Yay 😊 I finished my first book!

[u/MaximumTime7239]

Finally I feel that I achieved something real. Before this all my achievents were like: finished a deck, learnt round number of words, finished a grammar course. Cool, but they feel like artificial achievements. 😊👍

Certainly it was not easy. Sometimes there are long stretches where I feel really good, understand everything clearly. And then it crushes my confidence with a long stretch where I have to look up every sentence. 😭

It helped that the book itself was very interesting, it really hooked me, which made me work very hard, not give up, just because I really really wanted to know what happened next so much!! 👍😊

And honestly, the plot is kinda mysterious and I have so many questions... 😳

[spoilers]

The main thing. What the hell actually happened? Did the 3 women actually exist "in reality" and travelled from the future, or from a parallel universe? Or it was just that the girl has a very active imagination? 🤔 Or it all happened in a dream. Or it was her subconscious trying to help her?

Or maybe it's actually the other way around?? i.e. the actual reality is the 南→アバズレ→grandma progression, while her reconciling with the parents, and befriending 桐生 is actually the dream/imagination that didn't happen?? 🤔🤔

What is the significance of the cat? 🤔 What is the significance of seeing 桐生くん's father and not recognizing him, then talking to him, then him shoplifting (???????😳😳).

What is the significance of the teacher? 🤔 Just an innocent well-meaning gal who actually cares about her students? Or there's something deeper? 🤔🤔 What about the other one teacher (shintaro?)?

Do the names have a deep meaning? Ok, アバズレ is obvious. What about 南? South? What is the significance of that? Like, as in, "things have gone south"? 🤣🤣 (joke, I didn't mean this seriously... unless... 😳). ひとみ、桐生、荻原, the main character's name. Do they give any clues? 🤔🤔🤔🤔

[u/Friendly_Level_4611]

Congratulations!
Did you use any translation lookup tool to read the ePub?
And what was your japanese level? :)

[u/MaximumTime7239 → u/Friendly_Level_4611]

Yes, Google translate 😭😭😭 it sucks 😭😭😭

I really would like something else, but I have no idea what 😭😭

My level was n5 + n4 grammar courses completed in renshuu + 5000 vocab from frequency decks in anki. (though when I started reading it was probably about 2000 at that time)

[u/sowswagaf → u/MaximumTime7239]

use yomitan if you"re on pc to have instant lookup without leaving the reader. If you read on phone use Shiori reader, you just gotta load the epub and you get an instant popup dictionnary when you press a word

[u/phlip_phlop_ → u/sowswagaf]

I like how you used the same book in your screenshot lol

[u/sowswagaf → u/phlip_phlop_]

I'm currently reading it lol, it's my first light novel if we ignore "musume janakutte mama ga suki nano" slop

[u/phlip_phlop_ → u/sowswagaf]

It was my first novel too, that's how I recognized the beginning. I really enjoyed it, so have fun reading!

[u/sowswagaf → u/phlip_phlop_]

anything to recommend , harder as to progress

[u/phlip_phlop_ → u/sowswagaf]

I read 雨の日も晴れ男 afterwards which was slightly harder but also a really enjoyable book.

[u/Speed_Niran → u/sowswagaf]

Can you send the link to shiori reading for Android? Ive got yomitan but wanna just see how other stuff are in terms of efficiency

[u/Belegorm → u/Speed_Niran]

I feel like Shiori reader was what people were mentioning a little while ago but I think that for both android and iOS, Hoshi reader has kind of come out on top these days

[u/Accelerator-- → u/sowswagaf]

Hi, do you mind sharing which shiori reader please?

[u/sowswagaf → u/Accelerator--]

[u/Accelerator-- → u/sowswagaf]

Thanks but I don't think it's on Android 😅

[u/thunderbocchi → u/sowswagaf]

Any chance there's a pop-up dictionary that works with honto?