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.
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
I’m reading along
I have finished this part
I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
I’m reading this book after the club has finished
I’m no longer reading the book
0voters
If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have read this part.”
I’d say: go for it. It all depends on your reading speed / time available / whether you mind lagging a bit behind the rest. I found the parts to be pretty short so far so maybe you can still catch up. And otherwise even reading a bit behind the rest can still be fun. If you post comments in any of the previous weeks you can still count on getting a reply.
If you’re in a big rush to catch up you could also watch the first episode on Netflix. It covers the first few chapters and it is an extremely faithful adaptation!
I don’t believe I’ve actually participated in an active BBC before. Is it always this…dead?
The link for week 5 isn’t even in the main thread. Seems like everyone supposedly reads along, but doesn’t actually discuss anything in the threads. It makes the whole thing kind of boring.
Maybe many people have seen the anime already (perhaps with subtitles in their native language), so it isn’t really new to them?
For me personally, I don’t find I have much to say after reading the chapters, and so far it has been enough to re-read complicated sentences a couple of times for me to get it. I’ve read quite a bit of slice of life manga by now, so it isn’t challenging.
I’m a bit similar, while I do mention from time to time my impression of the chapter, I don’t see what else we could be discussing so much about. I actually think the amount of discussion per week is fine, but I can understand others would appreciate a more active environment. Perhaps its because I feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of comments/posts in the ABBC weekly posts, but I quite enjoy the BBC being more quiet.
I agree that the anime being so recent could be a factor; and the popularity of the manga in English as well. There really hasn’t been a lot to discuss in these chapters, though.
One thing that may also be true is that a part of why the ABBC is so active is that people are learning and discussing general reading strategies for reading in an L2, and not just the reading itself. Stuff like: when and how to look up words, when to skip over hard passages, even how to start trying break down a complicated sentence to search for what it might mean. At least, from my observations of the ruri dragon club, a lot of it tends to be those sorts of topics. Those definitely aren’t trivial skills when you’re first starting to read, but by the time you’ve been reading for a while you just genuinely don’t need to ask for as much help on stuff.
But really, at the end of the day for komi, even if you aren’t familiar with the series already, most plot discussion is just gonna be: “Komi sure was cute this chapter” “ah, yes, indubitably”
