I just wanted to recommend this series of books to people starting to read, and also to check if anyone else is reading them.
The “５分後に” in the titles means “in 5 minutes”, and the rest of the title lets the reader know what to expect in 5 minutes. For example “a surprise ending in 5 minutes” or “you will end up in tears in 5 minutes” or “an uplifting ending in 5 minutes”. The stories are each meant to be read in 5 minutes by a native speaker and have the intended effect. So, more or less collections of short stories. They probably tend to be about N3 level, but each story will have some setting specific vocabulary. So, really, perfect for learning. Another nice thing is that if you are N2 or so, you can probably read an entire story in one sitting. Then you can read it again later, and really dial in the nuance you may have missed on the original reading.
I like the 5分後に意外な結末 (a surprise ending in 5 minutes) series the best. They’re usually like a whodunnit or something similar. For example, one of the stories was about a colony of prisoners who lived on the moon. They were sent there to work as punishment for their crimes. After five years, they were being allowed to leave and a spaceship arrived to take them back to earth. However, one of the guys (the biggest, strongest and best worker), wanted to stay on the moon. No-one knew why.
At the end, he was required to board the spaceship headed back to earth. As the ship left, the prisoners saw the moon receding into the distance from the spaceship windows. They all marveled at the view, except for the one guy. Who fell to the floor and started sprouting fangs and hair. It turns out he didn’t want to leave because he knew he was a werewolf.
Anyways, the other ５分後に are good as well. They even have a 5秒後に series, meaning “in five seconds…”. This series is pretty much the same, except that each story is only 2-3 pages long. There are pros and cons here. One of the pros is that you get over 100 stories in the volume and you get exposed to a lot of vocabulary since of course each story has its own setting. The main downside is that the stories aren’t quite as good and there’s not much time for character development, nuance, longer conversations, etc.
Anyways, highly recommended - and curious if others have read them. I’m not sure if I recall correctly, but I think I may have first discovered this series by a video posted here by user Leebo. The series site can be found here.