I’m reading along (I’ve read no further than the end of this week’s section)
I’ll catch up soon (I haven’t yet finished last week’s section)
I’m reading ahead (I’ve read beyond the end of this week’s section)
I’ve read this book already but I’m here for discussion
I have no intention of catching up or the club has already finished, but I’m using the forums as reference
0voters
Vocab Sheet
Anybody should feel free to add to the vocab sheet. Read the guidelines on the first sheet- even if a word is not yet included you can use the spreadsheet as a tool to get help.
Spoiler Courtesy
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 need to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as such.
Discussion Questions
Feel free to use these questions as a framework or a starting point for responses. I also encourage people to post their own discussion questions!
What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
I’ve been in a bit of a slump in the last few weeks. Haven’t really done a lot of reading etc but I’m trying to get back into it. Read all of this week’s share in one go today and albeit a somewhat slow start it seems pretty interesting. I have to agree that it has several themes etc from the other books we’ve read so far but it still feels fresh everytime imo. Always reminds me of the interview someone mentioned in a thread where Murata said she’s writing for a cult or something and this definitely fits with the recurring themes situation.
Curious to see where she leads us to with this.
Tho not really a lot of people left reading currently which is a shame, haha. Maybe we should pause for a while after/if we get through this one?
I think three of us are currently a bit behind (@NyappyTiramisu, @softlyraining and me). I hope to have caught up by the end of week 4. I also suspect there isn’t a lot of discussion because not a whole lot has happened yet and we’ve already seen a lot of this book’s themes before, but I have good hopes that there will be an uptick once the Murata shenanigans are ramping up.
But I agree that we should probably have a break after this book. @NicoleIsEnough’s reasoning for skipping this one rang very true for me.
I also noticed I was feeling a bit saturated on these themes, reading the first chapter. Taking a break so we can appropriately enjoy the next book sounds like a good idea.
Sounds like I jumped ship at the right point in time then
And just in case, if you’re looking for weird books from other authors, there’s always Murakami We are starting Kafka on the Shore in late May, and it seems that there might be a group reading 1Q84 in summer…
I’m not fully saturated yet Will see how it is after this book. I still kinda want to read しろいろの街の、その骨の体温の, maybe I’ll do that on my own afterwards but a pause and reading some of the other things I’m piling up for ages now would be a welcomed change though, haha.
I’m intrigued to read Murakami. I’ve read a lot of good things about his books but never read one. I heard they’re really hard, though? How do they compare to Murata?
Another classic theme: inappropriate relationship between teacher and pupil.
I was very confused about the attitudes towards love and sex, but I think I get it now. Falling in love and ‘having sex’ with characters is considered weird for the same reason we would fine it weird. Falling in love with humans is fine (I think?), but once you’re married you are family, so having sex with them would be incest, but other than that sex with humans is generally ok as well. That makes me wonder: if the protagonist had been born out of wedlock instead of within marriage, would she have been ok with her mum’s ‘proclivities’?
The description of the match-making party also felt like very familiar Murata territory, especially the business-like, almost transactional nature of it, reducing marriageability to having the same bedtime and tv-watching preferences
Finished this week. This section was tricker to follow for me, I didn’t understand it as well as you guys. But I followed the broad strokes I believe. Looking forward to the next section. I’m thinking the story will slow a bit now that she is an adult…
We are starting Kafka on the Shore in late May, and it seems that there might be a group reading 1Q84 in summer…
Will see how it is after this book. I still kinda want to read しろいろの街の、その骨の体温の, maybe I’ll do that on my own afterwards but a pause and reading some of the other things I’m piling up for ages now would be a welcomed change though, haha.
