volumes wasn’t including the novels. Yeah that sounds pretty not doable.
I’m so tempted to flag your post lol. You’re secretly a dealer and you’re trying to take us all down with you! Don’t listen everyone! Buy books=bad!
On another note, I finished よつばと16 yesterday. I also decided to drop 本好き again because I just don’t enjoy reading it right now. It’s still too hard, even though I feel like it shouldn’t be. I could finish multiple other books in the time it would take me to read. I’ll continue focusing on Nancy Drew and Kino no Tabi for my novels.
How are you finding Kino no Tabi? I struggled through the first one a few years back and haven’t felt ready to re-tackle it yet but it’s on the TBR pile
English, seeing as the JP cinema comic is above my level the novels are sure to be even worse. Someday, however, I do want to read it in Japanese too.
Meanwhile… I’ve been trying to get a replacement for the book that’s missing the ending. It’s a misprint and it’s way past the return date for where I bought it, so I’ve mailed the publisher. Apparently I first ended up at the UK part of the publisher when I had to be at the US part and they can’t just forward it within the company so I had to go to them myself. Sure, okay, seems a bit roundabout but mailed the US one instead. And there I somehow ended up at the Christian part of the publisher (the book is not religious in any way). They sent me a bible replacement request form… which I filled out with the details of the book anyway, since it seems to have the fields I’d expect, and just crossed out everywhere it said ‘bible’ and replaced it with ‘book’
So, either I’m going to get ghosted now, OR I’m going to receive a replacement for the book, OR I’m going to receive a bible. Anyone wanna bet on which one it’ll be ?
And all this in order to FINALLY finish reading a book series I started two years ago. A for effort, I guess?
This seems like a great approach! I tried reading flying witch again straight after the first time, and it was just kind of tedious. I think I’ll enjoy it more if I’ve had some distance from the plot. Thank you for telling me your routine!
love love loooove this series! Though I’ve only read like the first four maybe? And it was in English. But the art and world are absolutely delightful, it just scratches that itch in my brain that childrens fantasy like The Last Unicorn, Rupert Bear, Howls Moving Castle and other whimsical and adventurous series have put there.
It’s 三洋堂。I live in the mountains 人口は4万人ぐらい. Maybe that’s why?
Manga is usally 100円 or 200円. 50円 is cheaper than usual.
Once I bought manga in the City [at 三洋堂]for the highway bus home - 630円 びっくり
I’m on the second book. (only like 6% in atm) I found the first book to not be too difficult. Some chapters were definitely substantially more difficult than others, but a good bit of the first book was a part of the anime, so I also had that prior knowledge to help me out. I watched the original anime many many times growing up.
It’s worth noting that I didn’t finish the first book very quickly though. It looks like it took me from December 10th, 2024 to January 31st, 2025.
キノの旅 also was my first novel! Im currently at Volume 11 and I love it mainly because its really easy and has a giant amount of variety while sitting at a pretty much constant N2-N1 difficulty (at least later ones) which is perfect for beginners. Tbf, it wasn’t “really easy” from the beginning of course, but after 11 Voumes I really start to appreciate the conistency of the grammar and narrative voices combined with the digestible and contained chapters. I think it is thanks to this that I can read it pretty much “fluent” now although I have only been studying japanese for like 1.5 Years (which feels really rewarding, but I think It really is because of how well written it is rather than personal skill, which is why I recommend it).
I also really find that some books are just written in a more straightforward way that I understand better. Particularly “newer” books. I’ve read a couple of books now (albeit translations) that are from the 30s and 40s (Nancy Drew being one of them) and they definitely feel old in the same way they do reading them in English. Like they instead of calling a car a jalopy they say 愛車, which can’t be common in modern japanese I’m sure. Heck it could even be made up for the sake of the book for all I know.
I watched the original anime just before starting reading book 1 but that was my first time coming across it. Only recently watched the newer version.
I really struggled with the first book reading it across about 4-5 weeks but was reading about 3-6 pages across an hour or 2 at a time a few times a day (several hours most days - granted my understanding was bitty, my grammar knowledge was pretty poor and I was looking up almost every unknown word ).
I really want to re-read it but I’m worried about it being too difficult even now though my understanding is a lot better.
It’s one of the series that is recommended for breaking into native content. That and Otsuichi’s Zoo short story book.
Just a pity my understanding level was no where near where it should have been to start reading
Oh man, that’s an extremely entertaining toss-up. I’ll put my money on…hm, receiving a bible, I think.
I see I see… Children’s fantasy and whimsy, you say… Interesting…
At least when it comes to book-off by me (尼崎市, a bit west of 大阪 but technically in 兵庫県), there’s usually a sort of scale to the prices.
There will be a section with copies that are essentially pristine - those will either be nearly original cost (450円, 400円) - and ones that are in realllly nice condition - those will be like 300円ish.
But then there’s also a section for ones that have a little more wear and tear - a dent or scratches on the cover, discoloring on the spine or the page edges, stuff like that. Those are the ones that are usually 100円. And like, I say more wear and tear, but…they’re still in REALLY good condition. I remember being straight up shocked by the fact that there were books in truly amazing condition for essentially a buck.
It…may be part of why I’m so weak to book off I can’t imagine finding books in such good condition for such goods prices back home, let alone the set deals they do.
I do think things like this add flavor to the writing, at least in English, so I would assume it’s the same in Japanese - but it also makes things harder to tackle for us newcomers
As for making things up for the sake of the book, that’s definitely a thing. I haven’t read it myself, but I saw some discussion a while back about how the Japanese translation of the Murderbot Diaries series played around with making up a pronoun for the Murderbot to use, since Japanese pronouns are so often connected to gender and in the English Murderbot specifically only ever refers to itself as “it,” never “he” or “she.”
Anyway, my update - not a LOT to share because I’ve still had some class prep to tackle (the semester will be ending soon which will hopefully give me more free time to work with), BUT I managed to catch up on my wk/bunpro two days ago and get in a teeny tiny bit of 傷モノの花嫁 between classes. Hoping to tackle a little more today
I’ve had 0 free time this past month, but after refreshing myself with some good ol textbook reading, I believe I’ll be able to finally read more. i did read a few pages of Frieren last night to my kid, but that’s hardly “engrossed reading.” I still want to work more on mushoku tensei so I plan to read a couple dozen pages tonight come hell or high water.
Yea I live in a small town on the outskirts of 成田 so thats the book-off I usually go to, and with its high traffic rate the books move pretty-steadily so the bulk sell section has never had exceedingly good deals(That Ive seen). Though I have found some gems in the 100 yen aisle.
because I am so late I will not be joining the book club however, I have another book to read, a Translated light novel Im pretty sure called 動物と話せる少女リリアーネ。And Ill be reading a few pages a day and using highlights to mark out new grammar points, and when grammar points mix into each other, and when entire sentences dont seem to make sense to me. This way, I ask my teacher about them when I meet her every week and review out workbook.
Update: I am officially back on the horse. Got through the remaining 2/3 of 傷モノの花嫁 between classes, with a little bit of spare time left now to read some ヴァニタス before I leave for the weekend
I know exactly what you’re talking about I originally thought it was a yaoi series until I saw an ad for the anime adaption and actually looked the series up.
In terms of reading updates, I read the next section of Kiki (spoilers for anyone in bookclub, but next section will be 9 and a half pages). It is both a blessing and a curse that I’m running a book club for it, as now I’m forced to read ahead each week so I can set the target pages/write a summary for people to reference. I think it’s good though, as it ensures I actually read something in Japanese each week.
This weekend should be pretty relaxed, so hoping to finish vol 5 of Apothecary Diaries and potentially start something else.
I’ve been surprisingly busy this week at work and haven’t been able to read very much. I’ve also been very tired lately. Last night I was trying read a little more Nancy Drew and I fell asleep, dropping my tablet (thankfully away from my face), after reading 1.5%. This was before 9pm even hit.
I’m hoping people decide not to break anything today and I can just be a gremlin in my office with the door closed, reading and taking in copious amounts of caffeine to briefly stave off the desire to sleep.
).
