Thanks to everybody who participated in reading and/or discussing the book!
Enjoy your book club break, and see you again in the Spy x Family book club
But before you run away, here is the…
Satisfaction Poll!
Have you read 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん?
I finished it
I’m still reading and I plan on finishing it
I don’t plan to finish it
I never even started it
0voters
If you read the book, how would you rate it on a 5 point scale? (1: hated it, 5: loved it)
1
2
3
4
5
Unsure / Didn’t finish
0voters
If you read the book, how would you rate its difficulty?
We had an extremely solid user base, after the first two weeks basically nobody dropped off. That supports my impression that the book was well received and that the difficulty level and schedule was okay. OTOH, we did have a small group of ~3 late readers, but it didn’t increase over time, so I guess that’s fine as well.
Week 3 triggered an enormous outburst of discussion Thanks to everybody who was part of that. Afterwards, the discussion trailed off a bit, but given the non-exciting nature of the contents, this is only to be expected, I guess.
Ha, the only one who voted 4 so far. I thought it was a pleasantly easy read at a pleasant pace and the stories were amusing. What more could one ask for? I’d be curious to hear what made @omk3 and @downtimes vote for 3.
I was considering changing my vote to 4 actually, before you asked.
I still haven’t settled on how to go about rating my books to be honest. This one was pleasant and interesting, the first part more than the second, I thought ( when the focus shifts from grandma and life in Saga to grandson and his school life). I always had fun reading it, but when I paused after completing each week’s section, I felt no real motivation to continue reading - I could easily drop the book any time, and that’s not something that happens often to me. Hence the 3. Probably more like 3.8?
I haven’t dropped the book as I love it. But I didn’t have time to read at all lately so I am kinda late. But later better than never
I loved the story and for a first book it was a great pick for me. It’s not too easy nor to hard (for my level). And yeah, true based stories always get me. So it gets a good 5 even though I haven’t finished it yet
I’m still figuring this out, too. I gave this book a three which, when I look at other books I’ve ranked a 3, means I generally enjoyed it and it was worth my time. Four is I really enjoyed it and would recommend to others. A five means it affected me profoundly. I think I’m discerning enough in picking books to read that I’d be surprised to encounter a 2 or lower.
I’d also put this at the high end of three, but it didn’t have that quality that made me excited to pick it up every week that all the books I’ve ranked 4 seem to have.
A bit late but I finally finished too! Agreed that it was a nice, touching read and I’m glad I read it but it didn’t have that “gripping” quality to it other books have. Which fits the theme, I guess, but I might not have read it if there wasn’t a bookclub for it.
OK, finally I managed to finish as well! Like you all said already, it was a nice and heart-warming read for “in-between”, but nothing that gripped me and that called out for me (and that’s ultimately why I kept prioritizing other stuff above it).
For me it was definitely the lack of a challenge in the narrative. Of course, you could say that their whole life was a challenge, and I wholeheartedly agree, but the narrative was a bit too easygoing and chill for me to really really like it.
Speaking of which, for those of you who liked the writing style a lot, it very much reminded me of https://bookmeter.com/books/550755 - it’s written by the author of the famous manga ちびまる子ちゃん (who sadly passed away a few years ago at the same age I’m at now ) and it’s a very lighthearted book full of small episodes around her family (always super funny) or around some colleagues or other famous people (unfortunately pretty much lost on me because I never heard of any of them, but probably super funny if you know them). I cannot fully recommend it due to the fact that I could not really relate to a bunch of the stories, but the tone was pretty similar, so you might want to look into it if you like that.
For anyone interested in the manga version of this book, all volumes are 33 yen each on Bookwalker until August 21. If you buy them until August 15, 12 yen out of these 33 you get back as coinback. Pretty good deal…
Thanks for sharing! Literally just paid for the set with my accumulated coins (that were going to expire at the end of the month anyway) and got more coins back. Pretty sweet deal!
I am entering my reading activity in Learn Natively, but I read the ebook at the time, so I have no idea what the page numbers for the chapters are. Would someone with the physical book mind taking a picture of the table of contents?
Thanks to everybody who was part of that. Afterwards, the discussion trailed off a bit, but given the non-exciting nature of the contents, this is only to be expected, I guess.
I’d be curious to hear what made 
) and it’s a very lighthearted book full of small episodes around her family (always super funny) or around some colleagues or other famous people (unfortunately pretty much lost on me because I never heard of any of them, but probably super funny if you know them). I cannot fully recommend it due to the fact that I could not really relate to a bunch of the stories, but the tone was pretty similar, so you might want to look into it if you like that.