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

Japanese
#823

Not that one, though I do also own that one. It’s this one (Long-Ago Stories of Japan). It seems to be a book for native Japanese speakers trying to learn English, but the only way I noticed that was through reading the foreword :slight_smile:

I should try to work on the Japanese Folktales for Language Learners one as well though… looking at my bookmark in there, I was reading through The Magic Teapot, but I remember having to look up every other word in the list and getting frustrated with it. Would be interesting to see how much I’ve improved since then!

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#824

Yep. Over the weekend, I was able to read the first chapter of Barakamon volume 1 - about 60 pages. A real sense of accomplishment! Doing the anki deck for the vocab in advance of trying to read really helped me a lot, and I’ve started doing that for Yotsuba& as well.

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#825

Yes you should definitly go back to it someday.
I had the same problem with the “Japanese Myths, Legends & Folktales” the first story was about a sparrow that injured itself and an old man rescue it. I think I could understand one word out of 20 when I read it 2 months ago, so I put it aside.
It’s better with monogatari where I understand half of the words but still couldn’t quite figure the story so I did some intensive reading on that one and wrote the translation of every word new words on it (even with the french translated text on the side).
When I am done with its last story I will reread it and hopefully it will be smoother as I have 2 months of additional Bunpro and Satori reader vocab under my belt.

Dude that’s awesome :smiley: keep it up and don’t hesitate ro reread it in a few months to cement your knowledge of the words and see how you improve.
It’s so rewarding to easily read previous hard content.

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#826

I finally finished おじさまと猫, took longer than expected. The cat talk is easy to read but I feel it’s too hard for N5 ich level, I struggled so much on the ojisama talk that it wasn’t enjoyable (90% of the time was me chatting with claude to understand every single grammar point…). I bought the first Doraemon and it’s much more enjoyable, I can read some (30% maybe) full page without struggling and I still learn a lot of vocab. It’s surprisingly good, I highly recommend it to N5+ people.

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#827

I’m having commitment issues rn and read the first 30 pages of hennaie instead of reading any of the 8 gazillion other books I’ve started

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#828

I moved apartments recently and had to box up all my Japanese books. I completely forgot I owned the first few ブルーロック :heart_eyes:

I also found some cringe-inducing kawaii 少女 romance I bought due to its simplicity. I just wouldn’t be caught dead reading it in public. I even caught strays from my wife :dizzy_face:

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#829

If you need to donate your shoujo to a good cause, I’m sure a few people in this thread would be more than willing to take them off your hands :eyes:

(If we don’t buy the books ourselves it doesn’t count towards jail time. . . Right?)

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#830

Yes! I’m actually going to this in August. I’m not sure what the photo policy is, but if photos are allowed I can snap a few if anyone not in the Tokyo area is interested. It also looks like the event is happening in other parts of Japan later in the year: 鋼の錬金術師×黄泉のツガイ展 | SQUARE ENIX

I also need to report a crime. I went to Bookoff on Saturday and bought 7 volumes of ヤニ吸う. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t actually have room for them so they are currently taking up room on my desk.

But, I am going to plead for a suspended sentence (執行猶予 — it’s actually a word in Wanikani lol) as I ended up getting mild heatstroke that same day so clearly the universe was punishing me.

On the reading front, not too much on my end. I read the latest chapter of 身分差に終わった恋を、今さらですが on Sunday, and am 2/3rds of the way through vol 2 of ヤニ吸う. I am also re-reading the first vol of Fullmetal since I’m going to that exhibit next month. I forgot how dense the first chapter of the book is with all the religious speech at the beginning. ヤニ吸う, on the other hand, has been a delightfully easy read. Hoping to finish vol 2 tonight.

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#831

Slightly off topic but a moment of thread silence for Keigo Higashino who died this week at 68… an absolute titan, RIP

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#832

Never heard of him but rest in peace.
What’s your favorite work of him?

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#833

Looking at his Wikipedia page, seems to have been an author of mystery novels. A good one, too. 68 is way too young… that’s my parents’ age. RIP

On a more cheerful note, I started reading the ミラーさん novel from the みんなの日本語 textbooks… and finished it a few hours later. That’s my first non-manga and non-kids book I finished reading in Japanese, and it went quite smooth - didn’t look anything up, and only a few words I’m not sure of. I know it’s written especially for learners of my level, but actually finishing it feels really good. First time I’ve finished a 150 page book the same day I started it in any language other than Dutch (native language) or English!

As far as stories go it’s not exactly good - there’s barely a story there, it’s mostly just snippets of his life in Japan. Not exactly the most exciting stuff to read about, lol. Still, feels good to be reading in Japanese at all and I want more :smiley:

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#834

Checks out the cover
Ho that’s the wierd book with the blonde dude on it :blonde_man:
Anyway that’s a massive achievement, well done!
The book says it’s around N4, maybe it’s time for you to try kiki delivery service ? :eyes:

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#835

I was going to buy it with my most recent haul, but it was out of stock. Otherwise I most certainly would be trying it right now!

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#836

I liked “A Midsummer’s Equation”… The Detective Galileo series is available in English if you like mystery! I borrowed them from the library back in my home country originally

Right… That’s right around my parents’ age too…

That’s absolutely fantastic! Congratulations!

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#837

I think Kiki may be a bit difficult at N4 level (I’d rate it at high N3 level), but if you do end up reading it feel free to ask questions in the book club thread! Even though it’s “completed”, I’m more than happy to help answer questions and discuss the book.

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#838

Reading a few more pages of henna ie and I gotta say… I think this book is really accessible for intermediate learners, since it’s not in very typical prose. It’s more like reading phone conversations and email exchanges with some narration mixed in. This gives the added benefit of witnessing some more conversational/email conventions than you would normally encounter in a novel.

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#839

Thanks for the recommandation, I will add them in librarything but I think I’ll try to read the OG novel when my japanese is better.
It will be the best experience :smiley:

That’s neat, it’s something you don’t encounter a lot and is really usefull for learners.

On my side I have read 2 more chapters/pages of 聞き耳ラヂオ, I wil review the new vocab today and work on monogatari before reread it.

Edit: spoiler, the chapters I read yesterday night was about an earthquake occuring and I just heard about the earthquake Japan suffered yesterday. That’s an odd coincidence.
I hope they can rescue the people still stuck in the collapse supermarket :bowing_man:

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#840

:handshake:

Nice! I’m waiting on results from the recent N2 - could have gone either way, it’s probably going to come down to whether I passed listening or not - so I might wind up doing something similar with N2/N1 points. Especially vocab, since I know that’s another weak point for me at the moment.

Congrats!

Oooh I see this one around, it looks super cute - albeit maybe a bit more slice of life than I think I would usually go for. It’s a shame it was difficult for you, but hopefully you still got some useful practice out of it!

But you read!

Okay well it looks like you’re sniping me on a Thursday morning instead of a Monday morning, I suppose. When I first saw an ad for this I tried checking and it only said Tokyo! But now! There’s Osaka!!!

Oh geez, hope you’re okay - the weather’s been so nasty lately, you’re not the only one I know who got taken out by it.

…Does it count as an update if I only read in English-

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#841

The original post of Caffe never specified it needed to be japanese books.
What did you read? :eyes:

Read through 6 more pages of the last story of Monogatari, it’s about the little shizou statue.
4 more pages to go and I will be done with my first pass on it :smiley:
It’s not a full japanese book but still close enough for me.
I don’t remember if I said it here but finished Project Hail Mary in english last week and came back to Read Dead History which I read 30 pages of yesterday

#842

Volume one of Legend of Exorcism! I’ve had it on hand for a bit but hadn’t gotten around to it, and I chewed through most of it Wednesday night and finished it off yesterday.
I may have committed a crime with the accomplice of Kinokuniya but I’m being punished because the actual volumes I need next to continue the story are out of local stock and have to be imported :sob:

I’ve got the first volume of a few other things that I bought previously, so I’ll probably give those a start while I wait for. Completely innocent and unrelated deliveries.

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