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Start of August is not as good as July was in terms of books… I absolutely adore 믹스테이프, but my current HK novel is a rare case of book I’m tempted to DNF. As for the Japanese one, 禁忌の子, it’s really very good, especially for a debut novel, but it’s also not a novel that completely pulls me in.

I think that overall I will mostly prefer henkaku over honkaku, with exceptions of course.

The book is becoming a real honkaku mystery!

Another collection finished! I don’t know what to say more, I really enjoy Otsuichi’s stories, the ones about youth, loneliness, pain and friendship, they are so relatable all the time, and they make you care for the characters right from the beginning.

I had no idea what JR芦屋駅のバックル外しに注意！ハルちゃんが危なかったの was referring to, so I had to look it up. It really happens, some people do unfasten the harness of baby carriers (the kind where you have the baby on the front and the buckle is on your back), causing the baby to fall. What on earth?

Ooh, this year’s collection of novellas that won the Mystery Writers of Taiwan Award has just released!! I thought it would be some time in September, but it released on August 1st.

I don’t know when I’ll have time to catch up with the previous editions, but I’ve decided that I’ll read the new collection each year when it’s published, so this is going to be my next read in Chinese, when I finish 千禧黑夜.

I finished chapter 3, this one took place in London in 2007.
Unfortunately, now I’m pretty sure this book is just not for me, and I doubt I will really enjoy reading what’s left (I’m not even halfway through!). This chapter was very engrossing, with twists and action, but the genre and tone are just not for me. Too many coincidences, characters are also just too strong, Yuen-man was just a good police officer in chapter 1 but now she’s become some kind of elite agent with connections and access to information that doesn’t feel credible. Police procedures are also not realistic.
What bothers me the most though, is that each chapter is tackling a huge case with close relations to real major events of the city in which the story takes place, but a chapter feels much too short for the scale of its plot. The case is hardly set that it directly comes to its resolution.
It’s also hard to feel connected to the characters. Their actions are closely influenced by the political landscape or conflicts that currently shake their country, but again, this would need a novel of its own to explore, but the chapters make it feel like explanations are thrown onto the reader a bit artificially instead of letting us understand the characters’ motives bit by bit through the story.

I really prefer realistic procedures, not super hero who gain access to information because they’re elite computer experts and had foreseen everything before anyone else.
I think that if the book was not part of the Readmoo challenge, I would have considered DNFing it.

Now I’m really realising that my “before Snezhnaya” reading challenge was not realistic… And the problem is that I didn’t like 千禧黑夜‘s second chapter all that much, and so I lost a bit of motivation for this book.
Both Korean and Japanese novels read very easily though, so I can more or less stay on track with those two.

Track 5 ends on a cliffhanger, I’m tempted to continue, but I’m starting having a headache, so I’ll probably keep the end for tomorrow or this weekend.

Started chapter 2, I like the story!
I’m so tired and unmotivated today though, probably lack of sleep and heat…

Finished chapter 1! I like the setting and characters. It’s just the beginning, but it looks like the book is going to be a great mystery!

I’ve brought the Readmoo reading challenge to the website! I really like it, now I can check my progress directly from here.
I’m aiming for 10 books, and I’m a bit behind. No big deal if I don’t complete anyway!

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.).