My New Manga Reading Technique is Unstoppable

That YOINK sound you may have heard earlier this week was the sound of Junji Itō’s “Voices in the Dark” and Naoyuki Ochiai’s “Crime and Punishment: A Falsified Romance” being licensed, ending Daniel Lau’s scanlation series. This is too bad because Daniel gave me the first three volumes of the latter before I left Japan. I’ve started reading the first volume and was looking forward to checking out his translations when I finished.

Everytime I go to Japan, I end up flying back with a lot of books and manga, but I find it hard to dig up the necessary willpower to actually read them. I’ve got reading for classes (that I’m both taking and teaching), writing for classes, too many blogs that I’m trying to run, and it’s hard to find that energy when I’m finished with all of that and taking care of my semi-feral cats.

No longer! This time I felt a little obligated to read the manga (anything a friend presses on me, I try to actually get through), so I needed to find a way to motivate myself. I’ve combined two strategies into an unstoppable manga reading technique – AJATT’s do something easy + Penelope Trunk’s if…then thinking = toilet manga:

If I am sitting on the toilet, I am reading “Crime and Punishment: A Falsified Romance.” Usually I can get through a couple pages in any given sitting, which is progress! And it’s easy. I don’t have to commit a half hour or an hour, but all the sittings do add up: I’m about halfway through the first volume. I’m not sure if this will work for novels or short stories (this strategy seems especially suited for manga with pictures that enable quick review of the storyline), but I’ll give it a shot when I finish this.

The only problem is that I’m out of the house so often these days, and it’s weird to carry reading into a public restroom – too weird.

8 thoughts on “My New Manga Reading Technique is Unstoppable

  1. Toilet manga! Oh dear. At least I was in the bath when I was reading your boy Murakami …

    Thanks for the plug! If you get through those three, and you’re curious, I can send you those translations anytime.

  2. The last two times I was in a Japanese boy’s house, I found manga in the bathroom. No books anywhere else in the apartment but the manga could always be found next to the toilet.

  3. Haha :). I personally have never understood the idea of having reading material in the toilet. Business is over and done with in a matter of minutes and I don’t view it as a place to relax with a book.

  4. Daniel – I might take you up on that.

    Kuremi – Nice! Glad to know it’s a normal thing.

    Matt – I’ve realized that the Kindle app on smartphones has eliminated any awkwardness.

    Michael – Aww, you’re no fun, Gakuranman. Your “matter of minutes” is my “several frames of a manga.”

  5. Why not try using a digital book reader? You can sit at your computer and tap the space bar to turn pages while eating dinner or something. Like watching a video only with a tiny bit of interaction.

  6. Manga doesn’t come on digital book readers, duH! And I usually watch video of some sort while eating.

    And besides, that has nothing to do with it. This is all about if…then and easy steps, yo! I poop, therefore I manga!

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