This week I finally finished 金色の獣、彼方に向かう.

Of the four stories in the book, the third, 森の神、夢に還る, was definitely my favorite. Ostensibly, the protagonist is called 森をさまよう幽霊, but the narration comes in the form of a letter to a girl, and is largely written in second-person (“you do this, you do that”). I’ve never seen this before in Japanese literature and I thought it was pretty interesting.

I’ve gotten a bit curious about mahjong lately, so I thought I would try reading a manga about it. I read vol. 1 of マジャン 〜畏村奇聞〜, a series I got a long time ago (but had never read). I didn’t really learn any mahjong rules but the story was kind of fun.

I read 人間失格 at the beginning of the year, and even now I don’t understand why people like it so much. However, for some reason I found myself curious about another Osamu Dazai work, 女生徒, and decided to read it this week. I’m actually enjoying it so far. Dazai’s perspective into a high-school girl’s thought process is pretty interesting. I had planned to have finished it by now, but life got in the way and I’m only about halfway done.

Watched ep. 1 and 2 of 葬送のフリーレン, and ep. 1 of SHY. The sakuga in Frieren is gorgeous. SHY is definitely not in the same league but the story had me tearing up.