I have been reading NHK news and graded readers for awhile now and the graded readers were pretty easy. So I decided to finally jump into some native books. I picked up にゃんにゃん探偵団 to start.
I find myself having to look up words frequently and grammar points. I use Google translate a lot and go "ohh, right okay, I see how it means that". I write down grammar points I struggle with; often times I'm fine the next time I see it (or at least I recognize it and flip back on my notes to double check).
Did you guys also look up a lot of stuff / check Google translate or ichi.moe often for help on your first few books? It feels like a significant jump up in difficulty from the graded readers but at the same time it doesn't feel that difficult as long as I use these resources. But I can't help but feel like I'm not actually "reading" it.. or like I'm cheating somehow. 🙁
by viptenchou