リーダソン - reading Japanese books for the Read-a-Thon

This is it!

2010-04-11T14:05:00.002+02:00

Time spent reading: ~8-9 hours
Books read:

Fairy Tail (vol. 1)
Fairy Tail (vol. 2) (almost finished)
黒魔女さんが通る!! 1 ("Here Comes the Black Witch", read the first story ~80 pages)

Yup, I read very slowly in Japanese and I wish I could have spent more hours reading but I really need to catch up on sleep during the week-end. Maybe next time. Anyway it was fun and congratulations to those who managed to stay awake the whole 24 hours!

See you next time!

Almost over already

2010-04-11T11:34:00.002+02:00

I slept for almost 10 hours so now there isn't that much time left. It turns out that in the Black Witch book there were three different stories and I managed to finish the first one before I couldn't stay awake anymore. So now I'll just read another manga and that will be it.

I'm back!

2010-04-10T20:42:00.000+02:00

Now I can start reading non-stop. :D

I've decided to read the first volume of "黒魔女さんが通る!!" (translation: "Here comes the black witch!!" or something like that). It's the beginning of a 12 volumes series that sold more than a million copies in Japan. Hopefully it won't be too difficult. It's a little over 200 pages but the characters are not too small. It also has full furigana, which means the pronunciation of all the words written using Chinese characters is indicated. That's a huge time saver when looking up unknown words in the dictionary.

If you can read Japanese or are just curious, you can have a look at the beginning of the book. Just follow this link and click on the book's cover.

Anyway, I'm not going to be able to get a lot of sleep if I'm to be able to finish it before the end of the event.

Fairy Tail

2010-04-10T17:29:00.000+02:00

I barely have time to post an update before I have to go out for a few hours. So far I'm reading Fairy Tail. It's a relatively recent series that is currently quite popular in Japan (an anime adaptation started to air a few months ago). It's a fantasy story about a guild of wizards. Nothing particularly original but it's fun to read.

I'll continue reading some of it while in the bus and once I'm back I can start being serious and read until I can't keep my eyes anymore.

Hour 1 mini-challenge

2010-04-10T14:35:00.000+02:00

Where are you reading from today?
My home in Geneva, Switzerland

3 facts about me …
hmmm, what to say? I'm 35, I work as a video games programmer, and I'm learning Japanese.

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
4 kids novels and 9 manga. (but I won't be able to read it all, it's just a selection of possible choices)

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
My goal is to read things in Japanese

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time?
nope, first time

Bring on the books!

2010-04-10T14:02:00.000+02:00

It has started! Well I'm not quite ready...

Anyway I'll start with something easy, some manga that I can finish quickly...

Last Minute!

2010-04-10T13:01:00.000+02:00

Ok, so this is just a quick entry to declare my intention of participating in the Read-a-Thon. I just found out about it yesterday so I haven't really prepared anything.

My goal is too read only in Japanese, as much as possible for the duration of the event. I don't read very fast in Japanese so I'll read a few manga and hopefully will be able to complete at least one very short novel. Also I won't be able to do the full 24 hours as I have a few other things to do and can't stay awake all night but I'll do what I can.

Anyway, I've got to get ready now, so stay tuned for more updates.