This one sounds interesting. I like it.
Thanks for creating this thread!
I’m going to nominate a book I just started reading that I bought in Japan. It’s pretty doable for my level of reading, it’s just a tiny bit more complicated than なぜ？どうして？ but it’s a lot more fun to read.
EDIT: Should probably add I’m probably just around N4 level (took N4 last December and I’m pretty confident I failed). If that gives any idea on difficulty.
WANTED - Short stories from the creator of One Piece
Summary
Author’s note:
"This is a 「masterpiece collection」. No matter what any of you say, this is a 「masterpiece collection」.
You could say these 「masterpieces」 are some of the few sucessful sucessors of the will of the countless one-shots out there that have been left to rot. To simply call them “short stories” would be such a shame.
Oh … but wait, on the cover, the sub-title says “Collection of short stories by Oda Eiichiro”…!!
Ah, whatever. "
Availability
I can’t seem to find an eBook version but I might have missed it.
Personal Opinion
It’s fun, the Japanese is readable, it’s not aimed at super young kids, and the level isn’t too complicated. Also, as it’s a manga, context from the illustrations can assist reader.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Not ‘dry’
- Not aimed at young children
- Context from illustrations can assist in understanding
- Short stories means that people could jump in at any time and just jump in to the current story
- Furigana
Cons
- It’s shounen, so if you don’t like shounen you may not like it
Pictures
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)
0 voters
6 Likes
Googling around, I found a bunch of lists of “books every 3年生 should read”.
If you want more recommendations, I could go through those in more details and check if something looks appropriate for your club.
Planning to join in for this one!
Don’t have any reccomendations so far, but if that changes I’ll be sure to let you know!
あたしンち
Summary
Outrageous misadventures of an almost normal family with a housewife, her husband, and their two kids Yuusuke and Mikan. Wacky humor about this weird family’s daily life.
Availability
An ebook is aviable on amazon.co.jp I don’t know where else to get japanese ebooks.
Personal Opinion
I did watch the anime and trasnlated it for crunchyroll germany. First I was skeptical, but the Anime ended up beeing quite funny. I bought the first volume of the manga and it’s a fun and easy to read manga. The manga is around 130 pages long and consist of 34 short storys about daily family life.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- lot’s of furigana
- daily life conevrsations
- actually quite funny
Cons
- might be a bit childish for some
Pictures
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)
0 voters
5 Likes
While probably to easy for the beginner Book CLub I think atashinchi could be just right for the super beginners club.
I would like to join this although I do not have a book recommendation. Will it notify me when the book is chosen or will I have to keep checking back here?
You probably need to check this thread from time to time. Just look at the untead posts and yoh will see if we post new things.
Also probably the title of the thread will be changed, which should make it easy to see at a glance.
1 Like
I would be totally cool to read graded readers with you all. One of those packs contai 5 or six books. I think one week per book would be nice. Would atleast fit my skills XD
2 Likes
I’m probably going to give up on the “beginner” book club and just join you folks. I don’t think I have a the same definition of beginner as most people on this board. 
3 Likes
Well, when it was created it was Beginner in comparison with the existing Book Club 
but that’s why this club exists!
Edit: @emucat, would it be worth adding the Cat Detective book as a previous pick as well? I know it’s kind of retconning history, but it might make it easier for people to find in future if they’re looking to read it at a later date.
2 Likes
Pretty much what @Radish8 said.
Also, the “beginner” in the title was (originally at least) about not having experience reading native media, not about the actual level of the reader.
That being said, those two things being correlated, I think it naturally shifted toward the more immediate meaning of beginner, but still, N4 is considered beginner… so, true, that would be the higher end of the spectrum, but I still think it’s not a misnomer 
It’s also good to have this group, to make the transition toward reading native content even smoother 
7 Likes
Excellent idea!
1 Like
What Cat Detective book?
1 Like
Guess I’ll write this up as an actual nomination…
福娘童話集
(Lucky Princess Fairly Tale Collection)
Focusing specifically on the まいにちの昔話 section, though really we could do anything.
Summary
It’s a website intended for Japanese kids featuring literally thousands of Japanese fairy tales, foreign fairy tales, Aesop’s fables, folk tales, Edo-period comic stories and ghost stories.
Availability
Website: ç¦å¨ç«¥è©±é -ä¸çã¨æ¥æ¬ã®ç«¥è©±ã»æ話é-
Personal Opinion
It’ll teach us a whole lot about Japanese culture. Plus, it’s intended for Japanese kids who are still learning Japanese.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Quite literally years worth of material available. Honestly, we could even just break it up, do a couple between other books, or spin off a new group from the start, or something.
- Each story is quite short (about 50 lines for fairy tales, 30 for short stories and 15 for Aesop’s fables)
- Almost every story is accompanied by an audio version. Sometimes pictures.
- 100% free
Cons
- Has website only, no physical book for those who like to have a physical book
- Language is very literary style, using some forms you’ll literally only ever see in fairy tales.
- No furigana, but easy to copy-and-paste words to a dictionary
- I keep wanting to write “Fairy Tail” every. single. time.
Example Stories
Japanese fairy tale: ツルの恩返し (The Grateful Crane)
Foreign fairy tale: コアラの尻尾が短い理由 (Why the Koala has a short tail - Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime story)
Japanese folktale: トラとキツネ (The Tiger and the Fox)
Aesop’s fable: キツネとブドウのふさ (The Fox and the Grapes)
Edo short story: うどん (Udon)
Ghost story: 白ヘビのたたり (Curse of the White Snake)
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)
0 voters
9 Likes
The example stories you posted have a lot of kanji without furigana 
that would be my worry!
Aye, I did say that (though I just noticed I listed it among the pros instead of the cons, whoops). It’s easy to copy-and-paste into a dictionary, though. Plus, I’m about 90% sure there are browser plugins that can add furigana on the run.
1 Like