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 (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
Welcome!
I am looking forward to reading this book and check one more book on the list of the The Honya Taishou 本屋大賞 Reading Challenge (it was number #8 in 2022).
I will buy the book and have a look at its structure so I can suggest a schedule
If you are hesitating to join, Bookwalker has a free preview of the first 65 pages, so that’s at least week 1 and maybe covers even week 2 (depends on what we decide for the schedule).
Also note that this book has Audio versions (both on Audible and on Audiobook) as well as a Pre-built JPDB deck.
(If anyone participate to the club with the audio versions, let us know, would be great to include the timestamps in the week assignments if possible)
Thanks for hosting!
I have the physical version out from my library for now (almost a perfect 500 pages long and it seems to differ by 20% from bookwalker), so if we need physical page numbers for anything lmk!
I’ve been out of the book club game for a bit now, but I’ve owned the audiobook for this for a while in preparation of one day getting to the book, so now maybe it’s finally my time. Still gotta pick up a digital copy; why is it so expensive digitally? >.>;
That would be awesome thanks! I just finished making the list of the different parts, and what’s the number of characters on the digital version, so if you can help with the physical page numbers, before we decide on how to cut it
Unfortunately it seems like it follows the hardcover price. Once it gets a bunkobon release, it might get a cheaper version too, but this hasn’t happened yet
(if I understood correctly pm215 )
So while I was looking at the two audio versions, trying to remember which one I bought, I saw that the Audible version of the audiobook is almost an hour longer than the audiobook.jp one. Makes sense on one level since they’re two different productions, but I’m surprised that the time difference is that large.
And @Akashelia, it looks like you can take timestamps for the sections from the audiobook.jp product page, at least. Audible’s is only broken down by the in-book days: 一日目 / 二日目 / etc.
I actually already read this book so my participation will be limited to character / scene commentary as I don’t want to spoil anyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book when I read it so I plan to ‘reread’ it as audio only. Looking forward to it!
I own the book on audiobook.jp, but I probably won’t join. I won’t be able to follow the story from audio alone and I don’t think I’ll have enough time to read the book itself.
I’ve read this one! I don’t think I can remember details and especially where they happen well enough to chime in, and I’m not gonna reread right now, but I think you all will have a good time. Hope you do anyway. I’ll try to keep an eye on the threads occasionally!
I feel like this is the signal I needed to join, lol
On a more serious note, I’ll download the sample to gauge a bit the level and see how I feel about the book. My main concern is that I’m involved in a few other book clubs, and the pace here is much more advanced then I’m used to, so I doubt I’ll be able to keep up. But I’ve read lots of praise so far, so that hopefully means the book would keep me hooked in enough to keep up with the schedule
Here is my first attempt at a schedule. I tried to look at how much we read per week in the last ABC I participated in (六人の嘘つきな大学生). I would love to not cut mid-chapter but unfortunately it’s very difficult as each first chapter of the different parts is very long (52 pages, 25 pages, 58 pages, 52 pages respectively), and another chapter with 63 pages towards the end. I remember reading 46 pages / 26.000 char for the first week of 六人の嘘つきな大学生 felt pretty long. Then again 六人の嘘つきな大学生 was level 36 and this one is maybe level 33 so easier to read?
So the first dilemna is to decide if we are OK with long weeks or if we’d rather cut the chapters.
After the chapter with 63 pages at the end, there is a chapter of only 5 pages and epilogue of also 5 pages. It doesn’t make sense to me to have a week with only 10 pages to read but a week with 73 pages sounds like too much? Or maybe it’s fine to have two weeks to read the 73 pages and people split it as they see fit?
Let me know what you think
Option 1 in 10 weeks, I prefer long weeks but to not cut chapters
Option 1 but in 11 weeks, 2 weeks for the last part
Make a new schedule where you split the long chapters pls
A different suggestion: I noticed that chapter 2 starts on page 95, and there’s a section break (2.2) at page 120. How about ramping up the pace by either breaking it at 3 weeks of 30 or 40 pages (depending on the break point)? This way everyone gets used to the writing/pacing, and we can tackle larger chunks in the later weeks (not sure what would be the consequences for the remaining weeks, but I personally don’t mind breaking up chapters).
I like the general idea but I feel like it would be even better if we could ramp up during the very first week already, as usually this is the hardest part of the book, with the new setting, introduction of the characters, getting used to the style and so on.
The problem is, I scrolled the whole first chapter (the one with 52 pages) and I’m having trouble finding a natural place to break without reading the story, it looks like the story is always going, there are a lot of dialogs too. Hm…
In pages length, the first chapters go like this: 52, 34, 25, 20, 30, 22 pages. So we could cut the first chapter right in the middle? Week 1, 26 pages, week 2, 26 pages. Then week 3 the chapter with 34 pages only? Then week 5 25 + 20 to ramp it up? Then week 6 30 + 22? etc, the rest will probably be easy to split in weeks without cutting chapters (for the chapters that are 50+ pages, that’s the only thing we read that week)
oho Thanks for sharing! I haven’t tried audiobooks before, seems like a fun challenge.
Ended up signing up for 14 day free trial. Just listening to the prologue is indeed challenging (that said, my listening experience has dropped recently, it’s super weird TuT). Reading along with audio tho is easy. Nice nice.
Book Club!
(it was number 
Still gotta pick up a digital copy; why is it so expensive digitally? >.>;
