How much do you read?

I’m absolutely not a type obsessed with numbers, haven’t ever counted the hours/books/games/characters etc., and doubt that I ever will, but today the article I was reading explicitly said that it was 6000something characters long, so of course I became curious. Probably the question I’m trying to ask, is how much do you, my fellow learners, read (no shaming implied, absolutely)?

22 comments
  1. depends heavily, i took a year or more off of daily reading so very little recently, though i did read a whole chapter of a novel while i had time on an airplane trip the other weekend and i had new reading glasses to try out

    i don’t keep track of numbers of pages or words read, but i am the obsessive note-taker on quality of understanding, with chapter-by-chapter breakdowns of how many new words i run into, so i can track over time as the number reduces as i read more. currently at 4/pg on average, after 5 novels

  2. Usually not much. About 18-20K characters a day (Most books I read being about 120, and me going through 1 a week.)

    I need to pass N1 this December for sure, so right now I’ve sorta doubled that, more on weekends.

  3. On July 7th this year I started reading [平家物語 上 (21世紀版・少年少女古典文学館 第11巻)](https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/%E5%90%89%E6%9D%91-%E6%98%AD/dp/4062827611/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1VAMF2XPEMO0Z). It has 306 pages and I’m currently on page 174. Kinda slow, I know, but I gotta start somewhere. I can only read about 8 pages intensely (i.e. looking up each unknown words and saving them on a list for anki later) for 2 hours before my thoughts starts to wander off.

    To relax I just read whatever article I fancied in dengeki and famitsu or play [牧場物語再会のミネラルタウン](https://store.steampowered.com/app/978780/_/?l=japanese) or [Go! Go! Nippon](https://store.steampowered.com/app/251870/Go_Go_Nippon_My_First_Trip_to_Japan/). I also recently discovered a manga about a zoo for [dinosaurs](https://www.mangaupdates.com/series/6pr0r5g/dinosan).

    I’m so glad that I was able to push myself through the “look up each and every word in a sentence because I don’t understand a thing” phase into “sometimes look up a word but at least I have a clue or I can surprisingly understand what a word means by context” kind of phase in my study.

  4. I have no idea. I do daily anki and Duolingo, but not counting that, not much. If I’m in the mood I will read some graded readers in the evening. Maybe half one of those at a go.

  5. I read about 70 min a day. I use paper books so it’s slower than popup dictionary + digital. Looks like I read about a page every 10 min on average. This includes dictionary lookups and notekeeping for future anki cards.

    Pretty slow!

    I read 5 books so far (usually around 200 pages each or so). I’m halfway through book #6. I have trouble reading books aimed for adults (but I try to occasionally) so I’m reading basically middle-school level books.

    I try to read books from different authors so I get get used to different writing styles, though I pretty much stuck to fiction so far.

    My vocab might be around 7k but anki seems to think I have about 9k cards. I think…it’s not quite right since sometimes I recognize cards in anki but not in a book.

  6. I have no specific goal but I’m happy if I manage to read 2-3 LNs in a good week

  7. I read on Kindle, and use the “location” function. I read (at least) 200 locations each weekday and 250 each weekend. Usually takes about 45~60 min per day, although that obviously changes if the booker is easier/tougher than usual.

    That’s 1500 per week. Most books tend to be 3000-6000 locations long, so I can read a book in 2-4 weeks.

    Basing daily reading on amount rather than time ensures I feel like I’m actually making progress and getting closer to the end, and also lets me “know” in advance when I’ll finish a book.

  8. I aim for 4 hours a day, so ~36k. Roughly N3 level, currently going through the Steins Gate visual novel : )

  9. Fair bit. I’ve played some games with a lot of text (Legend of Heroes series + other RPGs) and read a few books (estimate around 30). Then if you count subtitles on shows and Anki sentences that would go up further. I like reading though.

  10. I took a break after the JLPT N2 this month but really want to get back into reading every day. For now I play Pokemon in Japanese (which is a little too easy for me to pick up useful new vocab) & read a few pages at least every other day though. I prefer reading physical as opposed to digital but it’s a bit of a struggle to buy interesting novels & get them delivered here.

  11. This past month, I’ve been reading on average 50k char daily. 100k on weekends
    I don’t know how long I can keep it up but I’ll keep pushing

  12. Assume you don’t mean stuff like sentence anki cards? I’m not sure. I have quite a lot of physical Japanese manga at home so I usually read between 1-3 chapters a day depending on my energy levels, and I’m messaging my Japanese friends nearly all day so I’m reading that too.

  13. I’m B1 in Japanese and for me I do almost no reading. I’m probably in the minority on this reddit for not reading though. If a Japanese subtitle pops up in native media, or a sign or other Japanese words show up in a movie or drama, I’ll try to read it, but it’s not like I pause the video or anything. I’ve never been a reader, not even in my native language. I do message native Japanese people in Japanese though. But that is very daily life stuff like you would normally text your friends about. 今日元気?どこいくの?えぇぇ、すげぇぇぇ。Very not proper or complicated stuff there. Oh, Japanese karaoke lyrics on the screen for Japanese music countdown shows, I’ll sometimes read along for that if I like the song and am paying attention to the TV, but that’s about it.

    Most all of my study is audio and face-to-face virtual based. Maybe an hour of native Japanese podcasts a day and whatever asian drama or movie I feel like watching when I get home from work (although visual media I watch is not always in Japanese). Also 4 hours of iTalki lessons a week. With more than full-time work, family, exercise, hobbies and various other adulting responsibilities, I don’t have more time beyond that to hardcore study like a lot of folks on this reddit. Oh, reading reddit, that’s during toilet time for me (not a joke, poop time is my reddit time). Lol. For my Japanese learning, I focus on listening and speaking and having actual casual conversations with native speakers over rote study/reading habits.

    As an idea where I’m coming from though, in my native English, I’ll only read if needed for my job, like journal articles, SOPs, etc. dealing with research science and numbers. Sorry, but I’m a total math nerd, not a book nerd. I was in math club in HS, not the book/reading club. Sometimes I feel this reddit puts too much emphasis on reading and word mining over everything else. But hey, I’m the type of guy that would rather go to the movies to watch all the Harry Potter movies with friends (or also listen on audiobook) rather than read any of the books. Reading is just not my thing, even in English, and I always got bashed on it by the people who can read for fun types.

  14. I’m not a fan of keeping such tight track of numbers. I used to, but it became incredibly stressful as I felt the need to keep them up even as life became busier. Letting that go and just making a conscious effort to read at least a little when I have a moment of free time is much nicer.

    Doing it that way, I go through one volume of (admittedly easier) manga, like Horimiya or Death Note, every 2-4 days. I’ve got no idea how much vocab I know, I don’t know my JLPT level, I stopped specifically studying kanji a year ago. I’ve been pretty content just reading what interests me and challenging myself and going up a level every once in a while.

  15. I’m tryna read one piece, there’s this rly good Japanese website called Zebracks which allows you to read one chapter every 24 hours if u have an account. Since I can’t read that fast anyway, it works perfectly.

  16. I’m playing genshin completely in japanese so all the lore and story events, I’m digging them up in pure japanese. to put it into numbers I think I’m reading like 3 to 4 hours a day.

    I’m also playing 崩壊学園 (gun girlz) and this game is full in japanese because the western server got shutted out. But I don’t find it any difficult at all It’s much easier than genshin (in regards of the use of some obscure kanji).

    And I’m also reading 化物語(上) when I have time for it.

    At this point I read more for pleasure than for learning purposes but I still run into new kanjis and new expressions tho

  17. Not much of a reading routine right now except for WaniKani! But to be fair it’s my strongest suit. I’m focusing on speech and listening right now and making great strides.

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