I have returned from the dead! I have to write a paper starting this weekend but free reading time is about to open up with summer vacation! But! I started re-reading Yotsubato because I havnt been motived to really read anything recently and so I chose something easy. Powerhoused through the first several books. Ill probably finish them again before picking back up an older book.
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OH! The strange house! A lot of my students have been reading that book/ series recently. So its within common knowledge and probably a good read (For middle schoolers)
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Ho no I don’t like where this is going …
Just checked his wikipedia page, this is what I feared.
Damned it dude, why does it always have to be childrens…
The author of Kenshin also had the same charges.
Glad you are better now and you work through quite a few volumes 
On my side I only ended reread previous chapter and one new chapter of 聞き耳ラヂオyesterday, I wil try to read 3 more today then attack the 6 pages of monogatari.
In english I read 2 more chapters of project hail mary (so up to chapter 6 now )so I can then watch the movie. Awesome story so far, can’t wait for the alien to arrive.
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it is the same author… i was gonna say sadly, but maybe its luckily, because it means one less person being disgusting than if they were two different people
such a pity when talented people throw away all their work by being like that
also I finished yomi no tsugai volume 6 wheeee
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yall holy moly i just found out the author of FMA/ Yomi no Tsugai, Hiromu Arakawa, is a woman and now I think I’m in love with her and I am gonna buy every single work she has ever created
girl power!!!
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She’s actually the coolest person ever. I think it’s a commonly known fact about her, but she’s from a family of dairy farmers. Which I think if you know, makes all the milk references in FMA and Tsugai even funnier.
I haven’t read it yet, but she also has an autobiographical series called Hyakushō Kizoku that I want to buy eventually.
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“I’m not drinking that cow piss” lives rent free in my brain and now it is 2000x funnier omg
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I just recently picked up my first novel 拾ったのが本当に猫がは疑わしい. My goal is to read 3 or so pages a day for a while until i get into a good rhythm and then I’ll try and pick it up from there. It’s over 300 pages 
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I brain farted haha it indeed is, I knew it wasn’t his most known series but missed the mention of kenshin on wikipedia.
Yes! Absolute legend, only read FMA and Silver spoon but her manga are really good so’take any series that interrest you 
Ho my gosh that explains so much 
That’s also why hee little mangaka avatar is a cow.
That looks cute!
3 pages a day is quite a challenge, don’t beatnyourself if you fall behind, just keep reading.
You can do it
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Hope everyone (in Japan) had a good long weekend 
Was mostly focused on catching up on reviews this weekend, but I did end up finishing volume 15 of ニナ and read the first few chapters of スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり. Also very proud to report that I went to Bookoff on Sunday and didn’t buy anything! (This may or may not be due to the fact that I physically do not have any room left on my small bookshelf for more books… I’ve told myself I’m not allowed to buy anymore until I clear out space. It’s tragic).
I also randomly came across this article, which has a few tips for reading Japanese novels. Most of them are common sense, but I may actually start doing the bookmark thing since I’m terrible with remembering side character and place names.
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I just recently returned from my first trip to Japan, and now I can join this thread! Because as a beginning learner, I made sure to pick up some books while there. Well, manga, anyway. Stopped off at Bookoff a few times and got several complete sets and a few first volumes.
Now, to read them. I tried to start reading the first volume of Yotsuba& and Barakamon even while on my trip, but even though they’re very beginner series, I still kept running into so many words I don’t know (especially little expressive exhortations) that it became a slog. Read a word, turn to dictionary, read a few more words, turn to dictionary. Hard to push through.
What I’ve decided to do is load up the Anki decks corresponding to those volumes from jiten.moe, and run through some SRS learning for the vocab for a few weeks before trying to just read. Obviously that’s not enough to really learn them - but hopefully I’ll get enough familiarity that I can get closer to “reading” rather than “this is a list of vocabulary words with pictures.”
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I don’t know if you’re on WaniKani as well, but over there a book club for Yotsuba& has just started (it’s in its second week). It’s an absolute beginner book club, so there’s a bunch of people there who have never read anything in Japanese before. Pretty much everything you could run into, someone else there has run into as well and made a post about, and there’s plenty of people around who help out by giving explanations. I’ve joined it myself as well even though I’m a bit more advanced than absolute beginner, and I’m definitely getting use out of it. Even if you don’t feel like joining in on the discussion, just reading the thread can be very helpful
I come here with my head hung low in shame. Verasia has received an order of books from me this morning. 24 books have shipped to me as of an hour ago.
Most of it is N3 prep stuff I’m going to take my time working through. Some of it is definitely not though.
I don’t even have space on my bookshelves for all of this… I’m going to have to move some books to the loft, I think. May have to get a storage box for them to keep them nice.
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well at least you feel shame… I feel sympathetic enough to let you off the hook 
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No reading updates from me because I think my brain has melted from this heatwave.
But posting this for the D.Gray-man sickos:
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wow showing off having a brain to melt i see… some of us were born brainless you know
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Oof, sorry to leave you hanging on this for so long! I’m reading the manga version - I haven’t really poked my toes into any light novels yet. I liked the first volume so far, but I’d guess that the anime probably covers further than that. I can report back if/when I pick up more volumes though, if you’d like.
Yeah she’s great!!!
Legally obligated plug for Pandora Hearts/Case Study of Vanitas, which are also done by a female mangaka, heck yeah.
And I dunno if anyone’s in the Tokyo area, but I think I remember getting an ad for a Yomi no Tsugai x FMA collab there? Not sure if it’s still going or not, though.
My weekend was extra extra long, since I took a couple days off! Hence the silence from my end, because I definitely wasn’t getting any reading done, lol.
As someone who previously ran out of room, this is a solvable issue 
Welcome in! There’s definitely a frustration-curve to be overcome as you get into reading native material, even when it’s on the simpler end, but as you spend more time reading it’ll get easier. (Slowly. Very slowly. But it will!)
And for me, at least, having this little place to report successful progress (or even less successful attempts) is also helpful.
We’re all fellow prisoners here. Are you planning to take N3 in December, or not quite yet?
FOR ONCE I already knew about this and you’re not sniping me in the middle of a Monday morning!
…I am going to be so, so normal about attending this in Osaka, uh-huh.
Anyway, as mentioned, no reading update atm! I’ve gotta spend some time today sorting out my schedule and other little odds and ends, and then I’ll get my reviews off vacation mode. After that, we’ll see!
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a disturbance in the waters…
i feel the end is near…
we have all been destroyed by our book piles
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Last week has been a bit hectic on my side so even studying japanese was difficult.
Read 8 pages of monogatary on monday, 3 graded reader from tadoku on thursday and yesterday I reread 4 chapter + 2 new ones of 聞き耳ラヂオ on Satori reader.
I will try to finish both those stories this week.
Found used copies of 2 other bilingual book I was looking for and they should arrive in a week or 2.
Because it was mentionned I am also slowly adding my collection to librarything, though I didn’t found the courage to scan my manga library (probably have 500 + of them ) so for now it’s only books I have laying around as most of them are in the cellar for a lack of place (finger crossed I can move to a house in 2 years time).
Also I don’t have japanese books so it’s mostly my french ones and a handfull of english ones.
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Nah, I’m giving myself some time to review N4 material I’m shaky on first, then I’m moving on to the N3 stuff. Planning to take it next year July.
One of the books I bought in my recent purchase was a bilingual Japanese fairytales book. And I just successfully read the first story, with only looking at the English version to check if I understood a few sentences correctly! Of course I already knew the 桃太郎 story which helps a lot, but the language was N4 level. Just a few kanji I didn’t know, but context made their meaning clear enough. I haven’t yet looked ahead to see if all the stories are like this or if it gets harder, but it’s definitely getting me motivated!
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Which is it? 
The Japanese Folktales for Language Learners from Tuttle one?
That’s awesome you got most of it, must feel very rewarding.
Don’t forget to grab the free audio to listen when you have some time or doing chores!
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