かがみの孤城 (Kagami no Kojou) Book Club

Japanese Language Reading
#81

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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#82

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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#83

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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#84

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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#85

A far braver person than I - I hate marking physical books in any way haha

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#86

I went through that exact same phase!!!

Currently, I use post-its, like this:

PXL_20211207_224140872
PXL_20211207_2241408721920×2560 237 KB

I love this system!

  1. It doubles as a bookmark.
  2. When I encounter a word I swear I saw earlier, it’s easy to look for it.
  3. I don’t mark up my books any more!
  4. I’m still practicing writing.
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#87

Yes, I usually keep my books pristine too (although adding my own furigana is always fair game) but this time I decided to go for it.

I like seeing my notes again when I reread parts and having the notes this close to the text means that they even help when I’m reading along to the audio book.

Example of my notes:

image
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That’s indeed useful. I have a separate list for recurring words that I don’t know yet, but I don’t update it enough so too often I keep looking up the same words :sweat_smile:

1 Like
#88

That long part in week 4 broke me. I don’t think I’ll be able to catch up, so I’ll read the book later, no longer with the book club. Frustrating, but December is one of the busiest months of the year for me.

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#89

I haven’t read this week’s part yet so I’ve been avoiding the thread. :slight_smile:

In general though I do try to read towards the beginning of the week so I can follow along with the discussion. I don’t know about process, but if I don’t know a word by context I’ll look it up and move on. Sometimes I’ll create flashcards.

I haven’t had to look up a lot of words, of which I have created a total of 2 flashcards over the first 4 weeks. I do make note of character names and their readings and descriptions, though. :grin:

It’s natural that discussions slows down after the first few weeks. But it’s probably especially striking after the really lively first week(s) for this book.

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#90

Yes, I feel you. Same here: there’s the holidays and we also have a couple of birthdays in the family around this time of year, so November/December is a busy time. I can imagine that December is a busy time for many people. January is usually quieter, so maybe people can catch up later! :crossed_fingers:

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#91

@NickNickovich
Could you have the schedules link to the weekly discussion threads so it’s easy to find?

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#92

I’m still working on week 4, but I’m not crazy far behind. I feel like I’ll catch up.

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#93

There is a section in the OP called “Discussion Threads”.

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#94
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#95

Hey everyone. Nick messaged me on Discord this morning to let me know that he’s behind on the book and so busy lately that he’s unable to find time to even create the weekly threads. He asked me to take over creating the threads since I’ve done this for plenty of book clubs in the past. However, considering that I have already finished the book, I would rather not take on this responsibility.

Is anyone interested in taking this on? It would require doing the following every week, roughly Saturday morning Japan time (but putting it up a bit earlier is also fine):

  • Create the new weekly thread following the existing thread template.
    • Update information like the start date and end pages which can be found in this Home Thread.
    • Update the read aloud time by shifting the time from the previous week’s thread by a week.
  • Update the previous week’s thread to link to the new thread in the “Next week” section.
  • Add a link for the new thread in the “Discussion Threads” section of the OP of the Home Thread.
  • Post the link for the thread as a new post in the Home Thread so people can easily see it.

In my experience, all of that takes about 5-10 minutes per week. The request is just for creating these weekly threads. I will continue to lead the read aloud sessions on Discord as I have been for the entire book so far. If you’re interested please respond here.

6 Likes
#96

I don’t know if it will help @NickNickovich, but just to put the option out there: I would also be fine with taking a break over the holidays so that Nick (and others who might be behind) can catch up.

Here’s a poll to make it easy to respond to this suggestion:

Take a break?
  • I prefer to continue with the current schedule.
  • Take a one-week break over Christmas (create the week 7 thread next week like normal, but create the week 8 thread on Jan 1st and shift the rest of the schedule back by one week).
  • Take a two-week break (create the week 7 thread on Jan 1st instead of next week and shift the rest of the schedule back by two weeks).
  • I’d like a break and both options are fine with me.
  • I’m fine with any of the options.

0 voters

If that doesn’t help Nick enough (or if most people want to continue with the current schedule), then I don’t mind creating the threads. I probably won’t be joining the Discord sessions much (if at all), so if anything is discussed there schedule-wise, then I would be out of the loop, but I’m sure that won’t be a problem (but if someone who does participate in the sessions wants to create the threads, then I’m fine with that too).

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#97

got pretty ill last week and now I’m a week and a half behind :disappointed:

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#98

I’d considered if people could use a break of the holidays, so a poll is a good idea. The Discord sessions are really just reading the book and chatting about random stuff. We don’t really talk about the schedule or anything like that there. So there’s no need to participate there in order to create the weekly threads.

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#99

I’d definitely be ok with a break to help myself get caught up after falling behind with my coursework over the past couple of weeks

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#100

I think the poll has pretty much stabilised. Most people seem fine with taking a break and we have two votes for a two-week break. I’m for giving as many people as possible a chance to catch up (not least the original creator of this book club) but if there are any big objections to that, post them now (I realise that we would be prolonging a schedule that is already quite long).

Once we’ve agreed on the length of the break, I can update the schedule in the OP.

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