I’m on Book 2 of the Knausgaard My Struggle sextet - surprisingly compelling autobiographical fiction that is hard to put down, with many good philosophical digressions on art and society.
2 Likes
yes because I was so confused with how things were poorly explained in the tv series that led me to read the books. I read the first four books then got busy and did not feel like reading another five thousand pages of expose when cliff notes explained stuff in less time. I wish the dude condensed his writing down a wee bit. But then again Discworld is like 40 books as well. I rather watch a 2 hour movie than read sixty books
2 Likes
About 10 years ago I passed the JPLT N5 and subsequently completely bombed the N4. The learning curve is steep.
Having specific goals is helpful I think, as EVERYTHING is a lot to pickup.
It might be worth deciding which you wish to focus on - reading or conversational. As you progress you certainly want to have both, but how you study & practice each is very very different.
Reading skills are a lot easier to self study.
Being regularly engaged in a classroom/tutoring setting with other live human(s) makes a big difference for conversational. Twice a week sessions for 4 hours/week is sort of a minimal to keep progressing conversationally arguably. I found gamified apps like Duolingo to be useless and possibly counterproductive.
I found it reasonably accessible to express myself in Japanese, the challenge of course is when a native speaker responded in verb tenses/with vocabulary that was outside my knowledge. But after a few back & forth, often could hold a simple conversation with a taxi driver or waiter for example.
2 Likes
Read all 6 when they were translated to German one by one. Found a lot of identification points in growing up at more or less the same age/time… the final book I left unfinished. Curious to hear how you take it overall… it‘s a loooong read for sure!
1 Like
It’s funny, yesterday I finished reading Amanda Sewell’s 2020 biography of Wendy Carlos. If anything, I think the Lit Hub article understates how much work Switched-On Bach took: Carlos claimed that the Moog couldn’t stay in tune for more than a few seconds, so the final result really is thousands upon thousands of tape splices painstakingly aligned to the master tempo. All of this was done by a completely unknown music engineer working with a tiny advance and a mountain of gear-related debts, working mostly alone in her home studio, who was unable to even meet most of her collaborators or do publicity because she had just started a gender transition–and somehow it went on to be a top-selling classical album of all time!
I think a lot of 'nauts would like the book, though the author doesn’t linger on the details of the music or gear as much as I’d like.
3 Likes
It’s a long road, but I recommend studying for the Japanese language proficiency tests (JLPT). While these exams don’t cover everything you’ll need, they break things into fairly digestible chunks by which to develop the basics you’ll need and if you ever decide you want to say work for a Japanese company, it’s something you can put on a resume (like TOEIC or TOEFL). They are how I got started and I always recommend them to people that have come to Japan and tell me they want to learn the language.
(For reference I passed the top level (now called N-1) close to 20 years ago, and I’d say that’s where learning the language actually begins, not ends. A lifelong journey for sure 
)
1 Like
Just started a collection of short stories by Philip K Dick. I’ve read a good bit of his long fiction but never tackled his short stories. Many of them have a Twilight Zone vibe, with some twist at the end, but it’s helpful to remember that he wrote many of these stories before these sorts of tropes were established
5 Likes
I love his short stories, he had so many incredible ideas that now look scarily prescient. Definitely get the Twilight Zone vibes.
1 Like
I’m a quarter of the way into Michael McDowell’s “The Elementals.” So far, it’s that good Southern Gothic family drama + slow-burn creepiness, but it’s also funnier than I expected? It opens on the funeral of the family matriarch, where:
- Her best friend complains about there not being a service program she can put in her scrapbook
- Her son is named Dauphin Savage
- When someone asks why it was a private funeral, the main character says, “There’s no point in advertising a circus when everyone hates the clown.”
Heh, yup, clocking in 3600 pages, nbd.
I’m one of those annoying people who love long novels. I don’t expect to read them all back to back, though. Between finishing Volume 1 in December and starting Volume 2 this month I read Antkind by Charlie Kaufman, another long one - and one I could see reading multiple times, such a hoot.
Picking up another Yuval Noah Harari book. If I’m going to feel like I’m existentially threatened, I’d like to at least understand why.
2 Likes
