Hello everyone, I have been studying Japanese for about a month now on my own and I recently picked up WaniKani this week. I saw this club and I was wondering whether I would be able to read the next book Shirokuma Cafe at my current level… Im on Ch. 6 of Genki 1 currently. If not then hopefully by the time the club starts reading it I will be up to scratch. Thanks 
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you can check your level of understanding by reading the sample pages in this post
But if you think it is too hard you could still participate and just ask lots of questions 
maybe next time we should add a link in the home thread of the book 
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How’s everyone preparing for this book? How’s that going on?
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I have all of them and I’m preparing by thinking everyday that I shouldn’t read them now :DDD
I’m reading Yotsuba though and 時をかける少女 
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I should get on it sometime 
Vol 1? 
I still have to read it omgaaaaad.
Vol 2 already :PPP
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Does waiting for them to arrive and not panicking count? >.>
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O_O’ you’re going to read them all? 
Like the other guy that was afraid that his books were delivered in the wrong country? 
aka me.
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Maybe! I really like it this far, and the more I read, the less I fell the need in dictionary whatsoever!:3 And I read the first vol in maybe a week of reading before bed, it’s quite nice:3
Don’t panic, the worst that’ll happen is that they will arrive late, but manga is not that text heavy, so it’s much easier to catch up:3
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I’m not panicking about them being late, I’m panicking about reading them! Starting any task matter how small is really emotionality challenging for me, though I’ve gotten really better this last week, so I’m trying to be emotionaly prepared for that
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I’m not really preparing for this book, to be honest. Is that bad? I thought reading it beforehand would spoil some of the fun of the book club.
I’m also reading yotsuba btw, now at volume 5. It’s definitely worth it reading more than one volume.
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No, not at all. Actually, what I meant by preparing was things like focusing on grammar, pre-studying vocab, etc (i.e. focusing on one’s weaknesses). Reading yotsubato definitely counts as preparation to me, as you’re working on your reading
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No one says you have to read it till the end:3 You may try to read just on page, well, maybe just frame, ah, or maybe a word 
I’ve been studying grammar like crazy before/during 時をかける少女, and I think it payed off! I finished 3 chapters though in 5 days of work, so I wrote to myself that I need at least 3 days of break/revising before I can go on:DD It was getting boring and I started to burn out, but I caaaan’t stop learning D::
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Ah, like that.
Yeah, in that case I’m preparing quite a lot, doing kanji and vocab (WK and memrise) and reading. I mostly try to play games in Japanese too. The combination of speech and written language is great, as I hear more than I can read, due to my lack of kanji knowledge and experience.
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When you said you had to read, you were legit serious o: I should be more like you
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Yeap :DD And now I’m legit serious about gaming all day long:DD Or I’ll try to be
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Do it in Japanese and call it study time? 
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It’s not the commitment either, is really difficult to explain without a window into my head xD
I have such strong attachment to desire, desire to do well, desire to have time, desire to start reading, desire to be organised, desire to acheive. It creates a huge mental block that distances me from actually achieving as it sets the goal as something I “do not have” and then puts doubt on my ability to acheive it.
I’ve found the most effective way to deal with this is through meditation and letting go of desire, which has helped tremendously the last few weeks and is why I’m actually attending an archery course today, I’ve gotten past the ‘desire’ and wallowing in that desire, and instead moved onto ‘doing’, i.e actually learning and attending, but whilst the book club hasn’t started yet, it’s very difficult to move onto ‘doing’ as there’s nothing to do until they arrive so I’m just accepting my fate
I’m sure it’ll be fine when it starts, until then @jprspereira can keep me laughing on discord chat
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You know… I’ve heard this quote like 2 days ago that really resonated with me:
Your lack of action is exposing your insecurities.
And that made a lot of sense to me. Because it helped me understand that insecurities are just a symptom of lack of action. Lack of action is not about fearing failure at all! Insecurities show up because you’re wishing of tasting something, but never actually tasting it. Action allows you to get a taste of the things you wish to do, no matter if you fail or succeed.
For example, it’s easy to feel insecure about our reading abilities if we never taste it. But if we go over that and start doing it, we’ll know what reading feels like to us. We’ll know what to expect so much better. Poof, insecurity goes away because you know where you stand. And once you know where you stand, you can climb 
the ladder.
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