Book collector rehab (actually reading what you own accountability thread)

Japanese
#342

I read a lot last month, but due to also buying a lot, my backlog only went down by 4 books… but at least it went down!

I finished the first volume of Violet Evergarden, which I think I started in November. I’m really proud of myself since I very rarely read or finish the Japenese novels or LNs I buy, despite all the manga I get through. Although I struggle to get through my English translated backlog for novels atm too… I was only reading 5~ pages a day for Violet Evergarden, so it was slow going, but I sped up to 10 pages by the last 40~. It was hard, but good. I’ll continue on with it at some point, but for now, I decided to read アオのハコ Prologue. I read the manga already (although in English), so I figured having the familiarity would be helpful. I’m about 35 pages in so far and have found it a relatively easy read since it’s slice of life. :slight_smile:

My aim for the weekend is to get caught back up with Kiki >_>

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#343

Light novel - young adult
Novel - adult

For the most part this is the distinction. If it’s targeted to older teens/adults in their 20s it’s a light novel. Pretty much anything that has an anime or manga adaptation is going to be a light novel.

Anything that’s targeted towards only adults is a novel. Think like 雨の日も、晴れ男 or コーヒーが冷めないうちに.

I found these distinctions difficult at first too, even with children’s books. I was the first to add the Nancy Drew series and originally I added them as novels, because in the United States Nancy Drew would be considered a children’s novel. I later changed it to the children’s book category since they’re still books primarily target at children, even though the lexile (difficulty scale used for books in the public school system) is quite high.

Fair enough. I wasn’t too big on graded readers myself. Some were really helpful at first, but I got away as soon as I could. For children’s books it really depends on the book. Too young gives me the same problem as graded readers. Too old and I’m fighting for my life reading them. Looking at Nancy Drew again. Apparently my reading level stops at about 6th-7th grade lol.

おめでとう！ :partying_face:

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#344

So. I have been reading quite a lot (as the doctor ordered) but not as much in Japanese.
I’ve almost finished the 13-book series I was reading (in English); probably going to finish the day after tomorrow. And then that whole box set will go to a curbside library for someone else to enjoy.

I’m still waiting for Howl’s Moving Castle (in English)… supposedly it will finally arrive on Monday, but time will tell. It would be perfect though, if I finish the other series I can immediately move on to Howl’s for my nighttime reading.

In terms of Japanese reading, I’ve only read the two Genki readers that go with the chapter I just finished working on, and 3 chapters of よつばと！ Planning to make some time to finish the first volume of よつば today.

However. Forgive me, for I have sinned. I tidied up my bookcases and came to the startling and dangerous conclusion that I have empty space left. So I bought the rest of よつばと！…and since it’s almost my birthday I treated myself to the Nausicaä manga set, and my mom bought me another アニメ絵本. I may also have gotten some more study books while I was ordering stuff anyway - would be a waste of shipping costs otherwise…

I have promised myself that this was the last time at least until I’ve finished all of よつば, and for my nighttime reading after Howl’s trilogy I need to read the books I already own before getting more. Also, when I’ve read all of those, check what the library has before jumping into buying something immediately. AND before buying more Japanese books, I have to at the very least check if I can already make sense of the books I own, or if those are still above my level.

In the meantime I just keep telling myself that I could have been addicted to way worse things than buying books and in the grand scheme of things it really isn’t that bad, right? :sweat_smile:

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#345

I just bought 6 Monster Hunter light novels across 2 series as well as the most recent Manga in a series I have the rest of. Couldn’t miss out on the free shipping at Suruga-Ya :sweat_smile:

I also now have no more space for light novels on the shelf and I still have 37 SAO light novels to shelf :sweat_smile:

But, I did finish Flying Witch up to volume 11 which I’ll start later today :joy:

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#346

I am getting pretty close to finishing reading through 上級へのとびら despite having already passed N1 this December…

Almost identical to the time I finished Genki 1 and 2 after having already passed N3

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#348

No reading updates from me - had a few things eating up my personal time, and the students are finished with their project for the semester so I have checks notes nearly 300 written responses to go through and mark, so I don’t know that I’ll be getting to any this week.

But congratulations to everyone on the good news since I checked in! Lots of reading, and better glasses (I feel you so much, even just getting an old pair updated always has me going “Oh wait, I forgot the world is so sharp when my eyes work???” so I can’t imagine having to deal with seeing double for so long), and getting into masters programs…Heck yeah, everybody :muscle:

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#349

I suspect I won’t get much reading done this week either, despite a national holiday tomorrow… I’ve been having pretty horrible anxiety and it’s crazy how much my Japanese comprehension plummets as a result. It is a good reminder to be kind to myself though, and maybe a good reminder to others too - there are times in your life you might feel your abilities are not what they should be, and it’s not always because of raw ability, but the many other factors in your life that can effectively put a bit of a difficulty filter over everything.

Anyway, I’ve decided to go back to Yotsuba for the time being because it’s exactly the kind of gentle material I could benefit from right now.

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#350

not a link, but i can give the ISBN and name,

こどもにほんごじてん (all hiragana)
ISBN 4-06-265311-7

with how generic the name is, the ISBN i think is more useful anyway.

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#351

Hrm, cant seem to find anything specific with that ISBN but ill keep my eye out at stores for something similar. Ive seen stuff like that at book off for just a couple hundred yen. Ive been debating buying just for the colorful factor while I look up vocab from time to time. Just get used to seeing more and all that.

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#352

Finished マグメル深海水族館 1. Enjoyed it just as much as I thought I would. I’ll continue on with the next 2 volumes I own. This series will be a bad influence though. I’m sure I’ll want to continue reading past the volumes I own.

I notice my reading pace has dropped a bit the past couple of weeks. Work has been a busy and I’ve been working on an art project at home. I also got the Kobo I ordered in the mail yesterday and have started reading Flowers in the Attic. I always saw V.C. Andrews books at Salvation Army growing up, but I never could get the first one in any of the series.

I did try one japanese book with the Kobo and so far my opinion is that it’s terrible for that. :joy: If you want to look anything up it’s so sluggish to highlight words with. I think I’ll just stick to my android tablet for japanese books.

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#353

The link for the book you were asking about above

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#354

Darn… I have a kindle and wondered if it would be worth using it to read Japanese books, but now that you say that, it does have a very slow response time too

#355

Thanks, I was able to find it using an ISBN lookup, but i didn’t have time to get back to the forums yesterday to post a link to it. :stuck_out_tongue:

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#356

My current back log is 226… and I just ordered another 15 from Kinokuniya…I may have a slight problem…especially since I’m almost out of shelf space (gotta fill in those empty spots!) But I am almost done with 久保さんは僕モブを許さない so at least I’ve got that going for me. :rofl:

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#357

Random things you learn in reading:
針供養
looks up word what the hell is a needle memorial service?
well, it’s this:
https://time-to-drink.com/news/Needle_Memorial_Service　針供養（はりくよう）

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#358

I meannnnnn…as long a you’re reading them and not adding them to the backlog…

Trust me, you fit right in here. My initial post way back when shows how deep my own pile was, and it’s only grown. But we’re all here working on it as best we can XD

That’s fascinating, actually, thanks for sharing it!

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#359

I’m sure if you were at a high reading level and didn’t feel like you had to look anything up it would be fine. Otherwise, an android tablet with Firefox and yomitan is absolutely the way to go. I don’t feel like I’m at a high enough reading level for that yet at all. :sweat_smile:

…true. :smirk:

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#360

It’s not that I feel like I don’t have to, it’s simply just that I don’t XD

This weeks update:

Started:

  • Yotsuba 4

Finished:

  • Fushigi Dagashiya Zenitendo 2

Progressed:

  • Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture (I am now officially more than halfway through my first light novel!!)

Standby:

  • Kiki… Kiki pls forgive me…

Reflections:

  • I like reading
  • I probably skip over more than I should lol
  • I have come across SO many grammar points through reading, and it’s so helpful to learn them via that instead of going into them cold as things I need to learn. I haven’t perfected them or anything, but looking up something I dont understand and realising it’s a grammar point has been much more impactful I think than just learning grammar points because I need to learn grammar points.
  • “to iu” is the worlds single most useful grammar point considering the rate it appears in fiction lol
  • fluency from immersion takes a lot longer than I thought lol rip (I’ve been doing this for 2 months ofc I’m not a fluent reader yet, calm down girl) and there’s still a lot to learn outside of it despite all the “I just read books” influencers. If I want to get a job I’m going to need to start focusing harder on business Japanese…
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#361

Oh also, another random thing I learned:

丑の刻参り

In case anyone wanted to learn about cursing people

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#362

read through mashle of muscles and magic book 1, took a few hours but thoroughly enjoyed it. now to stop volume 1 itis and work on my other volume 1’s. (Also read Dragon ball SD’s free sample of 25 pages, pretty darn funny. easy enough to where not a single word had to be looked up, too.)

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