Seems I was right, I made a new topic for May catch up if you want to discuss it: https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/1060/catch-up-titles-may ;)

@the-green-death said in Q+A: Rikako Akiyoshi, author of Dark Maidens (Submit Questions on Justus R Stone's YouTube Until May 10th):

@terrence it annoys me that Yen’s Slice Of Life/Romance books have been physical only... Fingers crossed this and SNAFU make their way to digital.

I'm guessing this has something to do with them testing the waters? Or needing a better way of tracking sales? =[

The physical order I cancelled was two bucks less than it will be if I order it again. So now I'm waiting on a sale or something, idk (Manga Monday sale someday maybe if Amazon price matches).

@the-green-death said in Why is there so much "wry smiling"?:

My translation bette noir isn’t one phrase so much as when translators add letters to words to show shouting but add letters that make no sense if spoken such as “benddddddd!!” Or something like that. How would that sound? I can see adding vowels but rarely are constanents doubled like that.

I think there's a very significant difference between "Beeeeend" and "Bennnnnd," but I agree that "Bendddd" makes no sense :x

@legitpancake said in Gamers (Japanese Language Novel) on sale for 30 JPY right now on Bookwalker (30 hour sale).:

$1.42 for 5 books is a sweet deal. I won't be able to read them, but I bought them anyways :P

I bought the first two so far with my change. Probably get the rest.

I think I'm also going to get that one I asked for in the license requests earlier since it is 255 JPY.

https://bookwalker.jp/de0b28479e-b371-4d2b-96cf-52585c26b8b7/?acode=WpfPW3yk

@terrence yeah looks exactly like it. That thing was so cute and adorable.

@shrike_al First half of volume 5 has a long "harem maintenance" Chapter.

ok, thank you for clearing that up

@drone205 My personal favorite SAO variation is "Kirito missed that Ragout Rabbit". Talk about a game changer.

@swhp yes, in the beginning he used the dagger to Slap, but later on, after they go back to train he mentions getting the sap as a secondary weapon, so he still fights with the dagger but wields the sap on his off-hand to Slap.

The Save / Load "cheat" I mentioned earlier, I found the LN I was actually thinking about. It is on Syosetu. It has a manga adaptation on Bookwalker too.

「俺の現実は恋愛ゲーム？？　～かと思ったら命がけのゲームだった～」読んだ！ https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4565dq/ #narou #narouN4565DQ

"Is my reality a love game? What? ~ I thought it was a life-saving game ~"

The other WN mentions the possibility of taking lecherous action before the dude decides he's too kind to do that, but this LN / manga protag actually does cross that line. I don't know how I feel about that (kind of hoping he suffers karmically really badly later in this story for his actions). xC

So I think I'm at the halfway point with White Album 2. I know what happens because I've seen the anime, but yeah, the drama is starting (and some potentially awkward romantic dialogue I have to read aloud or skim through for my recordings is too).

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I'm unabashedly team Kazusa. =]

I may get the light novels if they're still available on Bookwalker when I finish up with the VN, though I already have enough on my plate that I'm not reading from there (I've got some triangle romance novels there; maybe I'll check those out someday soon).

Preferred the adaptations: The Disappearance of Haruhi, Death Note anime (first half), Ghost in the Shell

Preferred the original: Tales of Earthsea, Harry Potter, Golden Compass, Fate Stay Night, Discworld, Ace Attorney

Both brought something to the table: Grimgar, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, H2G2

@erickson-tibayde I don't with you lol

I'm currently reading the TODAG.

So there are actually two methods I can use now for Text to Speech purposes on Android.

Select to Speak - This can be found at the bottom of the Accessibility page in your settings.

Pros - Icon based text to speech button on your screen (looks like a little speech bubble, can be dragged around the screen to somewhere least annoying). When opened, it has functionality for reading through the speech aloud, rewinding to a previous paragraph of the text, fast forwarding to the next line, and pausing.

Cons - Shutting off the device and turning it back on will result in the speech stopping. It has to be restarted from the beginning. Again, you can skip through the text with the fast forward button.

Shake to Start Continuous Reading - This can be found in the Talkback settings. Basically you shake the device to start reading a web page when Talkback is turned on.

Pros - If you set this one right, turning off the device will not upset the playback, just pause it. You can turn of the device, turn it back on, then shake again to restart continuous reading.

Cons - You cannot rewind. You cannot fast forward. You are stuck listening from beginning to end. If someone interrupts you during playback, you'll have to pause by turning off the device. Pausing basically means skipping a whole paragraph (it won't continue in the middle).

I'll be using the former this week I think.

Edit: After testing, it seems the first method doesn't always finish reading. It wouldn't go passed the chapter heading "Interlude" in Volume 3 Part 3 of Dendrogram. Obviously if this happens with every long section that has multiple chapter, that's a deal breaker.

I have finished Spice and Wolf Vol 5, plan to finish Faraway Paladin Vol 2 over the weekend. next goal will be Finish Smartphone vol 5, Konosuba Vol 4, by April 8.

@legitpancake I suspect Sam will finish the fourth volume in one crazy flurry of insomniatic caffeine-fueled activity on the night before the deadline if he’s like I was in school.