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:

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Comments

[duckprintspress]

I'm veeeery slowly reading Global Examination vol. 3 (manhua) in Chinese.

Other than that... neck-deep in Solo Leveling novels lmao.

[geraineon]

Jiayou with Global Examination vol. 3! How much does it cover (which arc?)

[duckprintspress]

It doesn't quite finish the second arc, I believe. At the beginning they've only just gotten to the creepy village for the Romani language exam.

[larryhammer]

Am 200-odd chapters (they're exceedingly short) into Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator. Loving some of the trope-play, but dang that alternate lover-boy is annoying af.

[geraineon]

The alternate lover-boy? Like another love interest that's not meant to be end game?

[larryhammer]

So, the protagonist has been isekai'd into a trashy historical romance that she was halfway through reading, and is now is the MC of that inner novel. In that inner novel, the MC had an arranged marriage but had a pervious love-interest, a student of the head of her maiden family, for whom she betrayed her husband. Protagonist thinks the MC was an idiot, and is trying to wash her hands of him -- and rightly so, as he's annoying af.

This is complicated by her husband being a reincarnator -- he has lived through several years of betrayal and returned to the same moment, during their wedding, that the protag transmigrated in. He immediately swerves off the inner novel's storyline, but the novel continues to try to push the unwilling protag onto the old love interest. Which doesn't help husband trust her.

I am enjoying the protagonist's leveraging her modern cooking techniques (she was a foodie) for world domination.

[geraineon]

Ah, that's like, the novel trying to correct the course of the story?

Well, hopefully there won't be too much more of that!

[larryhammer]

"Correct" the story, yeah. Given I'm ~1/3 of the way in, I suspect the novel will continue to meddle -- hopefully in more entertaining ways.

[geraineon]

... still in LaDS pit!!

But I've switched the game to CN fully for some days of the week to force myself to remember words.

[halfcactus]

\o/

[alterkrmn]

I started reading SVSSS Vol. 1 and I'm on chapter 1 :P

[geraineon]

\o/

enjoy svsss!

[aurumcalendula]

Seeking Immortality in Vain! I also just started checking out a fan translation of The Bride With White Hair.

[larryhammer]

have fun with Bride/Demoness -- it's surprisingly fun, amid some of the incoherence. Is this a new translation, or the one that's been around for a decade-plus?

[aurumcalendula]

It's the one that's been around for a while I think (it's translated by Faerie Queene, Foxs and Ren Wo Xing). As a side note, I was kinda surprised at all the translation variations w/r/t the title

[larryhammer]

That's the translation I know. I'd translate 白髮魔女傳 as something like "Romance of White-Haired Enchantress," but 魔女 is a notoriously ... broad spectrum word.

[geraineon]

Oh that's a classic!

I've never read it but have watched adaptations of it. How's the translation?

[aurumcalendula]

I think it's decent so far - some of terminology is different than what I'm used to (possibly a result of it being from 2010 or so) and there's some typos, but I'm finding it very readable.

(There's an archived version of the forum thread it was originally posted on here. I can share the ebook version that used to be hosted on Wuxia Society (they seem to be redoing their website), if anyone's interested in it being added to the resource folder).

[forestofglory]

I did mange to finish the book I talked about last time, but have not yet started another non fiction book.

I'm currently rereading Murderbot but after I finish that I might actually try one of the baihe novels featuring crossdressing that I have sitting around

[aurumcalendula]

one of the baihe novels featuring crossdressing that I have sitting around

Which ones are you considering?

[forestofglory]

I have to double check the summaries to remember exactly which ones have cross dressing, but I've got Eldest Princes and Female General, and Purely by Accident and one or two others

[aurumcalendula]

I remember Purely by Accident being fun! iirc Clear and Muddy Loss of Love and Matrilocal Marriage also have cross dressing.

[geraineon]

Oh, enjoy the crossdressing baihe!

[anne]

Still stalled out on Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, galloping through Mo Du instead. (you will pry my E. Danglars version out of my cold dead hands.)

[geraineon]

Where did you stop on ORV?

Yeah, I have a copy too, and I'll treasure it

[anne]

Gigantomachia. I don't know why! It's no weirder than anything else, and I was having a great time up to then. I'll try again when I finish Mo Du.

[halfcactus]

Caught up on Justice in the Dark (ep 13)... Finally exhausted all my energy on GIF-ing/making niche edits so maybe I can go back to doing other things???

I did also read the first chapter of Imperial Uncle and really enjoyed the translation + vibes so that's probably going to be my next cnovel read...

[duckprintspress]

ooo I hope you like Imperial Uncle. I love it.

[geraineon]

Enjoy Imperial Uncle!

[anne]

I love Imperial Uncle!

[douqi]

I've almost finished reading Miss Mu and Her Pet Canary, which is SO fun and very Republican Era without (much) of the usual tragedy! I read the first half (about 150k words) in one sitting — started after breakfast, then looked up and it was 3pm.

[halfcactus]

Ooooh looking forward to your write-up!

[geraineon]

Republican Era without much tragedy?! That's awesome.

I don't usually touch that setting because pain...

[douqi]

You do get the looming threat of the Sino-Japanese War in the not-too-distant future, and there's some tragedy in the family's recent past, but it's generally a quite upbeat novel.

[aurumcalendula]

Ooh! That sounds really good!