Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
Will you be reading with us?
I’m reading along
I’m still reading but I haven’t reached this section yet
I will catch up later
I’m reading this after the book club has finished
I’ve read this previously but I’m here for the discussion
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I’m about halfway through the book and trying to decide if I want to start over or wait until we catch up. I’m already a bit fuzzy on what was going on but thinking people’s comments might help remind me..
But maybe I’ll just listen to the audiobook book and then decide if I want to switch back to the book once we catch back up to where I am… hmmm …
maybe take notes from where you are? Then when we catch up you can put them in the discussion then?
Not sure, or audiobook it, that is a nice idea.
My notes
Preface (1)
I love these old grand style openings that make you feel all - oooh, aaah, this is going to be a legendary story about a legendary thief!
I’m not sure a modern book can pull it off anymore
2 鉄のわな
Ok, so it’s very handy if the dad names his sons after himself and I only have to learn the kanji 壮 and I can pronounce three people’s names.
I went in for some reason thinking that each chapter was a “case”, like a new theft and scene, so I was relieved that it is not the case
I have a hunch of what might happen, do we put speculation under spoilers? Please don’t tell me if I’m right, I just like to puzzle things out along the way. I wonder if the thief will disguise himself as the returning son and come back the day before. It’s the perfect setup since no one has seen him in 10 years!
That whole dream sequence that turned into setting a scary looking trap in the garden won’t go wrong at all. I like how the author felt responsibility for pointing out this was a terrible idea. I do love children’s books for that, lol.
how does this book club work? Do members “meet” at a certain time, or is the discussion all in these comments? Or? It’s my first time joining a Wanikani bookclub. Thanks
The discussion is all in the comments, so it’s completely on your own schedule.
The “club reading schedule” essentially serves the function of breaking up the discussion into chunks corresponding to those sections of the book.
Also, if there IS a vocabulary spreadsheet, those are separated into the corresponding weeks…
So it ends up that the vocabulary and grammar needed to understand each “week” of Reading the book can be found in the “weekly threads”… And the “home thread” includes navigation links, so that the various discussion can easily be found.
I find it best, when I’m in a Club, to scroll down to the bottom (shown below)
and change the thread setting to “Watching” on the Home Thread for that book and on each Weekly Thread (whether or not I’m able to keep up with the book club pace)
Mostly so that I can get low key Notifications under the “reply arrow” under my profile whenever someone has made a comment on the thread… The thread name shows and can be clicked over to
The writing difficulty is mostly fine. The letter by the thief was the hardest part. 余 as a personal pronoun threw me for a short loop before I understood what was happening.
Overall, a quick read. Nothing much happened this week except for the setup. My speculations can be found below.
I don’t think that tracks, since he sent a picture of himself with his letter. But it is terrifying how much the thief knows details of the family (especially the jewels). So maybe the picture and the son returning is all an elaborate sham. The thief took over the sons’ identity, and the letter was also faked by the thief?
Heavy case of foreshadowing. “Surely there will be no one stepping into the flower bed. I mean hardly anyone enters it, and the people of the residence are no robber after all.” and “Dear please reader keep this trap in mind”
Looking forward to the conclusion and who the hell will trigger the bear trap . Already feeling sorry for them. Bear traps are no joke.
I have already read this book a year ago so I’m going to follow along the club by listening to the audiobook.
I have never listened to a Japanese audiobook before, and I don’t have a lot of experience with listening in general (it’s not zero, I have watched some movies and listened to some podcast, but compared to people who do it daily or live in Japan, it’s very insignificant and I don’t feel skilled at it at all).
I decided to go for a walk to listen to week 1, using the playlist where the episodes as cut same as the schedule.
Needless to say I was not very surprised that I understood almost nothing of week 1
I could understand pieces of sentences here and there, but I was only able to follow the story along because I have read it before.
Oh well. I am planning on continuing and we’ll see if I see an improvement by the end of the book. There’s a loooong way to go for me with listening it seems. At least the walk was nice, got some snow here in the North Hemisphere:
My thoughts were more fantastical, like the thief did some recon and actually met the son and befriended him, learning all this, then arranged a shan return earlier than the real son’s. yours sounds more realistic
I’ll be so interested how it goes for you if one book is enough to notice an improvement.
listening is hard!
I feel like any listening ability I’ve developed has also come from listening to familiar themes or books I’ve already read. I hope this makes you feel better that it is just hard - I read 7 books in the Zenitendo series and also had audiobooks for all of them. I always had to read them to get the full story , I didn’t reach the stage of just leaning back and listening to one first as hoped. It still shocks me that I find listening to the American Life podcast easier than a children’s audiobook, but maybe because her podcast is closer to the practice I’ve done with speaking to my friend weekly since 2018.
Beautiful that’s what my neck of the woods looks like right now, too to the extent it feels like we’re neighbours.
If we compare the distance to Japan or to our friends in the US, we definitely are :x
Thanks for the encouragement! I agree that reading progress will also translate to listening progress. I also know it will come one day, if I keep at it!
I am planning on being more consistent at listening too 4989 this year plus playing more voiced VNs, hopefully that should help a bit too!
Same here! I have no problem reading an ABC level book, but listening to this IBC one is challenging. I’m only realizing it now, but doing sound → kanji → meaning translation in my mind is far from ideal because of the extra step.
I like how the author gives hints to us, that is fun Ok, noted, I won’t forget about the trap!
Overall reading is not too difficult, but after reading some comments I expected it to be easier. I think that it might be tricky in some places, especially for an inexperienced reader.
I also missed kanjis while reading these two chapters. Just like with Kiki I wonder why not just use kanji with furigana
Theory time
I had the same thought! That maybe the son wasn’t planning to come in the first place, and it is all a sham. It hell of a coincidence that both the thief and the son arrive at the same time.
Another theory is that may be the thief has a lot of potential victims and he is waiting for the right moment to attack. Like here, arrival of a person whose identity is easy to steal.
After reading the first chapters I tried to listen to the first episode on youtube while following the text on kindle. Wow - that was fast!! I caught up only at the sentence ends, hearing a でした or ました. As to understanding what she said: nothing at all, except a few single words or names. That was discouraging . I had hoped that my satori sessions had improved my listening but satori’s speed is slooow compared to this episode.
EDIT:
I just checked the other youtube video (male narrator, one long video): It is even faster, taking only 15’23" for the 2 chapters vs 16’49" for the female narrator.
I like how the author felt responsibility for pointing out this was a terrible idea. I do love children’s books for that, lol.
He’s the main character of a whole series of books. It’s rather like spoiling 
. Already feeling sorry for them. Bear traps are no joke.
that’s what my neck of the woods looks like right now, too 
to the extent it feels like we’re neighbours. 
. I had hoped that my satori sessions had improved my listening but satori’s speed is slooow compared to this episode.