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.

[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).

[duckprintspress]

I've read all of Dinghai Fusheng Records (in fantranslation), and a fair amount of the manhua, and I've read all of the LoE manhua and watched the donghua s1 (but haven't read the novel yet). So I'm kinda the opposite of you for those two, lol.

For RRMD, it's fairly different, in ways I'm finding interesting. For one, it's not the dynamic of those two (young and young-acting, naive shou with older, competent, guard gong). All the characters are more mature, ranging in age from 21 to 30; the primary point-of-view character is 27, tho all the characters have sections from their pov. The main ship, they're both about the same age.

It also doesn't have a driving plot, instead it's more slice of life. Like, there's definitely an overarching narrative trend toward "these men getting to know each other, each of them developing relationships, all of them getting the confidence to be more competent adults in ways that shore up their individual weaknesses" but like. It sure ain't cultivation novel fighting against demons and saving the world, lol.

One major point in common, all three have very strong supporting casts, side characters I genuinely like and end up invested in. (A-Tai my beloved. Tuoba Yan, my beloved. Yan Jun, my new beloved.)

[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.

[anne]

That sounds like it would fit my current mood! I wonder if the library has it (and if my mood will have changed by the time it gets to me...)

[duckprintspress]

I'll be curious what you think if/when you read it! I don't know anyone else who has talked about it yet, and the reviews on Storygraph are decidedly mixed. (mostly because people wanted a different end-game ship for the mc.)

[anne]

I just requested that the library purchase it! So I'll let you know in...a month or so, depending on how their budget is going lolsob

[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.

[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.

[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

[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]

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...

[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!

[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?

[llonkrebboj]

I've read 阴客, 一级律师, 不见上仙三百年, 文物不好惹 and then left 铜钱龛世 on hiatus. My favourite was 阴客... with that context, my delight at 判官 makes sense right 😆

[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.

[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...

[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

[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. 😂

[halfcactus]

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

[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.

[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]

ohhh interesting, haven't heard much about 阴客 /adds to TBR list