Discussion Your journey into reading novels

What's your journey in reading novels?

Maybe you started from watching anime to reading manga and then to reading novels.

My route

I started reading on Wattpad around 2015? 2016? And then a friend introduced a chinese novel on wattpad. I got so addicted I started looking for the continuation on the internet and then I found novelupdates. 2018, I was kinda new to chinese novels so I downloaded the webnovel app and that's where I read first. And then my tastes got refined and I went searching for novels on the internet. First thing I enjoyed was the face slapping and overpowered mc. I don't get that much trope on wattpad so that was my first route in Chinese novels. Fast forward and now I'm into quick transmigrations with no romance.

 

it was cold and rainy day~
25 years ago The Belkan army in.... wait wrong story~

long short story~
book, manga and novel, internet era, fanfic, doujinshi, light novel, webnovel, then here you go current era~

 

Same sequence, i.e., anime>manga>webnovel except in my particular instance, it would be more appropriate to call it a journey into dropping webnovels.

 

I started with children's books and the collections of short stories, my late mom would always buy me one whenever she went out with my dad. Since then, I've grown to love reading. I read books in my native language until my third year of middle school, I started to read English books with a small dictionary to help me. Once I entered the university, I started buying my own English books, the secondhand ones. I read romance, thriller, young adults and fantasy.

But, my first ever C-webnovel is Trial Marriage Husband in 2018. I stopped buying English books because they become so expensive and opted to read webnovels since then

 

The good old anime > manga > novel chain is my case. In fact, it’s was Tensei Slime that put novels on my radar, but the first novel I actually read was death flag otome.

 

Always read a lot, mostly historical fiction or fantasy. Then a friend at uni told me to watch Lost Pause's Sakura Swimclub playthrough and he then slowly pushed me into watching proper anime. When Grimgar of Ash (?) wasn't releasing fast enough, I jumped to the manga -> read 1 chapter ahead -> looked up a EN translation and got hooked on both WN/LN and Manga.

TL;DR My friend pushed me into these fiery pits we find ourselves in.

 

First novel (not counting novel fryom my country) i read was hataraku maou sama, but what made me really into WN/LN was isekai smartphone, i remember browsing upcoming anime and saw smartphone, i know that anime would be a generic harem anime with dense protagonist but for some reason i read it synopsis and see it source, i start looking for the novel and found webnovel version that has been translated, from the same web i found others novel and finally found novelupdates

 

In middle school I became really into reading but I (relatively) quickly found I read everything I found interesting in the library. This happened again in high school so I expanded into ebooks but after getting four hundred or so I needed more. Around this time I started to to remember anime I saw when I was younger and was surprised to find One Piece and Bleach were still ongoing. I started to watch anime and soon was reading manga. I then moved to royalroadl and translation sites which using links lead me to more sites, after a while I discovered this site which is really helpful.

 

As a kid there were some children's books in my parent's small bookshelf. Afterwards I shifted into reading stories in my English and native language school books.

My parents then bought or we received Diary of a Wimpy Kid volumes 1-13, plus a few comics, and a brand of kids magazine that we loved (with things such as comics, games, puzzles, fun topics, foldable robots).

My mother watched anime with us like Gurren Lagan, Ouran Host Club, Avatar, Samurai X, Full Metal Alchemist. Some dubbed anime on the side like Dragon Ball, Yu gi oh!, Hitman Reborn, Initial D, Itazura na kiss. I even remember watching Attack on Titan as an older kid .

After anime I was recommended to read the books we have at a time where I was bored, a homebody, and had no device or phone. I read the whole Harry Potter, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series of many books, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit books, and only one N.E.R.D.S book. Maybe more if we had more books. This was during elementary school, then re-read most during early high school.

I got into anime again. Then manga (especially when mangarock had many available stuff) and full light novels series downloaded via pdf or ebook. It was because I obtained an old Ipad before I received a phone which had limited apps and could not run good games.

Then after light novels I discovered webnovels was a thing. The first I could remember (maybe I read a short few on a webnovel site or app before it) is reading on wuxiaworld.co. I literally remember the time when The Novel's Extra was amazing. Good times. Monarch of Evernight was the first long CN I started with on that site, I dropped because of preoccupation with life, and somewhat boredom.

Continuing on, I kept on finding and still reading light novels, manga and anime. When I became bored and empty from manga and anime then LNs and low-quality WNs because I was not picky, with some great ones that I kept close watch to like Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. Fast forward to Covid-19, which is when I kept binging thousands upon thousands of chapters of novels. I joined NU on September and yeah, it's been fun, but also life-suckingly addictive because I'm not mindful about self-discipline regarding novels with no pressure from socialization. I should change that lmao.

 

I don't remember that well. I had read some small chapters here and there of Japanese novels, like of slime tensei, golden word master and arifureta.

But what started the Chinese+Korean interest was sooething else. I believe that I read the Wang Ni manga (now known as Renegade Immortal) and that the chapters got published extremely slowly, thus began my journey into webnovels. It was a different time, I didn't have NU back then. It was all about looking around here and there for good novels. I think what really got me addicted to cn novels was ISSTH.

 

I started with Anime, then Manga, then Novels Usually it should be the other way around, but I like Novels the most. Everyone can write and publish a Novel with minimal costs for the author, hence he can write whatever he wants without censorship and all the other (economic, suitable for mainstream, sponsors, etc.) considerations. I really seldom watch Anime, since I discovered Manga and since I discovered Novels I barely watch Anime and just occasionally read Manga.
Of course I also read a lot of books, before and after I started to watch Anime, but I like Novels more. Book authors are professionals and they know how to write in a flowery language. They fill a lot of sites with descriptions etc. I don't want to waste my time with this. I'm more someone, who wants to imagine things, instead someone describing everything to me. There should be descriptions of the world etc., but it should be limited. Also I want more plot and action, instead of interrupting the story with descriptions all the time.
Hence I almost ceased to read real books completely and replaced it with Novels.

My first Novel was Tales of Demons and Gods on Wuxiaworld. It was a time before Webnovel even existed. Since then my taste developed a lot ;D

 

Started read big books (The ones with 100+ chapters and 1000+ pages) in grade 5.
Went on to manga and anime in grade 11.
Light novels and webnovels in uni...(big mistake)
Been trapped ever since.....

 

Don't be ashamed of being immersed in novels people ^.^

It can actually make you more intelligent if you choose to evaluate your own values and absorb lessons from it.
It's like the author is showing you their opinions, ideas, feelings, experiences, knowledge, from their own point of view, subtly.

Oftentimes translators and commenters also give me a lot of food for thought, and suggestions. Whoever suggested me Reverend Insanity on 'Second Coming of Gluttony's comments - which was the main reason I got into long novels - thank you so so much!

 

At school during summer, the library was the haven for me during free periods. It was quite and had air conditioning.
There were all kinds of books, ranging from stuff related to academics to storybooks and many more.

No there was not any manga or Chinese novels, unfortunately.

I had gotten hooked into one of the storybook namely: the city of bones. it was from the mortal instrument series.
as the exam was approaching, I wasn't allowed to take any non-academic book home

came home, searched for it on the internet. Found it but the problem was I couldn't ask my parents to buy me that just before the exam. I Didn't have the guts too lol. So revising for the exam after crushing the curiosity was done.

After the exams, I visited the library but all the copies of the book were already issued and the only one it had couldn't be taken home

It was quite disheartening, lol.

Then came the search *free books*
Wattpad came along with Inkitt and webtoon.
then there you go.
that was the start.

 

1. Occasional anime + mmorpg in toddler years/elementary
2. Manga at public libraries in elementary
3. Read Legendary Moonlight Scultor manhwa in high school and couldn’t wait so I searched up the novel
4. Used an aggregate site for a few months in high school
5. Discovered novelupdates in high school
6. Descension into web novel hell for the rest of eternity

 

I've loved reading for as long as I can remember. I used to read one chapter a day before sleep with my mom when I was 7. Then I couldn't endure that rythm anymore and started reading by myself. I read all of my mom's children books, borrowed some from family and the library of my grandma's village. At our primary school, a library bus came by every two weeks. My brothers and I each borrowed ten books, a whole load of comic strips plus some novels for me. Then I went to secundary school and read the library's book for the first year, then switched to my city's library. There I found Naruto, a manga I had borrowed the firsts volumes from a friend during a journey I didn't have books with me. So I read novels and manga from that point in time. But you had to make a reservation for the manga because they were always borrowed. I was reading fairytail when I had enough of waiting and looked it up online. I read different volumes on different websites, it was messy. Then I found a good website. I only read completed stories. At some point I started reading ongoing stuff. Then I downloaded wattpad and read novels there. Then I downloaded an app to download manga. At some point I realized I could read manga in english and understand it. So I downloaded them in english. I started reading on english language websites. Isekai came along. I saw more and more people comment about the novel and post spoilers underneath the chapters. I went to read some novels after awful cliffhangers. I discovered webtoon. And then I started reading novels on NU. Then Covid came by, I couldn't go to the library anymore, so reading novels was on hold. So now I've been reading webnovels (JP->KR->CN) and manga only for a year, aside from rereading the books I own. (And I'm currently in a bind because it's exam season and I still end up on this website before I know it...)

 

1. Anime
2. Reading SAO & DxD LN in my native language
3. Stop reading LN
4. Playing VN & Eroge while learning English at the same time
5. Found the existence of Novel Updates and still stuck here.
6. (Extra) Watching Vtuber while learning Japanese, hoping I'll someday be able to read Japanese LN raw.

 

started from anime then manga then k dramas then novel when i was 14

 

Mine is...

2012 to 2020
Fairytales - Cartoon - Books - Anime - Manga/Japan - Fanfics - Doujinshi - WebNovels- LightNovels - Novels - Manhua/China - Manhwa/Korea
Current Rank: Expert Otaku
My 1st Anime: Magi

I find it hard to believe that I was an otaku for that long. I even remembered how I sponsored anime to my school in the past, it got so popular because of me mimicking ’Nico-Nico Nii~’ from Love Live. X3

 

2 years of anime addict, then 4 years of manga maniac till finally went to novels.

First novel was Ark I think? one I finished, still stands my at no.1 , and some of the JP Harem ones since I didnt wanted censored/removed details versions - Highschool DxD, Magika, Sajikui Bahumat, HxH and the likes, those were still occasional reads. First addiction started with chinese ones, I used to read chinese manhua like DD/BTTH back then and goddamn they turned awful, saw some comments about they changing source mat and well, time for journey. Found out WuxiaWorld and started my first novel - MGA, loved it, was a whole new genre of ruthlessness compared to normal manga/LN and then it never stopped - ST/BTTH/HJC/SA etc, somewhere down the line, just that wasnt enough, so jumped in another hellhole - MTL'd novels.
Hit lnmtl.com like no tommorow, finished /caugh up to raws to so many series there - Heavenly Jewel change, BTTH, MGA, ED, Release the witch etc. Even went to personally MTLing hellhole for Skyfire avenue once.
After 2 years of nonstop nothing but novels, Stopped and picked back up manga, now its 70% Manga, 30% novels, 0% anime.