I’d really appreciate this as well. I always read the reviews and think how it will be great to comb back through the thread for interesting recommendations in future when I’m looking for a new book, but then I look at the post count and my heart quakes 
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I’ll second @Radish8 - really nice idea to make it easier for everyone. I’m not in a position to read much yet, but when I am, having a resource that’s more easy to parse will be lovely ^-^
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Alright, I have just added most of my stuff just under the table. The format is absolutely not definitive, but I thought that we may want a way to differentiate between reviews of the same book by different people?
I’ve only added my own things though because it took way too long I don’t feel comfortable randomly adding links to what people are saying without their express consent. Also it took way too long.
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Book club reduction scheming
All right. I am in too many book clubs and yet I still want to do the two I’m planning to start next week.
If I could get the ones I’m in already down, then not join so many new ones (<-- this part is important, self), that would help. I don’t want to drop any of the ones I’m in, so I’m thinking I will try to finish some of the things rather than doing the reading every week. This is less fun than reading along, but steps must be taken at this point. I think I need to be at no more than two novel book clubs, and for manga, which is squishier, maybe five?
With this thought, I went ahead and finished the first volume of おじさまと猫, since I only plan to read the first one, and I can take 聖☆おにいさん off the list since it’s over as of this week’s reading.
So! (I might’ve made a spreadsheet but here is the summary.)
Novels:
- 獣の奏者 (until mid-December)
- 魔女の宅急便 (until mid-November)
- 本好きの下剋上 (until the mid-October)
Manga:
- 美少女戦士セーラームーン (into 2021)
- ゆるキャン△ (continuing? on 3 of 10 volumes)
- アオハライド (into 2021)
- フルーツバスケット (continuing? on 2 of 23 volumes)
- One Piece (I am hoping I will stop after the first volume…!)
- 3月のライオン (not yet started; 16 volumes)
- スキップ・ビート (not yet started; 44 volumes)
So I need to finish one novel and two manga and then maintain. For manga, it is an obvious choice to finish the one volume of One Piece (fingers crossed I don’t like it too much, lol), but after that… maybe アオハライド? 13 volumes, and completed, vs ゆるキャン△, which is ongoing, and also much less push-through-able feeling, for me. I might not even like 3月のライオン or スキップ・ビート, but I probably will~ For novels… I could do 本好きの下剋上, but whenever that’s done it feels likely I’ll read whatever the advanced book club reads next anyway, which seems more likely to be a novel than not. 獣の奏者 could be pushed through, I guess, but then there’s the question of books 3 and 4. (Is the book club going to read them, and if so, will I wait for that or push ahead, etc.) For what is supposedly (I think?) an easier book, I struggle more to get through each week’s reading of 魔女の宅急便, but maybe that is an argument for getting it done and freeing up that time each week. (Unless the club is planning to read the sequels??) There is also the problem that I am already reading multiple non-book-club novels, so do I wait to push forward on finishing a book club novel or do I add another to that ongoing load?
All right, so then if I get it down, maintaining! I think the idea would be that two novels and five manga (or whatever I decide is the right number) would be a rather rigid maximum, but I could still read new things on my own and move them to the already read and following along section. So if my goal is to be reading only one non-book club novel at once, for a novel book club I didn’t have space for, I’d read it as my personal novel and get it done. This all relies on a lot of willpower that I demonstrably do not have, but it might be worth the effort.
Maybe? Nobody start any awesome book clubs in the next few months, okay?
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Not that I have complete power to do whatever I want, but I’m going to strongly push the group to take a break after book two and instead read 狐笛のかなた. Not sure if that would impact your approach, but I figured I’d mention it.
Also, what if we continue with more 本好きの下剋上? If I enjoy the whole book as much as I’ve enjoyed the first 1/3 or so, I’ll probably want to at least read the first three books which makes a set (by my understanding). I could of course do that on my own, but I imagine the group may at least consider continuing in an offshoot club.
My only actual advice is to avoid the absolute beginner level books, like おじさまと猫. I just don’t see the benefit of you reading those with the groups, personally.
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Have you considered getting a desk calendar, and drawing in an eighth day of the week for each month?
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Do we even have things that are not novels nominated? I did nominate a collection of short stories, but that would certainly take as much time to read as a regular novel 
Right, I was thinking about that yesterday. It definitely feels like that would is an easier read for a native, but I think the “simpler” vocabulary and lack of kanji makes it much harder for someone learning the language. I’m also considering finishing up books to free time and that one is my number one candidate, by the way.
That would help a lot 
Hm, it will depend on people, but I’d rather make it non-scheduled, so that I can just read at my own pace and sporadically post about what I thought. (Mostly because I do like the book as well and I don’t want restrictions )
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Personally, I find that the schedule forces me to read more consistently. But a discussion thread would be better than nothing. I suppose we’ll have to make a poll. 
By the way, it looks like the first 5 books are on kindle unlimited. If you’re warming up to ebooks, you may want to consider that in general. Unfortunately I still read way too slowly for that to be cost effective.
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That’ll just make things worse. Then they’ll budget based on having 8 days, but they’ll still have 7 in reality.
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Blaarg, I don’t want to get yet another subscription and yet another random app… plus I still need to buy normally after volume 5… That being said, the other book you recommended me to read is available in there, but not on BookLive, so I could go for the 30 free days I guess 
what if we continue with more 本好きの下剋上
@seanblue … That is something I should’ve thought of. I think it makes sense to try to finish Kiki, though, so I’ll figure out about more 本好きの下剋上 when the time comes!
Have you considered getting a desk calendar, and drawing in an eighth day of the week for each month?
@ChristopherFritz Could I bargain for an actual eighth day if I promise to use it only for reading Japanese books? (I feel like this would backfire when I wasn’t allowed to breathe or something.)
Do we even have things that are not novels nominated?
@Naphthalene I thought that we did? Nausicaa? I am too lazy to check.
I’m also considering finishing up books to free time and that one is my number one candidate
Nice! Lucky for me it’s not a race, because you would win. 
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Oh, yeah! We did! Fair enough, that completely escaped my mind. (Mostly 'cause I read that series already, so I would not be reading if it is picked )
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Yep. sigh
I was thinking along the same lines the other day… While I think that it’s nice to have the weekly portions if we’re talking about one or two bookclubs, it really turns into a heavily fragmented experience once there are more of them. Therefore I’ve also started experimenting with reading in larger chunks. I only applied it to two manga so far (Flying Witch and Fruits Basket) but I like the results. The next book I want to try this on will be Kiki.
I’m surprised to hear that, as Kiki is the second-easiest book club read for me atm (only Flying Witch is easier in my opinion) 
Bad news: 博士の愛した数式 is starting on Sept 19th 
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Wait, what book was that again?
Finally finished 乙女ゲーム１! I really liked my tactic of learning the words with Anki as I go, and really felt my reading speed increased. Especially for dissecting long strings of kana at the end of sentences. Of course this was part of familiar patterns emerging and the small vocabulary of the book, but still felt good “flying” through text at times
I’m kind of eager to start the second volume (instead of ブタ野郎, we’ll see), as the “real” thing starts there. Need to catch up on some bookclubs first, at least ^^.
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わたしの推しは悪役令嬢 or something to that effect.
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Oh, the one I recommended as a joke. 
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What’s with all these different 悪役令嬢？
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Well, others have mentioned reading it, so I thought why not. Also I’m out of books with 悪役令嬢 in the title.
I wonder too.
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Oh no. 
I added it to my wishlist, then I deleted it, because I decided that I have too many things I want to read already (and I’m still a slow reader). But if you confirm that you too like it, I will probably won’t be able to resist anymore. 
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