Yay! Always so exciting
I took the page numbers from the tables of contents, so they should match yours Therefore I don’t deem it really necessary, but if you’d like to double-check one or two of the stories, I wouldn’t complain.
Yay! Always so exciting
I took the page numbers from the tables of contents, so they should match yours Therefore I don’t deem it really necessary, but if you’d like to double-check one or two of the stories, I wouldn’t complain.
I’m still trying to decide which format I should get.
Is there a way to hide the furigana in the Aozora version, maybe with a browser extension?
I guess I can do that by copying and pasting everything into a Word document and cleaning the readings. But Word only allows to do that for a few words at a time, so it needs some labor.
Edit: Sorry, I should have made a quick google search before posting this. This one works:
My copy arrived today too!
I’m really excited about this book - though the amount of text is a bit intimidating compared with the manga I’ve been reading!
It may look frightening at first, but we will start slowly (the first story has less than a page per day, I think), and you will get used to it in no time
Hi everyone! Seeing as the stories are out of copyright and already available for free, I went ahead and created an epub version containing all the stories linked above, as I am an ereader fiend but also cheap
Click here to download the epub
edit The folder linked above now includes a pdf version as well as docx - please note that the google preview for the docx does not have vertical text, but once opened in word, should appear as thus.
Some notes:
Thank you! In not-so-unrelated news, I just found out that my tablet doesn’t support Japanese epub files… At least there seems to be a fix, so if I figure that out I might just skip buying a paperback this time
Gah, that’s a pain… hopefully you can figure that out. Worse case scenario, you can probably generate a pdf from the epub?
Just doing some more testing on more ereader, and it seems that it won’t perform dictionary look ups (which I can definitely do with other Japanese books) - I think I need to set the language, so will play around with that more later and update the file accordingly.
Huh, that definitely sounds easier that fiddling with my tablet, I might just go with that option I have almost no experience with epubs since I’m usually a die-hard paperback person but since my tablet doesn’t have a dictionary or anything like that there’s probably no point in trying to get epub to work when pdf is an option…
Is the tablet android? I use an app called Moon Reader. It’s free with ads (you can watch a video ad to make those go away for 3 days). Just download the epub, import it within the app, and it’ll be on your shelf. Organization isn’t great with lots of books but for a few here and there it works fine.
IIRC you can also import DRM free epubs into the Google books, Nook and Kindle apps but I haven’t tried.
It’s a reMarkable so I can’t use any apps, it’s minimalistic on purpose, but thank you anyways!
Sounds good! I also have a docx version that I used to generate the epub, so if yourself, or any else wants I can also upload that. Might be easier to generate a pdf from a word docx, as that would allow you to control things like font and line spacing.
Okay so I tried around for a bit, I now have a pdf with horizontal text but I couldn’t figure out how to get one with vertical text without parts of it being cut off by the margins (at least not with any free tools ), so a docx would be really helpful
Yeah… conversion is always a bit of a gamble! It took me a while to get vertical text working in the epub even though the original docx had text properly formatted.
In any case, my original post now links to a folder with a docx version as well as PDF Enjoy!
The all-over furigana on the aozora site was for me the reason to invest ¥550 to buy from bookwalker, where there is still furigana, but not too much.
Here’s a comparison:
bookwalker:
aozora:
Took me a while but I’ve added a link to your files to the OP. Thanks very much for your work!
I want to join! But I don’t understand how book clubs work here. Each week after we read do we recap together somewhere and talk about that chapter?
Not even that stressful it’s a friendly group…give it a shot!!
We read a set amount each week. Someone creates a thread (depending where in the world) Friday or Saturday for the new chapter/vol/section…and that’s it. As we progress, some people fall behind (not a big deal), some people find it boring or quit (sadness)…either way not a big deal with this particular item one as each story is stand alone. If one story is hard or boring…there’s a new one next week…could even skip a week and jump in the next if something was unbearable.
In any case, the threads are still there…the vocab lists are shared and populated by the group.
Grammar and any other questions are posted to the weekly thread and usually you’ll get an answer from someone rather quickly (sometimes within minutes) with an explanation. Sometimes if there’s confusion, additional posts and further discussion is generated.
Stupid questions welcome…though no need to go looking back through any of my past history…sure I’ve never done that Seriously though if you have the question somebody else will absolutely have the question…ask…keep the group active!!!..best way to help everyone. See the link below as an example.
There is also (haven’t checked in a while) the out loud reading group as well on discord - someone else will have to probably link to where ever that ends up. Usually someone tries to find a general time that works for most of the people and that’s it…
==== You can look back at some past group reads - lots of them…one we just finished (Absolute Beginner Book Club ABBC book)
Teasing Master Takagi-san ・ Volume 1 - Japanese Language / Reading - WaniKani Community
Basically the clubs are all very similar…you could pick up any of the past book club books and even post in any of the threads (if they are open) and ask questions about something from 6 months ago…you’re likely to get the help you need. (of course first search…someone already probably asked and answered the question)
If it’s your first time…don’t worry have fun…if you’re truly a beginner at reading (personally) I’d caution that the beginner book club assumes you know (generally) N4 grammar …something to keep in mind when you are going to tackle a book. Not to meant to discourage anyone…just something to at least be aware of.
The first book (manga) I read was with the beginner book club thinking yes this is where I should be…turns out the BBC and ABBC had changed a bit over the years and actually based on some of my comments the descriptions of the bookclubs were changed to make it easier to discern the difference.
In any case, if you have never picked up a Japanese book before…the BBC is probably a daunting task…and I’d recommend starting with the ABBC. I was able to finish my first book back over a year ago maybe (been a long time - would have to go find the posts)…but it was a huge chore and I posted so many questions. Everyone was awesome and I learned a lot.
Fast forward to now…I can get through something easy (depending on the vocab) about 30 pages of manga in an hour…it can vary quite a bit (sometimes less/sometimes more) though based on difficulty, furigana (yes/no), and amount of N3/N2 grammar (yes N2 sneaks into the ABBC too haha). But it’s ok…that’s what the forums are for.
I honestly spent several hours sometimes on just a page breaking everything down and writing it all out just working through to get to a place where I could understand. What I needed to do personally (not required by the club by any means) Definitely dove into the deep end…which is why the book club descriptions have been clarified since.
If you don’t know the answer or the grammar is N5 no one is going to mind if you ask questions either…I say this because…reading is just not easy (it’s freaking hard sometimes hahaha) and the group does a really good job trying to select books so that the ABBC, BBC, IBC, ABC are level appropriate.
Thanks so much for the detailed explanation! I will be busy during that time, but I’ll try to keep up if I can. It sounds casual, so that’s good!
I think I’ll stick with BBC for now because I have already passed N3 and have taken N2 (failed by a point because of 読解). I’m just starting wanikani now again because it’s more fun and effective to study kanji this way for me.
Anyway, I’ll mark myself as participating and looking forward to August 28th!
consider the IBC too then…sounds like you might already be a expert
This looks like fun! Adding it to my calendar.