My copy just arrived, and can I just say, the book looks even better than I imagined! I am so excited about this one.
Thank you SO MUCH @marcusp for setting up the bookclub. This book is exactly the kind of resource that I’m looking for in my language studies, and I’m quite certain I wouldn’t have found it otherwise.
11月1日を楽しみにしています！
A question about the world map -
この本にとうじょうする国や地いきの名前を地図の上にしめしました - what does とうじょうする mean? It seems to me a verb, but if it is then how come it’s in the middle? And what does this sentence translate to?
My best guess is This book starts by listing the names of countries and areas of the world (etc.) in a map (I put in the etc because of the や particle)
Any help will be awesome 
BTW, thanks for starting this book club, I hope I can keep it up 
I think you missed a bit out: この本にとうじょうする国や地いきの名前, 出てくるページを地図の上にしめしました.
I think とうじょうする is 登場する, to appear. Usually on stage, but in this case, in this book.
ie, “the names of countries and areas that make an appearance in this book”
Page 2
この本にとうじょうする国や地いきの名前, 出てくるページを地図の上にしめしました.
So, my best guess at a direct translation would be:
showing on the map the page numbers in which the names of countries and areas that make an appearance in this book appear.
But that is ridiculously wordy!
Hello,
I created an Amazon Japan account, and put a Japanese fake address in order to buy the ebook. But the website says that the Kindle version is not available in my country… please help I really would like to join this reading club
How about:
For the names of the countries, regions, etc. introduced in this book, the pages on which they are mentioned are indicated on the map.
Or should it be:
For the countries, regions, etc. introduced in this book, their names and the pages on which they are mentioned are indicated on the map.
What do you think? The second one definitely makes more sense in English but I’m not sure if it’s a faithful translation. That first comma is really messing with me, I feel like there should be some kind of particle after 名前…
So I bought it from ebook japan (credit card worked fine hooray), and is there any way to zoom in? Stuff is barely readable at this size.
There’s an additional comma after the を:
この 本の とうじょうする 国や 地いきの 名前、出てくる ページを、地図の 上に しめしました。
which to me makes it sound like the sentence is listing what is shown on the map:
“Showing (1) country and region names, and (2) the pages that they are mentioned on…”
So, @zuzu, I like your second translation and I think it sounds accurate.
So for the inner part of the cover, I’m reading the part about the whale and the tree and I see they are using:
大きな
Is this just a condensed form of 大きい + な?
Also does 大きな 木 have some sort of different connotation than 大きい 木?
Knew I should have searched. Thanks!
I was also trying to find something in Tae Kim about this but all the words I could find for this form came up with no results in his grammar guide.
Hi,
Sorry if this question has already been asked, but I searched through the previous questions and didn’t notice it. I bought the ebook and downloaded the ebireader (ebook Japan app) for iphone. Everything in the app is in Japanese, so I don’t know how to navigate through the app and access the book. Can anyone help explain how to do this?
Second question - I can read hiragana but have extremely limited vocabulary (I’m currently working on Level 3 on Wanikani). Am I even far enough along to be reading this book?
Thanks in advance!
Rich
You have to go in and actually change the country in the Content and Devices section. I ran into this problem too and was confused about it. Go to “Manage Your Content and Devices” > “Preferences” > “Country/Region Settings”. You’ll have to enter an address again.
You won’t understand everything without help, but so far with a good dictionary and a grammar guide I can piece together mostly decent ideas of what sentences say and I only just moved to lvl 4 today. It’s challenge but does not seem insurmountable.
I’m seriously dying of the cuteness! I think I will order both books on payday even though I don’t think I’m ready to start with you all yet!
Brilliant! Thank you Saruko! (And a lesson to me about commas. I’m usually very careful but I’ve missed commas before and they seem to make a huge difference in Japanese). Thank you!
Yes, although of course the less Japanese you know, the longer each page will take. But we are only doing one page per day and this group will rely very much on getting lots of questions! Welcome to the reading group!
In a later level, you will encounter 大きな. It’s the adverb form of 大きい, translating to “in a big way”.
edit: this is false. Retaining for conversation flow.
Thank you. Any chance of a link? I’ve found 大きな in Jisho, as a pre-noun adjectival just meaning “big” or “large”, but can’t find it in WK and don’t understand how it is an adverb.