This week I started and completed 狼と香辛料 vol. 2, reading along to the audiobook at a rate of about 35 pages per day.

I read vol. 1 a very long time ago and didn’t really enjoy myself. Thinking back, I wondered if the reason was that I was still relatively new to reading Japanese, but around that same time I was also reading (and very much enjoying) 本好きの下剋上, so I think a more likely explanation is that the economics portion of vol. 1 was much more complicated and not nearly as interesting.

As with vol. 1, I found the slow, character driven moments to be charming and well-written, and this time around the economics parts were much more straightforward and gripping. The urgency of a bad margin purchase; the threat of an encroaching do-or-die deadline; the tension of a smuggling operation — the moment-to-moment drama was very good and I enjoyed myself a lot.

I also watched 16 episodes of Naruto. Chouji’s big fight scene was surprisingly great.