Shalee lhaih 2015: coontey s'jerree

Go here for English version. Note, this is rewritten from scratch, not a direct translation.

Jerrey 2015

Jerrey nah shiaghtin jeig as daeed dy lieh ny Shalee Lhaih. As jerrey ny Shalee Lhaih mygeddin. Owatta!

Hoshiaght: cha daink lhiam ee. V'eh foym giarrey ny lioaryn ry-lhaih aym dys 50 er y chooid smoo. Va 159 aym hoshiaght, er lhiam; mysh 159 aghterbee.

Ta 65 aym nish. Myr shen, cha rosh mee y dean. Caillt!

Fark orrym! Dy jarroo, ta foddey ny smoo aym. 'Sy vlein agglagh shoh, chionnee mee ymmodee lioaryn son blass taitnyssagh as beggan aash (verrym "follit" orroo). As hooar mee lioaryn elley nagh row er y rolley hoshiaght. Trooid as trooid, va 150 lioaryn elley aym rish jerrey ny bleeaney; shen 309 lioaryn.

Lhaih mee 82 lioaryn ass y carnane lioaryn aym. Agh ny smoo, lhaih mee 85 lioaryn elley. Cha nel mee er screeu baghtyn orroo, er y fa nagh row ad 'sy çhalee. Agh, ga nagh vel mee er gooilleeney y shalee, s'taittin lhiam gra dy vel mee er lhaih 167 lioaryn ayns 2015.

Shoh beggan staddyssaght:

• 105 manga (77 follit)
• 28 "bea cadjin" (11 follit)
• 9 teihyssyn skeealaght (0 follit)
• 14 far-skeealaght sheanse (2 follit)
• 63 aitt (54 follit)
• 48 skeealyn ayns scoillyn (36 follit)
• 61 chooish ghraih (50 follit)
• 29 'syn Çhapaanish
• 1 'sy Vretnish
• 0 'sy Ghaelg (atreih!)
• 30,000 duillag (er y chooid sloo - cha row coontaghyn duillag ry-gheddyn ec dagh ooilley lioar)

As shoh ny baghtyn:

• Hug mee 5* da 15 lioaryn (10 follit)
• Hug mee 4.5* da 11 lioaryn (3 follit)
• Hug mee 4* da 72 lioaryn (42 follit)
• Hug mee 3.5* da 29 lioaryn (6 follit)
• Hug mee 3* da 26 lioaryn (21 follit)
• Hug mee 2.5* da 6 lioaryn (3 follit)
• Hug mee 2* da 4 lioaryn (0 follit)
• Hug mee 1.5* da 1 lioar (0 follit)
• Hug mee 1* da 1 lioar (0 follit)
• Hug mee 0.5* da 1 lioar (0 follit)
• Cha dug mee baght erbee da 13 lioaryn nagh lhaih mee

Lioaryn share lhiam 'sy vlein shoh chaie:

• Barakamon, straih manga liorish Yoshino Satsuki, chammah's y fo-straih Handa-kun. She skeealyn bea cadjin t'ayn, bentyn rish ellyneyr penneyrys ta garraghey dys ellyn beg çheerey; ta Handa-kun soilshaghey magh ny laaghyn scoill echey. T'ad nyn jees lane dy aitt, lane dy vioys as kenjal taitnyssagh.
• Straih Imperium liorish Jody Lynn Nye. Ta aght schlei ec y ven shen, as ghow mee ram soylley jeh. T'ee screeu ard-charracteyr doillee lane vie, as ta skeeal cramp goll er anchoodaghey dy aashagh.

Lioaryn smessey 'sy vlein shoh chaie:

• Fall, liorish Lady Beela. Ta Baarle lane vrisht ec y lioar shoh, as cha nel y (skeeal? çhaghter? eie?) aynjee baghtal chamoo fondagh.
• The Night Land liorish William Hope Hodgson. Cha dod mee lhaih y lioar shen er chor erbee; she glare ymmodee-chramp t'ayn, trome çhiu, as hooar ee barriaght orryms.
• 聲の形 liorish 大今良時. Ghow mee toshiaght er y chied ym-lioar. She ard-charracteyr groamagh t'ayn, gyn grayse erbee, as hooar magh mee dy nee skeeal groamagh t'ayn myrgeddin. Rere baghtyn elley, ta'n straih mychione surransee shirrey caarjys jeh tranlaasee oc. Boghtynid.

Lioaryn scanshoil elley:

• The Wirral Home Guard, liorish Alfred Jaeger. Coontey jeh bea 'syn Arrey Thie screeuit ayns 1945. V'eh ennaghtagh dy liooar, aghterbee.
• Aria/Aqua liorish 天野 こずえ. She skeeal far-skeealaght sheanse kiune t'ayn, cooie son beggan aash.
• The Hill of Dreams liorish Arthur Machen. Dy verragh peiagh erbee coontey jeh'n lioar shoh dou, cha veign jerkal rish goaill soylley jeh. She skeeal quaagh t'ayn, agh ta niart as blass bea aynsyn gyn scansh da'n cleayn lettyragh.

Fockle s'jerree

Cha bee'm geiyrt er y çhalee shoh ayns 2016. Cha daink lhiam ee, hoshiaght, myr shen cha nel bree aym. Cha nel mee son aayannoo shalee chaillt fo vlass failleilys. Foast, by vie lhiam cur bree erbee t'aym cour shalee ennagh elley. Chammah's shen, ghow mee toshiaght, ayns ayrn, er y fa nagh row monney reamys aym; va'n çhalee shoh my lhiettal veih kionnaghey ymmodee lioaryn elley as broojey ny skelllooyn aym. Agh ta mee er narraghey dys lioaryn-l mysh 100% nish, as myr shen cha nel y brod cheddin ayn. T'adsyn soie gyn boirey er y cho-earrooder aym.

S'treisht lhiam dy bee 2016 ny smoo kenjal na 2015. Aigh vie.

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English version

End of Reading Project 2015

Week fifty-two-and-a-half has come to an end, and with it, Reading Project 2015. Finally!

So baldly, I didn't manage it. I aimed to cut my unread pile down to no more than 50 books. I began with 159 (or thereabouts, as I slightly lost track!).

I have 65 in the pile now. Which is to say, I failed.

Hang on, though. It's much worse than that... due to a horrendous year, I ended up buying a ton of extra light reading (both parsings are accurate). These are marked as "extras" below. And I kept finding yet more books lying around, and was given a few. Altogether, 150 additional books made their way into my hands, for a total of 309 books.

I read 82 books from the pile, but I actually read another 85 newly-acquired books. I didn't review these, as they weren't part of the project. Although I didn't make my goal, I'm pleased that I read 167 books in 2015.

A few statistics for the record:

• 105 manga (77 extras)
• 28 "slice-of-life" stories (11 extras)
• 9 anthologies (0 extras)
• 14 sci-fi stories (2 extras)
• 63 tagged "comedy" (54 extras)
• 48 set in schools (36 extras)
• 61 romances (50 extras)
• 29 in Japanese
• 1 in Welsh
• 0 in Manx, sadly
• 30,000 pages (minimum - quite a few don't have pagecounts in my library software so I can't include them)

And my verdicts:

• I gave 5* to 15 books (10 extras)
• I gave 4.5* to 11 books (3 extras)
• I gave 4* to 72 books (42 extras)
• I gave 3.5* to 29 books (6 extras)
• I gave 3* to 26 books (21 extras)
• I gave 2.5* to 6 books (3 extras)
• I gave 2* to 4 books (0 extras)
• I gave 1.5* to 1 book (0 extras)
• I gave 1* to 1 book (0 extras)
• I gave 0.5* to 1 book (0 extras)
• I left 13 books unrated because I got rid of them without reading.

My favourite books of the year:

• Barakamon, a manga series by Yoshino Satsuki about a calligrapher who moves to a small island. It's full of life and quiet fun. Its spin-off, Handa-kun, is equally fun presenting his time at school.
• The Imperium series by Jody Lynn Nye. I'm coming to love her writing; the characters here really worked for me, and I found this take on the "spacefaring empire" trope very compelling.

My least favourites!:

• Fall, by Lady Beela. This graphic book (hardly a graphic novel) has a vague and ill-articulated premise that's probably something to do with love or whatever, I'm not really sure? It's apparently trying to be meaningful and symbolic, only I couldn't tell what was going on because the English is flat out appalling. I'm pretty tolerant of the odd linguistic slip, but I too have my standards. This book genuinely should not have been published.
• The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. Apparently a sci-fi horror story of some kind, but I couldn't get past the contorted prose and weird viewpoints of the first chapter; coupled with a setting that I can't place anywhere on the historical-mythical-fantastical spectrum because of said writing, I was baffled and headachey and gave up.
• 聲の形 by 大今良時. I prefer my characters to have at least one redeeming feature, and my stories not to consist solely of people doing bad things to each other. Synopses of the series sound like the whole thing is about people seeking reconciliation with people who were horrible to them, because... reasons? I don't care.

Other significant books:

• The Wirral Home Guard, by Alfred Jaeger. A surprisingly moving account of life in the Home Guard, written just at the end of the war.
• Aria/Aqua by 天野 こずえ. This quiet, low-key sci-fi story is very soothing for me.
• The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen. I wouldn't expect to like this book if anyone described it to me, and it's definitely weird, but there's something powerful and true-to-life about it despite the literary tendences.

Final thoughts

I'm not going to repeat this next year. For starters, I didn't succeed this year, and that would make it feel less a new project than a second attempt under the taint of failure. Also, I'd like to spend a bit more of my energy (if I'm allowed any in 2016) on other projects. Finally, part of the motivation for RP2015 was simple physical space issues with my books. I've been moving comprehensively onto e-books, and although I've acquired a huge number of extras, almost all of them sit quite happily on my hard drive. The push to read stuff and clear space - and perhaps more importantly, to discourage me from just buying up more paper books - has dropped off considerably. It's just not as necessary now.

I hope this year will be kinder than the last.