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I think one of the big themes of Bookworm is stop overthinking things. Maine gets so wrapped up in her own head, and so drowned in her own unintentional arrogance, that she just flatly refuses to admit that any of her problems might be solved by someone other than herself. I think that's the big payoff we're going to see from her friendship with Lutz, and I'm hoping it will culminate with somehow acquiring a magic tool and unlocking her mana. Once that girl steps outside her own head and admits that she can't fix everything by herself, the whole world is going to open up.
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Aug 24, 2016 03:20
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KENS is still going really strong, and I really appreciate how the MC is handling the situation with Francesca wishing to go on Renji's and Aya's quest to turn the reincarnated Demon Lord into a peace loving entity. It's ridiculous how much sense it makes "if she can handle the local griffin problem she can go." If Francesca is incapable of taking on this task it shows that she'll stay and won't be killed in the journey, which will ease the parent merchants either way if she succeeds or fails. I also can relate to the feeling of kids being better at chess than you, it's a strange feeling indeed. It's kind of funny when he says that merchants are more amazing than he is, after all killing a god is the only thing he did. If that was said by any other character I would assume they're humble bragging, but this is Renji, self loathing dad of the year.
Annointed fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Aug 24, 2016 |
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Aug 24, 2016 05:19
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Annointed posted:KENS 
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Aug 24, 2016 06:25
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Kamigoroshi no Eiyuu to Nanatsu no Seiyaku
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Aug 24, 2016 06:35
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AKA God-Slaying Hero. Edit: Hahaha, Swallowed Star kicks all kinds of rear end. quote:“Head, did the thousand year black crow root actually grow for a thousand years?” Luo Feng couldn’t help but to ask out of curiosity. Double Edit: Luo Feng sucks at names. quote:“I’ll name you….. #1” Luo Feng randomly gave a name. Captain Bravo fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Aug 24, 2016 |
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Aug 24, 2016 06:58
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Speaking of God Slayer Hero, new chapter https://shikkakutranslations.org/kamigoroshi-no-eiyuu-to-nanatsu-no-seiyaku/kens-chapter-70/ Oh look a character that understands loss of a loved one and is capable of moving on. Hopefully that means that our mc would be capable of doing the same. I like he knows he should do the same and move on, but you know, dead waifu and all.
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Aug 26, 2016 06:42
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Hoo boy, alchemy arc 2 in ISSTH. This is what I've been waiting for. 
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Aug 27, 2016 00:07
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Desuwa posted:Hoo boy, alchemy arc 2 in ISSTH. This is what I've been waiting for. 100% agreed, can't wait.
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Aug 27, 2016 03:42
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I'm going to make a recommendation for a series I put off reading for the longest time, but am now really enjoying. Northern Nobleman and Raptor Wife is an adorable little tale of two people unlucky in love giving marriage a go. The setting is pretty good, I'm honestly surprised how well the Japanese author nails the Euro/Scandinavian feel of the Sami people. My big misgiving towards the series was that I didn't think the relationship between the two would be as organic as it is, and I'm really pleasantly surprised by how well the author is drawing them together. There's no real excitement to the series, it's 100% a romance novel, but it's a really sweet one with fantastic characters. The translation is nearing the end of the first of four volumes, chapter 24 out of 133, but it updates really fast and the translator seems dedicated to the series. If you've ever wondered whether gutting and skinning a rabbit can be romantic, give it a shot and find out!  quote:If I were to name this phenomenon, it would be ‘Sieglinde deficiency’. It occurs from not having enough Sieglinde.  I know it's cliche as gently caress but I still love it. Edit: Ahh, oh my god this series is just too loving cute. quote:“Just who is it that you like.” Double Edit: Man, am I the only one that gets pissed off with the stupid loving summaries people put on novelupdates? Look at this poo poo: quote:An Jia Qi said : The most unfortunately thing that happened in her life is knowing Su Zhan Mo, because he is a lot harder to please compare to her biological dad. What the gently caress does that mean!? quote:“Su Zhan Mo, are you eating valuable kidney growing up? three years born two babies, do you think that I am mother pig?” I've yet to see a summary for a Korean novel that is as impenetrable as this poo poo. Some of the Japanese ones can be loving esoteric, but they usually at the very least provide some kind of a loving summary of the loving novel. But all these goddamned xianxia and wuxia and black-bellied prostitute emperor assassin stories just refuse to say what the gently caress they are about. I understand that there's cultural poo poo, and idioms and stuff, but this goes way beyond that. Am I the only one that notices this? Am I a fucker for being frustrated by it? I mean, I've been singing Swallowed Star's praises since I started reading it, it's badass no doubt. But I passed on reading it for months because this is the goddamned summary: quote:Year 2056, in a city in the Yuan Jiang Su Jin area. On top of a ruined, shattered six story residential apartment sits a teenager wearing a combat vest, militaristic trousers, and alloyed battle boots. On his back is a hexagonal shield and equipped is a blood-shadow battle knife. He sits there silently on the edge of the roof. At this time, the sparkling sky was shining and there was a refreshing breath within the air that blew towards him. However, there was only silence within the ruined, deserted city, with an occasional howl that makes your heart skip a beat. It's the future, cities are ruined, and some dude has whatever the goddamned gently caress a blood-shadow battle knife is supposed to be. That's all you can grasp from that. I only started reading it after reading the comments, which incidentally provide a much better loving summary than the goddamned summary. quote:the setting are pretty familiar for us, not in the distant world but our own post apocalyptic world, something happen in earth and all living being undergoing mutation including human, animal and plant, and this happen on near future around 2057+ Is that really so hard? "Modern Xianxia in a post-apocalypse with futuristic weapons and unique cultivation". Boom. gently caress it, "Modern Xianxia in a post-apocalypse with a blood-shadow battle knife and unique cultivation", you can even throw that poo poo in, just tell me what the goddamned story is about. 
Captain Bravo fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Aug 27, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 10:16
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If summarizing were easy, I'd be suckered into reading a lot more things.
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Aug 27, 2016 15:56
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dungeon hunter is unintentionally funny as hell. the mc did the time reset thing, so he has a ridiculous amount of advantages from his future knowledge. however, he is also incredibly stupid and always makes the absolute worst strategic decisions.
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Aug 27, 2016 17:31
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I love the twist that happened at the end of volume 2. The reveal that drat loving near every character is just as insane as the MC. Edit: Dungeon Hunter , whoops. I was talking about Dungeon Defense. How is the protagonist in DH unintentionally funny? Seems like he's just making all the right moves, how has he hosed up? Captain Bravo fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Aug 27, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 17:46
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Ytlaya posted:In Ascendance of a Bookworm, the main character and the kids she knows should only be 6-7, but they talk like they're at least 10+. I think they defused that being an issue by pointing out that kids in this world start doing labor and stuff WAY earlier, like, Maine should've already been helping out do a lot of stuff around the house when she first woke up and only hasn't been due to her physical limits. They don't spend time learning anything so it's mostly spent on physical labor, crafting skills, and communication I guess? I mean, can you imagine sending out a modern 7 year old into the forest to gather firewood?
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Aug 27, 2016 18:50
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Captain Bravo posted:Double Edit: Man, am I the only one that gets pissed off with the stupid loving summaries people put on novelupdates? Look at this poo poo: I don't know the cultural context of "valuable kidney" but I'd hazard the guess it's either "Su Zhan Mo, did you get enough brain food growing up? You want me to bear 2 babies in 3 years, do you think I'm a brood sow?" or "Su Zhan Mo, what diet did they put you on to be so energetic? You want me to bear 2 babies in 3 years, do you think I'm a brood sow?" Not to ignore your criticisms, because they're understandable, I just don't have any more to offer.
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Aug 27, 2016 19:48
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Aww yiss, Escape Galge is updating again. It's basically the perfect "Reincarnated into Otome" piss-take. It's concise, clever, compelling, and already halfway done.
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Aug 27, 2016 19:55
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Captain Bravo posted:I love the twist that happened at the end of volume 2. The reveal that drat loving near every character is just as insane as the MC. every other demon is his enemy, but none of them saw him as a threat. so naturally, his highest priority is making sure the other demons know who he is, that he is a threat, and that he has some mysterious poo poo going on that they really need to investigate. he might be a match for any of the others individually, but aside from him everyone else is in a faction meaning they could gang up on him and steal all his poo poo with ease. also, every other demon will most definitely want to steal his poo poo with all that conspicuous consumption. even better, he is making sure he is famous world-wide using his real name among the only humans the demons have any contact with. if any demon went outside for five minutes the jig would be up and they would know everything about him. i'm not even gonna go into the skull mask stuff. his master plan relies on every other person alive being dumb as hell. since this is a crappy wn, it is all but guaranteed that they will be but that doesn't make the mc any less of an idiot.
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Aug 28, 2016 00:19
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I forgot how much I love watching Meng Hao school people at alchemy
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Aug 28, 2016 03:18
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Catching up a bit and oh my god ISSTHquote:Meng Hao’s heart pounded as he waited for a few moments. Seeing that there was no further reaction, he relaxed a bit, then looked around craftily one more time. it seems to only get amazing when I look away EDIT: chapters later he's still lamenting the loss of those precious floor tiles and shelves Yinlock fucked around with this message at 11:21 on Aug 28, 2016 |
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Aug 28, 2016 10:59
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Remember, this is a man whose cultivation base is partially composed of stolen roofing shingles.
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Aug 28, 2016 17:06
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His traveling companion at the time mentioned how he must cultivate Locust Dao or something like that, and ever since that was mentioned I really wanted to see him start cultivating it. A Meng Hao who grows more powerful in Qi every time he takes something would be unstoppable!
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Aug 28, 2016 17:54
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Katamari Daoqi
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Aug 28, 2016 17:57
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Fleve posted:Katamari Daoqi Fanart of Meng Hao Rolling a giant pile of loot, while everyone chased him angrily when?
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Aug 29, 2016 04:55
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ISSTH and World of Cultivation are probably my two favorite Xianxia stories because the characters have character instead of being the standard goodguy murderhobo stereotypes. Shame about WoC's translation being sort of half-assed, but it's still at the top of my list.
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Aug 29, 2016 05:15
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Cynic Jester posted:ISSTH and World of Cultivation are probably my two favorite Xianxia stories because the characters have character instead of being the standard goodguy murderhobo stereotypes. Shame about WoC's translation being sort of half-assed, but it's still at the top of my list. WoC is great once you learn whatever language it was translated into.
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Aug 29, 2016 05:16
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Cynic Jester posted:ISSTH and World of Cultivation are probably my two favorite Xianxia stories because the characters have character instead of being the standard goodguy murderhobo stereotypes. Shame about WoC's translation being sort of half-assed, but it's still at the top of my list. I wouldn't put ISSTH in that category TBH. ISSTH is definitely on the standard goodguy murderhobo stereotype, it's just that the Xanxia stereotype also include being a conman. Like, almost 50% of Xanxia have the MC being obssessed with money or being a specialist in cons to some degree. I had really high hopes for A Thought Through eternity (Er Gen's new series) as it has a main character that's defined by "Is a metilous coward", but the last several chapters have him be way too awesome.
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Aug 29, 2016 11:28
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Arkeus posted:I wouldn't put ISSTH in that category TBH. ISSTH is definitely on the standard goodguy murderhobo stereotype, it's just that the Xanxia stereotype also include being a conman. Like, almost 50% of Xanxia have the MC being obssessed with money or being a specialist in cons to some degree. The thing about Xianxia is that the goodguy murderhobo protags are viewed positively by everyone except antagonists. No one ever goes "You murdered an entire family branch in cold blood, including women and children? A tad excessive, don't you think?" Whereas in ISSTH everyone who interacts with Meng Hao realizes he's a conniving used car salesman in pretty short order. Sure, they might still like him, but the bad stuff isn't glossed over.
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Aug 29, 2016 12:15
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Cynic Jester posted:The thing about Xianxia is that the goodguy murderhobo protags are viewed positively by everyone except antagonists. No one ever goes "You murdered an entire family branch in cold blood, including women and children? A tad excessive, don't you think?" It's still viewed positively though? Like, they aren't liking he did it, but they almost always think he is great for doing it.
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Aug 29, 2016 12:17
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Cynic Jester posted:The thing about Xianxia is that the goodguy murderhobo protags are viewed positively by everyone except antagonists. No one ever goes "You murdered an entire family branch in cold blood, including women and children? A tad excessive, don't you think?" Also Meng Hao actually has a shred of human decency, even at his lowest there are things he will absolutely never stoop to. Meanwhile Joe Xianxia will brutalize an entire continent because some random dude accidentally tripped him and the world will praise him for it. Meng Hao does have his share of overreaction to minor slights, but those tend to take the form of wacky cartoon shenanigans.
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Aug 29, 2016 12:21
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Arkeus posted:It's still viewed positively though? Like, they aren't liking he did it, but they almost always think he is great for doing it. It's kind of 50/50, some people are impressed by him but there's a lot of people who really really loving hate Meng Hao(usually because he killed a family member and/or stole their poo poo). But they've also seen that forcing a physical confrontation is a bad idea, so the best thing you can do is cut your losses and back off ASAP(which one dude did recently and it worked). The point is that the story doesn't fall over itself trying to justify Meng Hao's more morally questionable actions. Most people acknowledge that Meng Hao is both impressive and kind of a total dick.
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Aug 29, 2016 12:24
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Arkeus posted:It's still viewed positively though? Like, they aren't liking he did it, but they almost always think he is great for doing it. They think he is great in spite of some of the underhanded poo poo he pulls, not because of it(with the exception of his mom who is awesome and seems to also have sold some snake oil when she was younger).
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Aug 29, 2016 12:31
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Yinlock posted:It's kind of 50/50, some people are impressed by him but there's a lot of people who really really loving hate Meng Hao(usually because he killed a family member and/or stole their poo poo). But they've also seen that forcing a physical confrontation is a bad idea, so the best thing you can do is cut your losses and back off ASAP(which one dude did recently and it worked). That's actually a xianxia staple too. How many stories can you think of have the phrase "There's no such thing as an eternal enemy, only eternal benefits." Just off the top of my head, I can think of several times in Swallowed Star, Peerless Martial God, Unrivaled God of War, and My Disciple Died Yet Again where the main character does something that pisses off an enemy, then reveals their true strength and the enemy goes "Ohhh gently caress no, nevermind, I don't want any of that poo poo." Edit: And in non-xianxia chat, Romance RPG finally finished.  Double Edit: Ahh gently caress, Dungeon Defense is just too loving good, guys. quote:Even to the group of humans captured as prisoners before us, Barbatos smiled. She had prepared for war since before the start of autumn. Since people were wagers in war, Barbatos had many reasons to be cruel. Only the prisoners did not know of the upcoming war. To them, Barbatos’ smile only shone as unprovoked violence. Captain Bravo fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Aug 29, 2016 |
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Aug 29, 2016 12:46
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 quote:Spice and Wolf is ten years old! https://www.amazon.com/Spice-Anniversary-Collectors-Isuna-Hasekura/dp/0316504017
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Aug 29, 2016 20:56
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I'm not sure I can really pin down what makes Meng Hao likable while most Xianxia protags are terrible beyond 'good writing'. I think part of it is that Men Hao doesn't take himself too seriously--I'm having a hard time thinking of a time where he went after someone for disrespect (where it wasn't just a front for him to get more sweet, sweet spirit stones)--it's always been if you've gone after someone he cares about, or you're actively trying to kill him and he doesn't really have a lot of choice. Otherwise he's willing to let most things be. That's no guarantee that you aren't about to be swindled for all you're worth, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.
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Aug 29, 2016 21:47
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Today in ISSTH: Meng Hao teaches to the test, breaks examination system over knee.
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Aug 29, 2016 21:49
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it helps that he doesn't kill random people just to steal from them. even when he infiltrated the crow clan to rob a bunch of perfect strangers, he ended up feeling guilty about the last step and shortly afterward took the entire clan under his protection.
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Aug 29, 2016 22:20
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The other thing I really like about Meng Hao, which ties back into good writing, is we see him working hard for most of what he has. With Joe Xianxia, we're more told he worked hard, if at all.
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Aug 29, 2016 22:50
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jon joe posted:The other thing I really like about Meng Hao, which ties back into good writing, is we see him working hard for most of what he has. With Joe Xianxia, we're more told he worked hard, if at all. Huh, what? Meng Hao is one of the worst offenders when it comes to "everything falls in his lap and he almost never work hard for stuff".
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Aug 29, 2016 23:20
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in general, opportunities constantly fall into his lap, but then he has to bust his rear end to take advantage of them. if meng hao finds some fancy artifact in a cave, it is always accompanied by something that almost kills him. there are exceptions, of course. for example, he met that painter who has remotely saved his rear end a couple times in a seemingly trivial and completely random encounter.
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Aug 29, 2016 23:24
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I can't make a value judgement on ISSTH, since I haven't read it yet, but there is definitely a line in Xianxia and that line is not "Had to fight a dude for infinite power vs had infinite power handed to him." The line is closer to "Protagonist notices and/or is brutally reminded of deficiency via rear end-whupping, protagonist sets out to correct deficiency by searching for infinite power, protagonist finds infinite power and after struggle obtains it, protagonist refunds rear end-whupping to initial gifter." vs "Protagonist is told about danger that may or may not happen, then immediately told where object to prevent that danger is, after walking five feet over to object and stepping on mid-boss in front of said object, protagonist is rewarded with infinite power and searches out rival to display power upon."
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Aug 30, 2016 00:33
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Another translator emailed me, saying that he likes my Bookworm translations but doesn't like how slowly I release them, and wants to start translating it themselves, starting about 50 chapters ahead of where I am. I think this is a pretty terrible idea from a reader's standpoint (especially because it'll take me a year to catch up!), so I want to discourage them from doing this. I'd like to provide them with other options, though, since there's always more series that could use a translator. What are some other really good web novels that you guys would like to see translated?
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Aug 30, 2016 00:36
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