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I’m learning Japanese, Korean and Chinese to be able to read books in these languages. I mostly read crime fiction and post book reviews here. They are mainly reviews of mystery novels that I read in Japanese.

Reading projects:

  • I started two reading projects recently. The first one, started in January 2022, is to read all the winners of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award. A lot of books are sadly out of print and not available digitally, so I have to skip them, but I plan on reading all the ones I can buy from outside Japan.
  • In 2023, I got the collection called 『日本探偵小説全集』, an anthology of 12 volumes of Japanese detective fiction. I’m progressing slowly on this one, but my goal is to finish the 12 books (this might take me several years!).
  • In order to improve my reading level in Korean, I’ve decided to read one short story per week.
  • I’m also progressing very slowly on a Taiwanese novel that I plan on reading over the course of 2023.

I’m not on Twitter anymore, but you can follow me on Mastodon if you want! Here are my latest posts in the Fediverse:

#3GoodThings
👩🏻‍💻 Someone asked a question on my blog and I answered.
🌶️ Eating non spicy green peppers (오이고추) with a dipping sauce.
🎧 Listened to an audiobook in Chinese (a detective story for children), it’s much harder than reading! But it’s fun to try to catch some words and sentences.

1 December 2023 @ 2:10 pm

#3GoodThings
😌 After being woken up during the night by the emergency alert (quite a scary experience), I am grateful for an uneventful day! (The alert was for a 4.0 earthquake in Gyeongju).
📖 Finished my Chinese novel!!
🧘🏻‍♀️ Workout.

30 November 2023 @ 2:17 pm

I finished 无证之罪 by 紫金陈 (The Untouched Crime by Zijin Chen, translated by Michelle Deeter)!
Not only was it 100% the kind of stories I enjoy reading, but it was also easy to read, and using vocabulary I’m familiar with.
It reminded me of Keigo Higashino, not just because the pattern and style felt similar, but because Higashino is the first author I read in Japanese. Now I have a similar experience with Chinese!

30 November 2023 @ 8:40 am

Currently Reading

I have been writing this blog since 2017, and it has changed a lot over the years. I now focus entirely on writing book reviews, but I used to write about learning Japanese in general and passing the JLPT. You can find older posts and discontinued categories here:

Mastodon