Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.
Discussion Guidelines
Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
If necessary, include an explanation of any discrepancies in the Ebook page numbers from physical page numbers. If there is an easy shortcut for some ebook versions to relate back to physical page numbers, it would be worth it to include it as a third bullet here, or if you want to use chapter page numbers instead of volume page numbers, as is the case with some manga. For example:
Example
For the Kindle version of this manga, the page numbers and the location number are always 3 apart. If you subtract 3 from the location, this will give you the accurate page number!
OR
Please use the chapter page numbers, instead of the volume page numbers. These are located in between the panels!
Proper Nouns
Feel free to add to this as new characters / places get introduced throughout the book.
Name
Reading
Notes
山田
やまだ
Main character
田山
たやま
Main character
佐々木
ささき
Main character
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
I’m reading along
I have finished this part
I’m reading this book after the club has finished
I’m still undecided if I will join
0voters
If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”
Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay up to date with the discussion!
I had thought of especially tagging you on the post in the main thread advertising week 1, but you immediately saw and liked it as soon as it was created. As expected from a true 山田 enjoyer!
A veritable 山田のファン reporting in! 癒しの中毒者. But I also really like 田山…
When reading this manga, pay close attention to backgrounds – there is often very meaningful handwritten text in there, which a quick reader could easily skip. I certainly accidentally skipped some on my first read, and it’s been a joy to take it slower and really let each panel sink in. I’ll follow up with an example in the first spoiler section.
Not gonna lie, I was a bit afraid when I first read this panel… like, what kind of manga is this actually going to be. (I also hadn’t figured out the thing yet.)
The extra emphasis circles above 佐々木さん are 傍点. In my head I read it as the character clearly separating each syllable. This was used to really drive the point home that there’s something unusual here.
I think the page numbers in the vocab sheet are all be off by 2, right? The first page of the first chapter is page 3, but it’s page 5 in the vocab sheet.
Well, if I’m getting a certain thing correctly, this was a much more promising start than I thought it would be. Nice. I was a bit on the fence before, but now I’m fully on board!
I do wonder how the hair in front of her face works though…
I struggled a bit on page 12 and 13, but apart from that it wasn’t too hard.
Thanks for the vocab sheet, @eagleflo - it was very helpful for a few words where I couldn’t quite get by with a dictionary!
(And I just realized I’m reading two books about store employees now.)
Also: Great, now I gotta keep myself from reading the next chapter until next week.
I know I suggested this whole “start slow with 3 chapters total in the first 3 weeks” schedule, but could we maybe switch to “read a chapter a day” instead?
This is the first book club I have ever joined, so my pace is probably going to be a bit slow and I’m going to have a lot of questions. I hope everyone will be patient with me! Having said that I have two questions already.
Page 4
いっそ山田さんに差し入れでもしてみようか
My best attempt at translating this is: Should I give some provisions (gifts?) to Ms. Yamada?
However, what does the でも mean in there? Does it mean ‘or something’?
Page 5
こんな時間まで会議した挙句何も決まらないだと…
I think I understand the gist of this, but I feel like I may be missing something important because I’m unsure aboutと at the end. Is it acting as ‘and’ before 殺ーー?
Also thanks so much to eagleflo! Both your website and the vocabulary sheet have been a huge help!
Based on the dictionary entry “refreshments” might work? (Although the whole dictionary entry for 差し入れ seems weird here. What’s the task she’s carrying out? Working?)
Your translation is missing the してみる: “try to do x”.
And it’s missing the “might as well” (I think that’s what the いっそ means here) - although @eagleflo seems to disagree judging by the vocab list entry.
I’d translate it as “Might as well try to give it to Ms. Yamada as refreshments or something, hmmm…”
Page 5 (not quite sure about that one; corrections are extra welcome)
I’m not quite sure here. I don’t think と can act as an “and” between sentence fragments, but the best I got is that it’s “when”. So something like…
“When we have a meeting that is this long, and in the end nothing is decided…”
I’m equally unsure of how it continues. I can see two possibilities:
The “then” part of the sentence that would follow is completely omitted and up to anyone’s speculation. Afterwards, 殺ーー starts a new sentence. (“I’ll kill him… not!” - yeah, it works a bit better in Japanese.)
Or 殺 could be something like 殺したい, so “…then I want to kill (him).”
Btw, there’s no need to put anything into spoiler tags inside “Page X” detail tags.
Thanks a lot! I didn’t think and was right for that, but I couldn’t quite figure out what would make sense. When makes much more sense for the sentence.
Not having to use the spoiler tag for every single question also will make typing this out a little faster too
I’m not quite certain how いっそ should be read here. I personally read this as something like “Wouldn’t it be better if I tried to give some 差し入れ to Ms. Yamada”.
Just to tie it into context, in the previous bubble he was thinking about how he was visiting the supermarket too often without real need and buying too much – so rather than hauling everything back home, maybe just give something to his favorite cashier?
With the definite undertone that he is talking himself into it, he wants to do it.
In this way I think our translations are very close.
I’m not 100% on how 差し入れ should be translated, but based on the three definitions we have in JMdict / jisho.org the “supply of refreshments” one is clearly the closest It’s like when you bring doughnuts or cake to the office, as a token of gratitude for all the hard work people around you are doing. (What’s that called in English?)
Page 5
I think と in this case is a conditional conjunctive – と4 for those who are reading A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, also featured in a blog post from Tofugu.
It’s summarized as “a subordinate conjunction which marks a condition that brings about an uncontrollable event or state”. So, in this case, due to the meeting dragging out so late and still nothing being decided, there is an uncontrollable and inevitable causal link to 殺ーー.
I think it’s just the additional clip we see on 山田 that’s holding quite a bit of hair.
The back hair length difference is explained in 11本目後日談 on page 161, if you’re willing to take a peek and somehow open that page without looking at page 160.
This is my first book club and I instantly got so addicted that I had to buy ロジカとラッカセイ and start a retro read for the last book club to keep myself from binging through this one too fast.
Yeah, this is what had me most confused - it didn’t seem plausible to have those bangs without actually cutting her hair.
I tried this with my own hair and I suppose it might be possible if you got a narrow, oval face and a high forehead. The hairs on the far side of the bangs have to be long enough to be pulled all the way to the opposite side and fixed with a hair clasp to hide the ends under the longer strands of hair at the side.
Oh, nice to have you on board with ロジカとラッカセイ! People are still reading the old threads, so you’re welcome to comment your thoughts and ask your questions still
In the second panel of this page, I have a hard time parsing Sasaki’s explanation for why he always uses Yamada’s register (It’s not the boobs! Honestly! It’s just that…).
あの子のお仕事に勝手に元気貰ってるだけなんてす！
The gist of this seems to be that he’s impressed by the energetic way that Yamada does her work, I guess? But since the verb is 貰う, I was wondering who exactly is receiving what.
Book Club!
癒しの中毒者. But I also really like 田山… 
(I also hadn’t figured out the thing yet.)
