かがみの孤城 (Kagami no Kojou) Book Club

Japanese Language Book Clubs
1

かがみの孤城 Home Thread

Hello! This is the home thread for かがみの孤城 book club. This is not a part of the Intermediate Book Club, but the level is similar.
This book is too long for the Intermediate Book Club and was actually republished as a two book bunko version. I own the bunko version and it will be the recommended version for this book club. I couldn’t find any differences from the original book though, so if you want that one, there should be no problem.

kagami_bunko
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Summary

学校での居場所をなくし、閉じこもっていた“こころ”の目の前で、ある日突然部屋の鏡が光り始めた。 輝く鏡をくぐり抜けた先にあったのは、城のような不思議な建物。 そこには“こころ”を含め、似た境遇の7人が集められていた。 なぜこの7人が、なぜこの場所に―― すべてが明らかになるとき、驚きとともに大きな感動に包まれる。 生きづらさを感じているすべての人に贈る物語。

The book won Japan Booksellers’ Award (本屋大賞) and a bunch of others.
I also heard good things about this book from our fellow Wanikanians.

Book 1 Schedule

| Week # | Start Date | Start Page (bunko) | Chapter | Page Count (bunko) |
|-|-|-|-|-|-|
| Week 1 | November 6th 2021 | 14 | 五月 | 24 |
| Week 2 | November 13th | 38 | | 29 |
| Week 3 | November 20th | 67 | | 17 |
| Week 4 | November 27th | 84 | 六月 | 34 |
| Week 5 | December 4th | 118 | | 24 |
| Week 6 | December 11th | 142 | 七月 | 20 |
|| (break) ||||
| Week 7 | January 1st 2022 | 162 | | 26 |
| Week 8 | January 8th | 188 | 八月 | 27 |
| Week 9 | January 15th | 215 | | 23 |
| Week 10 | January 22nd | 238 | | 24 |
| Week 11 | January 29th | 262 | 九月 | 19 |
| Week 12 | February 5th | 281 | | 18 |
| Week 13 | February 12th | 299 | 十月 | 31 |
| Week 14 | February 19th | 330 | 十一月 | 28 |
| Week 15 | February 26th | 358 | 十二月 | 26 |
| Week 16 | March 5th | 384 | | 27 |

Book 1 percentages (Digital)
Week # Start Percentage Chapter/Start Phrase
Week 1 3 五月
Week 2 9 こころの部屋には、大きな姿見があった。
Week 3 16 「あの、その、ペナルティーの内容についてだけど」
Week 4 20 六月
Week 5 28 その翌日も、こころはまた城に行った。
Week 6 34 七月
(break)
Week 7 39 「ね、女子だけでお茶しない？」
Week 8 45 八月
Week 9 52 翌週になると、アキもなかなか城に来なくなった。
Week 10 57 お母さんとケンカをした翌日は、
Week 11 63 九月
Week 12 67 みんな毎日来るわけじゃないし、
Week 13 72 十月
Week 14 79 十一月
Week 15 86 十二月
Week 16 92 平日の昼間だったら、中学の子たちには、
Book 1 pages in Tankobon (Physical)

| Week # | Start Page | Chapter | Page Count |
|-|-|-|-|-|
| Week 1 | 10 | 五月 | 17 |
| Week 2 | 27 | | 21 |
| Week 3 | 48 | | 13 |
| Week 4 | 61 | 六月 | 24 |
| Week 5 | 85 | | 17 |
| Week 6 | 102 | 七月 | 14 |
|| (break) |||
| Week 7 | 116 | | 19 |
| Week 8 | 135 | 八月 | 20 |
| Week 9 | 155 | | 16 |
| Week 10 | 171 | | 17 |
| Week 11 | 188 | 九月 | 13 |
| Week 12 | 201 | | 13 |
| Week 13 | 214 | 十月 | 23 |
| Week 14 | 237 | 十一月 | 21 |
| Week 15 | 258 | 十二月 | 18 |
| Week 16 | 276 | | 20 |

The schedule may look a bit fast, but it is quite an easy to read book and it contains a lot of direct speech. I tried reading it for a total of 3 hours and I was able to read 7 pages every half an hour. So, in 3 hours I basically finished 2 weeks of reading. But, of course, feel free to propose your own schedule if you think you have a better one!

Book 2 Schedule

Week Start date End page (bunko) End page (tanko) End phrase Page count (bunko) Remarks
Week 17 March 19th 34 (:fleur_de_lis:) 315 一瞬で真っ暗くなり、気絶した。 24 First half 一月 chapter
Week 18 March 26th 67 (月) 339 そのまた次の日も。ずっと。 34 Long, but finishes the 一月 chapter
Week 19 April 2nd 98 (:fleur_de_lis:) 361 狼面の少女が現れる。 31 First half 二月 chapter
Week 20 April 9th 123 (月) 379 お別れの月が、始まる。 25 Second half 二月 chapter
Week 21 April 16th 150 (:fleur_de_lis:) 398 幸せになって、と祈る。 26 Start of 三月 chapter
Week 22 April 23rd 181 (:fleur_de_lis:) 421 …証のように表面で蠢いていた。 32 Longish, but a few pages with less text
Week 23 April 30th 211 (*) 443 Ｘ印に触れる。 29
Week 24 May 7th 241 (*) 465 心から、そう、望む。 30
Week 25 May 14th 270 (*) 486 そのことがとても嬉しかった。 29
Week 26 May 21st 296 (月) 505 “オオカミさま”が現れた。 28 Finishes 三月 chapter
Week 27 May 28th 327 (:fleur_de_lis:) 527 本当に嬉しかった。 30 First half of 閉城 chapter
Week 28 June 4th 365 (:clap:) 554 包み込んでいた。 37 Second half of 閉城 chapter + エピローグ

Legend:
(月) = ends at a chapter transition
(:fleur_de_lis:) = ends at a fleur-de-lis
(*) = ends at a blank line in the text
(:clap:) = おめでとうございます、you finished the book!

Character list

Characters
Name Reading Age/Grade Further Info
真田 美織 さなだ みおり 中一 意地悪の子たちのリーダーみたいな女子生徒、こころのクラスメイト Week 1
三河 みかわ ミカワ青果の店長？
安西 あんざい こころの苗字
雪科第五中学校 ゆきしな… こころの学校
喜多嶋 きたじま 心の教室の先生
伊田 いだ こころのクラスの担任先生
沙月 さつき 中一 こころの小学校の頃の同級生
墨田 すみだ 中一 （たぶん小学校のころ）仲良しだった同級生、今はクラスが違う
東条 萌 とうじょう もえ 中一 こころのクラスにちょっと遅れてきた転入生
アキ 中三 ポニーテールしっかり者の女の子 Week 2/3
リオン 理音 中一 ジャージ姿のイケメンの男の子
フウカ 中二 眼鏡をかけた、声優声の女の子
マサムネ 中二 ゲーム機をいじる、生意気そうな男の子
スバル 中三 ロンみたいなそばかすの、物静かな男の子
ウレシノ・ハルカ 嬉野（苗字） 中一 小太りで子弱そうな、階段に隠れた男の子
池田・仲太 いけだちゅうた 中一 こころの六年生のときのクラスメートで友達。こころのことが好きだったらしいけど、真田美織と付き合うことになった Week6

Thanks @Belerith

Read Aloud

We’ll be reading every week on Sundays. The next reading session in your local time zone is 2022-03-27T13:00:00Z.

Note that your read aloud time may change partway through the book due to daylight savings! In each session we will read the previous week’s section, discuss the contents, and ask questions as needed.

Sample

Check out the first several pages here to gauge the difficulty:
https://viewer-trial.bookwalker.jp/03/9/viewer.html?cid=b93dd489-b5cb-42c3-90f0-39cc8f62fa5a&cty=0

Where to Purchase

Book one

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4591169715
Bookwalker: かがみの孤城　上 - 文芸・小説 辻村深月/禅之助（ポプラ文庫）：電子書籍試し読み無料 - BOOK☆WALKER -

Book two

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4591169723/
Bookwalker: https://bookwalker.jp/de6828b5f3-1716-420b-88ce-b2d78e804c4f/

Tankobon version (only buy if you want this version specifically)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4591153320
Bookwalker: https://bookwalker.jp/debfc44ea6-1865-41d4-9e00-1e6e7a9c17b0/

Polls

Are you interested in reading かがみの孤城, assuming we start sometime between September 25th and November 6th?
  • Yes
  • No
  • Not sure
0 voters
When would you like to start reading the book?
  • September 25th
  • October 2nd
  • October 9th
  • October 16th
  • October 23rd
  • October 30th
  • November 6th
  • Later (please specify)
0 voters
Would you be interested in doing a read-aloud session each week, where we take turns reading the previous week’s section, discuss the story, and ask each other questions?
  • Yes
  • No
  • Not sure
0 voters
Are you okay with the proposed schedule?
  • Yes
  • No
  • Not sure
0 voters
What version are you going to read?
  • Bunkobon (two books)
  • Tankobon (one book)
0 voters

Satisfaction and difficulty polls

Click here for the satisfaction and difficulty polls that were held at the end of the club.

10 Likes
2

I think of this book club as an ideological successor to 獣の奏者 book club, so I’ll mention members of that club who might be interested.
@Belerith @Kyasurin @NicoleIsEnough @seanblue

4 Likes
3

I keep trying to cut down on the number of book clubs I’m reading along with but this seems like a fun read…it’s a maybe for now but I’m definitely interested :smiley:

4 Likes
4

I’m interested in reading this book since a lot of people seem to recommend it!

I think it’s about time we met for some quality reading time again, too. :smiley:

I don’t really care too much about the exact starting date, but sometime in October sounds good to me.

The schedule also looks fine, with the exception of that one 29 page week. But that’s really only an issue for a potential read aloud, not for the reading itself.

5 Likes
5

There is also week 11 with 32 pages :wink: But from what I’ve seen, it’s going to be a much easier read than 獣の奏者 or 狐笛のかなた and we have had 25 page weeks there.

6

I’m okay with the schedule, except:

I’d recommend splitting that roughly in half if possible. You already have a 15 page week and a 17 page week, so having two 16-ish page weeks here seems reasonable to me. I’m mostly saying this for the sake of the read aloud, and also because the following week is another 27 pages. Doing 32 then 27 sounds rough.

Otherwise, this all looks good to me.

3 Likes
7

Ok, there was a convenient break in the middle, so now it’s 16 and 16 instead of 32.

2 Likes
8

Amazon says the first book is 411 pages, but that doesn’t match up with the schedule. Is Amazon wrong?

9

As far as I am concerned, yes.
Seriously though, I am using BookWalker page count. It should be pretty easy to find breaks, but if needed, we can add a column to the schedule with page count for physical book, and for tankobon version too.

10

BookWalker does not list the page count of the physical book but instead a “normalized page count”.

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So for the physical book, Amazon is usually right and BookWalker is wrong :woman_shrugging:

4 Likes
11

Sure, but I actually think BookWalker pages are more consistent in amount of text per page than physical books, which are all over the place.

2 Likes
12

@NickNickovich At some point you might want to advertise this club in the intermediate book club, advanced book club, and tadoku threads in case anyone missed it.

3 Likes
13

I am definitely intrigued. I hope I have enough bookclub bandwidth available come the start date. A November start definitely improves my odds. I like live readings but I have a tough time with set weekly commitments so I’d be a maybe on those.

5 Likes
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I’m curious why you think that but I can’t say I’m not intrigued by that comment.

15

I’m not sure I used the correct word there :sweat_smile:, but I created this book club with intention to continue the line of intermediate level book clubs with read-aloud sessions that are not a part of Intermediate Book Club (獣の奏者 and 狐笛のかなた).

6 Likes
16

If you wanted to buy the book on BookWalker and haven’t yet, now is the good time to do it. 45% coin back until 2021-09-07T00:59:00Z

6 Likes
17

Thanks for the heads up! Bought the books, which dramatically increases the likelihood that I’ll actually participate in the book club :wink:

7 Likes
18

I bought the bunkos for this from Kinokuniya a while back not having heard anything about it, just on the strength of the cover looking interesting. I wasn’t planning on reading it any particular time soon, but this might be a good excuse to pull one more thing out of a “to read” pile…

7 Likes
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It definitely helps my chances that the cover looks great and I want it on my bookshelf.

9 Likes
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I want to try and join, so I just ordered the books (the English version too as a backup and because my wife might want to read it too). I hope a beginner like me can keep up, but I checked the example pages and it seems doable. I’m really looking forward to this! (This will be my first actual novel in Japanese.)

11 Likes