…you say, but then you join me in the “Maybe” group?! 
Cough cough let’s not look too hard at that 
It’s actually the exact same reason as yours lmao
I’ll try my best though 
I updated the home post with the club link. Pay your Soup Tax and come join us for week one!
PS: This club has bonus features don’t miss the fantastic grammar guide that hotdog put together and linked in the club’s home thread 
Would anyone like to nominate a book for the ABBC? I will be posting our next poll soon!
Does it need to have Furigana?
Yes, books for this club should have full furigana. If you have a book that looks easy but has partial/no furigana, you can nominate it in the beginner book club.
It was 雨と君と however! That’s okay! When I am ready to move up to that level I will nominate it then! 
I am going to look through my book list and see if I can nominate one! Is book two of Soup an option?
I mean, if you’re interested in reading it, maybe you are ready to move up to that level. 
I watched the anime of that. It’s… curious.
I would also be interested in this one 
I have the first volume. Even though there’s no Furigana I found it okay to read. I think I am 4 chapters in tho.
Soup! Soup for all!!
Usually this club only reads the first volume of the series. However, if there’s interest, sometimes a group will continue reading a series in an offshoot club. So if you all want to keep reading the soup book in an offshoot you could discuss it in the home thread for that club!
Count me in!! I took a look at the very last page when I got the first volume…im unsure if I will be satisfied with only ready one. 
i am however digging through my book list 
it’s a little hard to find ones L19 and below lol. I understand now what yall were saying about that lol
We’ve gone up to L22 on Natively before, but I wouldn’t go any higher than that for this club! Plus, they have to have full furigana. Finding easy manga that people also want to read can definitely be a challenge for this club.
Tell me about it! I was going to recommend some of my all time favorites but they all are at 26 .
I really wanted to suggest Claymore since the volumes are so cheep. (It’s old lol) but it’s advanced. 
You’ll just have to save those for the Beginner Book Club! I bet you’ll probably be ready for that club sooner than you think.
I hope so!! I’m really glad I stuck this one out this time.
I ran a simple algorithm of mine across 4,400 manga series and narrowed it down to a list of what should be the easiest manga from that selection. Looking over the top 12, 11 of them are school/romance. With so much setting/genre similarity, I’ll just pick the one I’m planning on reading to nominate.
サクラ、サク。
Summary
An unnoticed high school girl, Saku Fujigaya, changes after a stranger helps her during a crowded train ride. She decides that she will never ignore people in trouble and carries a wish to thank the person who helped her. At her new school, she meets Haruki Sakura and learns that his older brother may be the person she has been searching for.
Availability
Physical
Digital
Natively Level: 21
Personal Opinion
I don’t know anything about this series, but I’ve read other series by the mangaka: 「アオハライド」 in a WaniKani book club, then 「ストロボ・エッジ」, and more recently I finished 「思い、思われ、ふり、ふられ」. I’ve found the characters, story, and artwork enjoyable in each series, and I expect 「サクラ、サク。」 will be no exception.
Based on a stats comparison, I expect this volume’s difficulty (currently L21 on Natively) to be:
- Quite a bit easier than Horimiya (L22) and RuriDragon (L21)
- Somewhat easier than Mitsuboshi Colors (L20) and A Sign of Affection (L19)
- Similar to Cardcaptor Sakura (L19)
- A little more difficult than Soup Shop (L17) and Gal and Dinosaur (L16)
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Fairly low text density
- High school setting should mean mostly common vocabulary
- Mangaka has a good track record
Cons
- Slight difficulty increase over the past two ABBC reads
Pictures
Do the nominations from last time still count? I nominated Yotsuba last time, but now I’m actually feeling pretty unqualified to lead a book club for that. Kesaran was kind of a wakeup call that I still don’t understand most of what I read in casual contexts, especially when it comes to grammar. Speaking of, there’s no way I could make a good grammar sheet for Yotsuba like they did for Kesaran, and I wouldn’t be able to answer questions people post in the threads. I’d still participate if someone else nominated it, but I don’t want to lead the club, myself.
That being said, my goal for the end of 2026 is to get comfortable reading manga so I can work my way up to reading Azumanga Daioh, which I’m a huge fan of. From what little of it I’ve read so far, it’s all very familiar because I’ve seen the anime so many times. That makes it a lot easier for me to parse, even without furigana. Once I read it at least once all the way through and get more comfortable with it, I’ll nominate it for a beginner book club since I should feel more qualified to lead that one, even if it’s at a higher reading level.
Wait do you have to lead when your nomination gets picked?!?
