An update to yesterday's Japanese-related whining

[owlectomy]

Saiunkoku Monogatari, first attempt: Why are there so many people and so many names and I can't tell who is who?

Saiunkoku Monogatari, second attempt: Why did I put this book down again?... Oh, yeah. Wait, why am I reading volume 12 before volume 1, when I could probably get volume 1 somewhere?

Saiunkoku Monogatari, third attempt, after visit to Book-Off: Yay! I finished a whole chapter. And now the heroine goes to the royal palace, and... why are there so many people and so many names and I can't tell who is who?

Saiunkoku Monogatari, fourth attempt: Yay! I finished two whole chapters! [Actually, something like 110 of 220 pages.] Gawd, though, do these people have ANY body language besides knitting their eyebrows? They could make an eyebrow scarf by now.

The Tadoku (extensive reading) people would suggest that I need to be reading easier books, which is a tremendously discouraging idea. It makes me get all bristly and "I've read Soseki! I've read Mishima! I've read Tanizaki! I can read whatever I want!" Realistically, though, if I can get through 30-40 pages in a day light fantasy novels are probably okay. I just have to be more consistent about it, which... yeah. That would be nice.

Comments

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

I bet this wouldn't have bugged me two years ago, but I've spent the last couple years breaking the habit of having my characters always shrug and grin and smirk and roll their eyes, and making an effort to pay attention to less obvious gestures, and -- you get hypersensitive to writers who aren't trying that hard. Well, this was her first novel, after all...