Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!

Travis Butler

@rsog412 said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

@travis-butler said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

Bounced hard off of Bookworm Vol. 1 twice now, but given the number of enthusiastic fans it sounds like something I'd really enjoy if I can get over the hump.

The first half of P1V1 is definitely the worst part of Bookworm, since Myne's largely just flailing and being a cringe-inducing selfish brat to everyone around her. It does get better, though.

Yup, that's almost exactly my problem. ^^;;

I don't know if there's a better way to approach the series than to read it anyway, though. The author was adamant with her editor that P1 was not to be abridged, and I think there's good reason for that. I'd suggest the anime (episodes 1-6 correspond to P1V1), but watching her being a cringe-inducing selfish brat isn't much better than reading it.

Gotcha. Well, I'll probably try again and try to push on through that part.

rsog412

@travis-butler - Having thought about it a bit:

The best mindset to approach early Bookworm with is to assume that the main character is not a reincarnated adult; she's a 6-year-old child who has some otherworldly memories. She acts like one, and her family treats her like one. It's less cringe-inducing if you realize that her family expects incomprehensible tantrums, selfishness, and occasional childish mischief, because that's how kids that age act. They love her despite how she treats them, and always will.

rkkn

@rsog412 said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

assume that the main character is not a reincarnated adult; she's a 6-year-old child who has some otherworldly memories.

this sounds like a good approach. This was my problem with it. I actually got all the way through midway through part 2 before ditching it. I got fed up with the fact that even as she grew in status and achievement she continually regressed in maturity and independence.

The beginning was no problem: I had already read it in manga form first. Manga as a format has a lot of advantages. It's easy to gloss over parts that are annoying or boring or just generally bad. Much moreso than any of the other media.
...However, I don't remember having to consciously do that.
At any rate, I was planning to try picking it back up in manga form once J-novel's translation catches up to where I left it, which it's just about to do.

Greganator

Well I already did my taxes and even got my tax return! (an then spent it) Now I have the time to read all theses books.

HarmlessDave

@rsog412 said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

@travis-butler - Having thought about it a bit:

The best mindset to approach early Bookworm with is to assume that the main character is not a reincarnated adult; she's a 6-year-old child who has some otherworldly memories. She acts like one, and her family treats her like one. It's less cringe-inducing if you realize that her family expects incomprehensible tantrums, selfishness, and occasional childish mischief, because that's how kids that age act. They love her despite how she treats them, and always will.

That helps. The point I bounced was when she wanted to sniff a book just to smell it.

I love books, but not as a weird fetish thing y'know? It's the contents I care about.

Betenoire

@harmlessdave said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

@rsog412 said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

@travis-butler - Having thought about it a bit:

The best mindset to approach early Bookworm with is to assume that the main character is not a reincarnated adult; she's a 6-year-old child who has some otherworldly memories. She acts like one, and her family treats her like one. It's less cringe-inducing if you realize that her family expects incomprehensible tantrums, selfishness, and occasional childish mischief, because that's how kids that age act. They love her despite how she treats them, and always will.

That helps. The point I bounced was when she wanted to sniff a book just to smell it.

I love books, but not as a weird fetish thing y'know? It's the contents I care about.

Eh, it's a thing. I happen to like the smell of bookstores that include older books, but unfortunately they also tend to gather a ton of dust and my allergies soon stop me from smelling anything. Also have a fondness for fresh newsprint, but I don't go to Mnye's extreme, though I doubt anyone else does as well as it feels like just a character trait to demonstrate how obsessed with everything to do with books she is.

I just treat it like a chuuni thing where my eyebrows raise but accept it as an extreme absurdity to help sell...well, a extreme absurdity. Even in her past life she was an extremely absurd character, it's just she got the people in her life to accept it. Combine her being 5 then 6 in a world she doesn't understand plus having to probably actually develop her personality in a way she didn't before, she is going to be a bit of the selfish princess type having to learn how to navigate outside the comfort of the environment she had created in her past life.

Then again, the whole dragging others into a bookstore while in a new town because you want to peruse...may be an event I created more than a few times in the past, thus making her (at times painfully) familiar.

Geezer Weasalopes

@betenoire said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

@harmlessdave said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

@rsog412 said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

@travis-butler - Having thought about it a bit:

The best mindset to approach early Bookworm with is to assume that the main character is not a reincarnated adult; she's a 6-year-old child who has some otherworldly memories. She acts like one, and her family treats her like one. It's less cringe-inducing if you realize that her family expects incomprehensible tantrums, selfishness, and occasional childish mischief, because that's how kids that age act. They love her despite how she treats them, and always will.

That helps. The point I bounced was when she wanted to sniff a book just to smell it.

I love books, but not as a weird fetish thing y'know? It's the contents I care about.

Eh, it's a thing. I happen to like the smell of bookstores that include older books, but unfortunately they also tend to gather a ton of dust and my allergies soon stop me from smelling anything. Also have a fondness for fresh newsprint, but I don't go to Mnye's extreme, though I doubt anyone else does as well as it feels like just a character trait to demonstrate how obsessed with everything to do with books she is.

I just treat it like a chuuni thing where my eyebrows raise but accept it as an extreme absurdity to help sell...well, a extreme absurdity. Even in her past life she was an extremely absurd character, it's just she got the people in her life to accept it. Combine her being 5 then 6 in a world she doesn't understand plus having to probably actually develop her personality in a way she didn't before, she is going to be a bit of the selfish princess type having to learn how to navigate outside the comfort of the environment she had created in her past life.

Then again, the whole dragging others into a bookstore while in a new town because you want to peruse...may be an event I created more than a few times in the past, thus making her (at times painfully) familiar.

Walking into a used bookstore which has old volumes is an olfactory experience to be enjoyed on a par with wandering into a leather supply store or lumber mill; it is such a distinct blend of scents.

Now imagine being of that perspective and not having had contact with any books for literal years and no idea how long until this opportunity happens again, if ever.
You want to savor the bouquet.

It made perfect sense to me, anyway.

Tube

I for one enjoy how gas stations smell, so I have no place judging others.

Geezer Weasalopes

@tube said in Don't Forget to Get Your Taxes Done with All These April Catchups!:

I for one enjoy how gas stations smell, so I have no place judging others.

Spilled gasoline, not so much.
But if talking about the smell of a service bay at an auto repair shop.. that's an interesting blend of smells as well.

There are a wide variety of places or things which have distinctive aromas which can trigger an emotional response based upon the experiences you associate with them.
If positive memories, then the aroma is pleasing to you at some level.
If negative memories, it can be quite the opposite.

The mix of outboard motor exhaust with estuary water is quite distinctive, and one that makes me quite nostalgic when thinking back on family fishing trips as a child; I was never much for the actual fishing, but I love being on the water.

Anyway, the topic is catch ups, and I'm really enjoying Crappy Social Game Club; just finished up Chapter 10 of Volume 2; I've already purchased both volumes... did I say that last already?

--

ETA at 4PM PDT (some 3 hours later): And done. Good series, it'd be nice if a third volume ever came out, but it works as an ending.

Betenoire

Myne distracted me for 2 weeks (the vixen) but I managed to get them done by the (slightly extended) deadline.

I regret nothing.

myskaros

You've got about a week and a half to finish reading April's catchups! May catchups will be coming on Monday, May 2, around 10 AM PDT/1700 UTC!