My goal for 2024 had been to read daily, but it was derailed in many ways. Namely, at some point, I got lazy and became complacent with reading a chapter of Naruto a day. This was no good because I am too familiar with it for it to be challenging. I only read it to say I read for the day. Even if I didn't know the story as well as I do, the language itself isn't particularly hard. At some point, it also felt like it had just become a vanity thing to be able to add one more book to my 読書メーター stats.
So, my goal for this year is to read more mindfully. I won't necessarily be reading daily. Instead, my goal will be to get through a specific portion of my backlog and keep a physical vocabulary/reading journal. I initially prepared a list of novels, light novels, nonfiction books, visual novels, and manga series I wanted to finish this year, but my eyes were bigger than my stomach, so to speak, and it became apparent that I wouldn't realistically accomplish the whole "finishing" part for absolutely all items I had in mind, so what I settled on was to finish one thing from each reading material type so that I ended up reading at least one novel, one light novel, one one nonfiction, one visual novel, and one manga series for a total of four big things and a set of smaller things as a palate cleanser of sorts so I don't get too bored, frustrated, or otherwise burnt out.
Starting January 1, I will have one full year to get this done. I'll be updating progress trackers like 読書メーター and VNDB, but I intend for most of my sense of progress to come from my vocabulary/reading journal. In it, I will jot down only the unknown words themselves without any of the definitions. I will flip through it every end of the week to see what I've retained, even vaguely, as I read. I want it to be a reflection of what I'm able to pick up and learn naturally as words keep coming up in my reading. Then maybe I'll give myself a ◎ mark on words I become completely confident with. But first I need to find a nice bright red ink…
Mind you, I still use Anki to learn words, but for the past few years, its use has been reserved for words with rarer kanji that I won't encounter often but I'd still like to be semi-prepared for. Plus it's nice to add to the list of encountered kanji that the JapaneseSupport Anki add-on provides.
As for the "reading" part of the journal, I'll be writing my opinions and summarizing the parts I've read to keep the stories straight as I jump around and switch things up to keep from becoming bored. I may need to keep separate journals for each work though. I'm not sure yet though.
The key materials I intend to read are:
- 鈴木光司『リング』
- 宮崎正弘『歪められた日本史』
- Key『Kanon』
- 久遠侑『親しい君との見知らぬ記憶』
- 文月晃『藍より青し』
Side note: I had stopped partway through an N1 vocab book because I got bored with it, but seeing as the words themselves have been useful to know, I might chip away at adding them to Anki again, but I don't want to make that a priority. Unless I get a sudden rush of motivation to get through it specifically, it's also a palate cleanser.
by ignoremesenpie