三浦しをん has absolutely written a book about the making of a dictionary: 舟を編む which is for sale, and even translated into English (which is the version I’ve read). Was what you read a different book? Did she actually write two books about dictionaries?
(By the way, I wanted to read 舟を編む in Japanese at some point, but your reading speed makes me think I’d better wait )
Edit: Just saw your post on Natively. It is in fact a different book, and she did write two books about dictionaries! I’m impressed. I guess she has some expertise on the subject by now - maybe researching for 舟を編む gave her the opportunity to closely observe the 広辞苑 writing process.
According to the preface, the book was commissioned by the company that makes the 広辞苑. I guess they read the book you mentioned and just thought she’d be the perfect person to write about the process? She also mentioned that she loves dictionaries and that she has a bunch.
Edit: it’s not just the writing process. She also mentions the typesetting, illustrations, box making, and book binding.
Go to your read list, put it in the list format (rather than the default icon format; テキストのみ toggle on the top right) then 編集する button for the entry you want to edit.
Hello all! I was reminded that bookclubs and the like existed recently so I thought I’d try to be social for once.
I’m a big manga collector and I’ve got a huge backlog I’ve gotta work through. I think like a third of my collection is in Japanese at this point. I need to work on upping my read percentage. I also am starting to read books on kindle lately. For manga, I hop from series to series a lot, but lately I’ve been reading チェンソーマン, 幸色のワンルーム, and マギ. For books, I recently finished 奇譚ルーム and started キノの旅1.
It’s a bit late in the year, but I thought I’d set a goal here since it could help with motivation. (I’ve mostly focused my goals on grammar points, textbooks, and JLPT related things in the past.) Any tips on how to set a goal? I could just take the first three months and multiply by 4?
Not really. I usually just ask myself what I want to accomplish and how much I believe I can get done, and then I try to find a middle path of challenging me a bit, but not too much (because big challenges don’t work for me).
But if you think the rest of year will roughly look similar to these first three months and you are happy with what you accomplished, multiplying that by 4 seems a quick and easy way to make a yearly goal. You can always check in at the end of each quarter and see how you feel.
Glad you agree. I read about half of the series last year and got distracted by something else I think. Then watched the anime this year, so now I’m back to reading it again.
That makes sense. I’ll multiply the last three months by 4 and round up then I think so it’s a bit more challenging. Good point too that I can always check in. Thanks.
I’ll go try to figure out how to add my name to the list at the top of the thread now then!
I finished volumes 9 and 10 of chainsaw man recently. I went to put them back on the shelf this morning.
And wow the cover of volume 9 really hits differently now. Before, I was rather surprised how wholesome the cover looked. Just playing with a snowball fight. But now… It’s really sad now. Akiiiiii
I finally started 海辺のカフカ a couple days ago! Meanwhile, how is 本好き going for you, @miwuc ? Should be really smooth going compared to 雪国.
That said, I took a bit of a break from book club books for the past 2 weeks, so I’ve got a bit of catching up to do over Easter. I’d like to finish 犬神家の一族 and catch back up with レベル７ and 僕が愛したすべての君へ before getting stuck in yet another book, so progress will be slow going for a bit. 108/1050ish pages in for now.
I just finished it right now! It was nice! And yes, much easier than 雪国 obviously ^^’ Sometimes it even repeats the exact same information twice in a row and I’m like yes yes, I got it the first time. But I should be grateful I guess.
The ebook I got was a bundle of volumes 1 to 3, so I’ll be reading the next two volumes soon.
Finished 大川契り: 善人長屋. This is the third and (at least at the moment) last of the 善人長屋 series of books. I had got about halfway through this much earlier in the year and then stalled for a while, not so much because it was bad but I think more that other books seemed more enticing. The book is short stories (like the first book in the series, and unlike the second book which was a full-novel-length story), so it felt a bit “more of the same” and I didn’t feel much urgency to start the next short story once I’d finished one.
Hey there, has anyone read 葉隠聞書 of 山本常朝 (tsunetomo)? I got it suggested by some people to read (in eng of course, being far above my level) but I’m curious if someone did already, in either english or japanese
I haven’t but I just looked it up. Since it’s from the Edo period, it’s (obviously) in the public domain… but at the same time, it is written in a Japanese I can barely understand.
I need the translation in (modern) Japanese
Well, I did understand that the author starts by saying one should burn those 11 scrolls, which is kinda funny. Someone didn’t follow his directives
Despite my Japanese being barely if even rudimental I had figured it out by the comments of natives
I looked for a translation to modern Japanese and found this one which according to comments should be the ‘best’ (not sure under which point of view):
I’m not sure it’s as simple as that, a translation can be a mere dry translation or include as well notes from the author about language and historical context. This is what I found out while looking for a good english version of the book, since a lot where very poor, but in the end I suppose such things are less important when translating between similar languages.
Note if someone is interested: many swear that the best translation is the one from Alexander Bennett (PhD in Japanese language and culture and working at the Tokyo University if I’m not mistaking) which is the one I’m currently reading. This was translated from Edo Japanese straight into english.
)
I was reminded that bookclubs and the like existed recently so I thought I’d try to be social for once. 
I read about half of the series last year and got distracted by something else I think. Then watched the anime this year, so now I’m back to reading it again.
Thanks.
Akiiiiii
