This is an informal reading group that spontaneously formed after @Naphthalene’s raving review. As such, we don’t have a schedule nor weekly assignments. Please join whenever you like and read at your own pace!
We are planning to start reading on Dec 5th, 2022 … or maybe around Christmas but if you start earlier, that’s fine as well.
Please feel free to comment on the book or ask questions while you read it. As we are reading at different paces, it is crucial that everybody generously applies spoiler tags. As I don’t expect a huge number of readers, and as the book is not too long, all discussion will take place in this thread.
Unfortunately, the book doesn’t have chapters which makes it a bit harder to mark the current status.
Therefore I listed and enumerated the asterisk marks in the ebook version (and added the last word for easier identification); with this we can add something like Finished section XYZ to let everybody know when it is safe for them to read the comments.
Section no.
Ends with
BookWalker %
Page no.
1
揺らしてませた。
5%
2
ように叩く。
11%
3
息をついた。
18%
4
似ていた。
25%
5
良くなれる。
38%
6
持ってきた。
43%
7
笑った。
48%
8
舐めていた。
51%
9
思っている。
55%
10
重かった。
64%
11
考える。
69%
12
こともあった。
71%
13
静かになった。
77%
14
押した。
83%
15
と言った。
87%
16
出した。
93%
17
END
97%
Last but not least, this book recently won the Akutagawa Prize, and if you finish it, you are entitled to tick a box in The Akutagawa Prize Reading Challenge !
Who is interested in reading this book?
I am interested in reading this book.
I am currently reading this book.
I have finished this book.
I have stopped reading, but I will return at some point.
I’m a solid maybe. I’m trying to wrap all my books (excluding book clubs that spill over for schedule) by the end of the year so I can start the year feeling like I have a somewhat clean slate. Whether or not I pick this up with be determined by:
how quickly I can finish 秋の牢獄
how easy this book looks (gotta read a sample)
What it has going for it is how short it is (128 pages according to Bookwalker!) What is has going against it is how incredibly dense those 128 pages look in the preview
This looks like something I might enjoy, so I’m giving it a maybe/hopfully I can join! I know I’m behind on other stuff, but this looks like my cup of tea?
I’ve decided I’ll read this in January, as a hopefully easier accompaniment to 半落ち. (Which I need to make an announcement for ) I just can’t add more to my stockpile of short stories and books that I’m trying to finish by year end. Hope you don’t mind a late comer to the thread!
Having no idea how fast I will be able to read this as I keep derailing my own plans by slipping in more unplanned books it’s totally possible that you‘ll overtake me in the end
In other words: welcome!
We’re supposed to start tomorrow!
Oh noes… I did this thing and started reading a book as an advent, which means about 10 pages daily on average, and that’s in parallel to all the various book clubs, and it’s not going well. I’m on my third day of Eugenia, and still not even halfway through, when I used to read each chapter in a day or two max. I’m not starting anything new before I’m caught up with Eugenia at least. So, yeah, long story short, I don’t see me starting tomorrow. I’m excited to read this, but I want to give it proper attention, not fit it in between a dozen other books. But I don’t want to leave it for next year either… Any magic tricks for reading faster, anyone?
I need to make a decision because otherwise I’ll just feel guilty every day I postpone starting this in favour of something else. So, I’ve stupidly[1] started this advent reading challenge that will last till the day before Christmas, and it somehow doesn’t feel right to me to start a brand new book as the second book of the day. I want to give it my full attention, at least in the beginning. January will see the start of another book club, plus the continuation of the current ones, so I’m thinking I’m going to start this on Christmas, or the day after, if Christmas turns out to be too busy for reading. I’m posting this here so I don’t go back on my decision in a minute and start fretting again about not having started yet.
I’m enjoying it a lot actually, but it eats up a large portion of my reading time every day ↩︎
I’m sooo with you on this one! I am reading 3 other books in parallel, and in theory that works ok-ish, but in practice one of them is very addictive, and JLPT also disrupted my reading schedule a bit (while I didn’t study as much, I didn’t feel like focusing on a new and/or complicated book so went with the addictive one while falling behind schedule on the two proper book clubs ) Now I keep telling myself that I should finish the addictive one quickly to make room for this one, but there is a certain fear that it’s so addictive that I need to jump to the next volume asap
Anyways, I’ll see how it goes, and maybe I’ll fall back to starting it around Christmas together with you or maybe I can start a little bit earlier.
Christmas is drawing near, and today I figured I might give this book a try as I have finished another book and just felt like trying this one out.
Section 1:
I just started to read and omg this writing has a pace that just dragged me along like a rollercoaster and I couldn’t get off. What a nice office community we have here, with one of the coworkers drinking from another one’s tea bottle Let’s see how this unfolds.
Our office lady 押尾 goes drinking with her coworker 二谷 and starts talking about another coworker, 芦川. Despite somewhat defending her initially, 二谷 agrees that although she doesn’t hate her, she wouldn’t be her friend in private life, and when 押尾 suggests that they both tease her at work, 二谷 agrees…
We get a bit of the backstory of the whole gang, who is in the company since when, where they came from, and the developments between 二谷 (that’s a man, to my surprise - need to pay more attention to these details!) and 芦川 - they had some friction points at first wrt work, but then they even started dating (although 二谷 doesn’t sound like he will last long in this relationship…).
Read section 4 today but now I’m seriously confused
I think I had some misunderstandings along the way which culminated in said confusion. I reread section 1 (which was fine) and section 2 (where I misunderstood some details, and I will fix my comment above in a minute) and then I will reread section 3 just to make sure
For section 4, I found it to be a quite unspectacular description of how 二谷 and 芦川 are together. I think she is not the brightest candle on the cake, but other than that, she seems to be quite a happy soul.
I first thought the dating was part of the teasing plan, but now it somehow sounds more or less like a normal relationship. 二谷 's initial irritations seem to have subsided a bit, and he even finds common points with her, and it sounds a bit as if he starts to like her… Let’s see how this further unfolds.
I started reading today as planned, and have read the first two sections so far. It seems there will be alternating viewpoints? The first section was third person but from the viewpoint of 二谷, the second story was first person from the point of view of 押尾. I’m guessing the pattern continues?
I’m pretty sure 二谷 is a man (uses おれ), and that it was 押尾 who said she wouldn’t be her friend in private life - although I’m not confident about that last part, I tend to get lost in dialogue.
You are right, I realized that later but because my later comment wouldn’t make sense when I fixed that error, I kept it in. But maybe that’s even more confusing altogether
Totally missed out on that (but noticed on my second reread, so yeah )
I reread that again and I agree that she says that. I also got a bit lost in that dialogue. She uses polite speech almost exclusively, but in one part she drops the polite speech at the end, and I think I got a bit lost then…
All in all it’s good to have you on board! I’m still confused about section 4 (or maybe rather about everything before that ) so I hope we can sort this out tomorrow or so, whenever you get that far?
When you say you are going by section, you mean the asterisk, right? My kindle says I’m currently on page 10, which I assume is Section 2. Hopefully, I can catch up! I haven’t read many books, and boy, these sentences are long!
I wonder what kind of company this is. In Section 1 with the tea incident, I was thinking that it was something with a bit of an office 職人 vibe to it, but Section 2 proves otherwise. Should I just imagine them all in suits and weary from the rat race? → NVM. This question gets answered in Section 3
Section 2 quote + comment:
「それじゃあ、二谷さん、わたしと一緒に、芦川さんにいじわるしませんか」[/spoiler] What the heck. [spoiler]Are grown-ass adults plotting to bully? I am genuinely scared that this can happen in real life.
Finished section 2. All comments and quotes are regarding section 2. I liked 二谷 in this. He wasn’t just joining in on the complaints, but rationally (?) wanted to figure out the reason, kind of defended 芦川, but also agreed with 押尾. Until they got to the prank part… 嫌な予感がする.
I found this interesting as well!
I agree. One easy pointer (in this case) is to look out for politeness levels – 押尾 uses polite speech, 二谷 doesn’t. I was confused with the 枝豆 talk at first because my inner bias told me that surely it must be the woman saying „I need my vegetables“, but checking the speech style it was actually the other way round
I must’ve missed that… I can’t seem to find the part you’re referring to
but if you start earlier, that’s fine as well.
I know I’m behind on other stuff, but this looks like my cup of tea? 
) I just can’t add more to my stockpile of short stories and books that I’m trying to finish by year end. Hope you don’t mind a late comer to the thread!
it’s totally possible that you‘ll overtake me in the end 
) 
Now I keep telling myself that I should finish the addictive one quickly to make room for this one, but there is a certain fear that it’s so addictive that I need to jump to the next volume asap 
or maybe I can start a little bit earlier.
Let’s see how this unfolds.
