I found this one quite readable, for a yonkoma. I’m just finding that the other stuff is piling up.
One Week Friends was (mostly) a yonkoma. Komi-san sorta turns into one, eventually. (For some reason I remember Non Non Biyori being a yonkoma too, but it’s not. I wonder why I thought otherwise…)
I should hope so given this is the beginner book club, not intermediate.
Yeah, I knew this one contained 4-koma parts, but since I didn’t read with the club I didn’t know how much.
It’s enough for me to run an offshoot. I’ve only read the first two volumes, so I’ll absolutely continue reading the series sooner if it’s with an offshoot.
月刊少女野崎くん is also a yonkoma.
I found them pretty difficult overall. For getting the punchline you need to understand everything perfectly. And even then it could be just a cultural thing that you have to google. So it’s a constant struggle.
This is my first BBC and I wasn’t familiar with a good number of the kanji, so it’s been a huge challenge for me, especially after the pace picked up. I’m glad that I’ve been able to keep up every week, but I’m definitely not at a point where I’d feel ready to read the whole series!
Yeah I think I’m sort of with zucchi here. It was my first BBC and I found that once the pace picked up It was taking a not insignificant time out of the reading I want to be doing outside bookclubs. Realizing I may need to be a little more choosy with which books I can commit to offshoots of haha. I’ve really enjoyed it though!
That’s totally fair. Having your first BBC be one without furigana adds to the difficulty for sure.
I’ve already bought book 3 and perhaps others so I’m definitely in for an offshoot. I’m in Japan at the moment so am a little behind with my reading.
I’ll get an offshoot thread up probably either this weekend or next weekend. Then I can poll for anything to poll.
I forgot, I read volume 3 last year. That means I’m counting on an offshoot to get through volumes two and three this year so I can read along with volume four before the year ends.
Oh man, I forgot that at two chapters per week it’ll take nearly the whole year to finish the series.
One more week until we start volume two. Be sure to vote on reading pace!
I 100% agree.
In the last month I have changed my reading strategy to:
Try to read the panel. If I can then move onto the next.
If not use the translate app to translate that panel to Japanese. I then get it to read the panel to make sure I have the readings correct or give me the reading where I have no idea.
If I am still not understanding the panel or have not understood the grammar. Then I copy and paste the dialogue into chat gpt asking it to translate and explain the grammar. It is really good at giving the full explanation of the phrases and gives the intended meaning rather than the stilted gibberish you often get from translate. I always get the jokes this way and the books are more enjoyable. It is time consuming but that’s where we are at.
Even where I do know the grammar it is a good reinforcement and more often than not I pick up something new as it explains all the common phrasings and shortcuts.
It’s that time of the year again. Bocchi’s on sale for the next two weeks, on BookWalker and likely other electronic book stores.
Next volume thread:
One more volume, and I’ll be joining in the weekly reaeding!