Specs
Reviews
(4.44/5)"It gets good in season 5" energy
Language learning: This is the junior edition with furigana so kanji wasn't a challenge. When I started the read it felt pretty tough, but reading some other things and coming back to it helped. Once I got used to the writing style I felt like the same general pool of vocabulary was being used, besides occasional new vocabulary for making new things.
Entertainment: This volume felt like very long scene setting for the fantasy world and characters. Despite the page count, I didn't feel like the characters started to gel until the actual last chapter of this volume (which is partway through the normal volume 1). I think this started out as a webnovel so that's not too surprising; usually webnovels take a while before they find their footing. I can see how it might be interesting to follow the characters in their journey from humble beginnings, and see Myne's ascendance through the social ranks (I assume), but the character relationships in this volume didn't really grab me so far.
This is the full-furigana version of the 本好き novel series. The junior version splits each book into two volumes, which is why they’re much shorter. The division point for this volume was well chosen. It isn’t a big dramatic conclusion, but it does feel like a natural place to take a break in a long story.
The text itself appears to be the same as the original. I compared the first few chapters and they looked identical, aside from the furigana.
According to reviews on Amazon JP, there are small differences in the bonus material among the various editions, like an extra short story or short comic here or there in the original vs junior vs paper or digital. It looks like it’s a marketing strategy to get diehard fans to collect multiple editions. For purposes of judging the readability, I don’t think they matter.
It feels like a slice-of-life put into a fantasy setting, and it takes its time and gives you space to get used to new vocabulary. The writing style is plain, rather than literary. It’s an isekai with a protagonist from modern Japan, and the setting is modeled on medieval Europe. Although it’s a light fantasy setting, it’s one where modern, ordinary vocabulary can be used without feeling out of place. All the characters have katakana names, and although that’s a small thing it does make it easier to read.
The story is fine but I don’t love it, at least not yet. The protagonist is written so that she has lots of room to grow… in other words, in this first half of the first volume she’s annoying. She’s an exaggerated “being surrounded by books is my whole identity” bookworm, and her complaints about being cast into a world without books at the beginning were tiring. It seemed like the frequency of complaints was decreasing as the story progressed, and I hope it will decrease even more. The reviews of this are good and it’s relatively easy to read, so I want to give it a chance.