Welcome to the home thread of 容疑者Xの献身 - The Devotion of Suspect X !
Everybody agreed to start on January 23rd, and so that’s what I set as the start date.
Surprisingly enough, I will read this in paperback, and so I was able to check the book for a suitable schedule on my own this time (yay!). It has almost 400 pages, and it is conveniently divided into 19 chapters of almost identical length (that means around 20 pages), and so I figured we might want to start with Chapter 1 on its own (to ease us into the book) and after that we might want to read two chapters per week. This gives us a nice ramp-up in page numbers, as you can see in the OP. Note that this is just a preliminary schedule! Please tell me what you think about it and whether we should go with it like this or whether we can find something better.
Oooh, did not even know this book until now - and it even exists as eBook! You need to tell me how you liked it at some point… maybe a little review in the extensive reading thread?
We are a really small group indeed, it seems… But no worries, if we stick closely together, nothing can harm us!
(And 10 weeks aren’t that long anyway )
Speaking of which… @Saga you voted for the book but now you decided to not read it with us? Did you change your mind so quickly? (I hope nothing bad happened in the meantime? …)
I don’t think the book has any furigana (or hardly any), so I think to not get frustrated by too many unknown kanji, maybe level 30 or 40 is advisable? It also depends on your tolerance for word lookups, and whether you read paperback or ebook.
Another big factor not reflected by your WaniKani level is your grammar knowledge. Since the book is aimed at adult readers, and since we‘re reading 40-50 pages a week, I would say at least N3 or N2? Of course that’s also dependent on your pain tolerance for unknown grammar (which is harder to recognize and lookup than vocabulary) and the amount of time you’re willing to put into this.
If you‘re not that confident yet maybe check out one of the Intermediate or Beginner Book Club picks first? We’ve read books with full furigana before as well, so you’re less dependent on your kanji knowledge.
I know. I really wanted to read it along with you guys since it’s one of my all-time favorite books in English, but I didn’t realize that the advanced book club read at such a fast pace! My grammar knowledge is OK, but unfortunately my reading speed is quite slow due to having to look a lot of words up, and also being busy IRL with graduate school. I’m still going to read the book, but I’m going to have to do it at my own pace, referring back to old threads when I have questions.
I see, thanks for the feedback! Come to think of it, it might probably be helpful if we indicated the planned reading speed right next to the poll so that people can get a better impression…
(I keep thinking that the voters participate in the poll because they already know the book club and how it rolls, and I tend to forget about the thread just popping up in the forums where people see it without too much context).
Anyways, I hope we’ll leave you a nice set of reading threads, and you’re always welcome to ask questions even long after we’re done - there will still be folks around that can help. Good luck with your reading!
Yes, that’s a good idea about putting the reading speed next to the poll! I’m used to the intermediate book club’s speed, which is usually two weeks per chapter, so I assumed the same pace would apply here. My apologies!
I’m extremely excited to read the book, even if it will take me forever. I’m grateful that you guys are creating such well-organized and helpful threads, and I’ll certainly be using them later. I hope you all enjoy the book!
Pretty hyped about this (says me who dropped Yukiguni on like the first week).
Fun story: I bought a Higashino Keigo book for my dad recently on Father’s day, just knowing it was one of his more highly praised ones. It was promoted in the bookstore with the localized title being something like “The Faithful Neighbour”. I didn’t make the connection until recently, that it’s the same book . He read it pretty fast and said it was “amazing”, so I have high hopes . Knowing my dad he doesn’t get excited very easily.
That’s a really great story - plus now you have an English copy to borrow in case things get rough
But yeah, I totally understand that you dropped out of Yukiguni - that’s quite a tough book (although it got a bit easier from chapter 3 or so, I think). But to me it seems that Yougisha is muuuch easier (judging from the preview at least), so I’m really hyped about it as well!
Yukiguni difficulty aside, I just tried to find it hard to find interest and momentum for such a “normal” book (and a bit dated). Reading too much fiction, maybe.
Oh, I see. Yeah, that’s probably a very hard cut if you come from the fiction / light novel department I hope that Yougisha will be somewhat of a middle ground here.
Just realized this was chosen
This club’s pace is still pretty brutal for me and I’ll be prioritizing 狐笛のかなた, but I’m interested in reading books of this genre, so I’ll at least try to start with the club and then I’ll see if I’m not too busy to keep up. No promises!
I’m excited to join the book club as well! I semi-randomly bought 12 books to try and read in 2021 as a challenge, and this just happens to be one of them. So it’s a lucky coincidence!
The long wait is finally over! Let’s kick off reading
Here is the first week’s thread. As always, please ask any questions, tell any stories, add any comments you feel like - but remember to blur your spoilers so that others can enjoy reading too!
)
Did you change your mind so quickly? (I hope nothing bad happened in the meantime? …)
. Knowing my dad he doesn’t get excited very easily.
.
