On reading manga

[sara_tanaquil]

I was going to put this question into a private email conversation, but then it occurred to me it'd be more fun to ask everyone.

The topic of the BACKLOG OF DOOM (I don't think those capitals are dramatic enough) came up in a comment thread recently. I will probably have more to say on this as I rebuild my shopping list (ah, did I mention I got my tickets for Japan in August??), but in the meantime, I'm wondering how many manga a typical mangivore consumes in a week or a month.

Background: I was pitifully separated from all my manga during wednesday_10_00's 30 days of BL meme, but the first thing I started to do when I got back was to reread the favorites I'd been reminded of by all our discussions. (I might do a series of posts just on this, but more on that later.) The first thing I pulled off the shelf was Yatteranneeze!, and I burned through volume 1 in a (longish) evening, but then got crazy busy and haven't done more than pick up volume 2. Meanwhile, I have become 100% consumed by One Piece (more on THAT later too), and off I went to NY to snag all of the One Piece manga in Japanese. And then it took me a WHOLE DAY to get through the first volume of One Piece in Japanese (I really enjoy it, why am I soooo sloooooow?). And I really started to wonder what would be considered a normal reading pace, and whether I'm devoting enough of my day to reading (as opposed to, say, posting on LJ).

In English, I'm a fast reader. I don't think I'm a prodigy speed reader or anything, but I spent so many hours reading as a child that I just naturally fly through things. And lately, I feel like at least half of my struggle with Japanese is no longer comprehension, but speed. I understand most of what I read (if the book isn't too difficult), but I get so frustrated with how long it's taking, I put the book down and do something else instead.

So, here's the question: in an average day/week/month, counting stuff that you might pick up and reread, how many manga/novels do you generally read? And how long does it take you to get through a typical manga?

The question was originally for wednesday_10_00, but anyone is free to answer. English or Japanese, manga or novel, I don't mind, as long as you can say roughly how long it takes to get through a typical volume, and what period of time you're measuring (a day, a week, a month).

For comparison, I think it takes me about an hour (maybe less?) to read a typical English manga. Novels in English vary by length and complexity, but I used to reliably be able to finish a light novel (romance, mystery) of about 200-odd pages in a couple of hours. ("Used to" because I mostly read Japanese now, so I don't have much basis for comparison!) In Japanese... an easy manga might take me three hours, a denser one longer (One Piece seems to take a long time, mostly because the panels are dense with text/sfx, I'm trying to read every word carefully, and I'm looking for clues and small details in the background, so a chapter takes maybe a half hour or an hour). Right now, my reading habits are too irregular to measure easily, but even at my best, I probably don't get through more than a handful of manga each month.

Give me something to aspire to, folks. I'd kind of like to get back to being the kid that never put the book down except when my parents forced me to sit down at the dinner table and eat like a civilized human being. ^__^

Comments

[spacealien-vamp.livejournal.com]

So, here's the question: in an average day/week/month, counting stuff that you might pick up and reread, how many manga/novels do you generally read?

If I sit and read a manga straight through, it takes me about 1-2 hours, depending on how dense it is. However, there are some manga (like Conan) that I start on one day and then put down and finish months later.

I generally read ~8-10 manga per month, which has less to do with the speed at which I read them and more to do with how much I'm willing to spend on buying new ones. I don't typically re-read entire volumes. I just go over my favorite scenes.

I average about 2-3 novels per month.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

That helps, thank you! You're definitely one of my aspirational models. ^_^

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

I'm almost hesitant to answer, since most people usually don't believe me until they see it for themselves :p

On average, a manga volume takes between 20-30 minutes (though, in the case of something like One Piece, often with long thinking breaks either at the end or in-between chapters^^) For novels, I average somewhere between 250-300 pages an hour; new books may go a little under that, re-reads I can do a little faster. (or a lot faster if I'm doing a favorite scenes re-read)

My novels/month varies a lot depending on my mood/if I'm marathoning a show/etc - the average used to be about 1/day, but since I got a Kindle, that's gone up a bit - it's really quite convenient to read while cleaning =)

Manga is a lot more variable - I tend to get in a mood for a series, or find a new series, and then I pretty much do nothing but read that series until I'm caught up, so when it's something like, Hajime no Ippo for example, that can push the volume count pretty high :p

Of course, keep in mind that I have absurd amounts of reading time - being a stay at home dad does have some benefits ;)

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's awesome! I don't think I've ever been that fast a reader. Then again, I think raw speed matters less than being able to finish things at a speed that feels comfortable. (I'm comfortable with my English speed, with my Japanese speed, not so much.)

Perfect icon! (Robin's only been around for a few eps, and she's fast growing on me. How can I not love an archaeologist?)

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

Yay - I love Robin too =) She and Zoro fight for my affections as my second favorite character =)

But still, if she's on board, then that means you've gone though ~23 volumes worth of manga - so you have to add that to your monthly total^^

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Haha, I wish I could claim credit for 25 volumes. ^_^ But the only volumes I've read entire are vol 1 and vol 24, and more than half of 18 (where I was trying to distinguish between the manga and the filler bits in the anime -- there's that long stretch in the desert with Ace which is mostly filler but with real bits from the manga mixed in). I'm starting 25 now. All the rest, I just flipped through all the pages visually matching up what was happening with what I'd just watched in the anime, and I don't consider that reading. ^_^

I know I'd get a lot more out of properly reading those early volumes -- I'm picking up a lot from the manga that I missed in watching the anime, even if it was right there in the subtitles -- but I figure with Japan in August bearing down on me, the priority is to get caught up to the current releases first. So I'm on volume 25 of the manga and episode 152 of the anime, watching and reading concurrently.

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

Heh, that's kind of funny, I was planning on doing a mega-post fairly soon documenting the differences between the two^^ I can step that up if you think it would be helpful. (Really, I love talking about the show - of you ever go back through my archives, almost all of my early posts are me rambling on about the show :p)

It's definitely one of the better anime adaptations, but it leaves out a few important things and inserts a few stupid things. Most of the additions/subtractions don't matter, and a (very) few changes are arguably improvements - but then you have things like "Wait, Jango's in the Navy now, what?", but when you're reading the manga, those type of things are explained in the cover page arcs.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Would love your take on the differences! I started seeking out lists on the internet, only to realize that there were spoiler dangers (mainly because it would cross-reference something from a later episode).

I will definitely check out your earlier posts when I think I'm far enough along to be safe.

Oh, do they ever animate the manga cover arc about how Jango ended up in the Navy? Because I would DIE to see that animated, and I'm hoping it made it into a later filler ep or even a side feature, but I'm afraid to go and look at episode lists for fear of spoilers.

(Why don't Phoenix and Edgeworth ever do an "Objection Dance"? I laughed so hard over that picture.)

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

It's not an actual episode, but they animated a special called Jango Dance Carnival that gives a highly changed version of it (not nearly as funny as the manga) but it's still probably worth watching.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Yay! Sorry to hear it's not as good as the manga, but I will look forward to watching it at some point anyway.

Speaking of random things that were funnier in the manga: I was just reading a scene in the manga last night that was very faithfully adapted in the anime (Nami gets mad about something and Usopp and Chopper are so terrified that they go into survival mode), except that in the subtitled version I was watching, the literal translation of the defense strategies Usopp and Chopper were using wasn't totally clear. It wasn't until I read the manga that I realized that Usopp was using "Fake Own Death With Ketchup!" and Chopper's "Guard Point" is literally read in kanji "Defense: Make Fur Bigger!" (What is he, a cat puffing up his tail?) I swear I giggled for an hour over that.

[sabrinanj.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm a slow reader even in my native language, so I would say I read 1 to 3 novels in a month. I'm a fast reader when it comes to manga though. It takes me 2 hours to get through a typical manga. But that doesn't mean I read tons of manga in a month. I just don't have enough free time I guess.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Two hours -- is that in your native language, or Japanese, or both?

Good to see you back on LJ!

[sabrinanj.livejournal.com]

Two hours -- is that in your native language, or Japanese, or both?

In my native language (Portuguese) or English. I've been studying Japanese for two months now. I promised myself that this time I wouldn't give up but... it's so hard >.< How long did it take for you to learn it, Sara?

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

I've been studying it seriously for about 7 1/2 years now (started in the fall of 2003). It's a slow process. I was able to make a decent stab at reading manga by 2005 or so -- I was beginning to study for 2kyuu at that point, I think -- but it's been a constant struggle to improve to the place where I want to be.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I guess I would say around an hour or two for me, depending on the amount of text. I have noticed that I can speed through an occasional shoujo manga in under an hour, but that's really, really rare. For something like One Piece, I would say it's a little over two hours...it usually takes me at least two days to get through one volume, reading at breakfast (15-20 minutes) and during my lunch hour.

Like spacealien_vamp, the number of manga I go through in a month is definitely dependent on how many I buy, not how fast I can read. When I was reading Nodame Cantabile, for instance, I think I got about 15 volumes at once and burned through that in a week or so. Most months it's more like 10. (Or 20, every other month.) When I was living in Japan, I easily bought 20-30 a month, but I fell behind on some series, then, too, so 30 a month is probably pushing it.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

This is very helpful. First that you and spacealien_vamp have something close to the same reading pace, which is the pace I'd love to be reading at... it's good to know that it can take you up to two hours to get through some manga. (I tend to put unrealistic expectations on myself, a lot.)

It's also helpful to know the pace you used to keep in Japan, since that's probably closer to my current situation (I have more manga than time!).

I have been measuring my pace with One Piece, and it seems to be a pretty consistent 30 minutes per chapter, which means One Piece is more like a 5-hour volume for me, alas. But, I will continue to gambare!

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

In English, I can read a manga volume in about 15-30 minutes, depending on how much time I spend going back to LOL over things or pouring over the art work. It depends on how texty the manga is, of course. Low text and high detail takes longer than high text and low detail because I spend longer looking at the art.

In Chinese, I can read a volume of something like G-Defend in about an hour, but then I go back and "read" the art.

The 12 Kingdoms novels were taking me about three weeks of steady reading, back when I was reading them. But there were a lot of references I was taking them time to look up in the process. The 鳳于九天 novels are about half as thick and were taking about a week, but I was neglecting housework and other things during that time.

On average, though, I'm reading about 5 volumes a year because I'm mostly not doing any reading at all.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

It's really interesting to see how different people read manga. After all these years, I'm realizing that I'm actually a rather poor manga reader, visually -- I often have to stop to figure out who's talking to who, or what just happened that I missed, or go back three pages to reinterpret a scene I read earlier. That's completely independent of the language problem.

But when I do slow down to pore over a scene, typically it's to pay closer attention to the dialogue, rather than the art. If I'm paying attention to the art, it's probably to pick up more of the humor, or a subtle plot hint.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

I care about the art, so I spend time on the art work. I do the same as you and go back to reinterpret or check on scenes. But there are also all kinds of little bits of candy to be found in the "non-sketchy art style" manga, it's like a treasure hunt. For example, I spend time reading the backs of all the jackets in later volumes of G-Defend where the jackets are supposed to have their last names and sometimes have little jokes instead. Or little throw aways that enrich my understanding of the characters, such as G-Defend's Alek's little brother, who I'm hoping will show up in later volumes.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I read this really interesting study a while ago (can't remember where) about how Japanese people read manga more efficiently than we do in the US. The study somehow tracked the path of the eye on the page, and Americans would jump to spot of text and stop, and then jump to the next spot, etc. Japanese readers' eyes would just sort of slalom down the page. I'm not sure which method would absorb the material better, but it was interesting, anyway.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Should clarify. That's three weeks per volume of the 12K novels, they were in Chinese and I need to re-read some because there's stuff in there that I want to grab and go research.

[hezziwig.livejournal.com]

I would say that for a simple shoujo series I can finish a volume in as little as 30 min, but for a text heavy work or something with deeper visual themes, it takes about an hour for a single volume. That's in English.

In Japanese, I'd say I can read a chapter in a half an hour to 45 minutes, because I am S-L-O-W. A single volume of manga in Japanese is good for a long amount of time. I have picture read everything I have (thus I only collect artists I really enjoy), but my "read every word" backlog is huge. I find manga written for adults EASIER to read than manga written for teenagers because the characters say fewer words.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

This is helpful for me to know, too, thank you.

I hope we can get together sometime this summer! I would love to get manga recommendations, even though we tend to read such different things.

Hope you're doing well and getting at least a little rest.

[gaminette.livejournal.com]

did I mention I got my tickets for Japan in August??

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! LOL - again?! are you gong for Comiket?

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

LOL, you know it! Japan in August -- I'm a glutton for punishment, it seems.

I almost texted you when I was down in NYC, but it was truly a flying visit -- all I did was go to BookOff, and then I was hauling around a mountain of One Piece I just wanted to get home. I hope to get down to the city again very soon. Welcome home!

[collarnojutsu.livejournal.com]

English manga: roughly 1 hour per. Less if it's heavy on action and light on text. (I've finished volumes of Tsubasa and Bleach in ~30 mins, lol.) As you know, I linger on artwork and expression, so my times often inflate for that.

Regular novels it's a lot harder to say: 1) I've come to the conclusion I read slowly these days, but I think it's less about ability and more become a habit for some fairly complicated psychological reasons, and 2) I have a hard time sitting still for longer periods of quiet time these days so I am frequently pausing or putting the book down. It could take me days, with many reading periods, to finish a book I could have once finished completely on a lazy Sunday, a beach day, or long plane ride.

If I had to guess, 45 pages an hour with normal (not tiny) text size on a good reading day. Fewer pages if I'm reading very deliberately or the text is dense; more if it's a YA book or translated light novel. (Even with careful reading, I can often finish a BL light novel in under 2 hrs.)

Generally speaking: I used to read faster, and most of my book-reading friends are the type who read in very short time spans (not unlike some people in this thread) but as someone who both agonizes over writing her own words, and in this day where I re-read less, I want to really experience someone's writing and word choices, to really absorb the story so I don't forget details. Most people who read that fast do not get it all - no matter what they say - because they are skimming. I'm constantly having conversations about books with friends where when I bring up something I liked - be it more general like a plot point or something as specific as a certain scene or description - and they often say "I don't remember that at all!" if it's a RL conversation, or if it's an email conversation, my question about what they thought there is left quietly unanswered. It's very frustrating because I feel like no one reads like me anymore.

and whether I'm devoting enough of my day to reading (as opposed to, say, posting on LJ
Haaaa, ok, for a week now I've been wondering why no one is posting anything. I guess it's all just somewhere else, duh me. >_> (I'm so lonely!)

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

How come I'm the only one who has no idea how long it takes to read a manga in her native language? I don't even know how much time I spend examining the pictures. I hope I remember to time myself when my TRSI orders arrive.

Хороший блог!

[clorishefyq.livejournal.com]

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