And the winner of that poll was… Pokemon Adventures!! We get started reading this friday (04/18), and we’d love for anyone feeling up to it to join!! If you’ve been looking to step up from the ABBC, or just love the Pokemon world and are willing to put up with the challenge, come join us!!
Home Thread
Week 1 Thread
Absolute Beginners Book Club // Now Reading: My Love Story! // Reading Next (Dec 13th): Gal and Dino
7 Likes
When will we choose the book after “A sign of affection”?
5 Likes
Usually the poll is about six weeks before the end of the club. So that’ll be mid-July.
5 Likes
If you want to vote for another book, or feel like trying the next level of challenge up from the ABBC, the beginner book club is now voting:
7 Likes
Poll time is next week or thereabouts, which means it’s time for more nominations!
Fudatsuki no Kyoko chan was removed due to low interest, which means we have 7 slots available for nominations.
For our next poll, I’m also proposing we adopt the tiebreaker rule that’s been popular in book clubs around here- in the case of a tie, the older nomination wins by default, instead of reading two books in a row.
15 Likes
Bring on Shoujo Summer!
俺物語！！(My Love Story!!)
Summary
Takeo Goda is a GIANT guy with a GIANT heart.
Too bad the girls don’t want him! (They want his good-looking best friend, Sunakawa.)
Used to being on the sidelines, Takeo simply stands tall and accepts his fate. But one day when he saves a girl named Yamato from a harasser on the train, his (love!) life suddenly takes an incredible turn!
Takeo can hardly believe it when he crosses paths with Yamato again, and he finds himself falling in love with her… But with handsome Sunakawa around, does Takeo even stand a chance?
Availability
Natively Level: [20]
Personal Opinion
It’s fun and cute, and has an unusual protagonist that you can root for
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Fun story, easy to understand, has furigana
Cons
- Might not want another romcom so soon after A Sign of Affection
- Might be a little more text-heavy than the last few books
Pictures
17 Likes
I’ve considered nominating this one from time to time. This series has (in my opinion) the best couple of any manga I’ve read.
(And since I own the whole series, I have vocabulary frequency lists for every volume.)
11 Likes
Yay, another nomination! I can run the poll soon.
9 Likes
The time to vote is upon us!
Calling all members of the democratic collective known as the Absolute Beginner’s Book Club!
Cast your ballot for the next book! You will have 5 votes which you can change until the poll closes on 2025-07-28T17:00:00Z
List of Proposed Books
Books
| Book Title | Description | Natively |
|---|---|---|
| 日本の昔ばなし | Japanese Folk Tales Collection Vol 1 (Issun-boshi and other stories) | L?? |
Manga
| Manga Title | Description | Natively |
|---|---|---|
| こばと | Kobato | L20? |
| あしょんでよッ ~うちの犬ログ | Let’s Plaaay - Our Dog, Log | L13 |
| 藤本タツキ短編集 17-21 | Fujimoto Tatsuki Short Story Collection 17-21 | L23 |
| ギャルと恐竜 | Gal & Dino | L18 |
| 今日から始める幼なじみ | Will you be my childhood friend? | L17 |
| ネトゲの嫁が人気アイドルだった | My wife in an online game is a popular idol | L19? |
| 花野井くんと恋の病 | A Condition Called Love | L20 |
| 桜井さんは気づいてほしい | Sakurai-san wants to be noticed! | L15 |
| 絶対に風呂に入りたくない彼女VS絶対に風呂に入れたい彼氏 | Girlfriend who never wants to take a bath vs. boyfriend who definitely wants to put her into the bath | L17 |
| あしたは土曜日 春・夏 | Tomorrow is Saturday | L19 |
| 薫る花は凛と咲く | The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Difficulty | L20 |
| あやかしこ | Ayakashiko | L22 |
| 俺物語！！ | My Love Story!! | L20 |
Book Poll 17
- Japanese Folk Tales Collection Vol 1
- Kobato
- Let’s Plaaay - Our Dog, Log
- Fujimoto Tatsuki Short Story Collection 17-21
- Gal & Dino
- Will you be my childhood friend?
- My wife in an online game is a popular idol
- A Condition Called Love
- Sakurai-san wants to be noticed!
- Girlfriend who never wants to take a bath vs. boyfriend who definitely wants to put her into the bath
- Tomorrow is Saturday
- The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Difficulty
- Ayakashiko
- My Love Story!!
0
voters
8 Likes
Looking forward to another romcom.
4 Likes
Hey, only if that’s what the people want!
4 Likes
I’m hoping, yes <3
4 Likes
Oh, you were hoping! Sometimes people complain about the club picking too many romances 
But yes, looks likely!
3 Likes
close race so far with no adjacent spots differing by more than one vote
3 Likes
Just as a heads up, I read the fujimoto tatsuki short story collection, and I’m rather certain that the content in it would be considered inappropriate for the wanikani book club. Contains themes of Sex, violence, gore, death, and one of the stories is about (tw?): an active school shooting scenario. It may be removed naturally, but I’d suggest taking it off the nominee list for the next poll regardless
4 Likes
Hmmm, true, that may not be a good choice for the ABBC since we did implement a rule recently against fanservice/sexual content in nominations. Gore and the like is not necessarily against the rules, but might be offputting to some first time readers.
Edit: Actually, this one may be around the upper limit for level, since it’s L23 on Natively and around 22 is generally the highest we read here (although there’s some fluctuation of levels). If anyone is passionate about reading it, it could be nominated in the BBC instead.
5 Likes
Now I got curious about it…
2 Likes
I’ll visit my local japanese bookstore tomorrow, so if one book could get a sizeable lead, that’d be great. 
5 Likes
Btw it was accounced that “A Condition Called Love” is now finished!
Some info to celebrate the occasion: it was published from December 2017, got nominated here in 2023, got anime adaptation in 2024 and now finished with 18 volumes total (will get a side series starting in January).
Won Best Shoujo Manga award in Kodansha’s 45th Manga Awards in 2021.
8 Likes
Better buy them all just to be sure.
The order of events makes it look like it got the anime adaptation because it was nominated here, good job us
9 Likes