I started the third short story! It’s also the longest one.
I had originally planned to read half of it today, but I was busy with the website, so I only started it. I really love the beginning, looks very promising!
I really had underestimated the number of books referenced on notes… It’s going to take a while before I sort the DB, and I’ve already spent so much time today on it… Haven’t read as much as I wanted because of it, but it’s a good step forward.
I finished 幸福宝贝, and I really really love Otsuichi’s stories. This one was fantastic, I loved the main character, and I was loving the story so much (I thought it would be a story of friendship or romance), but then all of the sudden I realised I was reading a mystery all along, even though it didn’t feel like it. The end was really good, and at the same time, like many of the short stories I’ve read, it left me quite sad.
Going over all my read Japanese books to add to the new DB, I realise that a good chunk of them are books I didn’t really want to read… I mean, they were not exactly books I didn’t want to read, but rather books I read for other reasons: some were because I was looking for easy books to recommend to Japanese learners… At the time when my blog was still insidethatjapanesebook, some people were asking for recommendations on my blog or Twitter (X), so I felt like I needed to do this kind of content. It was a good experience, I learnt a log of things in the process, and I’ve always loved recommending books to others, so I don’t regret reading these, even though some were very far from what I personally enjoy reading.
What I absolutely regret though are the books I read because everyone was talking about them, or because I thought that, as someone who reviewed Japanese books, I ought to have read. There are so many books that fall in this category, and no surprise, I rarely ended up liking them. But it’s hard to not get influenced, especially because at the time, I was on Twitter. Like when a book got translated into English everyone was talking about it, praising it like it was the best thing ever published, but me, I don’t think these books are anything special, they’re good yes, but good books are everywhere, so I might as well read the ones I want to read rather than the ones that are the current trendy thing.
So now I’m making a promise to myself: life is too short, books are too many, I’ll only read the books I want to read, not the ones that are hyped, not the ones it would be nice to have read, not the ones you read to look smart, educated and trendy, just the ones that trigger that spark of excitement when you see them or hear about them for the first time.
I’m going over the list of books imported from notes, just to check that author and titles are correct, add the cover if needed, etc. It’s a repetitive and boring task that does not require much attention, so I’ve been listening to my audiobook, 失踪假日 by Otsuichi, while doing it. This allowed me to finish the first short story, but now I have to take a break to digest it. It was such a great story once again!
It’s happening, I’m actually working on importing my reading history from notes to the new website. It will probably be missing some books, but it’s better than nothing.
It’s such a shame that I didn’t have a proper DB before, it was just me posting without any kind of formatting…
It’s going to take a while to make everything look clean, associate a cover to every book and check that title and author are correct.
Finished chapter 21! That’s exactly why I love the series, this chapter was so great!
During an anticipated football match featuring Longyu’s team on the day of A Hua’s execution date, both A Hua and Du Mingqiang are in the stadium, while Longyu Group security guards are hidden everywhere, thinking that Eumenides will strike during the match.
In a hotel near the stadium, Luo Fei, Yin Jian and Mu Jianyun are in a room, while Liu Song is disguised as Eumenides (using the foam in his clothes) alone in another room. Han Hao is watching Liu Song through CCTV from the hotel basement. When fans create turmoil in the stadium, he goes to Liu Song’s room and shoots him before hiding in another room. Liu Song had a bulletproof vest, so he didn’t die, but Han Hao managed to escape and is met by two of A Hua’s men.
Luo Fei had explained everything to the team beforehand:
A Hua and Meng Fangliang were accomplices to kill Lin Henggan, the whole thing had nothing to do with Eumenides. Motive for Meng Fangliang was succession stuff, but for A Hua, it was also a way to attract Eumenides. Meng Fangliang is the one dressed up as Eumenides who waved at the camera, the clothes and foam were hidden in the drawer. He killed Lin Henggan. When entering the room, A Hua and his man killed Meng Fangliang. He placed a fake death notice in the drawer so that the police don’t find it strange to find it empty. A Hua then let Du Mingqiang write his article to provoke Eumenides, in the hope he would appear at the stadium.
Luo Fei also rightly guessed that Han Hao and A Hua were accomplices, with the same goal of killing Eumenides, which would also explain why Han Hao was hiding so well from Yin Jian’s efforts to find him.
Luo Fei’s plan was for Liu Song to disguise as Eumenides to attract either the real Eumenides who would want to see who was impersonating him, and/or the A Hua/Han Hao gang who would genuinely think he was Eumenides.
Just bought 夏と花火と私の死体 on Booklive!
I’m only just at the beginning, but I love it and it’s crazy how we’re immediately drawn into the story and we start caring for the characters right away. The author is such a good story teller…
The first short story is also extremely easy to listen to! I’m really happy about that, it means I can listen to it while doing other things, I don’t need to be 100% focused or look at the text.
The narration is very good, background noises are okayish, but I would have preferred the audiobook without the background music that is sometimes added.
I decided what would be my next Japanese read: 夏と花火と私の死体, Otsuichi’s debut novel (I think it’s a novel?), it was first published in 1996, which means Otsuichi was very young when he wrote it! I’m really looking forward to read it. 
I’ll add it to the DB and buy in tomorrow!
Du Mingqiang has written his article, it shows how Meng Fangliang had shown remorse for his crimes and came out a new man after serving his prison sentence, putting Eumenides actions in a bad light.
Luo Fei cracked the mystery of the white plastic foam: it was used to make the man’s stature look bigger than it really was.
During the investigation, A Hua had mentioned A Sheng’s accident and said he thought he was killed by Eumenides. Luo Fei retraces A Hua’s investigation: A Sheng’s lighter brings him to the 绿阳春餐厅, he sees the three men on CCTV, but also spots Chengyu and immediately suspects him. The profile Mu Jianyun had done of Eumenides also matches: it’s possible he was drawn to the music and the violinist. Luo Fei interrogates her and she reveals that her father was Zheng Haoming, the detective in charge of the explosion case 18 years ago, who also suspected Eumenides to be active again. (He is the policeman who investigates by taking pictures of internet cafe users at the beginning of volume 1). He is also the first new victim of Eumenides. Zheng Jia thinks the case is closed with Yuan Zhibang’s death. Luo Fei asks her about the customer who sent her flowers, but she says she does not know him.
That was an important chapter, things are taking a turn now it looks like!
I can’t decide what my next Japanese book will be… I’m always drawn to those honkaku mysteries with closed-circles and locked-room mysteries, but I often end up being disappointing. Not necessarily because the book is bad, but because I’m not that interested in tricks, more on characters and motives.
Maybe I’ll just end up choosing another book by Otsuichi, but my current audiobook is also Otsuichi, and I just finished ZOO, and my last audiobook, which I also just finished, was the Chinese translation of メアリー・スーを殺して. So I’m afraid I’ll get tired of the author’s style, but at the same time, I don’t feel like this could really happen…
I can’t find the time to start Lohen’s SQ, and I’m waiting for the ascension materials it gives to fully level him up. I’ll only try an Abyss run with him once he is 90 and talents 9. I still don’t know if I want to double crown him…
Now I’m also thinking about creating author pages on the website. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I used a plugin on Wordpress that allowed me to do that, but even though the plugin was really great, it also did not correspond exactly to what I wanted to do, so I’ve never been happy with this page on the old blog.
Here I think I could do exactly what I want to, the question is whether I have the courage to bring older datas from notes to this website. Or I could start from scratch with what I have here, but it would feel strange to say I only read like 2 books by Higashino.
That’s a new project to think about and work on! 
Finished Centurion’s Anecdote, I liked it! The end was a bit underwhelming though…
I don’t have the courage to try and unlock the other ending, I’m not a fan of the multiple endings mechanic, so I’m giving up on the weapon ascension mats, but I do have the weapon!
| Word | Reading | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 筹码 | chóu mǎ | bargaining chip; gaming chip; casino token |
I finished the second short story, 보름, and I loved it. It was a very good mystery with very dark themes (depression, alcoholism and DV among others), but I loved how it makes you see the characters differently as the story goes.
I’ve been working on the lyrics of this song by 阿禹ayy.
| Word | Reading | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 調臺 | diàotái | tune, change the channel |
