☕ 夜カフェ ☕ (Offshoot Book Club) Home Thread (Starting Book 4 from March 4)

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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I just figured out that this is a two part problem for me:

  1. This is just my fear/guess how the story will go, I have absolutely no idea if I’m right, so that is why this is a not a spoiler. I just fear this is what will happen: I have a sneaking suspicion that the bullies will be allowed to get away with their behavior because something was terrible in their lives. Boohoo… While those who was bullied will suddenly “become friends” with their former bullies. Because it is on the victims to forgive and forget because it is all over now, right?

  2. I find that with the weekly schedule, I have time to dwell on all the terrible stuff that happens and tends to be solved only a few chapters later. Meaning, that by the time a bad situation is finally solved, I will have been thinking about it for several weeks if not a month (or more!). And that makes the negative situations in the book so much more grave. So I think I’ll probably read volume 3 (that is the last volume I own currently) at my own pace. To see if that makes me less negative about the drama this book series seems to favor. (But I’m also getting right tired of the bullying. The two main drama seems to be absent parents and bullying. That isn’t all the things that are a problem for kids that age…)

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47

Welcome to Week 13! We’re down to the penultimate chapter! ☕ 夜カフェ 2 ☕ Offshoot Book Club Chapter 11 Discussion Thread

It’s funny how fast the second novel went despite the two breaks. :sweat_smile: Don’t worry if you still haven’t caught up! The last week is the あとがき with not much to read (and is really just optional).

Actually, I wonder if we even need a separate thread for it or if it’s okay to just post at the end of the chapter 12 thread? I don’t mind either way, but I wonder if anyone even comments about them in other book clubs? I’ll tell you what, let’s make it a poll because you love those!

Do we need a new thread discussion for Week 15’s あとがき and Hanabi’s Recipe?
  • Yes, I like consistency
  • No, just stick it at the end of the last chapter’s thread
  • No preference but I like polls

0 voters

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48

I also think we should just read last chapter, recipe and atogaki in the same week, it is only 13 pages all together.

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49

Wow, sorry everyone for posting so late! Got a little confused this past week because Thursday was a holiday (and almost posted it then lol) and woke up this morning thinking I had to go to work but was pleasantly surprised that wasn’t the case. XD

Anyway, here’s the final chapter’s discussion thread! According to last week’s poll results, we’ll continue discussion for the recipe and あとがき at the end of this thread too.

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Reply

I agree with you it wouldn’t be much to add on, and since it’s not plot-related, it’s not like you’re really pressured to read it. But since it’s kind of late to change the schedule and maybe some readers are treating next week as a break week if there isn’t much to read and it’s not really mandatory, I wouldn’t want to pressure anyone into thinking this week is the last week of discussion for the book if they weren’t already prepared ahead of time. Does that make sense? :sweat_smile:

But since we’ve basically reached the end, I’ll be posting several polls for the next book below. Stay tuned!

How soon do we want to start volume 3? Keep in mind we also have あとがき and Hanabi’s recipe reading next week.
  • Next week (November 12)
  • 2 weeks from now (November 19)
  • 3 weeks from now (November 26)
  • 1 month from now (December 3)
  • No preference

0 voters

How do we want to organize the discussion threads?
  • I prefer having a new discussion thread per chapter
  • I prefer having one discussion thread for each volume
  • No preference

0 voters

Please find the outline for the table of contents for volume 3 here (I chose not to include chapter titles to avoid spoilers but let me tell you from what I’ve seen, I’m excited to start this volume!).

As you can see, chapter 3 is the longest at 27 pages but the rest of the chapters are about 20 pages or fewer most of the time. This book only has 10 chapters as well. Considering this information, please answer the following poll.

How quickly to we want to read volume 3?

  • 1 chapter per week (current pace)
  • 2 chapters per week (faster pace)
  • I also want a break, esp around the holidays (please tell me more)
  • I have a new idea (please explain below)

0 voters

  • What should we do with the 3 extra pages at the end? (not plot relevant)
  • Stick the discussion at the end of the last chapter’s discussion
  • Make a new discussion thread
  • Bundle it with the last chapter’s reading
  • No preference

0 voters

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51

I’m still quite behind and unfortunately struggling to catch up, so I would love a couple weeks or 3 to fully catch up before starting volume 3 (which I would love to do), but if everyone wants to start sooner I don’t want to hold anyone back

I think that keeping every chapter to a single discussion thread is a pretty good model, I’ve experienced it in another book club (Shadow House), it makes it very easy to go back and reference earlier comments, so I think it’s worth a go here too, especially since we don’t have that many members/comments anyways.

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52

Though I think the current volume of シャドーハウス is using a single thread and that’s working fine. I think it depends on the amount of commentary on the book. At the moment 夜カフェ probably has enough for a chapter per thread but that may decrease as number of readers drops off.

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53

Perhaps we could try it for a week or two, and see how it goes from there

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54

I hope you all have a good time reading the next volume together. I’m bowing out for now. I’ll probably read the third volume at some point since I own it, but I have a few other things I’d like to read first and I have quite a few book club commitments already. :scream:

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55

I haven’t committed officially to a bookclub yet but I can already see it, so many clubs to join, so many things to read, so little time :sweat_smile::exploding_head:

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56

I’m a little ambivalent about reading the next one - however when it was on sale I bought as far as volume 5, so I probably will! But I’m struggling to keep up with my other book clubs so will see how I go.

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57

This is the last week to finish up volume 2 and then break before starting volume 3. Thank you all for contributing to discussion, updating the vocab sheet, and overall participating. Even if you started losing steam in the end, thanks for being part of the club and reading with us! Now to address the poll results…

Volume 3 Start Date

Unlike volume 1, the events of volume 2 seems to have killed off the hype for the series, unfortunately. :sweat_smile: So I think starting volume 3 on November 26th would help give us time away and help us catch up on other book clubs and real-life commitments. From the time that the poll was created, that would give us a 3-week break, but from today, it would just be another 2 weeks before we start again.

Discussion Threads

I have no problem with making a new discussion thread per chapter as it might help avoid spoilers, but I think we can also prevent that by using spoiler tags and clearly labeling what we’re addressing.

When I read this, I thought this would be a good idea too, so I think for now, I’ll set up the first thread as a separate chapter discussion thread for chapter 1. If there’s one or no comments, then I’ll just transition it into a volume thread. What do you guys think?

Reading Pace

I think we all agree that keeping to the 1 chapter per week schedule is more than enough. I’ll incorporate a break into the schedule as well down the road. Do you guys want the week of Christmas/New Year’s off or…? Would you rather break halfway into the book?

Extra Pages

Sorry the question got lost in the poll options. XD; I’ll just stick it to the end of the reading assignment for the last chapter and keep the discussion in the same thread like this time around.

Also, am I missing anything else that we should discuss?

Also for those of you who have already finished volume 2, congratulations! This might be the second book you’ve read in Japanese for some of you, and that’s awesome!

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58

Unfortunately that’s the case for most spin-off book clubs it seems, but oh well. As long as those who remain are enjoying the series! As for me, I’m certainly having fun. Though to be honest the bigger reason I’m continuing is that this series, as a light novel, is far more text-heavy than the other (manga) book clubs we’ve had since (シャドーハウス、耳をすませば、and currently, 神さまがまちガえす) so it’s certainly keeping me on my toes in terms of both vocabulary and grammar, and I feel like I’m benefitting more from this series than the others.

Sounds good to me. Gives me enough time to catch up hopefully, and I’m not too far behind at this point (currently chapter 10)

Sure thing, no objections here. We’ll see how it goes

Huh, not sure. I don’t tend to be very busy during that period actually, so I’m fine either way. As for breaking halfway through the book, never a bad idea in my opinion. I may end up needing the time, and others may too. We’ll see though, if nobody says that they need it at the time, we could just continue and have a break later if we think we need it.

Nope, I think everything has been taken into account so far.

The first volume was the first Japanese book I ever read through, and it felt amazing lol. So far I have read several other books through the main book club and another spin-off, and it certainly feels great every time I finish one.

To think that just a couple years ago, I could barely read Kana and I knew of nothing but the most basic of grammar, and now I’m actually reading proper Japanese books (even though I still need a lot of help from dictionaries/grammar guides lol) but yeah, it feels fantastic. This almost never happened, actually. I had wanted to learn a language for some time, and Japanese was on my mind, but it looked so intimidating, so vastly different. After having given French and German a try, and being quite uninterested with both, I tried Japanese after finding myself with a lot of free time at the beginning of summer and I though “eh, what do I have to lose?”. Perhaps one of the best decisions of my life. Certainly showed me the importance of at least taking that first step, even if something seems difficult.

And now, I’m committed to making Japanese my second language, and being able to one day express myself in Japanese just as I am doing now. It’ll be a long journey, but I think I’ll enjoy it quite a lot. I certainly am now!

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59

Hey guys! :smiley: Hope you’ve managed to catch up somewhat! I’m still a couple chapters behind myself :sweat_smile: but I’ve also been kind of busy especially over the weekend. (Fall colors have reached their peak in Hiroshima so that means a lot of guests staying!)

I haven’t had the chance to make a new vocab list for volume 3. I’m guessing people who use it prefer if the vocab lists were separated by volume, yeah?

Until then, please find the discussion thread for volume 3, chapter 1 up now! If we’re not getting much discussion by the end of the week, I’ll go ahead and convert it to a discussion thread for the whole of volume 3 unless people strongly feel otherwise.

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60

Why don’t we delay starting another week or two since there are at least two people (including yourself) who want to read along but need time to catch up? After all it’s more fun together. :slight_smile:

(I admit that I also have reading that I need to catch up on before starting a new book.)

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61

I don’t mind that suggestion! I’ll keep the new discussion thread up, but how about it guys? Do you want or mind delaying next week’s reading at least?

  • I want to keep the schedule as is
  • Let’s officially start next week
  • Let’s officially start in 2 weeks
  • I don’t mind either way

0 voters

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62

While I could start now, and have actually read 1 page, I’m behind in multiple clubs and the JLPT is this weekend. So I wouldn’t mind delaying it by one or 2 weeks.

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63

According to the polls, starting a week later (today) won, but it sounds like everyone who voted also said 2 weeks later is fine also, so I wanted to check in. :slight_smile:

Shall we start the official discussion for volume 3, chapter 1 from this week or next week?

  • This week
  • Next week

0 voters

64

I don’t feel strongly either way - I only got one page in and am trying to keep up with other clubs. We could always split chapter 1 over 2 weeks but start the discussion now, just to get a bit of momentum going.

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65

Thanks for commenting! :slightly_smiling_face:

Right now it seems like we’re down to about 3 active readers. And I don’t think we feel strongly about either option. I think this is what we’ll do.

Anyone can post in the discussion thread for volume 3, chapter 1. And then we’ll just extend the read date so next week will just be an additional week to finish chapter 1. That means we’ll officially open up to chapter 2 discussion on December 18.

I just ask that if anyone wants to discuss chapter 1 now to keep their posts under a Hide Details and big spoilers under a spoiler tag. I think we’ll do volume dedicated discussion threads this time around, so labeling would be helpful too. For example,

Chapter 1 Thoughts

I really love this chapter because spoiler.

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