Hi! Would you agree with this review I found on the web? I’m trying to figure out if I should read them or not. Thanks.
the lower class books excruciatingly difficult to read. I still think so. The problem is that they use nearly no kanji and sooooo many onomatopoeia that it’s hard to figure out all the words… Class 4 and above are much easier to read.
This is about 10分で読める伝記? I’ve so far only read the first two stories but I was surprised how much fun and how easy it is to read them. I think saying that they use nearly no kanji is just wrong. If I open a random page there are always lots of different kanji. I’m not a fan of hiragana-only texts myself but I think these books are well balanced.
On the other hand I wouldn’t call the use of onomatopoeia excessive and the ones used are pretty common and useful.
We have a two day break now for Christmas and we start again Dec 27th with chapter 4, and the life of Wilhelm Röntgen. Another chance for me to practice my German pronounciation while reading in katakana…
Chapter Four - Wilhelm Röntgen discussion thread is up. Remember, each chapter is essentially a completely separate story so this is a good place to jump in if you’ve not been reading along with the last chapter. Link to chapter 4.
Chapter Five: We move onto the story of Ernest Seton, one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America. If you’ve not been reading along, or if you’ve fallen behind, this is a good place to jump back in. If you don’t have the book yet this is chapter 5 of 12, so there is still plenty of time to get the book and join in the later chapters. Links to getting hold of the book are in the opening post of this thread. Link to Chapter 5.
Chapter Seven: Tomorrow we start chapter 7 - the life of Christopher Columbus. I can never remember whether his name is spelt Columbus or Colombus - we’ll see if I’m any better in 2 weeks time!
Chapter 8 starts tomorrow. We are back in Germany for the story of the Brother Grimm: academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, authors, and of course most famous for their collections of folk tales. Chapter 8 link.
Chapter 9 starts tomorrow. The last four chapters are all stories about East Asians. We start with Sesshū Tōyō, a Japanese master of ink and wash painting - 水墨 - who lived in the 1400s during the Muromachi period. Join us for Chapter 9.
Chapter 11 starts tomorrow - the penultimate chapter. It’s a great time to jump back in and join the live discussion, but don’t forget if you are reading the earlier chapters feel free to continue asking questions.
Chapter 11 tells the story of Momofuku Ando, credited as the inventor of instant noodles. I’m not sure what we are in for but I’m hoping I might get to practice the super rare katakana that I can never remember - ヌ!