Discussion This is my reading journey. How about yours ?

We're currently in a pandemic and everybody needs to stay at home. Since I have a lot of time, I want to share my novel reading journey with everybody.

Believe it or not, I learn English largely from Anime, Manga, Novel. That's why my English writing skill is crap. I simply can't differentiate a good grammar and a bad one. I hope I can improve my English writing skills by keep writing. So... Let's start..

I have been a fan of anime and manga since I was a kid. But before 2012, the only thing I follow is Naruto, One Piece and Bleach. In 2012 I found myself a hardcore otaku friend. He downloaded the whole SAO season 1 and love to watch it in class. I ask him, is it good ?. And then he enthusiastically talked about how good it was, burn every episode into a DVD, then gave it to me.

Once I got back home, I put in the DVD inside my old laptop, then try to watch one episode. I'm so absorbed with it that I realize it was already night and I binge watched 24 episodes without stopping. That was an amazing experience that I will never forget. The next day I talked with my friend about how awesome the show is and how amazing it will be if nerve gear and VR MMORPG will exist in the future. I asked him, did he have another recommendation. He said I need to watch Accel World and bunch other anime. That was how I start to get attached to the industries.

In 2013, I feel mad that a lot of anime is only 12 episodes with no continuation. So I try to read the source adaptation like manga and visual novel in English. LN was a bit too heavy for me, so many text and lack of illustration. Reading in English with no illustration at all was hard for me, even with SAO GGO volume already translated was not good enough motivation for me to read LN.

One day, I read a manga called Hyoketsu Kyoukai no Eden. I'm so captivated with the story, character, and art, that I feel hopeless when there was only 12 chapter available. I searched it on google and I found a website called C.E LN Translation. They translate the LN version. I force myself to read it and then, boom!. I can't stop.. When I am finally done, I realized that they already dropped the project, but thanks god SakuraHonyaku pick it. After that, I picked a lot of LN from Baka-Tsuki such as Gekkou, Ero manga sensei, Date a Live, Mahouka and so on. At this time I know why people say 'The anime was trash, just read the novel', there were so much lost content in the anime adaptation

I usually avoid WN, because they don't have any Illustration, but that change when I met Mushoku Tensei, my first isekai and still the best isekai story I ever read. From there I find AHO-UPDATE, then picked a lot of isekai WN such as Gun-Ota, Shield Hero, Konjiki no Moji Tsukai, re:monster, Shinka no mi, The New Gate, etc. A lot of them posted weekly and that was damn fast back then. If I'm not wrong, I remember around 2014-2016 Baka-Tsuki was bombarded with DMCA and LN scene start to die slowly. A lot of site such as Nanodesu dropped their project

I started reading KR Novel before CN Novel. The first KR Novel I read was The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor translated in Japtem. I swear remembering Korean names was so hard back then. One day I read Zhan Long manhua. Lack of available chapter make me search its source, then I found Gravity GGP site then read the WN there. Yeahh.. my first CN novel was actually Zhan Long haha.. the second one was everybody's favorite, Coiling Dragon, my all time favorite xianxia with the most memorable quote "I don't know whether to laugh or to cry" lol.

After that, I finally found NovelUpdates site. I picked a lot of CN Novels such as ATG, ST, ISSTH, PMG, MGA, BTTH, SOTTR, ZTJ, DD, and a lot more. I still remembered how some of those series have their own website and pumping 1,2,3 chapter every day and sometimes a tsunami release. After getting tired with beta MC, reading CN novel was really satisfying, and the daily release makes me an addict. I even read an MTL with google translate knowing that it will explode my brain and hurt my grammar.

With more CN novel get translated, I come to realize that CN xianxia author keeps writing the same thing, over and over again. I remembered mainland Chinese said what we read was junk novel, now I know why. Thankfully bunch of KR Novel come to the rescue. God of cooking, God of Song, Top management, TKA, Dungeon defense, SCOG, and a lot of munpia content got translated. But, unless the novel is really good, it's really hard for me to read.

I feel that my standard of good novel become so high that It's hard for me to pick a new novel to read anymore. But since I'm already becoming an addict, lack of reading material is really agonizing for me. Now, reading novels didn't give me the same excitement as back then. Do you guys feel the same? Let me hear your story too..

 

It is very easy to get your excitement back.
Stop reading novels for a few months.

I re read Reverend Insanity, and it was a lot of fun.

Lord of Mysteries is proof that not all the novels are repetitive junk but the majority who donate prefer the junk.

You can also try female protagonist novels.

Or even Yaoi novels, if you are desperate enough lol


Personally, I prefer the live action adaptations of Chinese novels eg Fights Break Sphere
Also, games like Chinese Paladin and Xuan Yuan Sword get live action adaptations

 

I used to read new york best time selling books way back 2005 - 2015, up to the point I read everything my favorite authors wrote. I read some Coehlo's works too around 3 books of his, but it wasn't my cup of tea, I also read manga since Western novels release sequels or new books every year or two. I'm also into Shounen and Seinen stuff, then I got too deep and read some of the dark and gorey stuff. One day I just decided to pick something new, on the 2nd page of Kissmanga (somewhere I've never been before)... at that time Manhua and Manwhas ain't a big hit among Kiss readers, so it's wasn't on their featured page yet. My first Manhua was TDG and first Manwha was Noblesse. Fast forward 2016, my browser crashed so I had to input TDG and chapter number, that's how I accidentally discovered Xianxia novels... and now I forgot lots of unused words from my vocabulary and my sense of humor which was witty and smart became cheap and corny. I guess reading more doesn't really improved the quality of the content.

No Ragrets though, if I'm gonna choose between quality and quantity, heck yeah I'm gonna choose the one with tity on it.

 

I can't, it's hard. Reading every day has already become a habit haha..

I still haven't read Lord of Mysteries, but the author's other work 'Throne of magical arcana' is damn good. So definitely going to read it later
I also read the female protagonist novel too.. but I will never touch yaoi ! Dream on !

 

I am getting some Korean novels translated but the pace is slow since its expensive to pay for them.
King of the Battlefield is near completion though.
The only novel that my website translates that I am looking forward to reading is My Castle My Castellan
It has a similar story to Rise of the Lord from Royalroad which is on hiatus
Thats the main reason I am not a fan of English webnovels
Nothing gets completed

 

I'm quite curious.. what are the translation price ratio between JP:KR:CN ? Are KR the most expensive one ?

 

Ohh, how nostalgic.
My entry to the novel world actually began with wuxia or 'cerita silat' in Indonesia.

I saw my father reading it on the computer back on 2010 and I got curious, so I started searching for it on internet.
I got addicted instantly, I read all the famous stories I could find. From Gulong to Kho Ping Hoo. Until 2012.

At that time, I was really into manga and after catching up to the latest chp of the gamer I was looking for something similar. I found a thread on mangafox that recommended something called The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. After a little bit of goole, I found it on baka-tsuki.
I found Shield Hero, MKNR, No Game No Life, Mushoku Tensei, and many others.

From baka-tsuki I found RR (RRL at the time), japtem, and the reddit page for novel translation (different name before, but I can't remember). And somehow, I found RWX.
At this point in time he was still on the old site (can't remember the name too), translating CD. There was also he-man translating Stellar Transformation and Swallowed Star(possibly?).
Then came along aho-updates, Ark, DD, and others.
The CN novels booms after Ren created WW and started recruiting others. BTTH, ISSTH, DE and many other iconic novels was translated here. There's also Gravity Tale's with Zhang Long and IRAS.

I found NU shortly before aho stops updating. And here I am. Still reading after years and not yet bored.

That's my reading journey.

 

I also got fed up with LNs and WNs quite some time ago, and am just starting to get back into it. In my experience, reading a different format or style of writing can be the change of pace that you need.

Personally, I went over to RRL and started reading the stories there. The writing style over there is a breath of fresh air to, what I considered at the time, the stale air of asian stories. In an era where trashy isekais were king, and the stories I was avidly following were taking forever to update, I tried reading over on Royal Road and was faced with a barrage of stories with bright blue boxes. It was an interesting discovery for me, since I was used to the static format of: random guy gets hit by truck kun; gain bs cheat from god, random cheat weapon lying on the ground, or just for the sake of "P.L.O.T."; then embark on his edgy revenge plot, or to go and collect a harem of beautiful girls while defeating the "great evil" that threatens the world (not necesarilly in that order).

Very rarely do we get stories that deal with the interactions between characters that are actually people. They have motivations and ambitions that you could understand and easily relate to. And this makes the stories there are more... drawing.?

I don't have the proper words to accurately convey how they feel, but the way they are written makes you feel like you are actually there. You get so invested in the story, that whenever the stakes are high and every little action may have a lasting effect on the direction of the story, you are sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for the next fix for your now budding addiction.

I fondly remember the memories of spamming that refresh button, waiting for the next scheduled release, in hopes to type in that euphoric comment of "FIRST! THANKS FOR THE CHAPTER!!" while relishing the friendly competition.

Admittedly, the majority of the stories there are subpar in the grammar and plot departments. But the ones who are at the top of the game. The ones who are featured for weeks on the trending, popular this week, and best rated; are probably the best stories you could ever find.

I laughed at the comedy in The Defective Hermit and felt sad when it got dropped. I felt invigorated by the feeling of grasping power through grit and determination by reading Randidly Ghosthound. Felt more for a bumbling stuffed toy looking for his creator. Felt the seething rage and desire for revenge by reading Black nail's adventures. Felt like I was actually working on a sailing ship with Seaborn. Thought about the moral and philosophical dilemna that cones with being a God by reading God of Eyes.

All of this isn't to say that no LNs and WNs can match up to these stories, there are the occasional few that draws you in either through their plot or the characters they feature. Oregairu is one of my top five favorite stories, and The Lazy King top 3.

All I'm saying is that over at RRL, the stories have more... mature content and less edge than LNs. And it would be a great change of pace when you are not feeling the same joy as you used to. Just take a break from asian stories, and take a dive in the different stories offered at other sites.

Sorry if there are a lot of typos. Written on my phone, and I'm too lazy to check and correct everything. My points may also be an unorganized mess, so sorry 'bout that too. Peace!

 

Most Chinese translators have been poached by Qidian, so they are hard to find now
but its not impossible since my schedule are much more lax than theirs
Japanese translators are a lot since Japanese media is permissive pervasive
Korean translators are smaller due to the country being smaller and their novels and comics being still quite new to readers
So Korean translators are fewer
I do know that many translators are meta translators which refers to translating a Korean novel to English from a Japanese translation, Japanese novel from a Chinese translation to English etc.
Which means that if you can find your favorite Korean novel already translated into Chinese, it might be cheaper to translate it from Chinese to English

 

I'll also share my noob experince here~

Hmm~ So I was first exposed to an anime series as a family member of mine likes to watch one piece (mostly the battles) and simce I was amazed, I also sit in for some days. However, that's just what I did... I sit in. Then a few years pass by before I got back to watching anime as a classmate of mine was watching it when were on break. I was pretty hooked too at that time and then eventually I searched for a few series myself. So like the others, I then discovered mangas.

I was pretty satisfied with just the mangas but then, there was this one manga that was chinese themed and while excruciatingly waiting for the update, I was able to spot in the comment section that some people are asking for a novel link. Of course I did what most noobs do, I checked it out.

By then I was buried to chinese novels where I was branded as someone who reads like there's no tomorrow.

It's not like it's my fault as the chinese novel was so long (it's that thousand chapters thingy) and well, can't stop since I feel like the chapters are short so I'll be able to finish it quickly. Obviously, that was naive thinking, no common sense at all.

Then came transmigration/reincarnation themed novels. At first, it didn't matter to me whether they were KR/JP/CN translated since I only judge novels as something I would want to read or not.

Welp, that was most of it and here I am.

Tl;dr >> It all originated from watching anime then being impatient checking out the manga, then discovered some were adapted from novels and chinese novels are so long I spent countless days and sleepless nights to catch up to a thousand chapters one novel.

I'm leaving this here for nuffies~ (and of course to share it~) ฅ'ω'ฅ

 

TBH, i'm not really into reading text at the time and most like to read them due to my interest got me into reading novels.

I started my journey in the past as i was really hooked on trying to draw illustration and ideas in making my own animated show as i began my journey once i watched Voltes V as a kid.

I didn't have tv at the time and i could only watched it through my neighbor's tv while it was even less of me having someone to talk with someone with common interest.

I slowly became an introvert due to being a loner and less conversational partners i had which consist of me, myself and I.

Apart from getting harrassed by girls, i began to write my own comics strip and decided to show them to my classmates for a review.

I think it was just a plain zombie comic strip as i fleshed out my story, logic as to how zombies were made and even how people were trying to live their lives survival. Needless to say it wasn't popular due to how complex and too much info i put into it and even the teacher was kinda surprised at how complicated it was to her.

But comic strip naturally led me to think of more ideas of getting inspiration by reading comic books in the library.

As for how i met anime, it was completely by accident as i was just naturally surfing the tv and found an anime which features traps in a certain episode.

Just by watching that certain episode, i started my journey in anime as i slowly began to get dragged into the world of hentai, manga, and even into novels.

 

I read RRL and original too.. And my first RRL novel is re:hamster lol.. damn ero hamster lol... Yeah, I'll try to check RRL more. I really hate it when author suddenly disappears, that's the reason why I usually avoid them.

 

what's rrl? (◐∇◐*)

 

Ahh.. So that's why.. But the accuracy of this meta translation will be quite worrying don't you think? Though I'm not complaining since I even read straight MTL lol

It happen a lot in my country. Japanese translated to english, and then from english translated into my native language.

I learned japanese, currently in JLPT N4. When I watch anime with Indonesian subtitle, I can spot so many mistranslation. Since then, I never watch anime with my native language subs again.

 

It's RoyalRoadL !

 

I wanna join.

My first anime was Astro Boy, the really old one. I don't even remember if it was dubbed or subbed anymore. At that time, I was super mindblow. The animation sequence when he shoot out his arm cannon always excites me. I use to be "kya― kya―" -ing like a fan-girl.

Then we went to visit our cousin's house. When I entered his room, there were sketches if Pokemon all over his walls. I was like, "Where are those from? I wanna watch." Then I got introduced to Pokemon, Digimon, and later Bayblade. I think that was on 2005?

But later, there were slanders and rumors like, "Pokemon is satanic" and all that crap. Digimon received the same accusation. My parents allowed me to keep watching them but the cable providers stop giving "Animax" channel, which was my only source of anime back then.

I stayed away from the anime community till 2011 when "Animax" is back and I watched Bleach once again, then Fairy Tail and Guarren Lagan.

But unfortunately, for the next 3 years, my high school years, I was at our school's hostel, which naturally mean no Anime, much less Tv at all. Then I once again stayed away from anime.

During me collage year is when I get to finally indulge myself in anime, or so I thought that would happen, but I got addicted to reading mangas instead. I use to download about 3-4 gb of mangas from mangarock everyday using collage wifi.

I also watch Oregairu at this time but it never lit my passion for anime again. And I pretty much stopped watching anime altogether. And the animes which have mangas, I completed them by reading the mangas instead, Bleach, Fairy Tail, Naruto. My friend told me to watch One Piece too but I find the number of anime episodes to be too intimidating and never get into it. I read the mangas though.

So far, I was only into Jp stuff. I got into Manhua when a friend of mine introduced me to Douluo Dalu. Later, I found Zhan Long manhua, and that is how I found NU in the first place. I enjoyed reading it a lot, but after I'm done with the translated chapters, I start to look for mtls. After I'm tired of the story, I started to browse around NU for novels to read and Mushoku Tensei was the next novel I came to really like. After that, I got into Jp Isekai stories until I got tired of them. Chinese cultivation novels aren't my thing so I never really got into them. I also find Korean novels (My first Kr novel is Moonlight Sculptor) great but there were too little translated at that time.

Meanwhile, I found an anime that lit my passion for them once again, which was, "Gabried Dropout"

I loved this anime you know. I just see so much of myself in Gabriel - The honor student turned weeb. After all, I was an honor student too, but looking at where I ended up back then, I can't help falling in love with Gabriel.

After that, I learned that the genre I enjoyed most is Slice of Life + Cute Girls Do Cute Things, so I started looking for that kind of anime - K-on, Nichijou, Hibike Euphonium, Love Lab, Yuru Camp, are one of my fav anime to date. I also read their mangas naturally.

But now, I'm more into comedy + Slice of Life… till I stopped watching anime altogether once again, read less and less mangas and novels……… Then I started translating novels. That's where I am now

 

It's different for me, I started my pre teen years loving SoLs with lots of female characters and the cliche "accidents and slips". Then I experienced High School, which is amazing for me. From then on, I find school life animes boring and exaggerated.

 

I guess my high school was never amazing then? I still long for it after all, and these kind of anime make me fantasies how I wished my high school life would've been. Or was it so amazing that I wanna re-live it again I still fondly recall those times after all.

 

I guess I'm the guy with colored hair sitting beside a window if my life is described on anime terms.

 

Personally my lifestyle came full circle. I started as a wee child reading fairytale and short stories. I was obsessed with reading. I read everything I felt was interesting from science books to fairy tale anthologies to history books. I ran out of things to read at home so I borrowed from the school library. This pattern ran up until I was age 12 ish. Because during this period the anime that pulled me into the weeb rabbit hole appeared.

Code Geass dragged me into a quagmire of no escape and from there I've watched different anime and dug through archives to get what I wanted to watch. When I found myself bored with anime I went towards the source material. Manga and from there continued my search for greater entertainment. At this point I found myself getting very picky at what I read or watch and also starting to build a yearning. A longing for a story that I haven't seen yet.

A friend recommended to me to read a light novel at this point in time. That was the first time I went online to read a text based story. Before this point, any novel I read was in front of me, printed, and bound. I went full blast on the light novels and read everything that stroke my fancy and I am obsessed. I went towards light novels and devoured those I deemed worth my time and I fell further in love and into mad obsession with novels.

I couldn't put down my phone in the middle of a chapter. I can't stop thinking about the last novel I read. Every waking moment of my life was spent thinking about these novels. I couldn't go a day without reading at least a single chapter which usually ends up with me reading 100 or more.

Nowadays I don't have the same madly obsessed fever I used to have. But I still long for a story that rivets me, that excites me, and makes my body feel alive. So I search for those novels without rest.

A full circle from childhood to now.