It’s the first reading log of 2025! This year I am determined to make a proper dent in the backlog, which to be fair I say every year but maybe this time I’ll make it work. I’m also going to start keeping track of how much I buy / read in English vs Japanese, mostly out of curiosity (ha) and because a friend of mine suggested keeping track. Let’s check out what I’ve been reading this month!

Bold = completed series
Italic = dropped

= recommendation

Manga:

1. Chasing After Aoi Koshiba volume 4
2. Luciole Has a Dream volume 1
3. My Lovesick Life as a ’90s Otaku volume 1
4. 校長の話が長い　―福山リョウコ短編集―針穴にモンスター
5. アブラブカダブラ (Comic Dengeki Daioh G)
6. Hell Mode: This Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing volume 5
7. I Parry Everything: What Do You Mean I’m the Strongest? I’m Not Even an Adventurer Yet! volume 3
8. 僕のダイヤモンド・スター volume 1
9. 煙たい話 volume 1
10. 煙たい話 volume 2
11. Kurokiwa-san Wants to Lead Him Around by the Nose volume 1 – Review
12. 煙たい話 volume 3
13. Minato’s Laundromat volume 3
14. The Invincible Little Lady volume 6
15. Minato’s Laundromat volume 4
16. A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-back Life volume 4
17. ハローワークモンスターズ (Weekly Shounen Magazine)
18. アオハルだなんて君のせい (Dessert Pink)
19. 愛も大きい大崎くん (Dessert Pink)
20. Like a Butterfly volume 3 (JP)
21. My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer volume 7
22. Welcome to Japan, Ms Elf volume 9
23. The Magic in This Other World is Too Far Behind volume 11
24. The Villainess’s Guide to (Not) Falling in Love volume 2
25. Now I’m a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls In My Dungeon volume 9
26. Did I Seriously Just Get Reincarnated as My Gag Character? volume 5
27. Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill volume 10
28. Always a Catch volume 1 – Review
29. The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess: Short Story Collection
30. Drunk Bullet (Manga Plus)
31. Medalist volume 1
32. 嘘とか恋とか (Kiss)
33. Flying Witch volume 12
34. Kurokiya-san Wants to Lead Him Around by The Nose volume 2 – review
35. Ankoku Delta (Manga Plus)
36. 煙たい話 volume 4
37. The Water Magician volume 3
38. How A Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom volume 11
39. The Revenge of My Youth: My Re Life with an Angelic Girl volume 1 – Review
40. The Emperor’s Lady-In-Waiting is Wanted as a Bride volume 5
41. 恋してダメなら推してみろ!! (G-Lish)
42. Stuck in a Time Loop: When All Else Fails, Be a Villainess (Dre Comics, JP)
43. I Only Have Six Months to Live, So I’m Gonna Break the Curse with Light Magic or Die Trying (Dre Comics, JP)
44. Kowloon Generic Romance volume 8
45. Changes of Heart volume 2 (JP)
46. Snow White with the Red Hair volume 26
47. My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against me volume 9
48. Smother Me (Manga Plus)
49. Noragami Stray Gods volume 27
50. Oblivion Battery volume 5 (JP)
51. The Hachioji Specialty: Tengu’s Love volume 1
52. The Case Study of Vanitas volume 1 (JP, reread)
53. Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter volume 2
54. The Color of the End: Mission in the Apocalypse volume 1
55. Mission! Yozakura Family (WSJ)
56. I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! volume 6
57. Honey Lemon Soda volume 5 – Review
58. Honey Lemon Soda volume 6 – Review
59. Honey Lemon Soda volume 7 – Review
60. Dogs and Punching Bags (omnibus)
61. 幼馴染じゃ我慢できない volume 1
62. Toilet-bound Hanako-kun volume 20
63. The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All volume 1
64. Doll-kara volume 9
65. Beat & Motion (Manga Plus)
66. Seaside Stranger: Harukaze no étranger volume 5
67. The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects volume 7
68. 眠れない夜は、おまえを抱きたい (Honey Milk)
69. 夜明け前にきみを呼ぶ (Honey Milk)
70. 嫁入りなんて聞いてない！(Honey Milk)
71. よこしまプラクティス (Honey Milk)
72. Undead Unluck (WSJ)
73. 甘えたがりのスターダスト (Honey Milk)
74. Sasaki and Miyano volume 10
75. The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter volume 4
76. Changes of Heart volume 3 (JP)
77. My Androgynous Boyfriend volume 5
78. Boy’s Abyss volume 8
79. She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat volume 5
80. Gushing Over Magical Girls volume 11
81. 弁護人ゆらぎの衝動 (Bessatsu Shounen Magazine)
82. 失語の拳 (Bessatsu Shounen Magazine)
83. Natsume Wants to be Trained (JP) 
84. Full Clearing Another World Under a Goddess with Zero Believers volume 8
85. Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World volume 9

One Shot:

1. Temple of Gains (Manga Plus)
2. 針穴にモンスター
3. 饒舌と放課後
4. 刹那的ディスタンス
5. 校長の話が長い
6. Beyond the Screen (Manga Plus)
7. Caborinth (Manga Plus)
8. さいせい (Weekly Shounen Sunday)
9. 夏の陽チラリ。 (Dessert)
10. 甘やかして太陽 (Dessert Pink)
11. ミスター冷徹の恋文添削 (Dessert Pink)
12. 一等星みたいにきみは眩しくて (Dessert Pink)
13. きみと気持ちの答え合わせ (Dessert Pink)
14. そうは見えない同級生くん。(Dessert Pink)
15. Deep Within the Vault (Manga Plus)
16. SF男女物語
17. The Left Behind Pair (Manga Plus)
18. Drawing the Invisible (Manga Plus)
19. Shiromaru (Manga Plus)
20. I Am a Divine Meow-jesty! (Manga Plus)
21. The Bewitching Hexhands (Manga Plus)
22. Impasto (Manga Plus)
23. The Demon of the Stupa (Manga Plus)
24. 性悪男とAIのセオリー～自我に目覚めたのにブラック企業に酷使されてるAIが戯れにVTuberデビュー！バズってめんどくせぇことになって人類滅亡の危機!?っつっても僕AIなんで知りませーん～ (Bessatsu Shounen Magazine)
25. Machiko’s Idol Crush (Manga Plus)
26. The Dragon Remains of Edo (Manga Plus)

Light Novels:

1. Duchess in the Attic volume 2
2. From Villainess to Healer volume 1
3. My Happy Marriage volume 4 – review
4. The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori volume 1 – Review
5. The Reincarnator and the Goblin Maiden’s Happily Ever After: Using a Past Life to Keep a Joyful Wife volume 2
6. Isekai Walking volume 1
7. Ascendance of a Bookworm: Short Stories volume 2
8. You Were Experienced, I Was Not: Our Dating Story volume 6
9. Earl and Fairy volume 9
10. Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight volume 16
11. Dimension Wave volume 2

So that’s 85 manga compared to 46 last month, 11 LNs compared to 14 and 26 one-shots compared to 13.

Obviously, the numbers are affected by a number of serialisations finishing, but my efforts have brought the backlog down a little bit from 823 to 820. I fear I may have miscounted somewhere as that doesn’t seem like a huge drop compared to my efforts, especially as I only had 44 books in this month but either way a drop is a drop so I’m satisfied with that given I failed at getting the backlog down even once last year. I’m trying to form some better reading habits which should help for the rest of the year.

As for the new breakdown, a friend suggested. This month I bought / received 13 books in Japanese and 31 in English. I’ve read 27 in JP with 68 in English, which is more in Japanese than I thought it would be. I think the goal here is to work out if I’m buying more in Japanese than I actively read (easily done with Bookwalker deals…), but so far I guess not.

Next month being a shorter month I suspect I won’t get nearly as much done, especially now I’ve returned to Metaphor in a bid to finish it before the new Atelier and Xenoblade games come out.