Join the Absolute Beginner Book Club Here!
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Welcome to the ドラえもん ・ Doraemon 
Book Club!
Reading starts December 14th
We’re diving into the whimsical world of Doraemon 
, everyone’s favorite time-traveling robotic cat, to practice our Japanese reading skills in a fun and supportive environment. Whether you’re new to reading Japanese or looking for a lighthearted read, Doraemon is perfect for you! 
Doraemon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. First serialised in 1969, it became one of the best-selling manga series of all time, and the Doraemon character a cultural icon. The story revolves around a robotic cat named Doraemon, who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a boy named Nobita. In each episode, Nobita gets himself into a bit of a caper or has some challenge, and Doraemon has just the invention from the future to help him out, or make things worse…
Special features: This manga is episodic, which means you don’t need to read the chapters or volumes in order. The version we are reading takes advantage of that and is a collection of the easiest Doraemon stories. Please use this to your advantage! For example, if you start the club late, or life gets in the way and you get behind the reading schedule - simply join the club at the current chapter. You can always go back to read previous chapters and comment on the relevant threads.
Getting the right version
The club is reading the recent collection arranged by school year starting from grade 1. These are original episodes from the original manga, but ordered by grade and complexity. That means these are NOT in the same order as the original series release, so please be sure the cover looks exactly the same as in the image. Ideally follow the links provided to buy your copy.
This edition is great for the ABBC, as the first graded volume introduces the most accessible episodes of Doraemon and is noticeably easier than volume 1 episode 1 of the original. Also, the newer version is printed larger, starts in color, and appears to have better resolution on the digital samples.
View the 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 vocab and grammar to the characters and story. We try to help each other by contributing to the shared vocab list, by answering each other’s questions and by keeping each other motivated.
Discussion Guidelines
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!
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
Bookwalker
Amazon
Rakuten/kobo
Schedule
Page numbers refer to the number on the printed page. The digital version will vary slightly.
| Week | Start Date | Chapter | Starting Page | Pages with text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Dec 14th | ふわりねん土 | 5 | 6 |
| Week 2 | Dec 21st | ピーヒヨロロープ | 12 | 5 |
| Week 3 | Dec 28th | さかみちレバー | 18 | 6 |
| Week 4 | Jan 4th | ゴロアワセトウ and 木こりのいずみ | 25 | 12 |
| Week 5 | Jan 11th | おくれカメラ and ひっこしちず | 39 | 13 |
| Week 6 | Jan 18th | どんぶらガス and かげぼうしフラッシュ | 52 | 12 |
| Week 7 | Jan 25th | 虫よせボード and いっすんぼうし | 66 | 12 |
| Week 8 | Feb 1st | うみを一きれきりとって and 月のひかりと虫のこえ | 79 | 12 |
| Week 9 | Feb 8th | そっくりクレヨン and ココロコロン | 93 | 11 |
| Week 10 | Feb 15th | ママをたずねて三千キロじょう and ちかてつをつくっちゃえ | 105 | 17 |
| Week 11 | Feb 22nd | Commentary 各話解説 | 124 | 10 |
Resources and vocabulary
- VOLUME 1 Vocabulary spreadsheet
Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words. - Advice for those new to reading
- 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 and break the sentence down into its individual parts.
- Deepl will translate a sentence from Japanese to English. It’s obviously not going to be right all the time, so if you want to check your translation it’s normally better to ask in the thread.
Membership
- Yes
- Yes, but I might start late
- I’m joining from the future, after the book club has finished
- Maybe
- No
- Digital
- Physical
schedule polling
The ones I’ve seen seem too difficult, but this one seems more realistic! I’ve been curious about Doraemon too.
… I peeked through the Bookwalker sample and that is indeed a lot of kanji words spelled with hiragana. The bright side is that that will help a bit with listening comprehension.