Last month, I put together a target language TBR to bring some structure to my language reading. Iād been collecting books for months without actually reading them, and I needed a little push to start. Lately, Iāve found myself reading more in English, so this TBR felt like the right way to get back into reading in my target languages.
I also started a chat where we can talk about the books weāre reading in our target languages (or even in English!). Feel free to join in and share what youāre reading.
September Recap
September went well! I finished Amari et le Bureau des affaires surnaturelles (Tome 1) and managed to get through the first few pages of Yotsuba!. Since Iām still a beginner in Japanese, Yotsuba! requires a lot of focused, intensive reading and I just donāt have the time (or brain power) for that right now. Thankfully, I anticipated that and gave myself until the end of December to finish it.
As for Amari, I am happy to have completed it but noticed my interest decreased as I neared the end of the book. I think itās because I was getting more invested in some of the English books I had picked up, which took time away from Amari. Still, since I tend to be a completionist, I found a way to push through and ended up reading a total of nine books in September. My average rating for the month was 3.18 stars which is lower than Iād like. However, I had one five-star read: Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang!1
I usually rate all the books I read, but since Amari was a reread, it felt strange to rate it again. The first time I read it four years ago, I gave it four stars and was susprised by how much I enjoyed it since it is in the fantasy/paranormal genre.
Recently, Iāve been thinking about creating a new rating scale just for books I read in my target languages. Something that focuses less on the book itself and more on the experience of reading in another language. Iām sure itāll evolve as I read more, but if you have any ideas, Iād love to hear them!
October Reading Update
October is almost over, and I havenāt made as much progress as Iād hoped. Like in September, Iāve been distracted by English books again. So far, Iāve read seven, some short stories and novellas, along with a few novels.
My plan for this month was to finish Motel Calivista 2 (Les trois clĆ©s) (currently at 26%) and make progress in La Faucheuse (61%) and OĆ¹ vont les rĆŖves au petit matin ? (not yet started). With only 11 days left in the month, it looks like Iāll need to put all my other books on hold2 and focus on finishing Motel Calivista.
In Other News
I finally finished the drama å¼ē«Æ [KÄiduÄn] thanks to watching it with my partner! It turns out that the only way I can stick with a show is by watching it with someone, otherwise, I stop halfway through a season only to return years later.
The series was much more intense than I expected, but I really enjoyed it. Hearing Mandarin again also got me excited to read the novel next month. Now that I know the plot, reading the novel should be much easier! That is if I havenāt forgotten how to read in Mandarin.
Rewards and Motivations
Iāve been thinking about having some sort of ārewardā for myself at the end of the year once I finish my TBR. I donāt usually do rewards, but Iāve been interested in reading Dungeon Crawler Carl ever since I first heard about it in August. Itās been hard to find through my library or the Kobo store, but I recently discovered that Kobo has the French ebook version. So maybe buying it in French could be my reward.
Do you find rewards helpful for staying motivated with your own goals or challenges?
The next update will be sometime in November. Until then, Iāll be sharing updates in the book club chat.
Happy reading!
Categorized as a thriller but there are some horror elements in there.
Will this happen? Probably not š
I have been rating the books I read for ages now, however it's only been about a year since I started reading intensively in Korean (and started eating those books too). And I must say, I love the idea you mentioned of creating a different kind of rating for books in the target language, including aspects such as how easy it is to understand etc.
I was trying to think of what else could be interesting to rate in that context: Maybe how much a book helps to acquire a certain type of vocabulary? (For example a thriller helping to learn vocabulary in the field of investigation, crime etc).
If you create a rating specific for books in a target language, I'd love to see what are the aspects you choose to rate!
Thank you for this great idea šš
No, until now I haven't had a separate rating for Korean and English books (or German or French either), but I am definitely going to implement a rating for "not-my-native-language books" in some way. Just like you, I just need a quiet moment to think a bit more deeply about it and decide what would be best. Maybe in two weeks during my vacation, we shall see!