I first encountered 掻き氷 as (rather indistinct) audio in konosuba as 掻き氷屋 - caused a bit of headscratching for me too.

Finally counted my pages. Not too many (62), but I've already read another chapter of 蜘蛛ですが、なにか？ and will read more before I go to sleep so...

A quick observation: I added the results for nine chapters plus five articles (forgot about the news category, figured some of them were really short, and since I was copy-pasting anyway...); so each of these chapters is only five or six pages on average (seems about right, judging by the time it takes me); if the contest had just started a couple weeks earlier, I'd be approaching the 1000 page mark... Well, at least I know that I actually read that much.

I was really slow reading this when I started, but I breeze through the chapters now; here's hoping I can make the same thing happen with 社説 over the next few months!

(2016-06-12, 7:23 am)Zgarbas Wrote: Looking up words is not a tadoku sin at all, I used the dictionary quite extensively when I first started out (and am using it a lot for my Spanish book now). It slows you down, so if anything it's tadoku on hard mode since you're tackling something that's above your level =)

I've run into this while reading 新世界より. It's generally an easy read, but there are definitely passages - e.g., the description of 追儺 - where the unknown vocab comes fast and furious for me. I'm still plowing through, but alternating with some lighter fare to keep my pace up.

Now this is more like it! An afternoon of leisurely reading has me up 101 points! And I even excluded fluff lines (like the stats and skills of monsters; chapter titles; and the authors notes)!

While I don't consider it cheating to look up words, it's technically not extensive reading if you do so; thus a Tadoku (extensive reading) sin.
I think it's necessary sometimes, though; like what I mentioned earlier with those editorials.

For folks in the top 10: How do you do it?!?!

Seriously, though - how many hours a day are you reading? What's your reading rate (pages/hr.)? Are you reading on top of other learning activities, such as Anki, writing, or convo practice?

*sits at the feet of the masters and waits for reply*

I'm on my way out of the top 10 (currently #9), but for what it's worth...

I have a core-reading session before bed where I read a novel for between 10 and 20 pages, which takes between 20-45 minutes. I've been reading a lot of manga as well rather than, say, playing video games - they go pretty quick, and a 180 page volume takes ... an hour? Hour and a half? I haven't timed myself. I had a couple of days where I read 3 volumes in a day, but I'm more or less over that, hence the steady decline in rankings.

I'm just doing a bit of light daily kanji study otherwise - about 20 mins/day.

I'd like to hear Doctor Dunlap's story...

I can never in my dreams read that much in such a short time in any language let alone Japanese. Top 10, I too would also like to know your secrets :0

Also anyone interested in silly sentences should check out this Twitter account @NISE_TOEIC for quick reads to count some small Tadoku points. Or for funny Anki example sentences for your reviews. I actually changed a couple of my core example sentences using a few examples I found there.



A great way to remember the word 棺桶 かんおけ (n) coffin; casket

[EDIT]

(2016-06-12, 3:24 pm)anotherjohn Wrote: I first encountered 掻き氷 as (rather indistinct) audio in konosuba as 掻き氷屋 - caused a bit of headscratching for me too.

For some reason ever since I encountered that word, I can't stop thinking about it. I just kinda say it to myself in my head while I'm walking and such. Same with the words 自然体 and 動物園. All Panda centered words from shirokuma cafe o_0

(2016-06-15, 11:39 pm)RawrPk Wrote: For some reason ever since I encountered that word, I can't stop thinking about it. I just kinda say it to myself in my head while I'm walking and such. Same with the words 自然体 and 動物園. All Panda centered words from shirokuma cafe o_0

次のオススメ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarepanda

(2016-06-15, 11:28 pm)Aikynaro Wrote: I'm on my way out of the top 10 (currently #9), but for what it's worth...

I have a core-reading session before bed where I read a novel for between 10 and 20 pages, which takes between 20-45 minutes. I've been reading a lot of manga as well rather than, say, playing video games - they go pretty quick, and a 180 page volume takes ... an hour? Hour and a half? I haven't timed myself. I had a couple of days where I read 3 volumes in a day, but I'm more or less over that, hence the steady decline in rankings.

I'm just doing a bit of light daily kanji study otherwise - about 20 mins/day.

Thanks for sharing. That sounds about the same clip I can manage. I wish I had more time to devote to it, but I think given my life constraints I'm doing my best. I try and take full advantage of "gap" time (riding the bus, lunch time) and use those time periods to either read or work through Anki material.

I also work through a vocab deck (which doesn't count for anything, lol) and a subs2srs deck (which I can count as subtitle reading). [EDIT - you can't count reps, so I'd not doing this. Thanks to @lordsilent for the heads-up. Kids, don't follow my example!] I deliberately keep my vocab study light - only about 5-10 new words a day; I'm relying primarily on extensive reading to help reinforce meaning in context.

(2016-06-15, 11:28 pm)Aikynaro Wrote: I'd like to hear Doctor Dunlap's story...

同感！多読の怪獣ですね。。。

(2016-06-16, 10:32 am)gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:

(2016-06-15, 11:28 pm)Aikynaro Wrote: I'd like to hear Doctor Dunlap's story...

同感！多読の怪獣ですね。。。

「怪」しいかもしれへんけど「獣」ではアリマヘン♪（笑）

No special story here. No secrets. I'm just using this as an excuse to read a lot more of what I usually read anyway!

I wake up early and read a novel or something for an hour or two in bed before the day begins. I then read the editorials from yomiuri, mainichi and asahi newspapers while I eat breakfast and drink my morning coffee.

I have links to sociology articles and blogs on my phone which I read during lunch.

I then borrow the power of coffee once again and read something a little older in the early evening- Soseki, etc. - classics that are a little harder to read but beautifully written. (Currently reading 檸檬 by 梶井基次郎). I then go on to reading academic articles on various university repositories online (I'm counting them as "net") and finish off with something on the easy side like friends' blogs, manga, ridiculous 論文 etc. when I start getting tired.

So.. basically.. the secret is to read a lot.
Is it kind of driving me crazy? Yes.
Is it making me feel all kinds of nostalgic thinking about the time I skyrocketed from Intermediate to Novels-Without-A-Dictionary in one summer thanks to 多読? Yes.
Is it good for me? ....probably?  ヽ(´ー｀)ノ

[Zgarbas]

^ Now that's dedication.

It's been a while since I've had to struggle to stay in the top 15, which is good; last tadoku was not really competitive so light reading was enough to stay in the top 5.
I'm mid-dissertation writing session now, so I'm barely reading 1h/day during lunch time >_<

I've mostly been trying to get through some horror games.  I'm on 流行り神2 and かまいたちの夜2.  Also reading manga whenever I have free time.