amazing thanks, these lists are soooo convenient!
3 Likes
I’ve been withholding a nomination to wait and see if we’d hit the max before the vote, especially since I have two nominations already.
I’ll put it here, but if anyone has a last-minute nomination, this one can take a back seat for the upcoming vote list. (Likewise, if three nominations from one person is a bit much.)
あしたは土曜日 春・夏
Summary
A slice of life comedy revolving around the conversations and daily shenanigans of three schoolgirls. Mina is lively and gets into mischief; Yukari is the class rep and usually follows Mina’s lead; and Sanae is a member of the track club who, unlike her friends, prefers to stay cool and act rationally.
Via MyAnimeList
Availability
Natively Level: 19
Note: I feel with more ratings, this would drop to at least level 18.
Personal Opinion
Teasing-Master Tagaki-san seemed to do well when we read it. This two-volume series is similar in difficulty but with five-page chapters.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Chapters are episodic. If you miss one you can easily skip it to follow club pace.
- Five-page chapters reduce the need to follow context.
- School setting, which is common in manga and anime.
- Occasionally learn aspects of common Japanese school-related culture.
- Relatively simple vocabulary.
- Pages and chapters are numbered.
Cons
- Casual language, as is often found in manga.
Pictures
16 Likes
It doesn’t bother me as long as you’re letting other people have a chance. Added it to the list.
7 Likes
It’s Voting Time!
If you would like to read along with the Absolute Beginner’s Book Club, feel free to vote on the next pick!
The list of nominations is below, and each title links to the nomination post where you can read more about the book and check sample pages.
You will have 5 votes which you can change until the voting period ends on 2024-02-02T18:00:00Z.
The intended start date for the next pick is March 9, 2024.
List of Proposed Books
Books
| Book Title | Description | Natively |
|---|---|---|
| こぐまのクーク物語 春と夏 | Kuuku the Bear Cub’s Story, Spring and Summer | L19 |
| 日本の昔ばなし | Japanese Folk Tales Collection Vol 1 (Issun-boshi and other stories) | L?? |
| もしかしたら名探偵 | Detective Milky Sugiyama | L16 |
| １０分で読めるこわい話1年生 | 10 minute reader - Scary stories (1st grade reader) | L16? |
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 |
| ふだつきのキョーコちゃん | Fudatsuki no Kyoko-chan | L18 |
| ギャルと恐竜 | Gal & Dino | L18 |
| クリスタルハンタース | Crystal Hunters | L24? |
| 今日から始める幼なじみ | Will you be my childhood friend? | L17 |
| ガールズ＆パンツァー リトルアーミー | Girls und Panzer: Little Army | L21 |
| 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 |
| ドラえもん | Doraemon | L22 |
| 玉藻の恋 | Tamamo no Koi | L19 |
| 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 |
| 老女的少女ひなたちゃん | Granny Girl Hinata-Chan | L20 |
| あしたは土曜日 春・夏 | Tomorrow is Saturday | L19 |
Book Poll 12
- Kuuku the Bear Cub’s Story, Spring and Summer
- Japanese Folk Tales Collection Vol 1 (Issun-boshi and other stories)
- Detective Milky Sugiyama
- 10 minute reader - Scary stories (1st grade reader)
- Kobato
- Let’s Plaaay - Our Dog, Log
- Fujimoto Tatsuki Short Story Collection 17-21
- Fudatsuki no Kyoko-chan
- Gal & Dino
- Crystal Hunters
- Will you be my childhood friend?
- Girls und Panzer: Little Army
- My wife in an online game is a popular idol
- A Condition Called Love
- Sakurai-san wants to be noticed!
- Doraemon
- Tamamo no Koi
- Girlfriend who never wants to take a bath vs. boyfriend who definitely wants to put her into the bath
- Granny Girl Hinata-Chan
- Tomorrow is Saturday
0
voters
18 Likes
Could a kind regular change the title to now voting? (-:
7 Likes
The kemonomimi faction wants to remind you that kitsune are cute and make for fantastic book clubs. As supporting evidence, I present to you a picture of Tamamo after she learnt that you voted for her:
18 Likes
This is Crystal Hunter on Amazon Canada. It looks like a bunch more are included in the series if you have Kindle Unlimited. There’s even a month free trial. It’s getting my vote because I’ll be able to continue reading the series 
8 Likes
I’ve shared the poll in the current home thread and current week’s thread of Shikimori to give people who may not follow this thread as closely a chance to see it.
9 Likes
It is hard to say no to that face…
But, perhaps the hygiene group can bribe a few voters into the 風呂 with these buckets of rubber duckies
16 Likes
I’ll see your rubber duckies and raise you a wet kitsune.
18 Likes
Oh, we’re going for a cute off are we? Well Hinata is certainly ready:
16 Likes
I wholeheartedly endorse this message
8 Likes
I ended up reading the first Crystal Hunters overnight, so I’m going to change my vote 
It’s very simple, but a good story for people who like adventure manga. I still plan to read the next six
7 Likes
Hey! Does this club do a read aloud on discord or any other platform by any chance? I joined a WK Book Club Discord server but I don’t think any absolute beginner read alouds happen there currently, but I think it would be a cool way to interact with each other and immerse
9 Likes
There isn’t one as far as I know. I’m not interested in running something like that since there would be a lot of difficulty with timezones etc. but maybe someone else is? Maybe you could make a thread to gauge interest?
4 Likes
I had asked in the IBC how it was organized, here’s the answer I had gotten:
So I don’t think that the fact that is it the ABBC can be a problem, it’s more a question of is there interest
7 Likes
Note for people browsing the Natively lists, the entry for Crystal Hunters has been removed from Natively at the authors’ request, as they disagreed with the rating: Blog | Natively
(A bug related to the (re)-deletion was also why the list was causing errors on the natively side)
14 Likes
Ah, it’s a bit too bad that it’s been removed from the site entirely. It hasn’t been getting a lot of interest in the polls, so we probably won’t end up reading it as a group anyways.
I’m also not sure that it’s the best choice for this particular club since it’s a graded reader situation geared towards language learners and we usually read native material.
12 Likes
My pronunciation is pretty bad at this stage, but I would love to participate. My schedule is really flexible.
4 Likes
We previously did a read-along years back with なぜ？どうして？ which I think went pretty well. It being a non fiction book lent itself very well to reading out loud.
5 Likes