I know it’s super duper late but I can still put this up, right? I’m aware that I haven’t even posted wrap ups for April and Tome Topple but I’ll make it up to you with double wrap ups by the beginning of June. I hope. XD

Photo by Yours Truly.

I was super excited when Cindy from @readwithcindy announced that this readathon is a go. For the whole month of May. It was perfect because for the first ten days of May, I will be in Japan. Surely, I’ll be so inspired to read books by Asian authors there, right?

Weeeeell… I sort of can’t read for leisure when I’m on vacation. Time and time again, I’ve proven that. However, I had some “required reading” to do for the shows that I was going to watch while in Tokyo. They were by Asian authors, with Asian characters, translated from the original Japanese, and two are manga. Great.

And they were. All three books were amazing and reading them definitely enhanced my enjoyment of their stage adaptations. I’m glad that I was able to read them since my Japanese isn’t 100%. My listening skills are definitely better than my speaking and reading. Having the knowledge from the source material helped it along.

But I digress. I know we have ten days before the end of May but here we go.

This readathon is hosted by:

CINDY | SANDRA| CHLOE | KAV | ELLIAS

I runs the whole month of May in celebration of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM).

For the record, I am Asian. I’m Filipino. So with that, plus sending the first ten day of May in Japan, a certified lover of anime, manga, and Japanese fiction… this should be fun.

The challenges are very chill and since this readathon runs the whole month, there’s not much pressure. I think the hardest thing for me is to not fill this up with Japanese authors. I mainly read Japanese fiction in terms of Asian literature, not to mention my love for manga over graphic novels.

Challenges:

Read any book by an Asian author. (Any of these count but I’m picking The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco for this. A fellow Filipina!)
Read a graphic novel featuring an Asian character or written/drawn by an Asian author. (I read Haikyuu Volumes 22 and 23 by Haruichi Furudate for this. It was in preparation for Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu: Tokyo no Jin. It’s a 2.5D stage play. Look it up. You’ll thank me later.)
Read a book featuring an intersectional Asian character or written by an intersectional Asian identity (i.e. queer, mixed, disabled, neurodiverse, etc). (I read The Bride Test by Helen Hoang. Thank you, Hoopla for your no-wait system for audio books.)
Read a book by Asian author that was originally written in their native language (translated books and graphic novels count). (Kokoro by Natsume Soseki was my pick. I read it because I was going to watch a recitation drama by Japanese voice actors on my very first day in Japan. It was life-changing.)
Read the group book: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Ellen Oh, which will be covered in the live show on Saturday, May 25 at 6pm EST on readwithcindy’s channel. (I’m currently reading this. Unfortunately, short stories aren’t my thing and it actually takes me longer to read these than single story books.)

If you want, you can fill everything with manga. Or manhwa to have some variety. I’m interested in re-reading the rest of Haikyuu because I was just so inspired by the stage play that I want to relive the next arcs.

I know I keep mentioning Japanese work. It’s because I’m most familiar with them. Japanese thrillers are amazing. But I have read works by other Asian authors. I’m open to reading more, not just during this readathon. I love reading other people’s TBRs and recommendations.

So let’s make the most out of the rest of the month. I hope we all continue to read books by Asian authors and with Asian representation.