☕ 夜カフェ ☕ (Offshoot Book Club) Home Thread (Starting Book 5 from July 1st)

Just here to confirm that I’ll be following along, since the main book club (Shadow House) isn’t too difficult and I’m left with plenty of time for this :smiley:
When is the week 1 discussion thread planned to be posted?

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Thanks for joining us! :blush: I’ll have it posted on Saturday (Aug 6th) morning when I wake up around 7AM or so (Japan time). That’s about 24 hours from the time of this post being published. I’ll also share the link in this thread too, so if you’re watching this thread, you can’t miss it :wink:

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Ooh woops, I did that thing again where I mixed up the month and day (I don’t know why I do that, it’s not like I switch between systems) and so I thought it was the 8th of August already XD
Looking forward to starting then, and thanks again for hosting the club!

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A little later than I intended (woke up a little late and wanted to wait until the moment of silence for the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing to pass before going to work) but the first discussion thread for volume 2 is finally up! Feel free to jump in anytime!

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Just wanted to mention that I’ve updated the vocab list for chapter 1. I mostly focused on words I didn’t know in the first half and then started adding more words I thought some people would struggle with towards the second half, so sorry if it feels unbalanced! Please feel free to add more as you wish!

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Week 2 discussion is up! Let me know if you have any questions or struggling with anything (like the pacing). I’ll update the vocab list for this week as well when I get a chance to read.

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We’ve opened up a little discussion regarding whether to take a break to help readers catch up. This might help for those who are still trying to finish up volume 1 and/or having trouble finding time to read up to the current chapter or it can actually serve as a break to those who are up-to-date with the current chapter and want to catch up with reading in other clubs.

Since this is an offshoot club, I think it makes more sense to adjust the schedule time to help most of our members even if it means taking a break earlier than what is customary in most book clubs. So if a break sounds good or splitting the next chapter discussion to take place in the next two weeks or something might help you, please speak up!

We have a few opinions on the idea in the other thread, but I thought we should move the discussion here so more people can see it. From the way it sounds, we’re leaning towards taking a break in the coming week or so, but how soon do we want it? Keep in mind we have a break during Week 7.

I’ll give some time for others to pitch in ideas, and then I’ll make a poll to make the official vote on what we want to do.

Current discussion in the other thread
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If you were at all thinking about me, I’m fine. I’ve usually read one chapter in one sitting fairly easily. So as soon as I’ve done the weekly reading on the clubs I am caught up with, I’ll easily knock out the chapters I need to catch up with yoru cafe.

That said if others need an additional break to catch up, that is fine by me. :slight_smile:

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I did have you in mind (as well as some others that have been updating their progress on Natively - just didn’t know if they were the same members that were planning to participate in the next book or not :sweat_smile:) but I’ve noticed your progress in the Read Every Day Thread, and you’re doing great!

Early Break Poll

So it sounds like maybe the majority isn’t leaning towards a break after all… but in case there’s a few members who would still like to vote on it, let’s decide this with a poll. I’ll ping all the active members and those that voted yes or maybe in the original participation poll in case having an early break gives you the motivation to try to catch up.

Would you like to take an early break? (You can use this time to catch up on reading for this club or other book clubs or just relax.)
  • Yes, I think a break would help
  • No, I’m fine
  • I don’t mind either one
  • I’ve decided not to read with the club
0 voters
If you want a break, what timing is best for you? (Keep in mind we have a break for Week 7)
  • Immediately (starting week 3)
  • Soon (starting week 4)
  • I have a new idea (please comment)
0 voters
Pinging the following (potential) readers

@HaydenAscot
@shuly
@polv
@enbyboiwonder
@MrGeneric
@2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz
@Oceansea
@sakuchu
@MissDagger
@Cathm2

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Since I can only ping 10 members at a time, here's a second post to summon the other half. Please see post above.

@repdesu
@sumsum
@lucylavelle
@meagstudies
@cheruko
@tsundokurey
@Miriamlpm
@ibabinruel

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I’d say a break around week 4 would be good such that we can better utilise the given break time, but I don’t mind it being either way, and if people vote for no break then that’s fine by me :+1:

I am curious though, what is this Natively thing?

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Thank you so much for taking us into consideration. I bought the book, but I was not sure if I should really join. However, I guess this is my sign to start reading :grin:

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Natively is a site that aims to give approximate difficulty ratings for Japanese books. The difficulty ratings are decided by community ratings, and so are a bit of a work in progress. Users can also use it to keep track of their reading.

For example, this is what my books section looks like:

And on the home page:

image

That’s sorta the “quick-look” bubble of what I’m currently reading. These updates can be hidden, but generally speaking, most people tend to just let what they are reading be public, and progress can show up in a feed. You can also follow specific users if you would like, ala Twitter, and you can filter your feed to include just your “social” bubble, essentially.

Just realized I should probably also include a capture of the feed I’m referring to:

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Thank you @MrGeneric for explaining it much better than I could! It’s a great website to use if you’re interested in reading material in Japanese, but it can also be a little dangerous… :wink: I hear your ‘to read list’ can increase tenfold from being able to see other people’s titles (the plus side too is you can see the book cover). Since the forums have started recently, there’s some recommendations and (book clubs) there too.

And the community ratings aren’t just random numbers either. They sort of reflect the levels on Wanikani so if a book is at level 25, it means you can probably read most of the kanji in the book if you have cleared that level. It’s not absolute though as the levels change every time someone grades them. And since each member is at different levels, it’s more of a guess~timation really. But better than nothing!

I was going to hold off voting in the second poll because I didn’t want to influence the numbers. But if it comes to a tie-breaker, I was thinking Week 4 would be the best as it would put a halfway point to the next break.

If you want to read along and maybe post in the threads, then you should definitely join in! Reading and discussion is more fun when there’s more people! :slightly_smiling_face: But now I wish I had posted the poll or at least tagged you earlier! Then you could have started a little more time to start… sorry about that! :pray:

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I don’t know when I’ll be able to buy more books (I’m trying to finish at least a handful of the ones I already have before I do), but I am currently planning on reading the rest of this series and will probably get at least 2 and 3 when I do next get more, and I’ll be able to catch up whenever

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No, no, it all came at the perfect time. Work had been hectic that’s why I was so hesitant. Thank you for your concern :see_no_evil: I will be joining shortly (:

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Ah so it’s MyAnimeList but for books eh XD
Jokes aside, thanks for the explanation. It definitely seems like an interesting and useful resource for finding new reading material at a good level.
Though I will say, I personally think that 夜カフェ is at least a bit harder than シャドーハウス, so both of them being labeled as “level 23” seems off to me. But perhaps it’s just the “wall of text” effect playing tricks on my mind.

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I think it’s a slight flaw in the system that they compare LNs/books to manga. They are difficult in different ways, imo.

Edit: what the heck was that sentence? Think I tried to say the same thing two different ways at once and garbled the message. :laughing:

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I haven’t caught up yet, so I feel like my opinion in this pole is not relevant. Thanks for pinging me though! I’ll let you know if/when I get there.

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I’d say the poll is exactly for people who haven’t caught up yet!

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