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I was kind of missing another option like “( c) I don’t mind / either speed is fine” but I still went with (b) only because it would be a better schedule for me personally / easier for me trying to join Flying Witch 2 in February.
Thinking about it again, I kind of agree that for the ABBC the speed shouldn’t be more than 1 page a day / 7 pages a week on average (unless there’s only 3 pages of text and 4 pages of full-page drawings). What kept me so far and still keeps me from actually finishing a BBC read (on time / with the club) is the speed actually. I think overall I’d be ready to focus more on BBC reads if it wasn’t for the 10+ pages per week. I can’t handle more than a few pages a week because (1) I’m not at the stage where I’m willing to read past every grammar point that I don’t understand for the sake of reading faster just because “I get the gist of it” (2) I don’t want to spend more study time than a certain amount of hours a week on Japanese.
In contrast, ABBC book picks are usually less text dense than BBC ones. In these cases I’m able to read more than 7 pages a week without much trouble.
So that basically keeps me sticking with the ABBC and lets me usually drop or put BBC picks on hold.
So whether that makes me an absolute beginner or a beginner, I don’t know 
Nontheless, I agree with @Rowena and @marcusp and thinking about it again… I’d vote for actually keeping a moderate reading speed (so I’ll change my vote in a minute 
)
(On the other hand, peeking at the poll in the week 7 thread, most of the people that said they’re still reading along also voted for a faster speed… In the ABBC, though, I think we should always put more weight on the votes of people who favor a moderate speed or who openly admit that they struggle keeping up or would so if the reading speeds up…)
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Phew, to answer suddenly a lot of comments.
Just because I’m running a poll doesn’t mean that it’s a ‘majority wins’ poll. I run the polls in order to gather opinions, so that I can then make a decision based on people’s feedback.
Given that it looked like a majority for going faster, I was planning to directly ask anybody voting for the slower pace what their thoughts were - i.e. would you just prefer to go slower, or would you not be able to keep up?
As I said in the original poll post, I don’t want to speed up if anyone currently reading will be left behind as a result.
As for the concept of speeding up… It’s not unreasonable to think that people might get faster as they go along. Whenever you look at later threads of book clubs, people are always exclaiming proudly over how much faster they managed to read the last few weeks.
It’s even evident from this club already, based on how the questions get asked. Near the beginning of this club we were getting questions spread right across the week, and people were clearly tackling a page or two per day. This week we had 10 pages and we haven’t had a question since Wednesday… three days in.
I think it’s good to encourage people in that way if possible as increasing your speed is important and confidence-boosting, but obviously (a) the speed can’t increase indefinitely and (b) again, it doesn’t work if some people get left behind.
Finally, for people worried about creep in book club speeds… First of all, I was always running this as a spin-off, even if my aim was to cater to beginners.
I’ve mentioned several times that I want to run a Doggy Detectives club after this because it’s proving so much fun and we have a good number of people still reading. I’m not going to start us out on 12 pages a day! And we’re definitely not going to get even faster!
I would always start a new club off right back at the same speed, or even slower if feedback suggested more people would have been able to manage it (but you’re always going to get dropouts from people who either simply aren’t ready to be reading at all, or where life gets in the way - there’s a limit to how much it helps to go slower).
The point of speeding up over the course of a book is for the benefit of people reading that particular book together. Each book on its own will be intended to provide an option for those looking for a beginner book.
This discussion is about this group reading this book. It is not a discussion of how fast we or the ABC are going to read anything in future.
off-topic rant about the Beginners' Club
Why does this complaint about the Beginners club ‘continuously getting harder, hence the birth of the ABC’ continue to get bandied around? It’s just categorically untrue. An easier book club was started at the same time we happened to be reading a book rather than a manga (which was good! it was problematic that there was nothing for those unable to read the book!), but as always after that book we read a few much easier things.
It varies and always has done, because we were catering to literally everyone below the Intermediate Club at the start, and even now we have to help people make that transition. That’s not to say you don’t have to watch out for creep, because you do, but you can’t jump straight from Flying Witch to Kitchen.
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Oops, and to answer @Rowena directly, which I completely forgot to do in my epic wall of text…
If you don’t think you’ll be able to keep up, then of course we’ll go for the slower pace 
do you think you’ll be able to keep up if we do go for the slower pace? I vaguely recall that you started before the official date in order to get ahead?
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Yes, I believe I will be able to keep up at the slower pace.
Excuses for needing more time
I’m no longer ahead - my very sick, elderly dog was needing a lot of care for the last couple of months, and after she was euthanased last week I have fallen into a mentally/emotionally exhausted heap and have taken ill. It’s also becoming very hot here (37C today) and will likely be a hotter-than-normal summer; without aircon, it becomes more difficult just to think in such heat.
Thanks very much for all you do in moderating this group! 
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Excellent 
deets
I am so so sorry to hear that, both about your dog and your health. Please take care of yourself 
I hope the kitties book can at least bring you some enjoyment at the moment.
Thank you for taking part!
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This is my concern. I’ve got the impression that when there’s a weekly schedule, you’re not really supposed to already be discussing the last pages on the first day of the week. But with the current pace, I find myself getting the reading done in one go and then just bottling up my questions and posting them spaced out throughout the week.
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Sorry, I’m not quite clear - do you mean that you’re concerned that going too slowly bunches up the discussion?
At this point I wouldn’t worry overly about saving up your questions, by the way. Just post them whenever is most convenient for you and helps you to get through the material. Right near the beginning when we’re doing exactly 7 pages and there are a lot of questions it’s nice to vaguely stick to a page per day because it helps people follow the discussion, but it’s not such a big deal when there are fewer posts.
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Cool. I was definitely going slower in the first few weeks, so it was nice to have that pacing. And when there’s a lot of questions about each page, it makes it easier to follow the discussion when they’re roughly in ascending order.
If I don’t have to worry about spacing out my questions I wouldn’t mind going slower either. I’ll find some other stuff to read in between (might as well start on Kitty Detectives 1! 
).
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Yes, totally agree - following the discussion in the first couple of weeks can be overwhelming enough as it is!
Cool, in that case I’ll probably close down the poll if nobody has any other thoughts they’d like to add
Update: the schedule has now been updated and our last week will be starting the 3rd of February!
This week we wrap up Story Two, a very short read:
Next week will be another break, after which we’ll be starting our final story on the 30th of December! 
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Still on Case 1 at the moment; I will try to use the break to catch up!
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No worries, thanks for checking in! If you have the time to catch up on story one it might be nice to join us for story three and go back to the second in your own time
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I’ll be working on the next story this week and during the break - I’ll see how I go and give you some feedback regarding pace - perhaps 4 weeks will be enough if I get ahead again in the next couple of weeks.
Cool, but don’t stress yourself about it there’s also the intermediate option of taking five weeks if you were feeling up for a sprint after completing the case part 
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Sounds like a plan 
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Because I have some kind of bad conscience about our discussion a few days ago, I just wanted to add that it was in no way my intention to blame you for anything, @radish8. If it maybe felt to you like I was being ungrateful, I’m sorry.
I’m really grateful that you’re running this book club pick, always opening weekly threads and starting polls to ask for our opinions! Thank you!
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Oh goodness, no need to apologise! Sorry if I came across a bit blunt - I just felt the discussion had gone a little off-topic from the focused question I’d been wanting to address with the poll, and there were quite a few concerns to address.
I do appreciate all the feedback - hence the poll! - as it’s hard to know how people are finding things and what they want otherwise.
I’m enjoying running this club immensely, don’t worry
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Radish8 - I am interested in joining up for the book commencing on 31/12/19 - how do I do that
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Have you got a copy of the book? If so, then just wait for the new thread to be posted on the 30th or 31st (there will be a link at the top of this thread).
If you don’t have a book yet, there are links in the OP for how to get one.
Welcome!
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