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I’m playing around with a new reading goal feature. I love reading goals and challenges, so I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with this. I’m also thinking of bringing back my language bingo and Korean food collection to the website. I stopped doing these when I switched from physical notebooks to this website, but I think it’s possible to integrate them here too. I did miss a lot of mentions in the meantime, but it’s never too late to start again.

Started it!
It’s been a while since I read medical fiction! Medical terms aren’t really a problem so far, and the book reads easily. Very intriguing beginning too…

三次救急: tertiary emergency medical care refers to the highest level of emergencies (life-threatening, critical trauma, etc.).

Read the first two chapters of part 2, and it’s as good as part 1!

Finished the second chapter!
This one was so different than the first chapter. It was more an action thriller whereas the first one felt more like a police procedural. Many parts of the second chapter didn’t feel very realistic to me. I liked it less than the first part, but I’m curious to see where it’s going to be and whether all chapters will have a different tone or different sub-genre.

In Korean Shamanism, a 애기신녀 “Child Shamaness” can refer to a shaman possessed by a child spirit which makes her speak and act in a child voice, regardless of her age.

I had a new goal idea this morning: finish my current book in each language before Snezhnaya release. I still haven’t started the Japanese one, and the current book in Chinese is quite long, but at least I know it won’t be a problem for Korean given how engrossing 믹스테이프 is.

For this kind of reading goal, I need to set a progress plan:
There are exactly 7 days remaining before the patch.
千禧黑夜: 79% > 11/12% per day
믹스테이프: 46% > 6/7 % per day
禁忌の子: 100% > 14/15% per day

It looks a bit unrealistic… I think that 千禧黑夜 is the longest, but it’s hard to compare length... 믹스테이프 is very easy to read and it’s a page-turner anyway so this one won’t be a problem. As for 禁忌の子, it’s a medical mystery, so it might end up being the most difficult of the three. It’s not very long though.

I finished part 1, or “Side A”! What an ending! I’m wondering what will happen now given that I’m only halfway through. I hope it’s going to be as good as the first part.

Next book I want to read in Japanese is 禁忌の子 by 山口未桜. I’m just following the list of prizes and rankings, and this novel ranked 3rd on このミステリーがすごい! (2026), 2nd on ミステリが読みたい! (2026) and third on 週刊文春ミステリーベスト10 (2024) among others.

It’s also the author’s debut novel (I always like reading debut works or even better, start with an author’s debut novel), and it’s the first of a series with a second volume published in 2025.

All of these are good reasons for me to pick this book! The only thing that makes me hesitate a bit is that it’s a medical mystery, and I’m expecting a lot of medical vocabulary. But maybe I’m just underestimating myself, I don’t think tackling medical fiction in Japanese should really be a problem. I also already read fiction by authors who work in the medical field and incorporate medical elements in their work, so it should be okay.

This novel is currently a life saviour, I spent the night reading it while it was too hot to sleep.

Chapter 2 is a completely new setting! I still haven’t fully got into the story, but I’m too tired for Traditional Chinese today

I feel like August is going to be a very bad reading month. First there’s the heat, with nights at 28C it’s just impossible to sleep and I’m tired all day. Then there will be Snezhnaya and Reverse 1999 anniversary patch both releasing next week! I skipped latest R1999 stories (the Enigma one and the collab one), but I will absolutely do the next story! So I’ll probably won’t have much time to open my books.