I decided to let that one slide. 
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I don’t really have anything else to add but to say I read the first week and am catching up 
Most of the confusing parts were discussed here so thanks for the help on those! Overall it’s going ok. I’m also reading Kino at the same time and found the sentences there maybe just a tad bit easier. Biggest hurdle is to just grow that vocabulary.
Do you guys usually add the new kanji on floflo or just the vocab? I’m thinking what I should do regards to that. I noticed the kanji don’t really stick unless I sit down and make a menmonic… And that takes time.
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If you still have questions, don’t hesitate to ask even if it’s not the current week! someome will be able to help / provide some insight / brainstorm / commiserate! Probably.
Neither, just reading along and looking it up as often as it takes. 
I tried floflo once a couple months back, but that ended up being too much srs in combination with what I’m already doing on wk and anki.
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I personally just add the (freq 3+*)vocab and learn the Kanji through them(for the words that use at least one Kanji I don’t already know) and I’ve found that doing it that way usually works ok for me. I’m guessing which method works better probably depends a lot on individual learning style/preferences, so I think it really depends how well you remember the vocab without studying the Kanji individually. If you can learn the Kanji well enough from just studying the vocab, I see no reason to learn the Kanji individually first, but if you can’t it’s obviously pretty necessary to also study the Kanji, or if you want to know the Kanji better on their own, studying them individually also makes sense.
All of that is just how I do it/my opinion though… and just an overly complicated way to say “learn the kanji separately if you feel you have to, otherwise just the vocab is fine”
*Because learning all the vocab would just take way too long, and require way more time spent on SRS stuff than reading, at least for me
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I agree with everything you said. Very pleasurable read.
Not sure about the other three meanings @Naphthalene was refering to, but I every time I read that word I see the meaning as 'with great pains or with great effort" So If you studied super hard for the JLPt and passed you can say せっかく合格した So in this context I think it means why not cook it? All the effort that went into it’s death…(it would be a great waste of its death) Not sure she’s necessarily upset about the effort that went into it’s death or the effort of finding it but it’s just an emphasis on it’s already dead or a rare find, so let’s not waste it. I think
Okay so I just looked in up in 日本語文型辞典
And it said something like when there’s an opportunity or great effort, wasting it is a shame. So probably in this context since we have the great opportunity to cook it, wasting it is a shame.
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Repeat Club Discussion Starts Here!
9 January 2021
End Page (PB): 18
End Page (HB): 13
End % (Kindle): 9%
End Phrase: どんどん大人になっていった。
We’re kicking off discussion a little early this week to give people some extra time to ease into the writing style. If it feels too difficult at first, please try to stick with it for a few weeks! It gets significantly easier after getting a feel for it.
Feel free to use past discussion for reference, but please don’t hesitate to post any questions or comments! The more we discuss the more we all learn, and the more fun it is! Also, I strongly recommend setting each week’s thread to “watching” to stay abreast of the discussion.
- I’m reading along
- I’ll catch up soon
- I have no intention of catching up or the club has already finished, but I’m using the forums as reference
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Live Reading Sessions
I’ll plug it again here for anyone who might have missed it- see this post if you’re interested in joining live reading sessions. There will never be any pressure to read if you prefer not to, but it can be fun just to listen!
Vocab Sheet
@Tonina has generously decided to lead the vocab sheet, but anybody should feel free to add to it. Read the guidelines on the first sheet- even if a word is not yet included you can use the spreadsheet as a tool to get help.
Discussion Questions
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What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!
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What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
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Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
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What are your initial impressions of Keiko? How do you think her childhood affected her current behavior and personality?
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I just finished this week’s part and noticed that on my Kindle it ends at 8%. Can someone else confirm it with their ebook version?
131 loc. It’s true it’s probably about the page size, but I even checked forward and it doesn’t become 9% until a few “pages” later, so I was surprised. Oh well, this approximate % number is still more convenient than just a sentence.
I use a different ebook reader, but usually I search for the week’s final sentences up-front and mark them so that I will notice when I get to that part. But I don’t know if you can mark text in the kindle?
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You can, but I dislike slow typing in Kindle itself, so for that I have to actually remember to open a book in a PC app and mark the sentence before I start reading… and I’m constantly forgetting to do it. And I when I finally have a good comfortable position I don’t want to move anymore. 
Also, I’m worried about accidentally seeing spoilers surrounding the marked sentence 
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I wish I could sight-read Japanese well enough to have that issue
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I’m not that good - and I’m seeing kanji quicker than grammar - but it makes it even worse, because I can make fake spoilers for myself by misunderstanding at first glance and then anticipating them and that is somehow even worse than true spoilers
And anyway, it’s not an issue with this particular book since I already read a translation, I was talking about dividing text for book clubs in general.
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I knew I was gonna have a lot of reflections about this book and I was unsure how talkative I should let myself be. 
Especially since book club discussions often seem so sparse so I usually feel like it’s improper to get excited too much. And it’s really hard not to get very subjective for me. But I’ll let myself have this. So, a warning, I’ll ramble and it’ll be long. Well, even this warning came out long.
Comments about the plot
While people were trying to diagnose MC in the original discussion, I personally very like the fact that her weirdness doesn’t have any name.
It’s safe from the book writing perspective too, because it’s easy to accuse a writer of misdescribing some part of some specific condition.
But even apart from that, I think that way we can be more focused on MC’s personal traits and not on ticking off the list of symptoms. And even in diagnosed people, details can wary from person to person so I think it’s nicer to be focused on a character, and not on a disorder.
But of course I understand the temptation of trying to name MC’s condition, and I think an article linked by @Belerith was very nice 
I just don’t think it’s the main point here.
But it’s a very subjective viewpoint, because while I identify myself with general MC’s attitude (of course, details vary), I never got any diagnosis myself. When I was a child, it wasn’t really a thing - maybe some serious problems would got noticed, but not just being slightly weird. And then I grew up, and it was hard to find a good specialist, especially for adults, and then I decided I’m not diagnosing myself after all, because it’s causing me more anxiety about being “judged” than profit. I’m me, I got my specific problems, and letting myself to sometimes go easy with something is fine, no matter what name for it is or if it even qualifies for some named condition.
Going back to the actual plot. I got really angry about all this moments when MC’s parents won’t explain anything to her. You would really think that after several years with your child you would finally get that yes, she actually needs that explanation. Especially since they are supposed to be be loving and caring here. 
And the scene with the bird isn’t really that logical. Eating meat coming from some random animal could be dangerous! It could be infected with some disease!
But I never liked wasting flowers for funerals, even human funerals, so I agree with that one 
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Oh please do get excited I‘m always sad when book clubs are quiet, although I‘m not the most talkative person myself (most of the time ), but that’s how I am. I truly enjoy the comments and discussions.
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So I had a pretty easy time with the first chapter, but there were a few bits that confused me, or things I didn’t quite understand. And unfortunately due to the app I’m using, there’s almost no way for me to tell where I am since there’s no indication of percentage and the page numbers are arbitrary.
Around the first page
冷えた飲み物を最後にとってレジに向かうお客様が多いため、その音に反応して身体が勝手に動くのだ。
What exactly is the 身体 referring to here? Because at the moment I’m interpreting this sentence as:
“For the many customers getting a chilled drink and heading to the register, in response to the (previously described) sound, the (bottles?) move at their own pace”
I feel like this could also be describing both the customers or the person working at the cash register.
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Yeah that’s how I’m reading it as well. 多いため can be read as “is often the case”, so the narrator is saying: “Getting a cold drink is often times the last thing a customer will do, so my body automatically responds to this sound” (i.e. gets ready to ring the customer up since they’re done after they grab their cold drink).
It’s super encouraging to see that this one line was really the only thing that gave me trouble on page one, especially considering Kiki’s Delivery Service was the only book I’ve read prior to this (manga doesn’t count lol). Already digging the prose here; can’t wait to read more!
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I just finished the first part and I’m super proud of myself. I thought I’d be struggling much more since this is my first novel but grammar-wise I’m doing fine, I’m mainly slowed down by all the new vocab. (Massive thank you to @Tonina for the vocab sheet, it’s been a massive help!)
I’m not sure if I understood one of the school anectodes correctly though (page 15 in the paperback version):
From what I understood, the teacher is having a meltdown completely unprompted (or at least we don’t have any context for it?), which causes the students to get upset, and MC decides to shut them all up by pulling down the teacher’s skirt and pants. Or is her intention more about having the teacher calm down?
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I think it’s more about calming down the teacher. After that she says something like “I once saw in a movie adult women being quiet after getting undressed.” I don’t know what kinda movie was that tho 
I’m liking the book so far. I really enjoyed reading through her childhood memories. But it’s really just the first few pages of the book so I can’t think of anything to say about it yet.
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Just read this week’s share in one sitting and it was super nice. I though I’d have a lot more troubles with it, but it was really enjoyable… even the long sentences. Looking forward to reading more of it.
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To keep discussion alive and vibrant, I’ve added discussion questions to the week’s post. For anyone who wants to join the conversation this could be a great way to frame your response and hopefully spark some discussion! I expect some questions will persist week-to-week but others will be specific to the week’s section. Feel free to respond to none, some or all of them. And of course this does not take the place of asking whatever questions or sharing whatever thoughts you want.
Also, if you’ve read ahead or have read the book before, feel free to suggest questions for the next week’s reading. It will definitely make my job a bit easier.
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