I wish I could read all those doujinshi I have piled up, but I have zero interest in learning Japanese. I really wish they were in a language that I have interest in learning.
That said... there are plenty of things to appreciate other than the text. They're comics, so there is the art, for one thing. Some of them are absolutely gorgeous!
And the way the doujin itself is put together is something that I can appreciate too... this part is a little bit more difficult to describe but doujinshi aside, basically I love collecting books that are especially pretty and/or have a lot of thought put into cover/presentation/how they're put together, how they look, etc. And that comes through with doujinshi too. Sure, a lot of them are designed in a relatively unremarkable way, but with others it's really clear that someone went the extra mile with considering not only what the art looks like, but how the overall thing is presented as an art book, and that's really cool.
Also, with a lot of them - or at least, a lot of my favourites - it's pretty easy to follow the plot, especially if it's a historical setting.
... I also own a couple of books that aren't in English but also aren't comics; one in French (which I really struggle to read) and one in Old English (which I can't read at all). And a Japanese volume of Hetalia too. But this is because I enjoyed the English translations and wanted to have a copy of the original version too, for sentiment's sake.
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That said... there are plenty of things to appreciate other than the text. They're comics, so there is the art, for one thing. Some of them are absolutely gorgeous!
And the way the doujin itself is put together is something that I can appreciate too... this part is a little bit more difficult to describe but doujinshi aside, basically I love collecting books that are especially pretty and/or have a lot of thought put into cover/presentation/how they're put together, how they look, etc. And that comes through with doujinshi too. Sure, a lot of them are designed in a relatively unremarkable way, but with others it's really clear that someone went the extra mile with considering not only what the art looks like, but how the overall thing is presented as an art book, and that's really cool.
Also, with a lot of them - or at least, a lot of my favourites - it's pretty easy to follow the plot, especially if it's a historical setting.
... I also own a couple of books that aren't in English but also aren't comics; one in French (which I really struggle to read) and one in Old English (which I can't read at all). And a Japanese volume of Hetalia too. But this is because I enjoyed the English translations and wanted to have a copy of the original version too, for sentiment's sake.