August 2024 Check-in!
Has this month felt absurdly long for anyone else? I think my emotions were making time drag on more than usual this August. In any case, I’m looking forward to a new month with new goals, but first I’d like to give a recap on what I accomplished this month!
I finished twelve books this month, pushing my total number of books read in Japanese to 250! That was my bonus goal for this year, so I’m glad I was able to accomplish it much quicker than I thought I could.
My favorites from this group were 誰が勇者を殺したか, 薬屋のひとりごと 4, 月とライカと吸血姫 3, and the entire bottom row!
時をかける少女 is a book I had been wanting to read for awhile, but had to be in the right mood for. I had watched a live action movie that was related to the book so I knew I’d already probably like the story. It was sweet and to the point!
The first two books in the ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 series were way better than I was thinking they would be! I’m not always big on children’s books, and I think after Kiki’s Delivery Service let me down I was worried about jumping into another series that people really enjoyed. Someone in the 別次元の図書館 book club’s first book they finished was volume 1, and so I felt really inspired to finally give it a go. I had such a blast! Most of the chapters had really interesting stories that I’m still thinking about. I once used to pretend to be a mermaid, and so the first chapter in volume 1 spoke to me on a deep level!
The SPYxFAMILY novel was a really fun, light-hearted (for the most part!) read. I have fond memories of watching the anime for the first time, and feeling like it helped kickstart my love for anime as a whole again. There was a period in my adult life where I was feeling bad for liking anime due to younger me being told some not-so-great things by others, and I think I was holding on to those feelings. I’m really glad I’m able to enjoy things now on my own terms. Reading this novel felt like watching the anime, and I just had a really good time!
I started a few other books this month, maybe reading 5-10k characters of each before dropping them. The furthest I got into a book I dropped was almost two audiobook hours. I just wasn’t having fun with it and I didn’t want to force it, even if reading along with the audiobook made it easier to do so. I know my taste seems to be all over the place, but I think I’m finally becoming a bit pickier. Post-Tadoku brain me has a way easier time dropping things, of which I am very grateful for. I used to stop books because they were too hard for me. Now I stop books because I’m bored or annoyed in the wrong ways!
So now my handy-dandy spreadsheet is looking pretty good! I’m a quarter of the way to my ultimate finished books goal, and I’m now closer to my semi-arbitrary character count goal. So far this year, I have read 109 books. I can’t even begin to process this as most of the time I just am reading for fun and to pass the time. I know next year is going to be busier so I doubt I’ll be breaking 2024’s record, but if I end up eating my words I’d love to look back on this post and feel really proud of myself.
In addition to reading, I made a listening goal for myself as well. This had me doing a few different things, but anime was a huge part of this month.
I finally got around to finishing the Adachi to Shimamura anime. It was pretty mid, but I grew attached to the characters from reading the light novels so it was still fine to watch.
The Tearmoon Empire anime was so good! I definitely need to start reading more of the light novels again.
Wolf’s Rain was such a blast from the past. My friend and I used to watch it and listen to the soundtrack a lot. I did not remember the story at all, just HOT WOLVES. It isn’t really the greatest story out there, but it was incredibly nostalgic and the overall vibes were interesting. I’d probably re-watch it sometime!
Ouran Host Club, Pokemon, and Slayers have taken a bit of a back seat. I did just watch one more episode of Ouran on the final day of August at the very least. YouTube videos while playing Minecraft have taken over my attention in the last week or so of the month.
For YouTube, I’ve mostly been listening to some random ASMR whisper videos or videos from 酒井若芽チャンネル. She’s an actress, and I remember seeing her from アンダーウェア (Atelier in English on Netflix), so when I saw that she made videos of herself just kind of talking about random topics I was immediately in. I find her voice relaxing, and one I wouldn’t mind imitating if I ever actually cared about speaking in a real way. But mostly I just like having someone to listen to while I wander around my Minecraft world and create bridges and pandas.
My listening goal for the month was to do 50 points on my spreadsheet. This would have put me at 677, but I went way over that! I really like my new point system. I was getting so bogged down by tracking all my minutes and hours, and this just feels better for me. I feel like any amount of listening I do, whether I’m skipping around or just tuning into a long stream, means I’m winning!
I had a goal of hitting 15000 lemmas with AnkiMorphs, and my renewed energy for mining while reading got me through that and more.
I have a new card type I use for new cards and I think I like the look more. I may still make a card with my old type if I’m feeling nostalgic for it, or think I’d like to know the stroke order on it every time I see it. Admittedly, I’ve grown less attached to learning how to write all the kanji these days. I’m sure the mood will strike up again, and I’ll let that happen when it does.
So my August goals were 5 books, 50 listening points, and reaching 15k with AnkiMorphs, and I am happy to report that I’ve crushed every single one of these!
I’ve decided to increase some of my goals for September to give myself more of a challenge.
I’ll be honest, I think 10 books is pretty doable considering last month was 5 and I ended up with 12. If I exceed this one again, I’ll consider upping it one more time for October.
I lowered my listening points because usually when I focus more on reading, I tend to de-prioritize listening. I’d like for it to not be the case, but I also want to be a bit realistic with how I’ve acted previously.
For Anki, getting to 15550 seems pretty reasonable. I could probably do more and still have time to read, but I know if I start adding too much more new cards per day I’ll start getting annoyed with my review counts.
I added two other goals that I didn’t really think about doing the past few months. I have a real hard time with visual novels, only because it feels like one extra barrier of opening up the game and loading up textractor. It’s genuinely not even a big deal, but my brain needs all the extra help it can get. I’d like to try to continue 神学校 since I’m in my favorite voice actor’s route currently.
Video games have been on my mind in general, so I think it may be time to start another playthrough of something in Japanese. I’m torn between Octopath Traveller and Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age. I’ve only played FF12 prior, but not the Zodiac Age version. I don’t really care if I finish these, but I would like to have a goal to try doing some more varied activities in Japanese again.
September also brings about a new bookclub pick for the 別次元の図書館 discord! We’ll be reading the first two volumes of the 京都寺町三条のホームズ series. I’ll be novel sonicing these since they have audiobooks. I’m really looking forward to finally enjoying these, and seeing what others have to say about them too.
I’m still in the thick of it regarding my emotions right now, but I’m really grateful to have a hobby I love so much that can provide me a ton of joy and a sense of fulfilment. When I’m feeling let down by others, I know a good (or even bad! huhu) book will have my back.
Here’s to hoping I can summon more joy this September! And I hope you all can too.
Be well, and see you all next time! <3