Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Proper Nouns
Name
Hiragana reading
Notes
first mentioned in
赤川次郎
あかがわじろう
the author
cover
岡本聡美
おかもとさとみ
main character, manga course participant
chapter 1
箱根
はこね
town in Kanagawa
chapter 1
戸沢
とざわ
secretary general from S Publishing
chapter 1
七ツ谷むらさき
ななつたにむらさき
the female manga teacher
chapter 1
菅野尚子
すがのなおこ
course participant
chapter 1
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
Will you be reading with us?
I’m reading along
I have finished this part
I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
I’m reading this book after the club has finished
I’m no longer reading the book
0voters
Votes are public.
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FYI:
Because names in this book have furigana only at their first appearance, I added a sheet ‘proper names’ to the vocabulary sheet. There you find the pronunciation of all the encountered names with a very short description of who or what it is.
I’ll never get used to Japanese names.
When you hear one you have dozens of possibilities to write it.
When you see one you have dozens of possibilities to pronounce it.
I had to read this chapter twice. The first time was after work, and I was really tired; I fell asleep half way though (no fault of the story).
My first impression is that this is surprisingly harder than I thought it would be given the somewhat lower natively level. I had to look up a lot of words. Maybe it’s just a matter of getting used to the vocab of a new author. However, I felt like there were more words I needed to look up than other books that are even a couple natively levels higher than this. Of course, natively levels are approximate and not perfect; I have found them a reasonable indicator in the past.
As for the story, it’s too early to say much. But, I’m interested and like the style so far.
Another thing not obvious to me when I first read a name, is to know which gender the person is
I’ve read the first chapter! Took me around 40 minutes I read the epub file in ttsu reader with Yomichan, I don’t think I would have made it very far without that. Even with it, I didn’t understand every sentence 100% but definitely got the gist of what’s going on, so I’m pretty happy!
Might do a re-read once I’ve gotten a bit more familiar with the new words via JPDB.
I had to put a long pause on my Japanese studies but am happy to be getting back into the swing of things. Only a couple of sentences in this chapter really threw me!
This may help: [回し者 (mawashi mono): Meaning and Usage - Takashi's Japanese Dictionary]. Without clicking on the link, the given dictionary meaning may be spy/secret agent but the word is also used to refer to a kind of stealth advertiser. I also got the impression that Satomi was speaking more generally when talking about travel costs, because it’s after listing all these things that you get from the class package. The whole sentence is something like: If you consider the cost to go by yourself, Satomi isn’t particularly trying to sell this class but couldn’t you call it a good deal?
But again, I’m rusty. Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
I had a lot of free time at the beginning of the week, but now that I’m busy the book just arrived! Just finished the chapter and liking the style of it so far, though like some of the above posters the ambiguity and vagueness is leaving me not 100% sure about things. I definitely understand whats happening though, which a great feeling, especially since I’m not doing many/any lookups while on paperback.
I’m enjoying the story so far. The beginning was the hardest for me (since it feels a bit like you’re just thrown into the story), but I like how it’s dynamic and full of dialogue. Even though there were a few words I didn’t know, it didn’t feel heavy or hard to follow, like previous books I’ve been reading. I look forward to continuing
Did a second reading and understood a lot more the first time around and the first chapter are always super hard because as @snowwater says you don’t know what you get thrown into. Now I knew so I could understand a lot better and even appreciate the writing!
Story comment
Well I kind of know the plot of the story due to the nomination post, but if I hadn’t, I like how the focus on あなたも漫画家になれる! compared to the title of the book, gives a solid hint as to what it’s going to be about!
Finished the reading earlier today! I like it so far, but agree with everyone else on the difficulty/slow pace of starting a new novel. So I’m looking forward to reading more and getting more used to the writing style
This is the first novel I’m reading digitally, so I’m trying to challenge myself by looking up words with the built in Japanese to Japanese dictionary at first! So I will see how that goes
Yes! I noticed that connection as well, I thought that was cool
Read this yesterday, just in time for Week 2. Not much to say for now, I can only assume this isn’t the last time we will hear about those two characters.
I read the epub file in 
.