This is the main thread for reading the manga 玉藻の恋 ・ Tamamo no Koi together with the Absolute Beginner Book Club. If you have a bit of experience with Japanese (say, finished with Genki 1, around JLPT N5), but are new to reading manga, this might be a good way to start!
We’ll be reading together according to a weekly schedule, ask and answer questions in weekly threads, and we’ll have a vocabulary sheet we’re building together to make this easier for everyone. We aim to keep the schedule slow enough so that beginners can follow along.
And don’t worry at all if this is your first manga and you don’t know if you’re up to it yet. There’ll be plenty of people to help you. Don’t hold back your questions - other people who read the threads are usually thankful that you asked them first!
玉藻の恋 ・ Tamamo no Koi
More info about the manga
Nomination post (with more information and preview pictures to see if you like the looks and the difficulty)
Natively (a website that compares the difficulty of mangas and other books)
Pages are physical page numbers (they are printed on some pages). Ebook reader pages might be off by a bit.
No. of pages with text is the amount of pages with more than one short sentence.
FAQ: What exactly do the dates in the schedule mean? Is that when we read those pages?
Yeah, generally that’s it!
To be more precise, it’s the date when the thread for discussing those pages is made.
Take for example this line:
Week
Start Date
Chapter
Pages
No. of pages with text
Week 1
June 15
1
1-12
6
In this case, June 15th is the date that I’ll make the thread that is for discussing pages 1-12. You can read it any time you want, earlier (you just can’t discuss it yet because there’s no thread up), during that week or later. Most participants will read during that week or very shortly before to join in the discussions, but even if you read it later you can (and should!) still use the Week 1 thread to ask any questions you have about pages 1-12.
Vocabulary Sheet
Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.
Pages are physical page numbers (they are printed on some pages). Ebook reader pages might be off by a bit.
Grammar Sheet
Will you be reading with us?
Yeah!
Yeah, but I’ll start late
I’m not sure yet
I’m skipping this one
I’ve read this before, but will join in the discussion
I’ve joined the Absolute Beginner Book Club before
I’ve joined the Beginner Book Club before
I’ve joined the Intermediate Book Club before
I’ve joined the Advanced Book Club before
0voters
(Select the highest that applies.)
What’s your reading experience?
This is my first manga
I’ve read other manga, but only easier ones than this
I’ve read other manga or books around this level
I’ve read other manga or books that are harder than this one
0voters
(Select the highest that applies.)
Don’t be afraid to check “This is my first book club” / “This is my first manga” - this club was made for participants like you!
And if you see lots of “I’ve read other manga or books that are harder than this one”: That just means that there will be lots of people to help you when you have questions.
I’ve looked through the manga to count pages with text (i.e. pages with more than one single tiny speech bubble), and unless someone has a better idea, here is a schedule I think works well.
Week
Start Date
Chapter
Pages
No. of pages with text
Week 1
June 15
1
1-12
6
Week 2
June 22
1
13-20
8
Week 3
June 29
1
21-30
8
Week 4
July 6
2
31-42
11
Week 5
July 13
2
43-54
11
Week 6
July 20
3
55-66
11
Week 7
July 27
3
67-78
10
Week 8
August 3
4
79-100
18
Week 9
August 10
5
101-124
20
Week 10
August 17
Final
125-137
12
Week 11
August 24
Final + Omake
138-161
22
I’m decently happy with it.Wanting to keep the first weeks slow to ease completely new readers in makes for slightly awkward breaks, but often there isn’t a way around that, so… I’ll take it. The last two weeks are a bit a awkward from the a page balance standpoint, but I couldn’t find a better point where people would actually be okay with stopping. しょうがない I guess. At least everything between has decent stopping points and a good page count progression
Also, for our new readers: Don’t worry too much about the page count jump between week 7 and 8! By then you’ll be much more used to the vocab, grammar and general writing style, and you’ll be surprised how much faster you can read at that point.
If this is your first time reading native material: Be prepared that it won’t be easy, especially in the beginning. As we’ve talked about in the ABBC thread, it’ll probably feel more like “deciphering” than “reading” for a whole while. That’s completely normal, and pretty much all of us started out like this. But you’ll get plenty of help and we’ll have a lot of people ready to answer any questions you might have.
I promise that you’ll get better at reading if you stick with it!
Oh I know. I’ve done GENKI 1 and halfway through two so I have some knowledge but I know I’ll still have to trudge through but I’m excited for it. Gotta jump in the deep end sometimes to learn. Thank you for the encouragement
Alright, I’ve always wanted to do one of those but the timing was never right! I only have 2 classes this summer, so I’m going to try to be part of this with you guys so long as my classes don’t disturb me too much!
What’s the recommended way to get the book? For me, the more annoying it is to access it, the less likely I’ll open it to read it, so e-book might be a no go (At least Amazon). Perhaps physical would make me want to read it more, but it’s a bit more expensive. Thoughts? Thanks!
I use bookwalker for ebooks. The website is hard to navigate since it’s in Japanese, but once you have the book it’s simple enough to open. You just click the この本を読む button.
Mmh, yeah. I just tried to read the first two or so pages from the preview it gives to see how it was all set up. It seems to work pretty well in Firefox too if anyone else is wondering. It’s nice because it’s super cheap! Points for Bookwalker, thanks!
Has anyone here done this for a while and bought the physical copy every time? Must be pretty cool to have a collection of Japanese manga you’ve read build up over time.
I don’t buy physical copies for everything I read, but I do prefer that, and it is very nice to have later to flick through. I seem much more likely to continue reading something that is a physical copy, but that’s just me, a lot of people are the opposite. So try out both!
I have the digital version ready to be read. I hope to be able to endure the challenge this time. I’m trying to cover the grammar I’m not familiar with in the meantime.
I’m super excited for this reading. I was wondering when would be the right moment to start reading native Japanese, so I guess this is fate playing a role here that I found this thread
yoroshiku?
Not sure which Kinokuniya you’re searching, but the Australian one has it here, which I had to find by searching by author, because for some reason just the title was coming up blank. But yeah, it’s thoroughly out of stock, though you could try e-mailing the Japanese desk and asking them, that sometimes works.
