Let’s just say I took some advance then. I properly separated all chapter at least ha ha
EDIT: I just realise do we finish the book next week? That was fast
For now, the first two chapters:
Chapter 16 - comments
It reminded me that I still didn’t decide whether or not to buy short stories collection of RealLifeKajii…
We have this beautiful Polish translation recently published, too… And book stores are decorating it with lemons for their ad photos 
source: Księgarnia Karakter facebook page
source: Tajfuny facebook page
I actually do not know what the significance of the lemon is in the original short story 
Chapter 16 - question
#1 I have a problem with the part marked red. Maybe… Kunikida thinks here that Dazai wants to poke him in the eyes and Kunikida is saying that it won’t work with glasses…?
Chapter 17 - comments
Well they have already adopted a cow in the earlier chapter what difference does a cat make.
And they already have one cat, anyway. I know it’s the cat form of Natsume Sōseki, but still.
Btw, did you know that Sōseki’s book I am a Cat is literally told from the cat’s perspective?
As for Atsushi, well, for me tiger totally counts as a cat 
Chapter 17 - questions
#2 What does マメ mean?
#3 Wtf is this kanji.
Yep, we do! Well, technically it will be 7 weeks, so not that fast.
I hope it means you just enjoyed it so much it went fast for you 
Like I mentioned when doing the 2nd volume poll, I plan on starting with 2nd volume on November 2nd.
(That’s a lot of 2’s.)
Yeah it is a manga so it might be slow for it. In the Re Zero bookclub, we do 6 weeks for a book so I forgot the quantity difference between book and manga.
That’s what it mean. Could not believe it’s only 7 week. Maybe because it an ebook for me but I though we had a lot more to go. At least we have more volume after
I made a double post, and now I’m worried that you missed my comments/questions for chapters 16 and 17.
If you just want to reply to it later because it’s more time consuming, then I’m sorry for pushing 
I might have miss them I can’t answer then now though give me some time and I will look at it
Chapter 16 question possible answer?
I initially understood this as Kunikda quoting Dazai as having said that ‘wearing glasses is pointless’ because of the って, even though I didn’t think a quotation made sense. After reading it a second time and doing some Googling I found that verb in the past + て can mean ‘even if’.
That would mean what Kunikida’s saying is something like ‘even if I am wearing glasses, that is pointless don’t you think’.
I think he’s just commenting on how pointless he perceived Dazai’s action to be and the fact he was wearing glasses (which stopped Dazai poking his eyes) doesn’t make Dazai’s action any less pointless. In other words it won’t achieve anything even if he had managed to poke him in the eyes.
I hope that makes sense…? And is correct…
It’s funny how you block at the same place as I do ha ha.
Answer to aislin
1-
I believe you are right. 眼鏡にする seem to mean to wear glass. That sentence structure is bugging me but I say you got the right meaning. The English version is on your side
2-
マメ it means diligent
3
撫でる to pat, to caress. He was the only one that could not pet the cat. It’s really sad.
What is that?
Thanks for your help (and for yours, @DollyDaydream), but sigh I guess I need to say it again - Wanikani seems to be really strict about not-exactly-legal-content. I’ve seen it in other threads and I feel responsible for monitoring this one. I realize you can find some things very easily anyway, and that other places may be not that strict, but I didn’t make Wanikani rules. 
In this thread, for example, it’s explicitly mentioned that moderators really do care about this policy being respected.
In that case here ! Problem solve
I have watched the anime of Bungou Stray Dogs, is the light novel worth it?
Depends which one. Some volumes were adapted into the anime (but there are changes), some are completely new material.
And just to clarify - we aren’t reading light novels in this thread.
My bad mate. I should’ve read the title more carefully 
I automatically thought this was the light novel thread when I saw the title.
I think this might be the word?
I think this makes sense given the context
Chapter 18
Yeah, it is funny for me how all these American authors are actually less known to me than Japanese ones
And since days only have so much hours in them, I’m remaining faithful to Japanese language&(pop)culture being my main obsession hobby, so I’m not gonna get into Guild characters prototypes anytime soon. 
I think the only BSD-related book I personally did read as a part of the school curriculum was Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment in high school. I was reading/watching Death Note around the same period, and I decided that Raskolnikov is a pussy compared to Light.
…I think I went a little off-topic with this comment.
Chapter 19
Hahahah, yes. It is sad that Atsushi isn’t counted as gentle here. He deserves it! 
Chap 19
Well he count as a cat so… take it as you will
Week 7: Chapters 19/20*-21 [End of Volume 1]
*should be 19, but I made a typo last week, and now 19 is also covered in the last week’s discussion
Start Date: October 12th
Previous: Week 6
Next: Volume 2 - starts November 2nd
Home Thread: Link
Vocabulary: Spreadsheet
Mark your participation status by voting in this poll:
- I’m reading along
- I’ll catch up later
- I’m dropping out
0 voters
It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the end of volume 1 already…
Chapter 20
Haha, 双黒 being mind-synced even when apart 
Random: some company recently released a wine series as BSD merch:
白糸酒造株式会社 『文豪ストレイドッグス』イメージワイン発売決定！ 有料試飲会開催
I know it’s a normal wine and only labels are different, but… I am a little sad I can’t try it.
Chapter 21
Wait, Kunikida is proposing using poison??? What about his ideals???
But I’m with Atsushi about wanting to surprise Dazai. I’m a little annoyed how perfect his character is, how nothing is unexpected for him and how all his “surprised” expressions are fake.
So, I’m happy Atsushi succeeded in the end 
With so fluffy and warm plan, too.
Random facts about Tanizaki&Akutagawa relationship in real life (no spoilers, just long and off-topic)
This has actually nothing to do with BSD itself, as it isn’t reflected in the series in any way, but I found it immensely interesting and I guess I just want to share this info with more people.
I knew beforehand that RealLifeAkutagawa had a publicized (in magazines) dispute about literature with RealLifeTanizaki, but I didn’t realize how far it went. My info comes from the afterword the to the Tanizaki’s In Black and White, written by Phyllis I. Lyons (translator of the book).
So, Akutagawa actually committed suicide on the day of Tanizaki’s birthday. I… umm… I realize that’s a creepy way of showing affection, but it also shows how deep their relationship went.
(At least Dazai killed himself on his own birthday. Well, a few days before, but his body was discovered on his birthday, so.)
(And I would so love to go back in time and give both Dazai and Akutagawa a good therapists.)
Back to Tanizaki and Akutagawa. They didn’t only quarrel in magazines, they also knew each other personally and Akutagawa even helped a little with Tanizaki meeting his (third and final) wife. The lady was a fan of Akutagawa’s works and invited him to a dance party, but Akutagawa took Tanizaki with him, because he noticed Tanizaki’s interest in her.
Akutagawa killed himself before replying to the final Tanizaki’s essay, leaving Tanizaki with a final word. After that, Tanizaki was asked to write memorials about Akutagawa and according to the Phyllis I. Lyons, Akutagawa treated Tanizaki as a senpai, and Tanizaki was feeling guilty that he couldn’t help Akutagawa with his mental problems and he thought that he failed as a senpai. He also used -kun/kimi when writing about Akutagawa.
The book from which all this afterword details come from, In Black and White, can be treated as a memorial for Akutagawa too, because its main theme is a parody of a literary circles from that time.
That’s really interesting about Akutagawa and Tanizaki, I didn’t know any of that