Note that the page numbers are not exactly reliable as I recalculated them from my Bookwalker ebook pages, but I hope we are not too fussed about one page more or less per chapter
(Having said that, if anybody has page numbers from a paperback book, I’m happy to adjust.)
The book is not extremely old, but still it was written in the 1940s so we can expect to encounter some slightly old-fashioned grammar and vocabulary. Also, we had some warnings about long-winding descriptions and difficult vocabulary throughout the book. So we should aim at maybe 30 pages max per week? On the other hand, this is supposed to be a short book club, so we should stay within the limits of 7 or 8 weeks altogether.
Based on these restrictions I started to figure out some suitable schedules, but I was so blown away by the sheer number of possible combinations that I decided to sit down and write a program that would find the optimal answer(s) to this question
(BTW optimal in this context means, where the maximum number of pages of any given week is lowest.)
Anyways, here are the results:
7 Weeks (optimal)
This is the optimal schedule for 7 weeks:
Week
Chapters
Pages
1
1, 2, 3
28.5
2
4, 5, 6
30.5
3
7, 8
25.5
4
9, 10
23.5
5
11, 12
25.5
6
13, 14, 15
31
7
16, 17, 18
32
8 Weeks (optimal)
The optimal schedule for 8 weeks:
Week
Chapters
Pages
1
1, 2, 3
28.5
2
4, 5
20.5
3
6, 7
24.5
4
8, 9
23
5
10, 11
23.5
6
12, 13
26
7
14, 15, 16
28
8
17, 18
22.5
At this point I noticed that in both cases the first week would be among the longest ones (for 7 weeks) or even the longest one altogether (for 8 weeks) and so I decided to add a slow-start option to my program as well. Here are the results:
7 Weeks (slow start)
Week
Chapters
Pages
1
1, 2
19
2
3, 4, 5
30
3
6, 7
24.5
4
8, 9, 10
34.5
5
11, 12
25.5
6
13, 14, 15
31
7
16, 17, 18
32
7 Weeks (even slower start)
Week
Chapters
Pages
1
1, 2
19
2
3, 4
20.5
3
5, 6, 7
34
4
8, 9, 10
34.5
5
11, 12
25.5
6
13, 14, 15
31
7
16, 17, 18
32
8 Weeks (slow start)
Week
Chapters
Pages
1
1, 2
19
2
3, 4, 5
30
3
6, 7
24.5
4
8, 9
23
5
10, 11
23.5
6
12, 13
26
7
14, 15, 16
28
8
17, 18
22.5
Before setting up a poll, I thought I’d give y’all a moment to think about (if you want) whether there might be a more suitable option for our club. If you’re happy with these options, I will set up a poll so that we can decide on which schedule to follow.
Oh I’m really interested but I don’t think I will join - just lurking! I’m only around N3 level so this will be way beyond me, and I’m not sure if I have the willpower to struggle through 30 pages per week of a book. Nice choice of literature though! Love a good mystery
Oh don’t underestimate your skills I only started to study N2 grammar a few months ago, but I was able to read the book club’s previous mystery novels (Yougisha X or The Perfect Insider, for example) quite okay. This one might be a tad harder though, because it’s older
Lurking is fine of course! But if you’re curious you could have a look at the nomination post and its sample pages in the Advanced Book Club, just to get a feel for what it means to read such a book.
Thanks for the schedule proposals, and nice job on writing that program! I would rather go for a 7 week schedule. Any of the 7 week proposals are fine by me.
OK, basically everybody voted for the 7 weeks optimal schedule, so that’s what we’ll follow. I’ll update the OP in a minute.
(I hope that’s ok for you @wifflebatknight ? If you’re in doubt whether you can catch up with the reading speed, please feel free to start earlier or trail behind a little bit)
I just purchased File 1, so I guess I’m committed to reading that after 本陣殺人事件 and before moving on to the other stories in File 2. Anyone else feel like they might enjoy doing that?
I’ve only read read 本陣 and 獄門島 so far, but 獄門島 is pretty explicit about being a direct follow-up to 本陣 in terms of charting Kindaichi’s activities since then (unlike 本陣, it isn’t set pre-war) in a way that I thought was super interesting.
I’d definitely recommend reading it if you enjoy 本陣 at all, as I found it to be a bigger and more interesting expansion of the same kind of style and substance as in 本陣殺人事件, and it was my favorite novel I read last year!
There’s a lot of options order-wise though!
It looks like the “files” put 八つ墓村 first - I wonder why?
If an offshoot club continued with the stories in the back of 本陣殺人事件, or 獄門島, I’d be really happy to see it and would probably be able to restrain myself from reading more Yokomizo until it finished and hopefully moved on past that and I would join then.
If an offshoot club continued with 八つ墓村 I’d also be really happy to see it, and I would join immediately, although I might not be able to resist cramming in 夜歩く to keep my own order consistent
There wasn’t really a particular reason I wanted to read file 1 next, except that it’s the first volume, haha.
Knowing now that the chronological order is completely different, I’d actually prefer to read in chronological order myself. If there’s more people interested in continuing on, that’d be great. But if it’s just us, I’d feel bad making you wait.
Eh, don’t worry too much about that! Getting someone else to read 獄門島 would be reward enough, and I’ve got plenty of other things to read.
夜歩く seems like probably a relatively minor installment so I haven’t been rushing to read it (though I am definitely looking forward to 八つ墓村 and 犬神家の一族 down the line )
But if you’re curious you could have a look at the nomination post and its sample pages in the Advanced Book Club, just to get a feel for what it means to read such a book.
Getting someone else to read 獄門島 would be reward enough, and I’ve got plenty of other things to read.