白いくま is in the second volume of the series (which, incidentally, is 30% points back on Amazon).
2 Likes
Probably going to be a challenge for me but since I can read for free I think I’ll try to join!
7 Likes
Oh I’m excited to try this!! I’ve only read graded readers and my N4 grammar knowledge is shakey, but I want to try 
10 Likes
I found a version with a different cover https://united-states.kinokuniya.com/bw/9784816924521
1 Like
There are probably lots and lots of different editions 
And it is very expensive 
2 Likes
Sure but I’m wondering if it has all the stories I geuss I’ll buy it and see 
1 Like
I looked into this a little bit, and if the book really contains all of his stories from the period that is given in the title (i.e. 1906 - 1923) then most of the stories should be in it. I could not find an official publication date for the stories we plan to read in the first two weeks, but the others all seem to fall within this time period.
2 Likes
1 week to go! Can I just say Nicole, thanks for all the effort you’ve put into organising this book club. That schedule in the opening post is amazing!
12 Likes
It ocurred to me that with the Yotsuba club waiting for the next volume, I’m down to only two active book clubs, so maybe I’ll join in this one too. 
12 Likes
The cover looked familiar… turns out I bought it August last year for half the price. Were there plans to read the book back then?
Anyways, I guess I’m in.
Btw @NicoleIsEnough thanks for advertising the clubs in other threads, I would have otherwise missed several clubs or the start of them 
8 Likes
I think I nominated it in August last year. Smart of you to immediately buy it! 
No worries! I think it’s more fun to read with more people, and so I try to lure in as many unsuspecting souls - erm, try to find as many interested people as possible 
17 Likes
Just a tip for anybody who is looking for a convenient way to read these on iOS:
Since these stories are freely available on Aozora, you can load them into the Manabi Reader App. It has options for showing Furigana (or not) and a single tap on a word shows the dictionary definition (I believe it uses the same definitions as Jisho). I think the app is free.
You can use the ‘Open URL’ button on the opening screen of the app to open the Aozora link and it should load the text (you can hit the bookmark icon to save it for later).
The only downside that I have found is that it sometimes parses word boundaries incorrectly (e.g. in the first story it incorrectly parses うららか as うらら・か and defines うらら to be a feminine name) so that can be a little confusing. This also causes the furigana to be occasionally incorrect.
Still, it’s a convenient way to quickly read something in Japanese. The app also has a built-in section with many more Folktales that are in the Public Domain (I often read these for practice whenever I have some spare time).
8 Likes
Thanks for the info! I did not know that Manabi reader can be used to read Aozora texts. Can it also display the text vertically?
I’ve used an iOS (and maybe also Android?) app called Sorari which can also be used to read Aozora texts. It can display the text vertically, and it has dictionary integration (press and drag to mark a word, then a menu will pop up from which you can look up the word) but I don’t think it can give you furigana automatically (never tried it, though).
4 Likes
No, sadly it doesn’t (as far as I could find). I guess that is the second downside 
3 Likes
Welcome to our first week of reading! Please check in, start reading and enjoy! Also, you can direct your questions, comments and everything else to this thread:
9 Likes
Thanks for posting this tip!
I’ll be adding proper long form ebook support to Manabi Reader eventually. Some features and performance improvements needed to properly support
Currently working on a big update so any feedback is most appreciated. Focus is on general quality refinements, including importing furigana/word boundaries automatically from sources that have them already like NHK Easy or Matcha to override the machine-generated ones - this helps ensure beginner materials are accurate. Genera improvements to how it matches to dictionary lookups, especially with names (or accidental name entry matches). I’m also adding Anki export. Looking at Wanikani integration for tracking and flashcard review as the next big feature.
4 Likes
Hats off to all of you who read, fought and struggled through week 1! Here is week 2 which is of about the same length:
8 Likes
Here’s another tip for iOS users. Maybe all of you already know this, but I just discovered it, so I thought I would share it. If you read these stories on Aozora and you use Safari, then activating the Reader View (via the AA button in the address bar) immensely increases the readability in my opinion. The normal Aozora view makes the Kanji smaller than the Kana around them (at least on my device it does) and I really hate that. The reader view has normal sized Kanji (still with furigana above them; and better line breaks, of course). (Sorry if I’m being too excited about this 
.)
edit: it does take away the section headers, though (eg. in the week 3 story, but those are only numbers)
edit 2: increasing the font size (can be done via the same menu) has the same effect and preserves the section headers
6 Likes
Hello and welcome to week 3!
This week we’ll ramp up our reading speed a little bit, going from 5 pages to 8 pages. Just hang in there, you can do it, and you’ll get used to it in no time! 
Edit: Oops, I did not mean to reply to you directly @wiersm
But welcome to week 3 anyways!
12 Likes
Haha, I thought I was getting some personal encouragement, but I’ll try to hang in there anyway. I’m not sure I’ll get used to it in no time though, because this week was quite a bit of work to translate again
3 Likes