Read-in-Progress Wednesday

[geraineon]

This is your weekly read-in-progress post for you to talk about what you're currently reading and reactions and feelings (if any)!

For spoilers:
<b>Highlight for spoilers!*<span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*

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Comments

[geraineon]

Currently nothing in progress. I need to switch to a non-webnovel novel so I don't keep eating popcorn and kueh, and eat something more substantial.

But! This Friday I'll be starting Mist (there's a read along on Fedi, which if ppl is interested, I can also post here. It's at the pace of 10 chapters a week)

Info: https://mistunlimited.carrd.co/

Tldr unlimited flow danmei with timey-wimey mindfuck

Idk, do audio dramas count as read in progress? XD

[silverblade219]

Langya List | Nirvana in Fire! I had read most of it when the fan translation was updating but had lost track of it around chapter 115. Had been slowly rereading the sections I read before, and now finally caught up to the new to me chapters.

This is still my favorite quote on Consort Jing: "In short, she was like a ball of cotton, impossible to crush or flatten, and if you tried to punch it, you could not damage it at all."

priest - 桥头楼上 chapters 1-2

[halfcactus]

I’ve only finished 2 chapters, but so far it’s been a good mix of humor and horror! I was very into the introduction of a failboat of a water ghost who was trying to be a good vegetarian ghost, even though their existence itself opens up questions and implications of tragedy. I made the mistake of skipping the “novel descriptions” at the beginning of chapter 1 so I feel like I missed out on some of the experience. ;__; When I saw the “comments” talk about 午夜盛宴 at the end of chapter 1, I Googled and marveled at the idea of a loyal readership for A Feast of Midnight (1994) fanfic hahaha.

I was surprised to see the webnovel bits were more than just a framing narrative and that they were actually explaining what the Literature City was and how it worked.

More specific notes:

Chapter 1 notes




I'm not really familiar with water ghosts—are there variations in the folklore about what happens after you've secured your 替死鬼? The narrator seems surprised to have possessed the body, and I’m not sure if it’s because in some of the lore the original spirit just moves on or if this narrator just operates with no knowledge of folklore other than what she finds out after death.

 But also, the circumstances seem special, so maybe that wasn't what was supposed to happen?

I wasn’t expecting the body-sharing and really enjoyed getting the first-person PoV of that, especially with the souls not being able to communicate with each other so the narrator has to go through a process of realization. "Did I take over her body, or did she capture me!?" was an interesting twist. I also want to know how and why and what happens next, and I hope both of them get a happy ending. ;___;





Chapter 2 notes

The role reversal of "I became the 'human' (who can't see ghosts) and she became the 'ghost' (who can see humans)" was nice.


Today, Mama took me to see Uncle Z. Uncle Z looks different from what I imagined. He doesn’t look like Clow Reed. Or Yukito gege. But he smiles a lot and speaks gently, unlike Grandpa.

Obviously I love this because 1) wow CCS really set the standard for men and I totally understand this child, 2) you can infer that this uncle wears glasses. Unless this child just assumes all “old” men wear glasses haha (clearly Sakura’s dad is either not old enough or bishounen enough XD).





I only noticed one typo, but I liked the idea of priest either deliberately leaving typos or being able to cover them up with the in-universe “too many typos” comment haha.

I thought the novel tags (Midnight Feast, Tang Guo, etc) were purely clickbait but now that a Tang Guo has appeared in the story, should we also expect unlimited flow….? My instinct is to say no, but now I’m like 🤔.

[douqi]

Currently reading a non-webnovel novel (one of EM Delafield's Provincial Lady books) but looking forward to starting I, Qinghuan, baihe's best-known tragic shizun romance, in a few days.

[shipperslist]

Reading Sha Po Lang vol 3. I don't really feel invested, not in the way I was with SVSSS and I'm not sure if it's because of the characters or the style. I loved the LYB/NiF book so it's not the palace scheming side of it, either.

Not sure what to read next. Devil Venerable? TGCF? Or should I grit my teeth and push through the MDZS official translation anyway? Not sure.

[aurumcalendula]

I read two short Jin Yong works: Junzi's translation of White Horse Neighing in the West Wind and Jenxi Seow's translation of Sword of the Yue Maiden.

Highlight for spoilers!*I enjoyed White Horse Neighing in the West Wind, but have mixed feeling w/r/t its depiction of Kazakh people (and that the ultimate antagonist is secretly Kazakh) and could've done without some of the heteronormativity (A'man realizes the disguised Li Wenxiu is a woman because of how she looks at Su Pu because "Which man in the world would look at you so intently!").

I really liked Aqing and I wish she was in Sword of the Yue Maiden more. I'm a bit bewildered by the white ape. Also now I kinda want to see if there's any Aqing/Xi Shi fanfic.*

I just started (as in I'm on chapter two) Emiliers' translation of Record of the Missing Sect Master and I'm also rereading volume 1 of Ballad of Sword and Wine again.

[ehyde]

I'm reading I Can Do It on geraineon's rec, and it's a lot of fun so far. I'm finding that, although I have zero knowledge of LoL, I have enough passing familiarity with professional esports in general that I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

("maybe I should watch Arcane, a friend was really into that when it came out ... no, somehow I don't think that's going to help me here")

...actually, I had been thinking about which Nian Zhong novel I should read next and thought that maybe before I read their "Also, this isn't an esports novel" novel, I should read at least one actual esports novel. I don't know if that's really necessary as it looks like the Nian Zhong novel is an esports novel in more or less the same way that Ender's Game is an esports novel, but hey, I'm enjoying myself.

[duckprintspress]

I finished vol. 1 of Silent Hearts by Jing Shui Bian and really liked it, but have been having trouble finding the time to really dig in on vol. 2 so I'm only like 30 pages into it still.

I wrote some post-vol.1-thoughts in the replies to last week's check in so I won't rehash it all here. :D

[sam_gardener]

I'm about half way through Tai Sui and in between being immersed in periods of exciting action, I've started to feel the depressing familiarity of the entire set-up. Like why am I reading about this for fun, I live here? (Then I get sucked back into the story for awhile :))