ひとりぼっちの○○生活・Beginner Book Club・Starting December 14th

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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Join the Beginner Book Club here!

Welcome to the ひとりぼっちの○○生活 Book Club!

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Introduction

Hitori Bocchi is a girl with social anxiety who has difficulty communicating with others. Before starting middle school, her friend Yawara Kai, who will attend a different school, tells Bocchi she is breaking off their friendship until Bocchi can make friends with her entire class at her new school. Thus, Bocchi is left with the task of befriending everyone in her class before graduation.

View the original nomination post here.

How it works

We create a reading schedule with a set number of pages to work through each week. Each week, we create a new discussion thread for that week’s reading. In those threads, we discuss everything from vocabulary and grammar to the characters and story. We try to help each other by contributing to the shared vocabulary list, answering each other’s questions, and keeping each other motivated.

What to expect from this book

No furigana

This isn’t the Beginner Book Club’s first time reading a manga without full furigana, but it’s always an extra hurdle to overcome.

Be prepared to have the vocabulary list handy!

If you plan to read a digital copy, look into whether you can use Mokuro.

This allows using applications such as rikaikun or Migaku to look up words easily.

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If you don’t mind some extracurricular kanji learning outside of WaniKani, you can view the volume’s highest-frequency kanji and highest-frequency kanji readings.

The unique kanji count has increased with each manga in the Beginner Book Club recently, but it drops slightly for this one.

4-panel format

It’s uncommon for the beginner book club to read manga in the 4-panel (4koma, yonkoma) format. Prior reads include 「一週間フレンズ。」, which is partially 4-panel, and 「月刊少女野崎くん」.

The 4-panel format tends to be more dense than traditional manga, sometimes fitting the dialogue content of a traditional manga page in one or two panels.

While 「ひとりぼっちの○○生活」 is a bit on the light side as 4-panel manga go, it’s still going to feel heavier than what is typically read here.

How do I join in?

  • Get yourself a copy of the book (see “Where to purchase” below)
  • Click on the participation poll below to let us know you’re planning to join in
  • Set this thread to “watching” so you get updates on the group (go just past the last post in this thread, click on the grey box that says “normal” or “tracking” and change this to “watching”)

Where to purchase

Physical: Amazon | CD Japan
Digital: Kindle | Bookwalker

Reading Schedule

PENDING

Vocabulary List

PENDING

Warning: May contain spoilers.

Resources and Links

  • Read Chapter 1 on BookWalker
  • Jisho is a popular online Japanese-English dictionary.
  • ichi.moe is a tool for parsing out sentences. You can type/paste in a whole sentence, and it will try to break it down into individual parts.
  • Deepl will translate a sentence from Japanese to English. It’s not always right, so if you want to check your translation, it’s often better to ask in the thread.
  • Manga Kotoba frequency lists for this volume’s vocabulary and kanji.
  • Natively (Level 21)

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also, say what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they initially seem embarrassing. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation; it’s fun!

Membership

Will you be reading with us?

  • Yes
  • Yes, but I might start late
  • Maybe
  • No
0 voters

Which version will you be reading?

  • Digital
  • Physical
0 voters
11 Likes
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From a quick skim, I don’t see any chapters that are particularly dense. Obviously some pages are denser than others, but I didn’t see many all bunched up in a single chapter.

The first volume is 14 chapters, made up of 13 regular chapters and a 特別編 to finish the volume. Based on the manga having little furigana, but still being on the easier side (level 21 on Natively), there are a few options I’d propose. I also looked at density data from ひとりぼっちの○○生活 | Manga Kotoba compared to a few past BBC picks (namely 古見さん, この美術部, and フリーレン). Naturally Hitori Bocchi is more dense since it’s a 4-koma, but it’s also easier based on Natively levels. I’d say one chapter a week would be on the lighter side for the club while two chapters a week would be slightly more than usual, but still less than some of the more difficult picks like フリーレン (which is slightly less dense, but way harder and the club read 10-18 pages per week).

Options:

  1. Slow and steady: 1 chapter per week; total of 14 weeks
  2. Quick ramp up: 1 chapter per week for two weeks, then 2 chapters per week; total of 8 weeks
  3. Medium ramp up: 1 chapter per week for four weeks, then 2 chapters per week; total of 9 weeks
  4. Slow ramp up: 1 chapter per week for six weeks, then 2 chapters per week; total of 10 weeks

In each ramp up case, we can also close the book club with a single chapter (in place of a ramp up week) since the last chapter is a bonus chapter. Any other options I should consider before making a poll?

8 Likes
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I think the options look decent.

Chapters are eight pages each, containing 15 four-panel strips. Reading three strips per day is enough to complete a single chapter in a week with a couple of days left over.

Two chapters a week brings it up to 16 pages and 30 strips. Reading five strips a day leaves an extra day in the week.

Even with the lack of furigana, this should be a much easier read than フリーレン.

10 Likes
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Please read the previous two posts before voting so your vote can be informed by density and difficulty data.

Schedule pace
  • 14 weeks (1 chapter per week)
  • 8 weeks (1 chapter per week for two weeks, then 2 chapters per week)
  • 9 weeks (1 chapter per week for four weeks, then 2 chapters per week)
  • 10 weeks (1 chapter per week for six weeks, then 2 chapters per week)
0 voters
特別編 scheduling
  • Do all 1 chapter weeks at the beginning of the schedule (特別編 is read with the final chapter in the final week)
  • Read the 特別編 on its own in final week (one less ramp up week since a 1 chapter week is moved to the end of the schedule)
  • No preference
0 voters
7 Likes
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Ahh yes, the famed continuation to 三ツ星カラーズ , finally all the knowledge @Belthazar gave us of tokyo locations will come to good use!

4 Likes
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Uh… it will? In Bocchi?

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Well, to be fair all I know about Bocchi is that it’s from the same author as the Colors, and that she has an alter ego of a maybe even more awkward pink Bocchi, so looking forward to reading it haha

5 Likes
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Too late. I already expect @Belthazar to post Google Maps locations for every classroom.

6 Likes
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There’s a map of the classroom at some point. Does that count?

Technically it’s just a layout of where the characters sit in the classroom, but whatever

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We’re down to a week and a half until we start, and Bocchi’s filled with anticipation!

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12 Likes
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For some reason I thought this was starting in January. Good thing it’s not too much to read.

1 Like