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

that sounds very food-wars core lol

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll give it a try and report back on how I go!!
I was thinking about making a flying witch volume 1 deck as well so you’ve encouraged me to go ahead and do that :slight_smile:

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Know what, Ill start through the Ramen manga and make my own deck that too(Also please for my own handmade badge too)

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I have a few thoughts on this!

First, in actual answer: I don’t do this, but I’m far enough along that my goal with reading these manga is to get most of it on a first read (albeit with the knowledge that some details will simply be beyond me). That said, when it comes to individual sentences I do re-read sometimes with different levels of checking - I might read a sentence through once, and then go back and actually look up the words I missed and read it again. It all depends on the sentence and how much vocabulary it uses that I’m uncertain of.

And then a few extra thoughts: first, I just took a look at Flying Witch on natively, and it is listed as N4…but it’s a level 19, which is the highest level before being classified as an N3! Keep in mind that even within “difficulty levels” there will always be a lot of variety, and also that these rankings are all relative. And since natively scores are ranked against other manga, you can assume that whoever reads them has a few series under their belt; and reading is one of those things that will get easier as you do more of it.

Also, there are other aspects of a series that can make them easier or harder - for example, Case Study of Vanitas and Detective Conan are only one level apart on natively (27 and 28, respectively). However, if you saw the pictures I posted previously, you can see that Conan tends to have way more text-dense pages, which for me makes it a much slower read with a lot more kanji-checking.

Also also, keep in mind that even having passed the N3 (which congrats!), there’s thousands of vocabulary words that you’re trying to learn. It’s bound to take time! But reading, in the long run, will help with that process. You just have to find the right level of difficulty to be learning new stuff but not feeling like you wanna knock your head into a wall doing so.

Basically, don’t let the numbers stress you out too much about what you “should” be able to do. If Flying Witch feels like a little too much right now, maybe try something different. If you do want to tackle it, then just keep in mind that it’ll take time, but hopefully you’ll come out with some new vocabulary/grammar/experience under your belt, which will make whatever you read next that much easier.

If it helps, I sometimes remind myself that like…how long did I spend as a kid reading before I could tackle longer stuff? How many books did I read that I definitely missed details of? And that was with extra advantages, like 24/7 immersion and parental help and a literally more elastic brain.

As for updates, I’m glad they help you stay motivated! It’s fun to check in with them.
I haven’t gotten to any reading yet today, but since last time I’ve gotten alllllmost all the way through volume 4 of Vanitas, and another 2 chapters or so in Conan. Obviously I’m still looking up plenty of stuff, but I did have a few words that I got the gist of just by looking at their kanji, so that was encouraging :slight_smile:

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Well, I am happy to report I finished volume 8 last night. I think this thread has cured me. Thanks!

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My girlfriend has banned me from buying any more manga until I read what I have… 無理だ :sob:

I’m always in a different mood every time I want to read, I can’t just choose one series to stick with.

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The best method for reading is the one you enjoy and will continue with for a long time :slight_smile: I started reading this year, and read over 50 manga volumes so far, and with two exceptions I didnt read any of them twice and the two exceptions were for fun only.

Some can do well with multiple reads, but I never heard of this method before, I’ve only heard of the three times method for listening (I tried this like once and it was super boring, so off it went into the “not my style” heap). But since you’re feeling “lame” doing so and having a mental block, I would suggest putting the “read multiple times” advice on your heap of “not my style”.

how about trying random internet persons advice “read as much as possible with as much fun as possible and choose reading material easy enough so you dont feel too frustrated”.

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I’ve been hosting friends for the past week and have had 0 downtime to read. They left this afternoon, so hoping to actually do some reading this weekend.

But first, congrats on finishing the second volume of Yotsuba!

(Yes I could have been reading instead of making this badge. No I do not regret it since you have so kindly bestowed badges on others and deserve one yourself! 頑張れ and hopefully you find something that works when reading through Flying Witch.)

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this this this!

and this this this!

The best practice is the practice you’ll keep up!

Oooh I’m glad someone here had the skills to make a little something for them!

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Instructions unclear, another shipment from Kinokuniya arrived instead. :sweat_smile:

But to be fair, I was only planing to purchase the art book, but you HAVE to buy more to get free shipping, am I right??

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Absolutely, after all money sent into the shipping void is better spent on more books. :wink:

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tentatively peeks thru the door- ekhm hi hello :eyes: serial lurker here~

how does one hypothetically sign up to this rehab? i may or may not have books and mangas that i bought 10ish years ago that are in a box somewhere, alongside a vaguely recent book-off haul ^^’’ not to mention all the digital copies… and games as well .-.

i usually avoid reading in jp like fire so donno how this would go… but might as well try? i always default back to audio after a while so hopefully making myself known will help ;w; not sure what sorta goal to set since it’s been a while…, so i’ll just see what i can do?

and good luck to everyone~~

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これは本屋にいい名前でしょう

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Yeah, I read the first volume of Flying Witch earlier this year and I struggled with it as well. I think the only manga I had finished before that was the first volume of Yotsuba so it was definitely a step up in difficulty for me. Even so, I enjoyed it and I’m planning on continuing the series (once I get through my current backlog, of course :wink:).

I have thought about rereading manga I had already finished to see if I had actually improved. Not everything, but maybe just a few things here and there. I do feel accomplished when I revisit content I had previously struggled with and breeze right through it.

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Flying Witch is next on my list for comfty manga once I’ve finished all 16 volumes of Yotsuba (I’m on 12!) I’m excited and nervous at the same time to hear for it’s actually a bit more difficult, glad you posted this. To answer your question, I could never re-read soon after, sometimes I do break down and analyze a tricky sentence though.

Also, checking into rehab, I bought all 64 volumes of Pokemon Adventures and the entirety of Card Captor Sakura in the past month. Discovering that buying complete manga sets in bulk is extremely cheap per volume might have been a mistake!

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I’ll be within kinokuniya/book-off range today, I’ll have to make sure to study the instructions carefully just in case…

I believe one picks up a book and starts reading! At least, that’s how I registered - I hope I’m not missing any paperwork :thinking:

Oh god this has gotten me so many times already. Like the book-off set aisle? A dangerous, dangerous place. (I’ve gotten sets that knocked the price down to basically 100 yen per volume.) God I love it. My wallet doesn’t.

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I think november is a good time to make a “finish this year” list :slight_smile: So I went over my currently reading, dropped and “not started yet” lists to make a small goal list. Adding all first books of series I own but haven’t started yet, in addition to my currently reading and dropped books. Well, now that I finished the list, I noticed 11 items might be a lofty goal :sweat_smile:

Anyway, here’s my list on natively :slight_smile: I’d love to see the lists of others, too.

Edit: Went for the low hanging fruit first and finished スライムライフ2. This series is a great book for first time readers (not that I would encourage a buying spree ^^).

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Here’s a question, when it comes to making a vocab deck for a manga/books how should one go about deciding what to add? ALL words? Just words I don’t know? Words I think might be odd?

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Usually, I add 85-90% of words I don’t know and have bothered to look up (I don’t always look if I have a sense of the scene / what they’re talking about), and words that I think are going to be something that I hear/see infrequently enough to not learn without a flashcard app presenting them to me occasionally.

Like the other day I added 修道院, which isn’t an uncommon word but its uncommon enough where I’m not going to encounter it enough to remember it simply by reading whatever I was reading or going about my day normally.

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I used to add all the words…until I started getting obscure bug names (thanks, Hypnosis Mic). So now it’s most words I don’t already have with a bit of a judgement call on rarer words (jargon, yakuza slang, NSFW terms etc.), although as someone who wants to make Japanese to English translation a livelihood someday, all words and their usages are potentially useful to me.

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As for the main topic of the thread, I’m new here (currently trialling Bunpro right now ahead of the JLPT Dec. test after failing N2 3 times in a row) and I have a sizeable backlog in Japanese and English. I have a private spreadsheet of most of the Japanese language material, but don’t know exact numbers of volumes (I do have an entire cardboard box and under-bed storage bag with a mix of ENG and JPN books), plus I took pictures of the remaining pages I had for some library books I didn’t finish (Haken Anime and Legend Anime by Mizuki Tsujimura + Kyoto Teramachi Sanjou no Holmes by Mai Mochizuki). Online, I have 3 pages of Bookwalker content (some of it read, some not - it’s a mix of JPN + ENG).

I’ve done reading challenges for the library books before, but for other content, I just let it pile up (library books - usually ENG - usually take priority due to having due dates).

In terms of goals, I’d just like to declutter a bit ahead of the JLPT - if I had to make a specific goal, I’d say I’d have to finish one of the library books, ideally through reading challenge/s (since that’s how I’d get the most out of them).

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