Naturally, our brains are lazy and having the furigana there is a nice shortcut… haha
(I feel like I do this quite a bit too …)
I can relate with @mathijsdm … I used to try to read the small “blurs” too hehe. In some physical manga its really difficult (especially towards the bend in the middle ) haha
- Try to look at the kanji first and then the furigana.
- Sometimes, I re-read the sentence and tried to look at the kanji first, ignoring the furigana…
- Initially try to read slowly and not worry about this. Slowly over time try to build speed. (Reading the kanji is faster than reading furigana, right? hehe )
- At one point I used to read a long with a peace of paper to cover the furigana. Only checking when I am not sure
On the bonus side, just by seeing some words with the furigana so many times (in these books), later you will hopefully recognize them in other media without the furigana.
Also, light novels / books / games would have the furigana on some vocab on the first time only when seeing that word. (ie don’t ignore the furigana haha)
Don’t worry about that too much. Reading and building comprehension is difficult enough.