Thanks! I looked at the list of stories at the top of this post, but none of them matched the index in the books I have. My issue isn’t the Kanji, my issue is the grammar - I’m just not very good at the grammar. Hasn’t stopped me from reading up to #12 of the Yotuba to series - I just haven’t understood everything 
I’ll pick up the Book Walker versions.
Welcome to the club! There are lots of grammar questions being answered, so I hope that helps, and that you have fun!
Awesome! So I do have a question regarding the original manga : is there more kanji than in the 一年生 version?
I find it really hard with almost no kanji.
In the edition the club is reading, in volume 1 only 1st grade kanji are rendered, and in volume 2 through 2nd grade kanji and so on. The sentences are so short, I personally don’t think it’s much of a problem, but definitely have a look at the preview (e.g., Bookwalker link in the first post) to see whether it suits you or not.
I’ll be reading along too on bookwalker, but I may not be able to keep up with the schedule being so new to Japanese and only knowing a handful of words! I’ll look at this as my opportunity to get used to using the dictionary and grammar lookup tools mentioned earlier in the thread even if I struggle my way through every word
(=´∀｀)人(´∀｀=)
The adventures of Nobita and Doraemon continue. Join us this week for the next episode!
Doraemon book club top tips:
This manga is episodic - you can always skip ahead and join in the current chapter
Feel free to read at your own pace. You can use and comment on these threads anytime. So whether you’re working on Week 1 while the club is on Week 2, or life takes over and you come back years later - there will still be members who will reply to you or be happy to see your comments!
Read in a way that brings you greatest enjoyment! For some people, that will be glossing over stuff to get the gist and stay with the club, for others, that might be diving deep into the vocab and grammar, or something in between. Post on the threads to let us know how you’re doing
Use the club vocab spreadsheet to make lookups fasterBetween the simple dialogue, the pictures, and the vocabulary sheet (thanks to whoever’s updating that by the way), this manga is really making me feel confident in following the story. The さかみちレバー is a fun idea and I definitely got some good vocab out of this one.
By the way, on the previous chapter, I couldn’t really figure out what ピヒョン meant. Is that just onomatopoeia?
That’s great, I’m glad you’re enjoying it! Be sure to check out the weekly threads (links above and I update them in the schedule table in the home post), that’s where the discussion for each episode happens. Here’s a link to where I took a stab at what ピーヒョロ meant (if that’s not what you meant then ask on the relevant week’s thread and be sure to put the page number!)
Oh my god I completely missed that there are separate threads for each week. I thought the book club was just really inactive 
I got behind in my reading. I’ll try to catch up and post some stuff.
Greetings.
For anyone that is behind, that’s ok. Keep going and please comment on the past week’s discussion threads. There are lots of friendly readers who can help you out. All links are easily found in the first post of this thread.
For those who are ready, the Week 4 discussion thread is up! See you there:
I couldn’t read for the whole of my Christmas vacation (I forgot my power cord!!!) and now I’m suddenly so behind I don’t know how I’m going to catch up.
( I really wanna catch up because reading along is the most motivating for me xd)
It’s good that the chapters are so short
Just make a note of which chapters you want to catch up with, skip them for now, and join the club where we are!
Then if you have additional time, go back to read what you skipped. The episodes are 100% not related and even out of order compared to the original edition, so not a problem at all. It’s one of the key advantages of having an episodic manga in the ABBC, so take advantage of it.
Week 5There’s more fun and laughter in Week 5 - are these inventions ingenious solutions to everyday problems… or total chaos when put in the wrong hands? See you there:
I’m really happy people are using and filling out the spreadsheet - and I don’t want to be too hard on following the rules, etc. There’s just a small formatting thing / convention on the spreadsheets that I should point out and ask people to follow. It’s a convention used across WK book clubs so it will help you add to spreadsheets correctly in future clubs.
The first column - “kanji” is only for kanji appearing in the text. So if a word appears in kana only, then the first column stays blank, and you put the kanji version of the word in the “notes” column. I think Week 1 is mostly filled out correctly for reference.
I’m not going to have time to correct entries, but hopefully if enough people start using that convention and correcting a few entries now and then, then more people will get used to that format. In harder clubs where most words appear with kanji, then it is actually confusing if the kanji column is filled when the word appeared in kana.
This book is the opposite, and it is helpful to have the kanji, and I’m glad people are doing that - I just wanted to make you aware it needs to go in a different column.
halfway point check inHow’s everyone feeling?
Drop a note - what is working well for you, what is challenging, or describe any big aha moments up to now!? That can be really motivating for the club
We’ve had a steep fall in participation in the last week since the pace increased. So if you’re behind the official club pace that’s fine and you’re not alone. Keep posting on the previous threads on how you are doing and definitely ask if you need help.
All links to discussion threads are conveniently in the first post.
One suggestion at this point is to try a new reading strategy. For example, if you’re reading all of it once a week, try reading a page or two a day (or even just one panel! ) Or try rereading the episode from week 1. Trying out a new routine can infuse more energy into your participation.
I absolutely love it.
This is my first encounter with Doraemon, and I am completely blown away by the creativity and imagination of its creator.
I was also kind of surprised to find out that some of the chapters we’re reading are, like, 50 years old, apparently? Just wow. To think that this is such a treasure that I might never have read if it weren’t for this book club.
Difficulty wise, sure, I probably could have picked something more advanced, but I’ve been eyeing book clubs for a little while now, and this is the first one with a book that actually caught my interest. That said, there’s still a decent number of words that I need to look up, and some phrases I might be less familiar with, with an added difficulty of parsing hiragana-only sentences.
Reading something together with a group of internet strangers is a completely new experience to me, and I really enjoy the social aspect. And questions from other participants help a ton, actually, because there might be something I’ve missed without even realizing it.
So yeah, please keep reading if you already are, and also please join if you’re not. Doraemon is a masterpiece worth your time.
I really love the episodic nature of this book club pick! It removes so much pressure to keep the pace up
I find the level just right for me: it’s relatively easy to read and understand, but I still rely on the vocab sheet and the forum a lot. What’s the hardest to me is to parse what is part of a word and what is a particle / conjugation bit, since there’s not too many kanjis and lots of short form that I’m less familiar with. So overall, that makes it a pleasant read, well balanced in terms of efforts!
There’s one thing I was thinking already in previous book clubs that I find even more true here:
I wish there was a way to sort everyone’s questions on the week thread by order of appearance in the book. That way I could read the forum as I’m reading the book, and when I don’t understand a sentence, I check if someone has already asked a question about that specific sentence.
At the moment, I read the story on my own once, looking for words in the vocab sheet and adding them there if I don’t see them. Then I read all the threads on the forum and I check the page every time for context. Then I read the story a second time and if there’s still a sentence I don’t understand, I ask my question on the thread. But that makes it a little long to proceed, and that’s partially why I dropped the last book 
I’m really enjoying this read and trying to keep pace with the group. A few moments really had me laugh out loud while reading along at the cafe.
I guess I am an absolute beginner to being an absolute beginner though lol, having only started my Japanese studies a month ago. So I am waiting towards the end of each week so I can do my reading with a thread full of answered questions to refer back to. Although I am seeing new vocab and new grammar points as they come up in my studies, so that’s definitely helpful in retaining the vocab. For example, I learned 写す on WK and しゃしん on Bunpro just in time for the chapter with the camera! Within days of the reading.
Hopefully by the next couple book selections I’ll be able to contribute more to the threads. But until then I’ll mostly be enjoying them from the sidelines.
Hello there 
!
I’m having a lot of fun in this book club thanks to everyone!
I’ve been learning Japanese for few years now, but failed to improve my kanji knowledge after taking the N5. This is actually a great way to review my knowledge while I’m preparing for the N4 as well.
I was a bit intimidated to read a book in Japanese cause I thought I did not have enough knowledge, but so far I’m really enjoying reading together with everyone. I read all you comments and it helps me a lot with grammar and vocabulary.
The lack in kanji can be a little confusing for me at times, but I take that as a challenge to use the context of the story in order to guess the meaning. So don’t be discouraged if there are a lot of words you don’t understand, you’ll get the hang of it the more you read.
This is my first contact with Doraemon and I’m loving every bit of it. The inventions are a really clever way to introduce new vocabulary, grammar and life lessons. I’d love to read other Doraemon stories in the future 
I hope you all have a great day!
