にゃんにゃん Reading Group -- Getting the most?

Japanese Language Reading
#75

I wish the next story would be in a different post. I think that makes it less intimidating to jump in. Aria is doing a thread per chapter, and that made me a lot more comfortable jumping in late. It feels like it will get very confusing if people do add questions for an earlier story in the middle of another story.

I know that even if I don’t finish this story by the weekend, I’m much more inclined to jump in on a new thread. I don’t want to skip over the current story posts, since I do intend to finish it.

I hadn’t responded to the post yet because I usually check the forums about once a day.

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#77

I agree, but I also fear that breaking up a single book into different threads will also be confusing, especially if we decide to do later volumes.

I also feel that this thread is for the people who are here now. Later readers (if any) will benefit from it of course, but to organise our reading on the basis of hypothetical later readers seems odd to me.

Edit: Personally, I like the way the thread is now. I’m just over-worrying because the number of people active on it has dropped off so much! But then again, the people on the thread are fantastic and quality is better than quantity!

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#78

Honestly I don’t know wich one is the better option, I think both options have some advantages and disadvantges but at the same time wathever we decide is going to be good.

If we can think of a way to not create confusion with different posts, so then I think different posts would be ideal.

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#79

That makes complete sense. I have no idea how many people may or may not respond later on. Do what feels comfortable to you! You’re the one doing the hard work of herding people. :slight_smile:

I’m still hoping to catch up before the next story, but I’ll have to see how the week goes. It really is intimidating being so far behind on the story and thread, but that’s all on me and my current busy schedule.

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#80

@marcusp I totally agree here. You are doing all the hard work so I am happy to leave it as your call.

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#81

I think the Beginner Book Club does a great job with this, linking all posts in a main thread:

にゃんにゃん is also setup in a very similar way, but linking to different places in one post. Both have their merits, and I don’t know that one way is better than another.

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#82

Oh, thank you both so much! Much appreciated!

Like I say, I’m just over-worrying because the numbers of participants are so low now. But everyone who is participating is wonderful, so it’s not really a problem!

My other experience was with the Yotsuba threads. They decided not to split into separate threads for chapters, which I think was the right decision. And though there are just a handful still reading - they are really amazing, a real Yotsuba community over there!

On our thread, who ever had the idea of going through page by page each day was a genius because the pacing works and it will work much better than on the Yotsuba thread for future readers.

Our reading will be over in a couple of months, but the thread will be open for ever - so there’ll be plenty of space for later readers to come and ask questions.

Thank you again everyone. You’ve really helped me a lot thinking this through and I really appreciate the chance to talk about all this off of the main thread.

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#83

I really do appreciate the pacing! It makes it so much easier when you’re behind on the book.

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#84

sorry to jump in with an opinion when I’m not taking part

I think that if you’re worried about numbers, a new thread for story 2 could help. People who may have fallen behind are more likely to notice a new thread, and will probably feel more comfortable jumping back in, as well (I’m talking about current readers who may just be a bit behind, not hypothetical distant future people - I think it’s a good idea to make the thread as useful as it can possibly be for current readers!).

I’d also say it seems to work well for the beginner book club, but of course your reading schedule is quite different.

Anyway, I’m snooping on your book club so sorry to barge in! But just thought I’d mention that as it seems to be a concern. There are of course other factors you are taking into consideration :blush:

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#85

Thrue, it is what makes it really easy for me to follow and stay on top of it when I need to check what other have already asked.

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#86

Thank you so much @Radish8!
Just out of curiosity, and only if you have time to answer, how long do you take to read a chapter in your book club? And what has your experience been with numbers over time? Just curious!

#87

Hmm, @seanblue may be able to give you more insight, as they’ve been taking part for the last three books.

For Aria, we’re tackling one chapter per week, and there are nine chapters. It seems to work well (and several people have commented that they’ve been able to catch up at chapter 3 or 4).

I believe for Kiki’s Delivery Service they took two to three weeks per chapter over eleven chapters, but that book was something of a disaster because it turned out to be too difficult - I think the consensus at the end was that if a book needs that much time, it’s simply too difficult in the first place.

I doubt it’s really useful to compare your stories to these chapters, but taking about nine weeks overall seems reasonable. You don’t want to be reading the same thing for half a year, but the fact that you have discrete stories naturally helps to break it up too.

I think you’re always going to see a huge drop in numbers after the first rush of enthusiasm. The numbers for Aria so far are 47 > 28 > 22 over the first three chapters (53 > 31 > 25 if you include those catching up), assuming all votes are up-to-date. The drop-off for Kiki was terrible, but again, that’s because it wasn’t a great pick.

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#88

Wow, thank you so much!

And they had a different thread for each chapter??!

Edit: Oh yes, I just took a look! They did!

#89

Yep! The last few chapters are mostly the remaining readers discussing the story and so on :grin:

You’re all gonna get much more experienced and used to the particular style of this book too, so you’ll probably find you have fewer grammar and vocabulary questions the more of it you read ^^

I got a like from seanblue on my previous post, so I reckon my summary was okay :wink:

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#90

Thank you! Yes, that’s what happened in Yotsuba too. So the first few chapters of vol.1 were hundreds of posts long, while the last few chapters in vol.4 have been a fraction of that (I still pop in to take a look at what’s going on over there!)

#91

No problem! Yep, haha, the Aria ones are already shorter too (but it means they’re really easy to navigate!) ^^ Now I’m getting told off by discourse for replying to you too many times, so I’ll stop stalking your book club :grin:

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#92

Thank you so much! Your stalking is much appreciated! :smiley:

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#93

Okay! The second story of the book has just started over on the main thread.

Are you joining us for this one @ShawnPCooke, @Stagrid, @Arzar33, @MattMatt, @Cristina-Z, @dunlewy, @Alansan, @Dwrlesky, @Docchan, @Foxington

#94

Okay! The second story of the book has just started over on the main thread.

Are you joining us for this one @Oshietekun, @Kumichan, @Merkkie, @Miimers, @Ncastaneda, @westinah, @Mexikanas, @PhyberApex, @reichter, @ccprince, …

#95

Okay! The second story of the book has just started over on the main thread.

Are you joining us for this one @frugal, @0ctag0n, @liviabs, @daifukudreams, @Noelyuk, @Starry-Bunny, @edithh, @PomfPomf, @Echokami, @Buckmeister,