殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club

Japanese Language Reading
#1

Welcome to the 殺人出産 Book Club!

71CK-2oR1KL
71CK-2oR1KL897×1231 213 KB

This is part of the Sayaka Murata Book Club. It has a slightly more relaxed schedule than the average Intermediate book club, so if you’re looking to make the jump from Beginner to Intermediate, please join us! :grin:

Trigger warnings: sexual harassment, self-harm, and of course normalization of killing people

Where to purchase

Digital: Amazon · Bookwalker · Kobo
Physical: Amazon · CDJapan

Schedule

Week Start Story End page Kindle loc End phrase Page count
1 24 Apr 殺人出産 18 111 話が纏まってしまった。 10
2 1 May 殺人出産 29 211 発狂しそうになる。 11
3 8 May 殺人出産 41 335 現実味のないものだった。 12
4 15 May 殺人出産 52 440 息を止めて頷いていた。 11
5 22 May 殺人出産 65 575 ということだけだった。 13
6 29 May 殺人出産 78 702 電車に乗り込んだ。 13
7 5 Jun 殺人出産 93 838 いくのを見つめていた。 15
8 12 Jun 殺人出産 106 967 いくような気がした。 13
9 19 Jun 殺人出産 119 1084 中へと沈んでいった。 13
10 26 Jun トリプル 134 1201 恋人同士になったのだ。 14
11 3 Jul トリプル 147 1323 まくらにこすり付けた。 13
12 10 Jul トリプル 157 1429 星の全てが一斉に震えた。 10
13 17 Jul 清潔な結婚 173 1557 夫について診察室を出た。 15
14 31 Jul 清潔な結婚 186 1688 して辛そうにしていた。 13
15 7 Aug 清潔な結婚 + 余命 197 1760 ふっと意識が途切れた。 10

Vocabulary

Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.

Membership

Are you reading with us?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

10 Likes
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 2
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 8
:books::books: Read every day challenge - Summer 2021 :beach_umbrella::beach_umbrella:
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 9
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 10
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 11
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 14
[2022] 多読/extensive reading challenge
Level 60 at Last!
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 15
Sayaka Murata Book Club
[Looking for Nominations!] Beginner Japanese Book Club // Starting Soon: Death Note
Intermediate Japanese Book Club (Now Reading: 地球星人)
[2022] 多読/extensive reading challenge
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 6
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 12
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 4
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 7
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 13
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 3
コンビニ人間 :bento: Repeat Book Club
[2022] 多読/extensive reading challenge
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 5
#2

I just wanted to drop in some information from the “normal” book clubs - not saying you should do the same here, but maybe you can draw some ideas from it?

For the “intermediate” level we usually aim for ~15 pages per week, which I think is what the Konbini schedule was based upon. So if you schedule a similar amount per week, that would nicely fit the “intermediate” level, I guess. (Unless Murata all of a sudden decided to use a much more difficult writing style or something :sweat_smile:)

In the book clubs, we usually have a one-week break between books, so basically what you suggested.
On the other hand, you might want to consider the shipping time for people who want to read the physical book (that’s why the book clubs usually run their “next pick” polls ~6 weeks before the book’s reading starts). But 6 weeks would be a loooong delay for this quickly formed group, so in our case maybe we can just have a few polls to see whether people are planning to read physical, and when they expect to get their copy? And start reading as soon as everybody got their book.

For the breakpoints, this is always the hardest part… It seems like the story does not have numbered chapters, but there is quite an abundance of breaks (at least on the first 20 pages or so…), so I’m sure you can find something appropriate.
I think I’d appreciate if we had our week’s breaks at the story boundaries (with the exception of the last one, of course) so your guesstimate of 9+3+3 sounds good to me!

8 Likes
#3

To allow some time for shipping for paperback copies, I think 2-3 weeks would be a decent time to wait.

Sounds good to me. Since the last story is so short there’s probably no good way to keep them separated, but having at least the first two apart from the rest would be nice for easier discussions in my opinion.

6 Likes
#4

Taking in mind @NicoleRauch’s remarks, 15 weeks would be the sweet spot I think. The コンビニ人間 tempo was ~5200 characters a week and with 15 weeks we’d end up with ~5000, which is only 4% slower. It’d allow us to keep the stories mostly separate:

殺人出産

  1. 話が纏まってしまった。(4348 chars)

  2. 発狂しそうになる。(4221)

  3. 白昼夢のように現実味のないものだった。(5395)
    :exclamation: not quite the end of a section

  4. 私は息を止めて頷いていた。(4571)

  5. 生まれたということだけだった。(5977)

  6. 私たちは電車に乗り込んだ。(5499)

  7. 落下していくのを見つめていた。(5711)

  8. 遠のいていくような気がした。(5490)

  9. 足元の赤い水の中へと沈んでいった。 (5079)

トリプル

  1. と少し照れくさそうに言った。(5039)

  2. まくらにこすり付けた。(5241)

  3. 空の星の全てが一斉に震えた。(4440)

清潔な結婚 + 余命

  1. 私も慌てて夫について診察室を出た。 (5632)

  2. はあはあと荒い息をして辛そうにしていた。(5629)

  3. ふっと意識が途切れた。(3047)
    :exclamation: we start with a 1195 character leftover portion of 清潔な結婚

The smallest non-final portion is 4221 chars, which is 16% less than the 5000 we’re going for; the largest portion is 5977, which is 20% more. I think that’s a pretty acceptable range. There are two awkward weeks:

  • week 3 stops in between two section breaks, because it would otherwise be quite a long portion and next week’s would end up quite short
  • week 15 start with 1195 leftover characters of 清潔な結婚, but again, otherwise the previous weeks would be quite large portions. The final story is just so awkwardly short lol
7 Likes
#5

I’m the original thread it says that this book is partially translated into English. Which stories are translated and do you have any links for where I can find them? I looked up online but got a little confused

#6

Based on Wikipedia, the third story:

  • A Clean Marriage (short story), English translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Granta 127: Japan, 2014.
1 Like
#7

:pregnant_woman:
(optionally combined with :hocho:? :drop_of_blood:? …who would have guessed, there is very little emojis related to killing.)

:wave: I have this in both paperback and ebook version, do you want me to check pages numbers?

2 Likes
#8

I love :pregnant_woman::dagger:, it’s sure to draw in some people :joy:

EDIT: Hmmm, if I use :dagger: in the title it adds a weird rectangle :thinking:

EDIT EDIT: Went for a good ol’ kitchen knife instead!

You would be a saint!

3 Likes
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 9
#9

Actually, a knife really appears in the story, so a it’s a better choice. True advertising :upside_down_face:

It’s also in the kanji, but I guess images are more eye-catching :stuck_out_tongue:

So, numbers are from small/paperback bunko/this cover version:
81BOE20tzTL.AC_UL480_QL65

殺人出産

  1. 話が纏まってしまった。(4348 chars) page 18
  2. 発狂しそうになる。(4221) page 29
  3. 白昼夢のように現実味のないものだった。(5395) page 41
    :exclamation: not quite the end of a section end of a section is on page 43
  4. 私は息を止めて頷いていた。(4571) page 52
  5. 生まれたということだけだった。(5977) page 65
  6. 私たちは電車に乗り込んだ。(5499) page 78
  7. 落下していくのを見つめていた。(5711) page 93
  8. 遠のいていくような気がした。(5490) page 106
  9. 足元の赤い水の中へと沈んでいった。 (5079) page 119 [end]

トリプル

  1. と少し照れくさそうに言った。(5039) page 128
  2. まくらにこすり付けた。(5241) page 147
  3. 空の星の全てが一斉に震えた。(4440) page 157 [end]

清潔な結婚 + 余命

  1. 私も慌てて夫について診察室を出た。 (5632) page 173
  2. はあはあと荒い息をして辛そうにしていた。(5629) page 186
  3. ふっと意識が途切れた。(3047) page 197 [end]
    :exclamation: we start with a 1195 character leftover portion of 清潔な結婚
6 Likes
殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club ・ Week 9
#10

It’s been a while since I joined a book club that I wasn’t forming/running, but I liked コンビニ人間, so maybe I’ll join. The book is 50% points back on Amazon right now, so that’s cool.

5 Likes
#11

Thank you! I was thrown off by the English title!

1 Like
#12

An offshoot of a repeat club? :sweat_smile: Sounds like a dark web version of the book clubs. :stuck_out_tongue:

11 Likes
#13

“Come to our side! We have 殺人出産 !” - Now if that doesn’t sound convincing then I don’t know what does… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

7 Likes
#14

Btw, I hope the title is enough to signal that things can get a little grim, but just in case I wanted to mention some potential trigger warnings.

sexual harassment, self-harm, and of course normalization of killing people

4 Likes
#15

The section endings look good to me. I’ll bookmark them in my Kindle and share the locations.
As for the start date: I was a bad girl and already finished コンビニ人間, so we can start anytime.

5 Likes
#16

I added a schedule to the main post, but I noticed I made one mistake, @Aislin. The week 10 breakpoint should be a bit later. If you could find me a new page number that would be great. In most cases I figured out a page number count, but for the first week of each story I wasn’t sure if there might be white pages. Could you verify that as well, please? :innocent:

Then I think it’s time for polls! First of all, the ‘are you with us?!’ poll in the main thread.

Then there’s these. We’ll see how people are doing with shipping. That takes precedence. In case the shipping is pretty fast (or everyone is reading digitally), there’s a second poll to take preferences into account.

Are you reading the digital or physical version?
  • Digital
  • Physical, but I already have it
  • Physical and I expect to have it by April 17th
  • Physical and I expect to have it by April 24th
  • Physical and I expect to have it by May 1st
  • Phsyical and I expect to have it after May 1st (please comment)

0 voters

When would you prefer to start reading?
  • April 10th
  • April 17th
  • April 24th
  • May 1st
  • May 8th or later (please comment)

0 voters

How do you feel about the proposed schedule?
  • Looks fine to me
  • We should go faster
  • We should go slower
  • I have a different suggestion (please comment)

0 voters

4 Likes
#17

Text starts at page 9.

Page 134. Yes, I was wondering about 128-147 gap too, but I thought that maybe there is a lot of dialogues, so less characters. :grin:

And I want to thank you very much for organizing this book club! :heart_eyes:

2 Likes
#18

Here are the kindle locations. Sorry for the (lack of) formatting. ^^"

4 Likes
#19

Pssst, since Week 10 is changed, it’s loc 1201 now.

#20

Yeah, I read that after posting, but I only saw the page number and I was too lazy to guess the new ending sentence.
Thanks! I’ll correct it in my kindle as well.

1 Like