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

Japanese
#443

Well, I haven’t actually read at all the past week. :sweat_smile:
My family from Texas decided to come visit and we had a great time. Work has also been extremely busy as testing season approaches. I’m sitting at a cool 26 tickets now and yesterday I started with 42. :cold_sweat: Normally, I have like…5.

Pokopia came out and that’s been stealing up any free time I did have this week. I meant to start it in Japanese, but I was so exhausted from work that day that I didn’t care. Been playing in English. Kind of a shame you can’t switch the language after you start.

Maybe I can finally get a little time in this weekend. I do have social engagements Saturday and Sunday though so we’ll see. I do miss reading! :pensive:

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#444

@obscureniche I don’t have a Switch 2 yet, so can’t verify this for myself, but I think you can change the language still. Apparently, if you exit the game completely and then go to the main start menu, you can change the language from the main settings page. (Switch was really good about language settings, so I was a bit surprised reading your post and got scared for a moment that they’d taken that flexibility away since I’m eventually planning on grabbing a Switch 2). Anyway, sorry if I’m wrong!

Work is still insane, so very little reading on my end besides Kiki and 牧場物語 Let’s! 風のグランドバザール still has me in a choke hold. @Ayara012 I never actually played the original of this one since I was a bit put off by the bazaar mechanic and was worried it would take away from the rest of the game, but I’m actually really enjoying it so I might go see if I can find a copy of the original from Bookoff. Although that may just serve as a gateway for buying more books so maybe I should avoid it for now. . .

Since it’s a long weekend, I’m going to try to read something other than Kiki tomorrow, but not sure what yet.

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#445

I don’t know about Pokopia (since I don’t have a Switch 2 yet either!) but language settings in Pokemon games are actually in the games themselves. Ever since XY, the games give you the option to choose the game language at the beginning of a new game, regardless of region. Very handy during the 3DS era! Unfortunately, once you choose the language, you can’t change it afterwards.

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#446

I’ve just tested it - you can change the language in Pokopia! As @nminer said, go back to the main starting screen and press - . Once you’ve changed to Japanese you’ll be asked to enter a new name, but everything in terms of progress will be saved. You can change back the same way if you want to go back to English, and it’s not asking me for a new name this time so I’m fairly certain it just keeps the original name for English and uses the new one for Japanese.

As for me… I’ve read all of half a chapter of a Pokemon manga this week. I need to do better but… Pokopia. In English because it’s purely for relaxation and fun.

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#447

Good News Everyone!

I bought a new book! Now, not just any book, but a book NOT added to Natively and one that I submitted and added! So now, more people can learn about Chibi Muroko-chan and buy a book I may have underrated because I wasnt aware of what it was asking at the time lol.

However, I have been reading this week, gotten through a chapter of Chibi, along with doing some workbook readings. Quartet is not as kind as Genki and I was thinking of switching over to Tori but it has the same issues IMO. Of not really explaining grammar and just kinda being like

Here are some example sentences ok byeeeee

Other than that Ive been trucking along. I also snagged a few N4 reading practice books since I should be casually around that level. Not gonna be taking the Summer JLPT but hoping to hit the N3 this winter. But we will see how that goes with me being in a masters program.

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#448

Happy to report I was able to carve out some time yesterday to read. Yay long weekends!

Awhile back, Netflix was really pushing 星降る王国のニナ. I never ended up watching it, but I saw コミックシーモア has some of the manga available for free right now so I ended up reading the first volume of 星降る王国のニナ and part of the second. It was refreshingly easy to read through compared to some of the other more difficult manga I’ve read recently, so I might pick up the next few volumes. I’m going in a bit blind on the story, but the premise seems interesting and the art style for the main characters has been fun so far.

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#449

Honestly, I don’t think you’d be missing much if you only play the remake - it did a very good job, in my opinion, of preserving the spirit of the OG while also making some nice quality of life changes to things like the windmills, etc. It’s been quite a while since I played the original but I can’t think of anything that I was like “oh no, they changed x” about while playing the new version.

Still no update for me (another lovely, extended, unproductive weekend) but I’m hoping to get back on track by the end of the day. I also spent like…three or four hours last night reorganizing/peeling off price stickers/pulling out advertising leaflets from my manga collection, which was arguably not the most urgent of the tidying my apartment needs but which was extremely satisfying, so…win/neutral, I guess?

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#450

Well I woke up sick on Saturday morning. :sneezing_face: I normally don’t have huge issues with allergies, but you’d think I slept next to a pine tree. I’ve never had my ears and throat itch so much. :tired_face: I didn’t do any reading, but did work on my anki cards a little. I’ve let them sit by the wayside for a few months now, thinking that I might not need flashcards anymore, and boy am I completely wrong. I’m just one of those people who has a terrible memory and my dyslexia also affects learning Japanese words.

This is good to know! I believe in the Switch games you can’t actually change it after you choose it. At least that was my experience with Let’s Go Pikachu. Maybe I’ll switch over to Japanese when I’m feeling better and have the attention span for it.

Those two sentences don’t go together in this thread lol.

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#451

To be fair, a book is much better than some of the crimes we’ve committed here.
I say, as one of the worst offenders.

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#452

Correct, in every previous Pokémon game that I know of, the language can’t be changed once chosen. The older games you even had to buy it in the correct language. But since this is a spin-off it doesn’t quite follow the same rules, to our benefit :smiley:

I uh… will remain silent on how much my library has grown since I first posted in this thread. And I definitely didn’t order more only yesterday. Study books to help prepare for the JLPT but hey when you’re ordering anyway you may as well throw in a few manga volumes since they’re so cheap… right?

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#453

You’re just making sure you get the most out of each shipment, of course! Shipping fees have gotten so terrible, after all…

I’m back on the horse, y’all! Got my reviews for the day taken care of, and so far I’m about 1/3 of the way through volume 6 of イチ!
I am also CACKLING because I found out about the English translation of a certain panel:

image
image265×731 46.7 KB
vs
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image374×1024 72.9 KB

Maybe I’m just easily amused, but this is just such a brilliant translation choice.

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#454

Textbooks dont often become someones backlog and if they do… Then youve got a REAL Problem

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#455

I dunno, I feel like some folks here have listed an awful lot of textbooks as part of their piles…

Update on my update - I wound up getting through not only volume 6 but also volume 7 of イチ yesterday!
…But now I don’t get another tankobon until May :sob:

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#456

Thats fair but also, and this is an assumption on my part, its part of their studies and something they are actively working towards. But IDK, maybe it just a “One day Ill get there” type deal. I actively have my weekly meet-ups with my teacher so wheather I like it or not I gotta study and Im chipping away.

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#457

I originally made this thread partially with textbooks in mind bc I tend to hoard them and not use them lol

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#458

I think I may have unexpectedly gotten sucked in to 星降る王国のニナ. I ended up reading the rest of volume two and three online yesterday, and then ordered volume 4-7. Which is bad for the backlog, but I’m also pretty confident I’ll read through them quickly?

I’ll be honest, the story seems pretty YA and one of the main characters is incredibly problematic, but I’m having fun reading it so far so :woman_shrugging:t2:

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#459

I have to confess I bought the first 6 volumes of 黄泉のツガイ while on holiday :upside_down_face:
Not succeeding at decluttering at allll… I did already finish the first one tho

(Same author as FMA btw)

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#460

I always feel like “YA” is such a non-descriptor, since so many different stories get put in there as a catch-all. Most important thing is enjoying it though! And I can hardly throw stones about adding to the pile - plus, from a quick google, the art does look very pretty, too.

Oooooh I have the first two volumes of that, too! I haven’t gotten around to trying them yet though - care to share your thoughts so far?

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#461

I really like it so far!
The first book has a few funny jokes in it that I really enjoyed and so far it really matches the vibe of FMA - not in the sense that its a copy, but that the atmosphere is similar and it’s really fun. The concept of the “tsugai” (which for some reason I see translated as hinge even though it seems more like it’s intended to match the other meaning which is like a bonded pair) also touches on my interest in folklore and yokai, and the vibes also somewhat overlap with my other fav mangas (Natsumes Book of Friends and Mao) but without the monster of the week type set-up. Though maybe that will come later, I’m not sure. So far I was really pleased with how it has set up the story without relying on every chapter raising the stakes (like Kaiju Number 8 did, which made me really fall out of love with that series). That being said, it’s literally volume one, so I can’t rule that out. However (and although I didnt actually finish FMA, tho I got close) I feel like this author is pretty good at pacing and power levelling without making me want to throw the book at a wall, so I’m excited to see where it goes.

Oop sorry for the big write up, ,

ETA: likening it to Natsumes Book of Friends is probably a huge red herring bc it’s def not a warm fuzzy but sad type vibe, but the relationship between the Tsugai and their masters and the setting (old gods/yokai in a modern world) kinda scratched the same itch

edit edit: also one joke I really enjoyed that I will spoiler

it still makes me chortle

Yuru and his tsugai see a car for the first time and Dera tries to explain how it works, much to their confusion, only for Hana to say “There is a horse inside and it can go super fast” and they’re immediately like “wakatta” LMAO
I also really appreciated how later on these literal gods were like “hey don’t we need to feed the horse” :sob: :sob: it was so cute

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#462

Oof, I mean, Ive got some textbooks but Ive gone through them and now I just keep them incase I need them again(I probably wont but still).

But again, I do have a weekly meeting and I would imagine most people here are also self-studiers so going through a textbook is its own hell if you dont have someone to ensure your answers are correct.

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