Advanced Japanese Book Club // Reading 虐殺器官 - Genocidal Organ

I want to vote, but I know I won’t be able to keep up with any books we pick, thanks to work. :frowning: I started reading 本好き, and then August became a black hole which I have yet to fully escape. (…October, maybe? I can only hope…) Everyone needs to pick and read good literature for me. >.<

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Probably won’t participate in the next club (how many times have I said that?) but I just have to say real quick – I started reading 狼と香辛料 about a month ago and I’m on track to finish it by Saturday, and there were parts that simply made me want to die. On top of all the economics vocab, the whole thought process behind a lot of the conversations was really difficult to follow. They’ll suddenly break from a high-stakes situation to do some theorizing about the best way to turn a profit given all the current political powers at play.

The difficulty comes in spikes so it may not be evident by just looking at the first few pages. Even though there’s nothing too crazy in terms of grammar here, I personally wouldn’t put it in the easy category. Granted, I was going at a much higher pace than what we’ve been doing with 本好きの下剋上 (10 pages per day), and going slower certainly would have helped. Just something to keep in mind when voting.

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I had a similar experience for the first two chapters before I stopped reading. There were some easy parts and then I would just get lost for a while. I found it too tedious to keep reading, which is why I didn’t finish it. I was also trying to read at a faster page than 本好き though.

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It’s at times like this that I wish I was a bit less stubborn and could allow myself to just drop a book…I’m more or less grinding through the tough sections to get to the character moments (which are very fun). Theoretically it all goes towards improving my reading ability so it’s not a complete waste…

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Yes, but it’s also good to be as efficient as possible. For example, I’m finding 本好き to be the perfect difficulty for me. It’s easy enough to read leisurely and enjoy almost every chapter, but it still has enough unknown words that I’m learning a lot.

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That’s pretty much why I didn’t even make it past the first episode of the anime - it’s basically a textbook on economic theory disguised as a mediaeval fantasy story.

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As a person with a degree in economics I thought the anime was very thrilling :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
It also ended on a cliffhanger, so I had to learn Japanese to read the novel series.

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It took me a second to realize that it was supposed to be a negative.
That sounds fun!

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Yeah, I liked the economics aspect of the anime!

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I will say it really opened my eyes to why some people don’t like some of my favorite books – the ones with all the in-depth descriptions of how different dishes are prepared and all that cooking stuff that I live for. Economics is definitely not something I have any interest in, whether in the real world or in a fantasy setting, but I can see how it would appeal to a certain audience.

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If I’m gonna watch an economics textbook, I’d rather it be disguised as sci-fi. :slightly_smiling_face:

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This comment made me think of Overlord, which is full of power play and politics. :joy:

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本好きの下剋上 is free on Bookwalker atm, if someone not yet reading it wants to grab it for later.

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It’s a shame the second and third volumes aren’t free too. :sweat_smile:

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Votes have dried up, but we have tie. Should we just read both? (I voted for both, so I obviously don’t mind)

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I hope you don’t mean both at the same time :sweat_smile: That will be a challenge!

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I also voted for both, so I don’t mind either :innocent:

Apparently @morteasd fixed the situation :joy_cat:

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I take back all my previous opinions about vote editing.

Sorry, I had only voted for one book, forgot to come back and put the rest…

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Is there a e-book version for 雪国 anywhere? It would be a bit more convenient for studying :slight_smile: