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

[geraineon]

I'm about 38 chapters into Lord of Mysteries vol. 1, and the whole time I'm reading, I kept thinking that I'd have preferred this as a game instead. I know there's going to be a LoM game, so I'm considering pre-registering.

The story is written in a very videogame-like way imo. Formulas for potions, collecting ingreditns, dialogue feels like checks ("aha, a charisma check", "aha, an insight check" etc.), and I can see menu buttons and skill trees... maybe it will feel less videogame-y after a while.

It is enjoyable enough to continue reading but let's see if it can keep my attention the whole way.

In other news, I've received my copy of Guide on How to Fail at Online Dating... in a crappy clothes or bags box (the brand is some boutique that sells bags I think) that was too big for the book so there was a lot of unnecessary padding. Yay, I guess.

[duckprintspress]

interesting, that makes is sound fairly different from the donghua. I've got LoM on my TBR, but there are so so many other books to read, sigh.

[dayadhvam_triad]

Interested to see your commentary as you continue! Lord of Mysteries has been on my to-read list for so long but I still haven't made it past the first chapter >_> think I need to be in a certain reading mood before reading this genre (had a similar situation with 穿进赛博游戏后干掉BOSS成功上位... and then I binge-read it all at once /facepalm)

Yay book delivery!

[halfcactus]

I get what you mean about wanting it to be a game! WHen I tried watching the donghua, I was already envisioning it as a game. 😂

[duckprintspress]

I felt shitty so put aside my not-c-novel to instead read fluff, and plowed through all of Riverbay Road Men's Dormitory volume 1 in like 3 days (which is fast for me). It's by Fei Tian Ye Xiang and the English edition is two vols. It's not deep or great or anything but I'm enjoying it, it's very "dudes being dudes" with the way they interact with each other (it's nice to read a danmei actually written by a gay guy, at least as far as I know FTYX is a gay guy?). I like (?) that like. they're literally all lying to each other, but they're all so chill about it, and when a lie comes out they're all like "eh it's fine it's cool" while also thinking, "well I'm lying about stuff too so I can hardly throw stones," lol.

I also finished the Poyun manhua vol. 1, and I've read 18 pages of 我和我对家, which is a little faster than I expected to read.

I'm still thinking I SHOULDN'T have picked something so modern and casual; whenever Wei Yanzi starts monologuing in his own head, he loses me completely and I have no idea what he's talking about. But whenever the narrative is basically descriptive of things that are happening + dialogue, I can go along pretty well. I'm definitely keeping all this in mind and eyeing my shelves for which of these other books might make a better next choice. Anyway, the plan is to push through for now. I have no idea if I'm learning stuff but I don't think it's doing any harm, at least, and all practice has to be good practice, right??

[anne]

I should put RRMD on my list; I sailed through Legends of Exorcism v1 and bounced off Dinghai Fusheng Records in two different formats (my brain is currently declining to do graphic novels, but the prose version didn't stick either).

[geraineon]

Is the language just too casual + full of slang and references?

iirc FTYX is a gay guy, yes. sometimes, it's nice to read fluff.

[lee_bella]

I got curious about 我和我对家 and skimmed through the first few chapters. (I'm fluent in Chinese.) That's a lot of internet speak, memes, puns, idioms, slangs and so on thrown together.

[anne]

Panguan!! I keep forgetting to do readalong comments. I'm currently in the Fake Bride Real Bride arc, whatever it's called.

And also the ongoing https://panda-translations.com/series/live-streaming-food-stall-but-in-dog-blooded-novels/ --solve everybody's problems through the power of street food! Don't read it while hungry.

[geraineon]

I see that you are way over that part of Panguan now XDD

street food does solve a lot of things.

[larryhammer]

I got sidetracked by other stuff, but am still reading Gourmet of Another World -- am now 50 chapters from the end (so, around chapter 1800) and setting up the final cosmic-scale battle.

[geraineon]

I hope it sticks its landing! Do you have a next read lined up after this?

[forestofglory]

my convo with duckprintspress here last week inspired me to go poke around in Du Chinese a bit more. I do think they are right that the higher level stuff is more interesting than the low level stuff I tried before. But I have plenty of graded readers in Pleco so maybe I'll look again when I run out of things there.

However I noticed that Du Chinese has a setting to display text in Kai Tai, a font I find much more readable than the standard. (Varying stroke widths are good!) And that inspired me to go muck around in Pleco and make that display in Kai Tai.

[duckprintspress]

ah, cool! I'm doing basically the same thing, but in reverse, based on our conversation - gonna finish Duchinese stuff then get those readings in Pleco that looked interesting. :D

[aurumcalendula]

I caught up on Dragon Subjugation Incantation and The Moon Above These Lands!

In the former, I love that the system has given up and started shipping Luo Qingci and Ruan Li. In the later, I liked seeing a bit of Wen Mingchang and her mother's relationship

[geraineon]

The system shipping the pair is kinda cute XD How is the system portrayed in that novel?

[llonkrebboj]

Between killing my 1.5 year old kobo, having re-shelve 400 books on my new colour screen (!!!!) one, the impulse exchange PH i took up, and the little whale tl cleanup, I haven't had much time to read these couple of weeks 😭

One good thing that came out of that though, was that i have rediscovered the last convenient sea-sailing site that I used to turn my nose up at. Its cousin allowed me to download cnovels, both old and newly completed in txt with just the novel title as file name, making it an advantage over one that gives me its website URL too lol. But that one is gone now 🥺 and now I MUST try and save all I can before this one does too.

But on to things I'm actually reading!

Currently in progress is a super fun (i.e. the mc has a random sickness debuff from his silver tongue power) unlimited flow jjwxc cnovel about an unreliable narrator with excellent deduction powers. I'd been keeping tabs on it bc the premise was delicious. It's called 伪装燃命后成神了 xD

Also 判官 | Panguan - which was well translated and had context notes! I'm impressed xD - with EN and CN side by side, making the going a bit slow (and I'm always forgetting to do live commentary, oops) I plan to catch up with the readalong pace this week though! LOVING what I see of it A LOT so far. It might be my fav out of musuli novels with her creative use of chinese supernatural tropes (but we'll see).

Cnovel adjacent, I'm having a good time nibbling when I can at the Li Shangyin poetry appreciation book and the lower ranked Tang administrators job scope, pay etc. analysis one.

Too many hobbies 😆🙈

[dayadhvam_triad]

rip your Kobo :( but hurrah for sailing the seas!

Ahahaha 伪装燃命后成神了 sounds tailored to your sick protag preference :D I... need to revisit Musuli, I never made it far into any of her novels though tbf the last time I checked one out was a long time ago. What's your favorite among the Musuli novels you've finished reading?

[lee_bella]

I've been meaning to give Musuli's novels a try, but I keep getting distracted by other authors. So many novels, so little time...

[halfcactus]

Congrats on the new ereader! I hope the colored experience is pleasant for you, that seems like a big leap!

[geraineon]

reshelving 400 books! that's a lot orz

haha, you can always just do a wrap-up comment at the end of Panguan. It's my fav Musuli too, and I am glad you're enjoying it so far!

[dayadhvam_triad]

The Jiajing mpreg story 嘉靖感而有孕之后 (which I mentioned last week) has turned VIP on JJWXC, so I stopped reading for now and will just see what people say about it when it ends. XD

Life's been busy so I haven't read much on the cnovel front other than rereading bits of 3K Workers, but I went down a research rabbit hole about an incorrect ROT3K romanization that kinda blew my mind b/c this error is everywhere, though the correct romanization is totally not a secret at all on cnet...

[halfcactus]

Oh noooooooooo re: VIP-lock.

Omg multiple possible name pronunciations, the bane of every translator's existence, except this one was also spoken in an adaptation so it sounds like a common error! That's such an interesting and specific rabbithole! Just... the use of research and logic astounds me.

[lee_bella]

I read 影帝他不想修罗场 written by 池海筠, a showbiz story where a famed actor became aware that he's a character in a book. With the help of the self-saving system, he must fight his way against his predestined fate of becoming one of the cannon fodder suitors in a trashy showbiz heartthrob story.

The writing itself is very cinematic, which is fitting for the story it's telling. It's probably the first danmei novel I've read where the supposed heartthrob (equipped with the heartthrob system) is the cause for much of the fridge horror in the story. The MC and his love interest are supposed to be love rivals on the surface, but in truth they had a history together -- and it's a complicated one. Their conversation are pretty cryptic in the opening chapters. There are multiple flashback scenes as the author gradually reveals what their past relationship was like. I'll probably reread this book just to see what clues I'd missed the first time around.

[geraineon]

影帝他不想修罗场 sounds like a fun one based on what you mentioned here! I love it when fridge horror is done well.

[halfcactus]

Cnovel-adjacent: I was testing out a game that featured a Taiwanese band I really like in its OST! Five minutes in you find out that the main character's name is Yi and that there are ten "sols" and I was like OHHHHH IS THE GAME CALLED NINE SOLS BECAUSE YOUR GOAL WILL BE TO TAKE DOWN NINE OF THEM? and felt like this:


It doesn't display very well on my small screen though and I got a bit of motion sickness and am I'm technically on a break from gaming (after having just finished a different one this week), so we'll see! Yi from Nine Sols is a cat btw! Which is also relevant to my interests. XD

[dayadhvam_triad]

Hahaha the power of names XD curious, what's the Taiwanese band?