<Al the Adventurer: That Magic Shouldn’t Work!> - Volume 2 by Lemon - ★★★★☆, 231 MynePages™ - Another great volume. The pacing is something that is especially outstanding in this series and worth talking about. Every moment of tension is followed by something relaxing that leads into build-up for the next tense moment. And each transition flows effortlessly into the next. And each volume ends on a perfect spot where it feels complete on one side, but you need to know what happens next on the other without feeling like a cheap cliffhanger. I don’t want to glaze some author after just two volumes, but I think this is one worth looking out for.

<The Amazing Village Creator: Slow Living with the Village Building Cheat Skill> - Volume 5 by Shichio Kuzu - ★★☆☆☆, 107 MynePages™ - Another meh volume.

<A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring> - Volume 1 by Shizuru Minazuki - ★★☆☆☆, 140 MynePages™ - Everything is very convenient. For example, fighting is strictly prohibited in the adventurers guild, but when there needs to play out the typical hoodlum-picks-a-fight-with-the-newbie scene needs to play out, the staff is suddenly forbidden to step in so that the MCs can act on it themself in the most cliché way possible. Another example: campfire cooking is a staple of the genre, and so it has to be included here as well, obviously. The problem is that MC got the soup he was warming up over the campfire directly from the inn, and his storage freezes time (because obviously it does). Which means somehow his time-freezing storage lets just those bowls of soup cool down so that the campfire cooking in the dungeon requirement could be fulfilled. As I said, it’s awfully convenient when it needs to be, with no internal coherence to its own rules. There is also not a single unique idea in this volume. It’s like it was written by committee: “Hello, author. Here is a list of scenes that scored highly with our focus group test. We need you to fill in the space between them with some of those tropes from this second list of genre mainstays here. Hop on it; no need to think too deeply about it”.

Just finished Paper Towns by John Green with very mixed feelings

I have been mildly irritated at the whole book right up to the last 30 pages where it kind if got better. I can’t really put a finger on what has annoyed me, but it just feels wrong and somewhat artificial