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I’m very happy with my reading progress today! Finished a chapter in my Taiwanese novel, read one chapter in my Korean novel (these were my goals for the day!), and also listened to a whole short story in my audiobook!

I finally finished act 9!
First of all, I must say that it’s really cool to open the game and think “I will play the AQ for 20 minutes”.
But then… the first half of Act IX was really good, but the second half was just people standing in circle discussing lore? I’m personally not a fan of this kind of AQ, and unfortunately we had a lot of it in Nod-Krai, especially towards the end. I don’t find listening to endless discussions very engaging for a video game, I would prefer more action, having things to do, feeling more involved.
And then, Sumeru lore is quite difficult too. At first, I wanted to read the wiki to fill the gaps (either things I don’t understand in Chinese or things I forgot), but then it was just too much so I gave up.
So yeah, I personally haven’t been a fan of the end of Act IX… I hope Act X will pick up the pace.

I listened to 殺死瑪麗蘇, this one was a bit more difficult than the previous ones, especially at the beginning, but it was okay still. I enjoyed it, it’s about fiction and real life, and I guess what writing means for the protagonist, though said like that it doesn’t do justice to the short story. I really loved the end, and overall, I like the direction the story took, I like that writing is not idealised as something sacred or whatever. It kinds of serves a purpose, but this purpose can change.
Not my favourite story of the collection, but I enjoyed it!

Finished chapter 3! The story is really great, I love it.
I’m also glad that I completed my reading goals for today

I finished chapter 4! It was such a great chapter. The book introduces a lot of things in the first half, several cases linked together, a lot of characters and episodes that seem impossible. I thought that the novel was going in too many directions at the same time, but chapter 4 ties everything together.
Only one chapter left!

Reading goal for today:

• Finish chapter 4 of 錯置體
• Read chapter 3 of 매일 죽어야하는 X

Character names that were just mentioned once in chapter 2 are coming back in chapter 4. I’m glad I made a character list!
I always do that because I tend to forget foreign names more easily (I never do character list for novels I read in English or French), and because it’s useful for the reading in the case of Chinese (when I don’t know a character) and mostly Japanese.
Korean names are also tricky, I tend to mix them up easily if two characters have names that sound even remotely similar. I really have a hard time remembering names in Korean to be honest, if only I can see the hanja, then I remember the name immediately, but most of the time, you don’t see them. Like for example, names like 천현숙 and 전형수, I know they’re not the same at all, but I’m going to mix them up for sure if I don’t write them down somewhere.
Finally, given that I’m always reading several books at the same time, I sometimes stay several day without opening a book if I’m engrossed in another one, so it’s easier to forget who is who.

Today, I’m going to work on the design of vocabulary exercises I have on my private website. My flashcards are one direction only, because I’m mostly interesting in reading, not talking nor writing, so it shows me the Chinese word, and I need to tell the pronunciation and meaning.
But I have some exercises to work on vocabulary differently, like close fill in, listening exercises, meaning to Chinese direction etc. I will polish these a little bit, and make daily sessions of 10 exercises per type. They’re not things I need to do every day like the flashcards, but having small packages of 10 exercises per day will feel more motivating than having an endless flow of drills like I have right now.
I’m also working on a view that would display character readings and example words in all three languages. That has always been a dream of mine, but I never managed to make it come true with Anki, to much work just to create the cards…

Chapter 4 is really really great, one of the best things I’ve read recently!

Chapter 4 is so so good!

All along I had the feeling that Lao Qin must have been introduced in a previous work, and I now have confirmation, because there’s a passage that refers to a previous case involving this character, and the footnote says it’s in 關於高雄的殺意與哀愁.
It really feels like the reader is supposed to know Lao Qin (this being said, if you don’t like me, it doesn’t affect the novel at all), now it makes sense!
I’m adding 關於高雄的殺意與哀愁 to my list then, I’ll probably read it at some point because I really love Lao Qin, and I’m pretty sure now that 錯置體 will just continue hitting at things that happened in the past, but the novel probably won’t explain them (I imagined everything is in 關於高雄的殺意與哀愁).

I finished chapter 2!
I really love time loop

I think I will be able to finish 매일 죽어야 하는 X this week, so my reading count will be 4 in May! I don’t know for 錯置體… I think it’s possible, but I’m reading this book much slower. Every time I’m reading it I feel like I made a lot of progress, but I actually only read like 5 or 6% more, I don’t think the book is particularly long, because it belongs to the middle section of the Readmoo challenge (books of average length). I’m probably just reading it slower because it’s Traditional Chinese.
And I still haven’t started Zoo2, but I will at some point during the week.