Contrary to my expectations, I managed to finish The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear today! It’s a brick of a book (just over 700 pages) so I was planning to devote the week to it but the book was really just too fun and I flew through it.

Also, I started this rereading with the intent of making full use of the books that I have but I find myself wanting to buy more books now? I will probably compile a full wishlist at the end of the month but I have a new book that I want to read: Rumo (also by Walter Moers) because Rumo is a character that appears in the book! I hope it’s the same character!

Speaking of reading fast(er), I made one big change to how I’m reading The Tale of Tea to help me read faster.

Backstory: Apart from all the books I talk about, I’m also reading two other books – The Tale of Tea and 中世遊女. The Tale of Tea is for me to learn more about tea and 中世遊女 is for me to learn more about courtesans in the Japanese Middle Ages.

So I’ve been taking detailed notes while reading The Tale of Tea because it’s a borrowed copy, but now that I’ve finished China, Japan, and Korea, I’ve decided to just read the book and only note down the things that really catch my attention. I managed to read a whole chapter today, instead of taking a week to read a chapter, which is huge progress. It comes with the sacrifice of not being able to refer to notes after I’m reading, but I’m confident that if I read every day and write a review/recap after, I’ll be able to grasp the main ideas and evaluate them properly.

As for 中世遊女, that is in Japanese and therefore I am resigned to reading it very slowly. The vocabulary in there is quite different from what I’m used to in Economics books (and even light novels) so it takes a lot longer to work through the passages, especially those that contain kobun.

Next read: Brave Story!