かがみの孤城 (Kagami no Kojou) Book Club

Worst case is that it’s too much for me at the moment and I come back to it later, but I guess I’ll see
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We should add a glossary of character names to the first post. It seems like names get furigana once and you’re just expected to remember it after that.

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The second time Kokoro’s old school’s name was mentioned, I stared at it for a few seconds, considered looking back on its first mention, and decided to just keep going.

But for cast, I've definitely been keeping track for my own use.

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Ok, noted. I’ll do it when I’m back home, at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, everyone is welcome to help me with the character names, if they feel like it.

Also, everyone who has thoughts on the best format for the schedule in the weekly threads feel free to share them.

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best format for the schedule in the weekly threads

The tables that @Phryne puts at the start of weekly threads are pretty useful. Here’s an example.

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Since I just started reading today I took notes. :+1:

真田さん・さなだ・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
三河・みかわ・ミカワ青果の店長?
安西・あんざい・こころとお母さんの名字
雪科・ゆきしな・第五中学校・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
沙月ちゃん・さつき・こころの小学校の頃の同級生
墨田さん・すみだ・(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
東条さん・とうじょう・萌ちゃん・もえ・こころのクラスにちょっと遅れてきた転入生

I think that’s all for this week’s part.

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Week 2 is here, barely made it in time.

I added list of character names to the OP and added schedule to the week 2 thread.
If there are any other suggestions, please write them here or mention me. If the level of discussion stays anywhere near week 1, I won’t be able to read each and every post thoroughly.

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Read aloud starts in 15 minutes! :grin:

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I have a friend who teaches elementary school and has a Japanese student who is an avid reader. Does anybody know whether this book would be appropriate to recommend to a 10 year old (she’s in 5th grade starting middle school next year, so similar age to our protagonist)?

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I tried to find a detailed age recommendation but couldn’t find anything. But one reader said they had read it in elementary school and liked it. Another one remarked that the book was pretty thick, plus the fantasy theme made it hard for them to start reading. So maybe check back whether the girl in question likes fantasy and has experience reading longer books? Other than that, so far I don’t see anything that would make it unsuitable for a 10-year-old.

Also, I can definitely recommend Koteki no kanata for a girl around that age - if she likes fantasy. Zenitendo should also be a good match. And once she is a bit older, Kemono no souja should also be a good recommendation. (The world building might need a bit of stamina, that’s why I think that maybe age 12 might be more suitable? But not sure, it’s quite a while since I was 10 :joy_cat: and it depends a lot on the person.)

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Thank you for the recommendations! I figured being unable to find anything about objectionable content was a good sign but I didn’t want to dig too deep into spoiler content. I’ll check out those other picks as well. The girl in question tends to be very quiet in class so I figure some good book recommendations might be a good way for my teacher friend to connect with her. Also I just love being able to recommend good books.

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This week will be the end of the first chapter.
It is a shorter week, so people who are a bit behind or started later can catch up.
I hope you all find the pace reasonable, especially less experienced members. I feel that it really becomes easier once we are done with all the explanations and setting up the scene for the story.
Next week after this one is going to be the longest in the whole book, so if you are not sure you can keep up with that, it may be a good idea to read a couple of pages ahead this week.

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I know many of you are already on-board, but for those who might be on the fence and think they can handle two intermediate books at once, I’ll make a last push for the 地球星人 club starting next week in the IBC. So far this is such a great group discussion-wise that I can’t not ask for some recruits to contribute over there as well.

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good to know, i’m still only around 2/3 through week 2, uni coursework a bit rough this week, hope i can still catch up.

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I was wondering: how is everybody doing pace-wise?

I’ve noticed the comment count in the thread has been lower, especially compared to the first week :smiley:

And also: how do various people approach reading?

My current approach

I’m in the phase (I’ve got a feeling there are phases) where I’m doing two read-throughs: one with as few dictionary/grammar lookups as possible (as long as I get the gist of the story) and a second read-through where I try to understand all the words and grammar-points. With my first read-throughs I’m managing to keep up with the schedule but my second read-through is quite a bit behind schedule now (about three weeks behind now).

I don’t mind because reading ahead helps to make the detailed read-through easier with all the vocabulary and story-knowledge that I pick up along the way.

I’m also cheating a little bit because I have the English edition, so each week I read the English version of the previous week so that I am at least up to speed with the story.

And I also try to read along to the audiobook version once a week.

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Would your schedule allow you to join the read aloud sessions? I find the read alouds as a perfect way to do a second read through and allow for asking questions.

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I’m still going heavy on my coursework (and will be until the end of this week, so I’ll likely have a bit of catching up to do) so I haven’t read much at all recently

As for my reading approach: I just take as many lookups as I need - ideally checking a Japanese definition first to see if I can get it. If yes, then that’s great, if no then I’ll see if I might get the Japanese definition if I looked up a word or two in it. If that’s not possible then I’ll move to an English defintion. After looking it up I may or may not add the word to my anki depending on if it seems useful, if it’s marked as a common word, or if I remember seeing it pop up a few times. For understanding grammar I try my best to understand a sentence, if I’m not sure I mark it using the kindle program’s highlight feature to take another look at later and maybe ask about in the discussion threads later

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Thanks for the invitation/reminder! I’ll see if I can join sometime, but weekends are usually filled with family activities (particularly at this time of year).

I’m reading the physical version and liberally sprinkling the margins with notes and marks (including plenty of question marks) :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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