Absolute Beginners Book Club // Currently reading Mitsuboshi Colours

[_Marcus]

Just to add: though there is value in the process, there is, of course, no requirement for books to go through the route of nomination and polling.

If someone really likes a book, wants to run a club, is prepared to do the work of running it and seeing it through to the end, then they can set up a bookclub at any time.

Not all the books in the WK bookclubs were proposed and polled, many were just set up by keen individuals.

Not to say that polling etc is a waste of time, there is some value in the process, but it’s not the only route to making a bookclub.

[skymaiden]

As someone who doesn’t run clubs but only reads with them, I do appreciate the polls and scheduling in the level-based clubs though – because the scheduling usually lines up nicely, so I don’t end up with too many books at the same time.

[_Marcus]

Oh, yes, for sure! (I’m just pointing out that it’s not the only way, and never has been the only way - there is always room for anyone to start a club any time they like too!)

[matthewsa]

I bought both １０分で読める伝記 ２年生 (よみとく１０分) and なぜ？どうして？科学のお話３年生 (よみとく１０分) when I got レンタルおにいちゃん, but there are so many なぜ？ books. I wouldn’t mind trying something new and I’ve been meaning to read Dragon Ball since forever so SD doesn’t seem like a bad way to do it.

I’ll likely join whatever gets picked since the clubs seem to be good for motivation to continue reading and sharing thoughts/translations/problems. I’ll just have to try to stay on top of what is going on since I don’t check the master thread that often, or browse other threads in general.

[cpage]

I too will go with the flow since I really like having the community motivation. Compared to レンタルおにいちゃん though, なぜ seems more difficult and maybe why we ended up a small group finishing it. (or were our final numbers normal? I’m new-ish to book club) I still really liked なぜ and felt like I learned a lot reading it.

I’ll write up a separate reply with the nomination template to have one of them thrown in the poll, I’m leaning towards Grade 2 biography since @matthewsa already owns it! The biography chapters from なぜ？科学 were really nice since they had a little bit of dialogue and storytelling.

[cpage]

１０分で読める伝記 ２年生 (よみとく１０分)

Summary

10-Pun de yomeru denki “Biographies” – To read in ten minutes- is a series of reading books for elementary school children in Japan. It is also suitable for students of Japanese who wish to read authentic texts in Japanese.

This book includes twelve short biographies for children such as the life of Osamu Tezuka, Edison or Beethoven, among others.

Since this collection is for children, it only uses high-quality design and content.

The texts are written in a simple yet invigorating way and each story has its own illustration.

Source

Availability

amazon.co.jp
ebookjapan

Personal Opinion

This series is written for Japanese kids so the topics are simple and written in formal Japanese so sentences are clear and easy to read. You’ll learn some cool facts since they are educational books as well. This one is the biography book so it’s people from all over the world. Each chapter is usually only a few pages so with previous books it was easy for people to jump in and out of the schedule.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

• Formal Japanese
• Short interesting stories
• Furigana

Cons

• As it’s more book than manga, lots of sentences
• Lots of new vocabulary because it isn’t everyday topics
• Sometime we wished for more kanji!

Pictures

Table of Contents

Additional Pages

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

• No effort at all
• Minimal effort
• Just right
• Challenging
• Impossible, even with everyone’s help
• I don’t know (please click this if you’re not voting seriously)

[ygarcia]

I think these would be really cool to try!

[funnypenny]

Sorry if this question has already come up and been answered, but how challenging are the next books of Rental Brother? I’m interested in seeing how the rest of the story progresses and it doesn’t seem to be a nomination so I’m assuming it’s probably more difficult?

[Belthazar]

@matthewsa

but there are so many なぜ？ books.

Oh, tell me about it. And the only difference between them is a single kanji somewhere in the middle of their titles.

[ChristopherFritz]

@funnypenny

how challenging are the next books of Rental Brother?

They’re about the same as volume 1. The main “difficulty” is the introduction of a recurring character who speaks with a dialect in volume 2.

@funnypenny

it doesn’t seem to be a nomination

If there’s enough interest in continuing a series, it gets its own offshoot club, rather than a nomination.

I expect we’ll have more than enough people interested in continuing, especially with it being only four volumes.

[funnypenny]

Cool, I’d love to see it continued. Thanks!

[Micki]

Could someone with the right privileges update the group title to something like: SELECTING NEXT BOOK//Absolute Beginners Book Club//Currently Reading: Big Brother Rental

[NicoleRauch]

Hi all,

some time ago, I’ve nominated a book in the Beginner Book Club, but it doesn’t seem to be very popular there, plus it is really easy, and so I figured that maybe you guys would be interested in reading it here? (Note: I won’t be running the book here if it gets picked, but I’m sure you will find somebody who can take over.)

こぐまのクーク物語 春と夏 - Kuuku the Bear Cub’s Story, Spring and Summer

Summary (Japanese from Amazon, English is my own translation)

クークは、動物たちと、ゆたかな自然の中、いきいきと育っていきます。そして、クークの家は森のキッチンというレストラン、父さん母さんがおいしい料理をつくってくれます。八つの感動物語。料理レシピつき。

Kuuku and his animal friends grow up among lush nature. Kukki’s parents run a restaurant called “Forest’s Kitchen” where they prepare delicious meals. 8 emotionally moving stories. Recipes are included.

Availability

Amazon
Bookwalker

Personal Opinion

I have not read the book yet, but I noticed it on FloFlo because it has very few different words. It seems to be a cute children’s story. From peeking into it, I like the artwork as well.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

• Vocab list on FloFlo
• Only 1230 different words according to FloFlo
• It’s actually a book for very small children, so the language is easy, and the sentences are short.
• 8 stories that are each 20 pages or less, and each page contains very little text only (see screenshots).
• It seems to be a series, so we can continue with the next book(s) if people are interested.

Cons

• Don’t rely too much on FloFlo’s word list as it may have misparses, e.g. it did not seem to be able to parse こぐま (bear cub)
• As expected for a children’s book, there are not too many kanji.
• The story is probably not too deep

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One

Additional Pages

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

• No effort at all
• Minimal effort
• Just right
• Challenging
• Impossible, even with everyone’s help
• I don’t know (please click this if you’re not voting seriously)

[NicoleRauch]

Wow, thank you for your willingness to run the book’s club! Appreciated

[fray]

In case we do a poll and it wins and @_Marcus you can’t find the time yet to run the club, I’d be willing to do it. It looks like a cute and fun read and I already have it in my cart… probably going to buy it soon whether or not it gets picked by the ABBC because it’s on sale right now (the other books of that series too as it seems).

[Kazzeon]

@_Marcus

there are currently 193 chapters

[fray]

@Wiggle

おじさまと猫 (Old man and cat)

Someone has now started a book club for this one.

[fray]

I just clicked on this manga because I thought it was the old man and a cat one. But turns out it’s a different manga but it looks cute, too! It’s called Oji-san loves cute things (おじさんはカワイイものがお好き)

and is about

a guy who’s 40 years old, an attractive office worker, admired by his colleagues but he has a secret: He is trying to hide from everyone that he loves cute things. But with his son going to his apartment, his secret is now in danger…

I’m thinking of nominating it! But I’m not sure if I should nominate it here or in the beginner book club. It has mostly furigana and is not too text dense - not like furuba I’d say but definetly more text than big brother rental.

The first volume can be read for free at the moment on booklive.

[Micki]

I see what you mean. Definitely on the challenging side compared to previous ABBC picks. Particularly compared to what we are reading now.

[Micki]

@frayderike

@Wiggle

おじさまと猫 (Old man and cat)

Someone has now started a book club for this one.

So I guess I take this one out of the nomination list then. It’s a shame as it looked a decent ABBC type read, although we’ve had it in our nomination list for sometime now without actually reading it.