Okay first off it has been forever since I’ve posted on Curiosities. All of my work goes on Anime UK News now, so I guess I lost the need to write posts here because anything relevant usually fits there. This time I have something a little bit more personal to write though and something I want the ability to look back on for myself.
Without realising it myself, I’ve always been a bookworm. I love games and anime a great deal, but if I step back and look at my hobbies it’s safe to say that the majority of my time is spent reading. I read a lot of on-going manga series, 102 at the current count, and I sometimes get into a rut and wonder to myself why I do this. Why I follow so many; what I’m looking for; what I’m searching for. The answer came to me today unexpectedly.
August has been a busy month as I finally returned to work properly and therefore had more money to irresponsibly spend on new books… Let’s see what I got through this month!
Bold = completed series
Italic = dropped
Manga:
The Way of the Househusband volume 3
Contract of Cherry Blossom Guilt volume 1
Konosuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World volume 5 – review
Rascal Does Not Dream of Petite Devil Kouhai –review
I Refuse to Be Your Enemy volume 3
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom volume 7
Cooking With Wild Game volume 9
Do You Love Your Mum and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? volume 6
Adachi and Shimamura volume 1
So 59 manga and 20 light novels this month, up from 48/18. Doing well to combat the backlog despite the amount I’ve been picking up!
Speaking of the backlog, here’s how things are looking this month…
(I dug the Bakuman boxset back out so I could finish my reread, also not pictured is a volume of A Sister’s All You Need, Torture Princess and The Eminence in Shadow which I’m reading)
July was another continuation of the war of light novels and actually I finally cleared off the backlog of 2019!* Now let’s see what all I read this month.
*(In light novel form, still some manga boxsets to be read…).
The Epic Tale of the Reincarnated Prince Herscherik volume 1
Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 8
How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom volume 12
Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch (If You’ve Got a Ringer) volume 2
Slayers volume 1
The Combat Baker and Automation Waitress volume 7
Wild Times with a Fake Fake Princess volume 2
The Unwanted Undead Adventurer volume 6
Log Horizon volume 5
The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?) volume 1
So for the month of July I managed 48 manga and 18 light novels, which are both improvements on last month (43/13). It’s a good job my pile of shame from 2019 mostly went away since now I’ve started back at work and have more disposable income I’m busy building myself a new pile…
The Extraordinary, The Ordinary, and Soap volume 2
Restaurant to Another World volume 2
Tearmoon Empire volume 2
Cooking with Wild Game volume 8
Classroom of the Elite volume 2
Reincarnated as a Sword volume 1
Der Werwolf volume 8
Zaregoto volume 3
In Another World with My Smartphone volume 20
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash volume 15
So this month I managed 43 manga and 13 light novels, compared to 46 and 25 last month. I guess I slacked on light novels toward the end of the month, but hey I made good progress! Piles of shame:
Time is all mashed together at this point and somehow it’s hard to believe we’re already five months through the year! Here’s what I read in the month of May:
Konosuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World volume 2
Zaregoto volume 2
Danmachi Sword Oratoria volume 11
Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 7
First Love Signal
Wild Times with a Fake Fake Princess volume 1
Welcome to Japan, Ms Elf volume 4
The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious volume 2
Konosuba volume 11
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai volume 1 – review
An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride volume 10
Re:Zero volume 8
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom volume 6
Spirit Chronicles volume 10
Combatants Will Be Dispatched volume 3
So 46 manga and 25 light novels, compared to 65 manga and 6 light novels last month. The pile of shame is finally going down! We’ll see how long this lasts…
So this month I’ve read 65 manga and 6 light novels. Not entirely sure how this happened and honestly I’m disappointed in myself for not reading more light novels… (last month was 60 manga, 23 light novels).
Man the world has changed a lot over the course of a month. Now we’re in lockdown because of the Coronavirus. I hope by the time we get to the April entry things will have started improving. :/ Anyways here’s what I’ve been reading this month:
Manga:
1122: For a Happy Marriage volume 1
Our Dining Table volume 1
In/Spectre volume 4
Fire in His Fingertips volume 1
Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san volume 3
In/Spectre volume 5
Fullmetal Alchemist Fullmetal Edition volume 7
Haikyu!! volume 37
Ao Haru Ride volume 9
Sweat and Soap volume 1
Blank Canvas: My So-called Artists Journey volume 3
Vampire Knight Memories volume 4
Logical Orion volume 1
Last Stop is Tokyo volume 1
Umaru is a Good Boy volume 1
Pure Love Nostalgic volume 1
Tales of Strange Coincidences in Kawabata-machi volume 1
Fragment of a Flower volume 1
Everyone Stand Up! Boy’s Private High School volume 1
One-Sided Love x Alliance volume 1
First Love Encounter volume 1
The Golden Sheep volume 3
Love Letter
Downfall volume 1
Given volume 1
Infinite Dendrogram volume 4
In/spectre volume 6
After the Rain omnibus volume 1
Yuki and Matsu volume 3
Setagawa Synchronicity volume 1
Every Time We Touch, I Hear That Sound volume 1
Cells at Work Code Black volume 3
Suppose a Kid From the Last Town Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town volume 1
Simplified Pervert Romance volume 1
Love is Not Good Along volume 1
La Danse Amants volume 1
The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind volume 5
The Ancient Magus Bride volume 12
In/spectre volume 7
Alcohol Communication volume 1
Don’t Cry, Little Squirrel
1122: For a Happy Marriage volume 2
God is Probably Left-handed volume 1
Kaguya-sama Love is War volume 3
Do Something You Should Not Do Please volume 1
In/Spectre volume 8
Kaguya-sama Love is War volume 4
Noragami volume 21
Cookie Girl, Cream Boy
Daytime Shooting Star volume 5
Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru (WSJ)
Faded Picture Scroll volume 1
Star Crossed volume 1
In/Spectre volume 9
Discommunication volume 4
Sex with Chika! volume 1
In/Spectre volume 10
Ran the Peerless Beauty volume 1
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime volume 12
Something’s Wrong with Us volume 1
Light Novels:
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Sword Oratoria volume 10
The Tales of Marielle Clarac volume 1
Altina the Sword Princess volume 3
I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed out My Level volume 5
Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina volume 1
Infinite Dendrogram volume 11
Spirit Chronicles volume 9
A Sister’s All You Need volume 6
My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong as Expected volume 1
In Another World with My Smartphone volume 19
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Isekai volume 1
Bungo Stray Dogs volume 3
By the Grace of the Gods volume 2
Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 6
Der Werwolf volume 7
The Extraordinary, The Ordinary and Soap! volume 1
The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress volume 5
Isekai Rebuilding Project volume 2
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom volume 5
How a Realist Hero Rebuild the Kingdom volume 11
The Underdog of the Eight Greater Tribes volume 2
The World’s Strongest Rearguard volume 2
60 manga 23 light novels. Quite a big difference compared to the 28 manga and 17 light novels last month. It’s not even because I’ve been stuck inside, Futekiya just had a lot of titles this month.
Pile of shame photo time:
The one on the bottom left in the first picture in Suppose a Kid (…) light novel Volume 1, I was just too last to dig out the pile and turn it around. It was my birthday in March so that’s my excuse for the piles growing. 😛
The second reading log of the year is here. In February I made a decision to try and pour time into getting through some of the pile of shame given this month was quiet for releases. Let’s see how I’ve done…
Manga:
Demon Slayer volume 11
Death Note 2020
Even If You Close Your Eyes, You Can See the Light volume 1
The Dreams of the Cuckoos volume 2
The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar volume 3
Well while I said I was making an effort to get through my backlog the numbers are somehow lower than last month. 28 manga and 17 LN’s compared to 37 and 15. I guess being ill for a bit and moderately busy in Feb screwed up my grand plans.
Here’s how the piles look:
Hopefully next month I make more progress than this….
After successfully sticking to my reading logs last year, I figured I’d continue into 2020. Time to find out what I’ve read in the first month of a new decade! Here’s what I’ve been reading and here are the rules I set for myself when recording this log.
Manga:
The Dream of the Cuckoos volume 1
Spirit Chronicles volume 4
Can He Get a Lover in a Sex Trade Shop? volume 1
Silver Spoon volume 12
Drifting Dragons volume 1
An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride volume 3
Takane and Hana volume 3
Yuki and Matsu volume 1
Seven Days omnibus
Anonymous Noise volume 18
My Father is a Unicorn volume 1
A Witch’s Printing Office volume 1
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom volume 2
Penguindrum volume 1
Bungo Stray Dogs volume 13
GE: Good Ending volume 1
As Miss Beelzebub Likes volume 8
Aki-chan is the Super Erotic Madonna for Guys volume 1
Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 4
In/Spectre volumes 1-2
He Has Never xxx volume 1
Konosuba an Explosion on This Wonderful World volume 3
Himouto! Umaru-chan volume 8
The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess volume 6
Marginal Operation volume 3
Persona 5 volume 1
Haikyu!! volume 36
Daytime Shooting Star volume 4
Wedensday Morning, 3:30Am
Snow White with the Red Hair volume 5
Golden Sparkle volume 1
Boys Love! volume 3
The Heaven in the Hell volume 1
The Pure Knight’s Shining Journey volume 1
Tales of Berseria volume 2
Solanin omnibus
Light Novels:
The World’s Strongest Rearguard volume 1
Kokoro Connect volume 8
By the Grace of the Gods volume 1
Isekai Rebuilding Project volume 1
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? volume 14
An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride volume 9
86 volume 3
Konosuba volume 10
The Greatest Magic Master’s Retirement plan volume 4
Tearmoon Empire volume 1
Cooking With Wild Game volume 6
Bungo Stray Dogs volume 2
Welcome to Japan, Ms Elf! volume 3
I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! volume 1
Owarimonogatari End Tale Part 1
Total: 37 manga, 15 light novels. About the same amount of light novels as December (14 then), but less manga (44 compared to 37). This month my ‘to buy’ list is significantly quieter than usual, so I’m hoping to use this free time to bring the pile of shame down a bit. ^^;
Speaking of here’s how the piles are looking….
I recently rearranged it a little to try and get some of the shorter reads out the way. I’ve already read 2 this month, so I’m hoping I can keep knocking them down!
We’ve hit the end of the year, so it’s time for a final reading log update. Here’s what I’ve been reading and here are the rules I set for myself when recording this log.
The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody volume 1 – review
Altina the Sword Princess volume 2
Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 5
Due to a mixture of Christmas and being on break I’ve managed to read a fair amount this month. 44 manga and 14 light novels compared to 39 and 5 last month. Pile of shame time!
The pile has sort of ballooned now, with the normal pile of shame, a Christmas pile and a work pile. Hopefully these will decrease a bit over the next month…
My yearly stats work out as: 397 manga, 152 light novels. Broken down across months as:
January 34/19 Feb 41/8 March 38/10 April 23/16 May 22/13 June 28/19 July 38/10 August 40/13
September 26/10
October 24/15
November 39/5
December 44/14
November went by in a total blur and I don’t feel like it should be almost Christmas again. I still have books from my birthday to read and that was March! Anyway here’s what I’ve read this month. Rules I set for myself and these posts can be found here.
Manga:
Tokyo Tarareba Girls volume 9
Himouto! Umaru-chan volume 7
Sweet Drop
Daytime Shooting Star volume 3
Ao Haru Ride volume 7
Cells at Work! volume 5
An Incurable Case of Love volume 1
My Hero Academia: Smash volume 2
The Unwanted Undead Adventurer volume 2
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable volume 3
Arata Primal: The New Primitive (Manga +)
Nicola Travelling Around the Demon’s World volume 1
If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord volume 4
The Wize Wize Beasts of The Wizarding Wizdoms
Hitorijime My Hero volume 5
Combatants Will Be Dispatched! volume 1
Crazy Fruits volume 1
A Lotus Flower in the Mud volume 1
Tomo-chan is a Girl volume 5
The Beautiful Greeness volume 2
Boys Love! volume 1
Sneaky Red volume 2
One Room of Happiness volume 6
The vacation in Love volume 1
Shinjuku Lucky Hole volume 2
Shortcake Cake volume 6
Yui Kamio Let’s Loose (WSJ)
Double Taisei (WSJ)
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction volume 7
Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro volume 1 – review
Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? volume 4
So it turns out I’ve been majorly slacking on reading light novels in November. I’m going to blame playing the new Pokémon game… I finished the month with 39 manga read and 5 light novels, compared to 24 manga last month and 15 light novels. Gotta up my game next month!
Pile of Shame:
So I made a deal with a good friend of mine that once she visited if I was still writing these reading logs I’d include pictures of the pile of shame instead of a list, so gonna start doing that this month!
