00:11
I know that we've talked probably plenty for an episode but I just want to throw in one more
question about books in general, I guess. Do you read one book at a time or do you...
No, several in parallel.
同時進行?同時進行。 Same! I can't focus. I wish I could but I just switch,
you know, back and forth. I read several in parallel.
There are books that I get completely engrossed and like just read in like two or three sittings,
just like blow through it. But most of the time I'm reading like 隙間の時間に bit by bit,
like I'm not sitting there and reading for hours on end. I'm just reading a little bit
before I go to bed, a little bit in my commute.
And I follow my mood. Like sometimes I feel like reading this book but not the other ones.
So I just follow my mood. Yeah, I find that two to three is a perfect amount of parallel.
I think more than that, I kind of lose track. It takes too long to come back to the book that you
were reading. So I kind of lose track of what I was thinking or where I was. But yeah, especially
with novels, I find that really easy to do. If it's a little bit more 専門賞 type, I think I do
tend to do it with like one 専門賞 and another fiction or something rather than two 専門賞 in
parallel. I cannot do that. I don't have brain bandwidth for that. But yeah, I find it interesting
because I know many book lovers who swear by parallel reading like we do. But I also know
people who are like, how do you even do that? I'm not a fast reader though.
Just because I'm doing parallel, I'm fast with fictions and stuff. But yeah, it really depends.
And English, I'm still not that fast. I take maybe twice as much speed to read the same book
in English as opposed to Japanese. You too? Yeah, it still takes...
That would never happen in English.
03:00
Yeah, I'm still slower. Yeah, it's funny because I don't usually have problems with English anymore,
but the reading speed is... It's not like I'm trying to be fast, but it takes time.
But sometimes it's so funny because especially in fictions, like when you read books,
and sometimes it just reaches your mind directly in English. And some expressions
which do not exist in Japanese, so it's hard to explain. But I think it comes from the experiences
in our youth, like when we were kids. Because part of our lives, we lived abroad, right?
And in English environment, so in part of our brains, we can understand the concepts
in English directly. We don't really need to depend on Japanese, right?
Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, so I feel like... So are you saying that when you're reading
Japanese books, English words pop up? Yeah, yeah. It's just that how I feel
by reading English books and Japanese books could be very different. And sometimes English books
can reach me more deeply, like deeper. And it makes me more emotional. I think I know what you mean.
Huh, interesting. I find non-fiction sentences, non-fiction books,
I find it slightly easier to read in English than in Japanese.
Non-fiction. Non-fiction. And fiction stories, I tend to enjoy Japanese more. I mean, yeah,
I tend to... I like reading non-fictions in English more than in Japanese because I feel like
it takes too long to get to the point when they're writing in Japanese. And I find myself
trying to predict what they're going, like what points they're trying to make.
Oh, because of the language. I mean, how Japanese sentences are constructed.
Yeah, how they tend to construct their sentences. And my mind is not with the sentence. I'm like
06:02
reading, but thinking about, okay, where is this going to land?
Right. It's not direct.
Maybe it's just like not necessarily direct versus indirect expression, but more to do with like
sentence structures. Because if I'm reading non-fiction books in English, I have certain
expectations on how the sentences are constructed. And that's usually, you know, there's some sort
of topic sentences at the beginning, and then they go through the examples or something. And then
they synthesize their opinion, maybe counter argument back and forth several times before
they land to the conclusion. But I already know usually where it's heading at the beginning of
that chapter. Whereas if I'm reading Japanese non-fiction books in Japanese, I sometimes
get like, not necessarily frustration, it's not a negative experience per se, but
I start reading that chapter. And usually they're taking like a paragraph to set up.
They're like, yeah, the story, the points, anecdotes.
It goes to the end, to the conclusion. So what you mean is that Japanese books and the
writers are also Japanese, right? So the Japanese, yeah. For English books, you mean the writers are
like American or... They're following the sort of Western sentence structures. Yeah.
So I find it very interesting. Maybe I should read more non-fictions in Japanese to see
if that's the case. And I should try reading fiction stories in English a bit more. Because
yeah, when I go through bookstores, I tend to pick up non-fictions in English unless I'm
specifically going for something that was recommended or something like that. There
are a couple of sci-fi novels that I want to get my hands on in English. But yeah, it's really
interesting how I read in very different modes depending on Japanese or English.
But I think I generally still enjoy reading more in Japanese. It's a more pleasurable experience
for me. Maybe it's because you can switch your modes. Because your work is based on English,
09:04
right? Like an English world. But for Japanese, it's just for fun, just to read books.
Maybe that's why. It's enjoyable. Maybe my English
sensibilities have not developed enough to really appreciate
writing styles of different authors in English. Whereas I think I'm a bit more sensitive to that
in Japanese. Whether it's a word choice or just like a general sentence constructions
or if it's plot-driven or whatnot. I'm more tuned into different aesthetic or artistic choices of
the author in Japanese than in English. I don't really understand writing styles in English,
I guess still. So when I get introduced to books like, oh, this author writes so beautifully. I'm
like, I didn't really get that. But I'm slowly getting there though. I see why,
for instance, Oscar Wilde is considered a really good writer.
Slowly, I'm like, oh, wow, his sentences have good rhythm to it. It's like so many good one-liners
and stuff like that. But that's a very rare example. Most of the time, I'm not really
looking for writing styles other than just general clarity. Is this clear? Do I follow
this person? Other than that, I'm not paying attention much to the writing styles of
English or English-translated writing.
Sometimes I encounter like a writer who is more sensitive to Japanese.
So, I do have a favorite writer, but it was it's about
trees. He writes, he studies and writes books about trees. I really liked his styles
of writing and expressions. I may want to go back to his books. But then,
12:10
if you find favorite writers, then what I thought was that
maybe that's why my writing is so dry. Because I read mostly scientific articles,
my English writing is so dry. It doesn't have to be dry, right?
It doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be because some people write more
in a narrative way, right? Yeah, but you read physical chemistry paper,
try reading it a couple of times. It's dry as fuck. And that's all I've been reading for the
past God knows how long. So, I have seen neuroscience papers or like what other sort
of like there was like, yeah, I guess neuroscience is like some of the papers I've personally read
just because I'm curious about it. And it's a lot more engaging. Occasionally, physical
chemistry also have review articles that are a little bit more narrative oriented.
But most of the time, it's so, so dry. Yeah, you can introduce some components.
Maybe I'll try. Maybe I'll start a trend when I'm writing. I'll try to make it a little bit
emotional. You know what though? Oh my God. Okay, I should not start a new topic. But yeah,
I should. I have some funny stories about writing scientific stories.
That would be our next topic then. Yeah.
That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening and find us at Eigo De Science
on Twitter. That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E. See you next time.
