I cannot believe that November is almost over… While I have more or less completed my goals for November, I do not end the month with a feeling of satisfaction. 😕

Let’s see how far I went in my November Goals:

First of all, I completed my reading goals. I did start the novel 『リカーシブル』, but I only read a little less than a third of it so if I want to finish it this year, I will have to read a lot in December.

I read one short story of 『往復書簡』and two of 『探偵倶楽部』, and I think that I will finish both in December without problem.

As for the other goals, let’s say that I have lacked motivation and did my best in spite of it. 

I have written in Japanese only half of the month. I did well during the first two weeks of November, only skipping some days, but then I started skipping more and more days and last week was not a success, to say the least. 

As for Japanese History, I have read around 100 pages of each of the books I bought last month: The Making of Modern History by Marius B. Jansen and Hirohito, and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix.

I find The Making of Modern History to be completely engrossing at times. I particularly enjoyed reading the part on foreign relations in Japan during the Edo period. Jansen shows that Japan was not the “closed country” many people think it was. Its relation with China and Korea was particularly interesting to read. I am now reading the part that describes the status groups in Tokugawa Japan and this is very fascinating too. 

And finally, I did find a drama I want to watch, but I didn’t watch it (I only watched the first episode.) The drama is 『ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖』. There are two reasons why I didn’t watch the whole drama:

1. I wanted to study the drama instead of just watching it. In other words, I wanted to transcribe it. This exercise helps me improve my listening and my writing of kanji considerably, but it is also a lot of work. This month, I was not motivated to put so much effort in Japanese, and I ended up not studying the drama and not watching it either.
2. I wanted to read the light novel written by En MIKAMI, which is the original version of the drama adaptation. While I should be working on my listening instead of adding another book to my To Be Read list, I also feel naturally more attracted to books than drama. As I didn’t know if I should read the novel first or watch the drama first, I stopped watching the drama until I could get the book, which I have done last week! (I’ll tell you all about it on Wednesday!)

And that was November! 

My goals for December will be focused on reading because I want to finish the novels and short stories I am currently reading before the end of the year:

What are your plans for the last month of the year? 🙂

Good luck to those who sit the JLPT on Sunday!