tadoku reading challenge round 5 – week 4

Week 1: 157.45
Week 2: 266
Week 3: 403.15
Week 4: 329.2
Total: 1250.6

It’s over! I did pretty well for my first try but I don’t think I want to do it again and track all of my reading like this. However I am grateful to the challenge for forcing me into daily reading, making my way through my random manga purchases and completing my first full book in Japanese that isn’t a manga. I tried not to rely on my dictionary so much and I found I was getting the gist of the stories/articles I was reading, which gave me some sense of achievement.

I usually don’t like doing challenges since I’m quite an independent learner and don’t like being guided so much by others, but this one was literally just ‘read’. I planned my own reading and just did my own thing, so I tried to add more variety than what I’m used to. I also found myself reading more on the train on the days I’ve commuted, which has been lovely and a nice change from staring out of the window.

In September I read…

魔女の宅急便
逆転裁判アイドル (loved this book! But then again I’m an Ace Attorney fangirl)
日経ウーマン magazine
君に届け 1-6 (only 24 more to go!)
デキる猫は今日も憂鬱 2-3
作りたい女食べたい女
このうちのとまれ
これは経費で落ちません！
付き合ってあげてもいいかな 1
泣きたい私は猫をかぶる (still reading, about 25% through)
一度寝ただけの女になりたくなかった (still reading, have read 4 short stories)
ねこねこ日本史都道府県 (still reading, it’s non-fiction so I’m just dipping in and out)

Along with the books and manga, I’ve been reading lots of news articles, websites, other books (like my sumo book during the September basho, a book with articles about famous Japanese people, and a book about festivals) and games (I played a bit of Stardew Valley and Hatoful Boyfriend). All of this reading was an absolute stretch for a lazy person like me and I set myself an ambitious target, but it was a great experience. My Bookmeter page has exploded with all of these new books I’ve been reading!

October will see the start of my postgraduate degree (also juggling full time work and various language studies) so I won’t be able to dedicate as much time to read but whenever I have spare time I will use it wisely and continue reading as I have been. I’m finding reading manga daily helpful as I can get through it reasonably quickly without my brain hurting too much, but I would like to tackle more novels and books when I can.