#japanese reading list

[brofightiscancelled]

request from @hanaybuns to translate these pages from i believe "Matsuno Family Dependents Gallery"? sorry i didnt know how to approach the typesetting for this lol

all the quotes the boys are saying are from s1 episodes (right -> left):

oso 1 2 3

karamatsu 1 2 3

choromatsu 1 2 3

ichimatsu 1 2 3 (warning: ichimatsu incident)

jyushimatsu 1 2 3

todomatsu 1 2 3

[onigiriforears]

Vocab pt. 1 | 「伝える力」が伸びる! 12歳までに知っておきたい語彙力図鑑

I've recently started reading 「伝える力」が伸びる! 12歳までに知っておきたい語彙力図鑑 (or what I only refer to as "Words You Ought to Know as a 12-year old") as a means to up my vocab game before the JLPT.

I'll probably post a review about the book once I actually finish it.

But in the meantime, here are some of the words that I learned just from reading the sections about how to use the book and all 5 of it's sections. I was quite pleased at the amount of words that I've already learned (and how many of them were N2 words).

語彙力 (ごいりょく)- (the extent of) one's vocabulary

図鑑 (ずかん)- field guide; illustrated reference book

目指す (めざす)- to aim at (for; to do; to become); to try for

各 (かく)- each, every, all [prefix]

繰り返す (くりかえす)- to repeat; to do over again

基礎 (きそ)- foundation; basis

言い換える (いいかえる)- to say in other words; to put another way; to rephrase

言い換え (いいかえ)- putting in other words; paraphrase; rephrasing; rewording

状況 (じょうきょう)- state of affairs; circumstances; situations; conditions

鍛える (きたえる)- to drill; to train; to discipline; to forge; to temper

変換 (へんかん)- change; transformation; conversion

観察眼 (かんさつがん)- observing eye

目の付け所 (めのつけどころ)- focus of one's attention; what one is looking for; viewpoint; point one is trying to make

文豪 (ぶんごう)- literary master

候補 (こうほ)- candidate; contender; prospect; pick; choice; list

まつわる- to be related; to concern; to be associated with

登場 (とうじょう)- entrance; appearance; arrival

表現 (ひょうげん)- expression; representation; description; representation (of a group)

解決 (かいけつ)- settlement; resolution; solution

ワンパターン - following a single pattern; conforming to the same pattern; repetitive; stereotyped; predictable [Wasei-eigo]

Hopefully, I'll be able to consistently post some of the vocab lists that I continue to compile for this. I'm in the Step 1 section of the book where it gives you synonyms and explains the connotations behind them/situations in which to use them. The first section I read was for やばい~

[anime-academia]

四月 二日 2024年 火曜日

(しがつ ふつか 2024ねん かようび )

This week's kanji focus and today's kanji practice ft. the days of the week.

Also some books i plan on finishing/ reading this month.

Today felt long, but I managed to go through 2 more reference books and note down the important points. Progress is progress.

I will be spending the rest of the evening on Spanish and watching Sailor Moon🌙

[manicali]

I was looking for a reference photo for drawing Dazai and apparently there’s an author named Osamu Dazai, author of no longer human.

Guess who’s adding more books to my reading list

[scarefox]

btw. here is the LGBTq QL actor list I started on MDL

I try to keep it updated as far as I get information.

[coogi-pants]

books i will be adding to my ever growing reading list.

[figcatlists]

Horror and disturbing manga reading list

A chart of recommended horror manga, compiled from various online sources. Includes examples of a wide range of horror themes, from eerie psychological horror to graphic gore. See the full web version of this list for more titles and links to MyAnimeList, Goodreads, and Wikipedia.

[kaurwreck]

do you have a favorite literary ref in bsd or is that a cruel question to ask

This is so hard! I like lots and lots of them, for different reasons. If I had to choose only one, and if I were to be sincere, Gin might be my favorite literary reference. I really love how much her namesake short story reframes Akutagawa's character, especially when comparing his Beast iteration against the version of him in bsd's main timeline. O-Gin also just really neatly and cleanly encapsulates what I love about Akutagawa's Kirishitan mono, including his affection for the Holy Fool trope.

To be more silly, I really love when Atsushi tell Tanzō Tonan that he has to feed his chameleon to escape the conversation with Tonan upon realizing Tonan wasn't being forthright (just ahead of the Decay of Angels framing the Agency). There are two references here that I adore (1) the reference to Chamelon Diary, in which Nakajima Atsushi semi-autobiographically recounts receiving a chameleon from a student and also his epiphany on how to live absent objective existential meaning; and (2) the reference to Tonan-sensei, a short story by Nakajima Atsushi about his beloved uncle, whom I also adore.

Rather than attempt to write an essay on Tonan-sensei and his influence on Nakajima Atsushi, I'll simply include a roughly translated version of the short story's Wikipedia synopsis:

The story depicts the protagonist, who secretly harbors self-loathing resentment towards his uncle because he shares similar mental characteristics with himself, but through his interactions with his uncle as he faces death, he gradually sorts out his critical view of the coexistence of love and hate and comes to realize the deep love he has for his uncle that lies dormant within him.

I will also include below a snippet about Tonan (referred to also as "Tan") from Nakajima Atsushi: His Life and Work, a dissertation submitted to the University of Hawaii by Nobuko Miyama Ochner in May 1984 (the date is relevant, because Ochner-sensei was able to speak to some of Atsushi's then-living family and friends to piece together his biography):

[Nakajima Atsushi's grandfather's] second eldest son, Tan, was also a scholar of Chinese. A bright boy, he was able to read the Chinese classics at the age of six and compose poetry and prose in Chinese at thirteen, according to the Japanese system of reckoning age. He was a proud, uncompromising, and impatient man, who never married, and who seemed to be always pursuing the impossible. In a short piece entitled "Tonan Sensei" (Tonan was Tan's pen name), Atsushi describes his uncle as having the virgin's beautifully clear, pure eyes— "the eyes of a man who is always dreaming an impossible dream." Tan, who revered General Nogi Maresuke (1849-1912), was an "amalgam of fervent patriotism and the temperament of a traditional Confucian scholar." He was greatly concerned about the future of Japan and China, as well as of Asia in general, confronted with the onslaught of the Western colonial powers.

...

In his articles he laments the ignorance of Chinese culture and tradition on the part of the Japanese diplomats in China, and criticizes their excessive reliance upon Western sources of news information. He felt that the peoples of Japan and China must unite in their efforts to repel the outsiders from East Asia; he went to China at least two times to try to enlist Chinese support for his vision. One of the prominent men he met was the scholar Lo Chen-yii (1866-1940), who later wrote an introduction to the posthumously published collection of Tan's poetry and prose, Tonan sonko. Atsushi is said to resemble this uncle most.

[otsukare-katsukare]

i know i say this every week but i dont think my friends understand how much wrestling there is and how stressful it is

[amarenacherriezzz]

My 2024 Reading List ✨️📜💗

Books I've read this year:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Out by Kirino Natsuo

Sono hi no natsu by Kazuko Saegusa

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Currently reading:

August Blue by Deborah Levy

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevski

What I plan on reading this year:

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The Guest by Emma Cline

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (maybe?)

Let me know your recs 😘

[rose-learns-japanese]

Today I read

暗黒デルタ Ch. 8 (For free!)

Source:

New to me Vocab:

工作活動 (こうさくかつどう) - work activity

物資 (ぶっし)- Goods and materials

浮く (うく) - To float (But in this context it means to feel out of place​)

お会計 ( おかいけい)- the bill (polite)

節約 (せつやく) - saving, frugalitry

工夫 (くふう) - Resourcefulness

恥さらし (はじさらし)- Disgraceful

くぐる - Pass through

[rigelmejo]

It is my sincere belief that all it takes to learn a language is:

Enough study time. This means studying a roughly similar amount of time to other people who have accomplished the goals you are aiming for. So compare your progress to someone studying a similar number of hours daily/on average, if you must compare at all. How many days or years did it take THEM to reach their goal? Expect it will take similar or longer for you. Study more hours daily if you want to see faster progress in terms of days or years. It is going to take hundreds or thousands of hours to reach many goals, so be realistic with yourself. You are not a failure because you aren't fluent after 50 hours! You're not a failure because you can't work in the language after 300 hours!

Studying some new stuff regularly that you have a way to understand - this either means using a textbook or tutor that explains the meaning of new stuff, or looking up translations like using a parallel text or a translation app, or looking up grammar items you don't know and reading explanations, or using flashcards that include translations or definitions, or using comprehensible input that is stuff you understand enough to GUESS some unknown new stuff, or using lesson materials made to be extremely understandable with the help of visuals (like comprehensible input lessons) or with the help of cognates (some graded readers, some textbooks). Studying some new stuff regularly just means you are learning new things, seeing what the new things mean, and over time increasing what you know. Regular can mean whatever you want it to mean, depends on you.

Reviewing the things you have studied by practicing listening, reading, writing, and speaking. At some point you will need to review words you learned by trying to read them, by practicing improving the skill of reading. By listening. By talking using the words. By writing using the words. You decide when you want to review and practice, and how, and it will probably be determined by your goals which practice you do first or more. Any engaging with the language will be practice, in a way, so even if all you do is talk to people or read novels or listen to podcasts, those all review the grammar and words (the stuff) you learned before. Those are all practice of getting used to recognizing and understanding the stuff you learned quicker, in context of the actual situations you'll need to understand and use that stuff. Immersing is 'practicing what you learned.' Reading is, listening is. Talking to people about topics that include what you've learned in the past is. Writing about topics that include what you've learned is.

(Of course this is all my opinion, and what works for me - or how I word it - may not work for others or be understandable to others. The short of it is - look at what other people with your goals did, and follow their example, if you're lost at what to do next. You will eventually succeed.)

Pretty much ANY study activities you can think of, any full on study plans you make up or you consider adopting, will have these. You'll do these. Textbooks and classes, Dreaming Spanish, FSI, podcasts for learners, graded readers, ALG classes, refold, anki decks, etc. Those all introduce NEW stuff for you to learn and understand in the context it's introduced (with translation or visuals etc), and you must keep moving along through those resources or new ones to pick new stuff to study regularly (and not get stuck in a loop reviewing the same 300 words for 2 years like I did), and you must practice the actual skills of reading/listening/writing/speaking (whatever your goals require) where you review the STUFF you've learned by needing to understand it while listening to or reading something in the language, or by talking with someone in the language, or by writing in the language.

And you have to be realistic with yourself in terms of time required to reach your goals. If your goal is just to travel somewhere and say some 'how much does X cost? Thank you. Hi I'm X. Where is the bathroom?' lines then yes that could be memorized in several hours. You can find examples of people who've memorized that kind of stuff in several hours or less. If your goal is 'read a novel' or 'watch X show' or 'talk with people about my hobbies' or 'go to college in the language' or 'work in a company in the language' you need to be realistic. Look up how long it has taken other people to accomplish those goals. Look up how long it's taken them to reach whatever language level a standardized test has said is needed to do X goal tasks for you (like JLPT to work in Japan, or CEFR to go to university in Europe, or HSK to work in China, or FSI levels, etc).

See how many hours those standardized tests recommend, and how many hours learners who have passed those tests are saying they studied, and for a rough estimate assume you'll take at least as long as they did. If you have particular goals in mind, it might be more useful for you to compare to actual people who reached your goals and the hours they said they studied. I just suggest looking up standardized test study hour suggestions, because many people do mention online which standardized test level they passed and what they did/how many hours they studied to pass. So the information on what they did may be easier to find, and easier to find several people sharing how long it took them.

And yeah you may take longer than them, especially if they planned out what they did very focused and you kind of floundered with trying to figure out what to do for a while, or they've studied languages before and already knew what worked best for them, or any number of things. You might take less time. If you need a rough idea of how long it will take though, look up how long it took other people. Because if you have in your mind this expectation you will be C1/advanced after 200 hours of study, or that you'll be able to speak confidently with no mistakes after 100 hours, etc, you're going to feel disappointed if later you find out your expectation wasn't anywhere close to realistic.

Chances are you are not doing anything in particular wrong if you've been studying and getting nowhere. There's nothing wrong with you.

Look at if you: are studying enough time to see noticeable progress in the amount of days or months or years you were hoping to see progress (so if you're studying 5 minutes a day, bump that up to 1+ hour a day and see if progress becomes more noticeable), if you are studying new stuff regularly (if you've been re-reading Heisig's Remember the Kanji for 2 years it might be time to study something new, and keep studying some new stuff regularly), and see if you're practicing understanding what you've learned (perhaps you've grinded an entire anki deck, but you never actually practiced reading any of those words or listening to them, so maybe start reading a graded reader or learner podcast, or reading regular books or watching shows, or talking with a tutor who'll use the words you learned in conversations).

If you're doing all those things, perhaps the problem is you just don't like the study activities or study materials! I hate anki personally, I'm just bad at focusing on it, so when it's in my study plan I study very rarely (lowering my study time) so I stop making progress. I needed to switch to something I liked better (like reading and looking words up) to get myself to study more regularly and focus on what I was studying (so I could remember what I was studying). If you're doing Dreaming Spanish and frustrated and bored, maybe you would prefer a textbook or teacher that explicitly explained stuff to you! Maybe that would motivate you to study more, and to remember more of what you studied! If you hate reading, and really enjoy talking to people, getting a tutor you talk with regularly who gives you new words to study in a list and practice in conversations might suit you much better!

[daughterofhecata]

READING LIST 2024

Jonathan Kellerman: Bad Love. An Alex Delaware Novel. (reread)

James Oswald: The Hangman’s Song. An Inspector McLean Novel.

Dirk Oschmann: Der Osten: eine westdeutsche Erfindung

Arthur Schnitzler: Traumnovelle

André Minninger: Die Drei ??? Der Ruf der Krähen

André Marx: Die Drei ??? Spur ins Nichts

Franz Kafka: Brief an den Vater

Candas Jane Dorsey: Drag Cop [org. title: The Adventures of Isabel. A Postmodern Mystery, by the Numbers.]

G.H. Stone: Die Drei ??? Angriff der Computerviren [org. title: The Three Investigators – Fatal Error]

Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451

Chuck Palahnuik: Fight Club

Kari Erlhoff: Rocky Beach Crimes #4. Der blutrote Kondor.

Evelyn Boyd: Rocky Beach Crimes #2. Mord unter Palmen. (reread)

Robert Arthur: Die drei ??? und der seltsame Wecker [org. title: Afred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Screaming Clock] (reread)

Jo Nesbø: Macbeth. Blut wird mit Blut bezahlt. [org. title: Macbeth]

William Shakespeare: Macbeth (reread)

Hendrik Buchna: Die Drei ??? und der dreiTag. Der Fluch der Sheldon Street.

Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade. A Duty Dance with Death.

Maurice Leblanc: Arsène Lupin gegen Herlock Sholmes [org. title: Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmès]

M.V. Carey: Die Drei ??? Savage Statue – Grausame Göttin [org. title: The Case of the Savage Statue]

William McCay: Die Drei ??? Shoot the Works – Im Visier [org. title: Shoot the Works]

Tim Wenderoth: Die Drei ??? und der dreiTag. Im Zeichen der Ritter.

Ivan Leon Menger, John Beckmann: Die Drei ??? und der dreiTag. Fremder Freund.

Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: Die Übernahme. Wie Ostdeutschland Teil der Bundesrepublik wurde.

M.V. Carey: Die Drei ??? und die flammende Spur [org. title: Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mystery of The Flaming Footprints]

Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events #1. The Bad Beginning.

William Arden: Die Drei ??? und der Automarder [org. title: The Three Investigators and the Mystery of the Smashing Glass]

Marco Sonnleitner: Die Drei ??? Schrecken aus der Tiefe

George Orwell: 1984

Guillaume Apollinaire: Liebesgedichte [herausgegeben von Ulla Hahn/Auswahl von Marc Föcking]

Jonathan Kellerman: The Ghost Orchid. An Alex Delaware Novel.

Michael Kühlen: Die Drei ??? Die weiße Anakonda

Christa Wolf: Nachdenken über Christa T.

Steffen Mau: Lütten Klein. Leben in der ostdeutschen Transformationsgesellschaft.

André Minninger: Die Drei ??? Die Spur der Toten

Kōtarō Isaka: Bullet Train [org. title: マリアビートル]

G.H. Stone: Die Drei ??? und die gefährlichen Fässer [org. title: Rough Stuff]

Ernst Jandl: lechts und rinks. gedichte statements peppermints.

Ben Nevis: Die Drei ??? Der dreiäugige Schakal

Kari Erlhoff: Die Drei ??? Im Schatten des Giganten

Bertolt Brecht: „Als ich nachher von dir ging“. Erotische Gedichte. [ausgewählt von Raimund Fellinger und Matthias Reiner]

James Oswald: Dead Men’s Bones. An Inspector McLean Novel.

André Marx: Die Drei ??? Meuterei auf hoher See

Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events #2. The Reptile Room.

G.H. Stone: Die Drei ??? und die Musikpiraten [org title: Reel Trouble]

Karel Čapek: Der Krieg mit den Molchen [org. title: Válka s mloky]

Ingeborg Bachmann: Die gestundete Zeit. Gedichte.

Ellen Kushner: Riverside #1. Swordspoint. (reread)

Countee Cullen: Color

Konstantin Wecker: Sage nein! Politische Lieder 1977-1992.

Philippe Besson: Venice Beach [org. title: Un Homme Accidentel]

Jonathan Kellerman: Obsession. An Alex Delaware Novel. (reread)

Cornelia Funke: Tintenwelt #2. Tintenblut. (reread)

Sara Berger: Experten der Vernichtung. Das T4-Reinhardt-Netzwerk in den Lagern Belzec, Sobibor und Treblinka.

Neil Gaiman: Coraline

Stephen King: Carrie

Astrid Vollenbruch: Die Drei ??? Geisterbucht

Plinio Bachmann, Rita Czapka, Knut Neumayer (Hrsg.): Kakanien. Neue Republik der Dichter.

Erich Fried: und Vietnam und. Einundvierzig Gedichte.

Georg Büchner: Woyzeck

Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events #3. The Wide Window.

Maurice Leblanc: Arsène Lupin. 813. Das Doppelleben des Arsène Lupin. [org. title: 813]

Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events #4. The Miserable Mill.

Georg Büchner: Leonce und Lena

Christoph Dittert, Kari Erlhoff, Hendrik Buchna: Die Drei ??? Schattenwelt

Juli Zeh: Nullzeit

Evelyn Boyd: Rocky Beach Crimes #3. Eiskalter Rausch. (reread)

André Marx: Die Drei ??? Die Spur des Raben

Jostein Gaarder: Sofies Welt [org. title: Sofies verden]

Paul Verlaine: Gedichte [herausgegeben von Stephan Hermlin]

Philippe Besson: Hör auf zu lügen [org. title: Arrête avec tes mensonges]

Cornelia Funke: Tintenwelt #3. Tintentod. (reread)

Wolf Schneider: Deutsch für junge Profis

Klaus Mann: Mephisto. Roman einer Karriere.

Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games #1. The Hunger Games. (reread)

Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events #5. The Austere Academy.

Jonathan Kellerman: Todesfeuer. Ein Alex-Delaware-Roman. [org. title: Evidence. An Alex Delaware Novel.] (reread)

Peer Meter, Isabel Kreitz: Haarmann

Maurice Leblanc: Arsène Lupin. The Crystal Stopper. [org. title: Le bouchon de cristal]

James Wood: Die Kunst des Erzählens [org. title: How Fiction Works]

Michael Kraske: Der Riss. Wie die Radikalisierung im Osten unser Zusammenleben zerstört.

Kari Erlhoff: Die Drei ??? Tauchgang ins Ungewisse (reread?)

James Ellroy: Blutschatten [org. title: The Big Nowhere]

El Marto, Frederik Richter: Made in Germany: Ein Massaker im Kongo. Eine grafische Reise zwischen Afrika und Europa.

Juli Zeh: Leere Herzen

Maurice Leblanc: Arsène Lupin heiratet oder In Arsène Lupins Geheimnisse eingeweiht. Erzählungen. [org. title: Les Confidences d’Arsène Lupin]

Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events #6. The Ersatz Elevator.

Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games #2. Catching Fire. (reread)

Ernest William Hornung: The Amateur Cracksman

Heda Margolius Kovály: Eine Jüdin in Prag. Unter dem Schatten von Hitler und Stalin [org. title: Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968]

Louise Glück: Averno

Richard Breitman: The Architect of Genocide. Himmler and the Final Solution.

Marco Sonnleitner: Die Drei ??? Die Nacht der Gewitter

James Oswald: Prayer for the Dead. An Inspector McLean Novel.

George Orwell: Warum ich schreibe. Die großen Essays. [texts taken from “Essays” and “Fascism and Democracy”]

Kari Erlhoff: Die Drei ??? und das Fantasmofon

Louise Glück: The Wild Iris

Hendrik Buchna: Die Drei ??? Im Bann des Barrakudas

Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games #3. Mockingjay. (reread)

James Ellroy: White Jazz [org. title: White Jazz]

Andreas Ruch: Die Drei ??? und der schwarze Fluch

Akwaeke Emezi: You made a Fool of Death with your Beauty (reread)

Ernst Jandl: Laut und Luise

Ben Aaronovitch: Eine Nachtigall in New York. Eine Thomas-Nightingale-Story [org. title: The Masquerades of Spring]

Audre Lorde: Coal

Suzanne Collins: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. A Hunger Games Novel.

Jan Wagner: Die Eulenhasser in den Hallenhäusern. Drei Verborgene. Gedichte.

John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men

Christoph Hein: Verwirrnis

Audre Lorde: The Black Unicorn. Poems.

Megan Stine, H. William Stine: Die Drei ??? und der giftige Gockel [org. title: Murder to Go]

Maurice Leblanc: Arsène Lupin. Der Zahn des Tigers. Die drei Verbrechen des Arsène Lupin. [org. title: Les Dents du tigre]

Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events #7. The Vile Village.

Elisabeth Steinkellner: Papierklavier

Jiří Weil: Moskau – Die Grenze [org. title: Moskva – hranice]

Philipp Ruch: Es ist 5 vor 1933. Was die AfD vorhat und wie wir sie stoppen.

Ben Aaronovitch: Die Füchse von Hampstead Heath. Eine Abigail-Kamara-Story. [org. title: What Abigail Did That Summer]

Octavia Butler: Fledgling

Historia von D. Johann Fausten [Verfasser unbekannt]

Ines Geipel: Umkämpfte Zone. Mein Bruder, der Osten und der Hass.

DNF:

Allan Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980

Eva Völler: Helle Tage, Dunkle Schuld

Natsuo Kirino: Real World [org. title: Riaru Wārudo]

[katabay]

Do you have specific fiction authors that you like to read? What aspects of a story make you want to really dig your fingers in it? Is it horror?

I’ve got a couple! Keigo Higashino for sure. anything Naoki Urasawa does: I will be reading it. Priest (Guardian and Mo Du are all time favorites). also KJ Charles and Andrew A Smith!

ngl I don’t really have a concrete list of favorite fiction writers, I spent several days thinking about this one: like, I have favorite books for sure, but I don’t often find myself considering an author to be a favorite just because their book blew my mind. I’ve only read three of Andrew A Smith’s works, but he’s here because he gave an interview years that changed my entire approach to storytelling, and I still revisit it whenever I start editing a story.

honestly the big thing is that I like character!! I like compelling characters (extremely varied definition of compelling, it doesn’t have to be much, but it does have to have something) I like it when something goes full throttle into whatever it wants to be. I’ll watch a slow paced slice of life romance with the same amount of enthusiasm that I had for Devil Judge, and the 1vs10 beat down in Ipman takes up just as much space in my brain as the ‘let’s not see each other from now on,’ breakup in the Heirs (but for extremely different reasons lmao)

however. if I have to pick something more thematically specific: I like seeing people in power get what they have coming to them, I like explorations and confrontations of political and social injustices. kingdom is one of my favorite shows, and the horror is great, but it was the political-class-power aspect of it that solidified it as a memorable watch to me. kamen rider build did something fundamental to the circuitry of my brain. etc.

[kaus-quietis]

A Circus Library - quick recommendations of short stories, poems, comics and novels I've recently read #1

Hello there! I'm the circus resident poltergeist, Eliott, managing this blog until Lav comes back. Today I offer you a slightly different formula of my super awesome super rare super bookclub post, as Lav would say!

Hello hello hello! Is this a bookclub?! Is this chaotic ramble?! Ding ding! You got it wrong!

Writing full on reviews is tiedous and long, and while I appreciate doing it, I'm myself not always in the mood to read a long post explaining why a book is genius. Do I love that from time to time? Yes! Do I have the attention span to write one now? Nope! However, I still wanted to share some titles I recently (re)discovered, and that I think are marvellous reads for anyone wanting to dive into something new.

Here you'll find a few recommendations with the shortest of words to tell you why they are great, or just scream about it.

short disclaimer before I begin because this is tumblr and while I forgot a lot about this website, I remember how the TW thing works lol, it's at your own discretion to search for the works beforehand if you have any trigger you don't want to encounter.

Jack Spicer - Billy the kid

The master of my fate, captain of my soul as Timothée Chalamet would say idk I barely know the guy. Classic and gold, Spicer is an amazing writer and this poem is phenomenal. It's quite short and perfect if you want to know more about the wonder that was US American poetry during the 20th century. Of course I'd encourage you to read all of his works, but Billy the Kid is perfect to start somewhere.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa - Hell Screen

Classic and iconic, I've recently pushed further than Rashomon and boy oh boy am I never turning back. Hell Screen is a phenomenal short story displaying all the elegance and cruelty Akutagawa can incorporate in his works. It's mesmerizing, it aches, it's everything I love. I read this story in Jay Rubin's translation (Penguin Classics), and even though I do not speak Japanese so I cannot compare, I dare say it's a very good one.

Lucie Bryon, Thieves

I never recommended comic books before but I wanted to for a change! I am a huge comic book lover, but most of the ones I usually read are not available in english language. This one is, though. Thieves is a beautiful comic about growth, falling in love and finding acceptance in others and in yourself. It's light and heartwarming, like eating candy.

Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

Now, this book exploits one of my biggest plot weaknesses ever, and that is fucked up people in medieval settings. Lapvona tells the story of Marek, a sheperd's son, who'll be caught in a series of unfortunate events, political struggles, and secrets, all inside the town of Lapvona. It's dark and unsettling, the characters are scandalous and horrible, yet sickeningly human. Now, I said to check the TW yourselves, but be very careful with this one, if you can think of a TW, then it's certainly in this book.

Osamu Dazai, Early Light

In the Storybook ND series, this book contains three short stories : Early Light, Three Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, and Villon’s Wife. I'd recommend the three of them, as it's a fantastic dive into Dazai's shorter works. I think that reading his short stories is very important to understand his work and the width of the subjects and stories he wrote about. It helps that once again, in my opinion, the translation chosen by this publishing house is so good.

This is it for today! Here you have five of the works I read (or re-read) this summer, and that I'd warmly recommend. There are two short stories (Dazai, Akutagawa), a comic book (Bryon), a novel (Moshfegh) and a poem (Spicer). 'Till next time!

[gumihoe]

I'm about to set asian activism back 20 years but tbh I don't mind when white people are a little too into asian stuff. like those koreaboos that say "omo!" and "jinjja?" and their twitter DNs are like their english names written in hangul. idk I think they're funny and endearing in a certain stupid little way. it's when they're on the other end of the spectrum and refuse to acknowledge the korean-ness of the korean things they like that I get pissed off.