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

Oh, I managed to read half of those with the club (and more on my own). That’s a lot more than I expected.

That’s the exact same thing for me.
I’m glad I read it, but I had a better time with other stuff in the list.

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Well, the original point was to check if people cared about the club or not.
My feeling is that we should count stuff that people read thanks to the club but not stuff they read completely independently (e.g., before coming to the forum). Conversely, seeing the nomination for something and then reading it on your own should probably count.
I’m going to add 人間失格, then.

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When I first saw the question “what books have you read?” I interpreted it as “which books have you completed with the book clubs?”, so I didn’t pick 人間失格 or 乳と卵 because I ended up dropping both of them. Now I’ve added those for having participated in the book clubs with the (past) intent of reading through those books. Maybe older me will pick them up again some time.

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I joined the book club with the third book, 容疑者Xの献身, and have read every book since! I’ve been vaguely thinking of reading the first two to complete my collection (and beat Belerith…). I’ll definitely read 本好きの下剋上 at some point, but I’m not so sure about 雪国, you all don’t seem to have liked it that much ^^’
I wasn’t sure about my favorite one, I liked most of them but didn’t love any of them. I went with 乳と卵 because the themes resonated with me a lot. My favorite Japanese book so far is actually かがみの孤城 which I read because of (not really with, way too slow) the intermediate book club.
Least favorite definitely パノラマ島綺譚, sorry rodan ^^’

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I haven’t read it, but it’s in my vague ‘to read’ list but you have to be in a certain mood for classic lit I feel like. I definitely go through fazes where all I want is mindless junk, and then other times I read Serious Things which make me Think. Or as I often call it, Literature with a capital L.

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I didn’t hate it, but it was not fun. As @pocketcat said, it’s Literature. I’m glad I have read it, but I didn’t enjoy reading it, if that makes sense.
Well, and also I didn’t like the main character, he is a bit of an asshole, to be honest.

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If you’re thinking about reading it I’d definitely encourage you to give it a try – the author is a Nobel Prize winner and the book is fairly short. It’s harder work than the average modern read-for-entertainment novel, as the prose is more dense and elliptical, but I found it worthwhile. I’m pretty sure if I’d read all 12 books here 雪国 wouldn’t have ended up in last place.

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I don’t feel qualified to vote on my favorite book of this book club since I have only read 薬屋のひとりごと, but I like the idea of looking back and taking!

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This is probably another point where I think I‘ll change the wording the next time around, maybe to „Is there a book that you really disliked?“ and slightly changing the other poll to „Is there a book that you really liked?“ (and potentially even with multiple choice :thinking:) - what do you all think?

I see what you are aiming for! And I agree, it would be interesting to be able to purely measure the impact of the club. Actually I assume that in most cases where somebody reads one of the books here, there is some relation - e.g. seeing the nomination and reading ahead of the book being picked, seeing the book being picked and reading ahead of the club, or reading after the club has finished. So I still guess that it’s still mostly the club‘s impact that we are looking at here, even with this more open question.

I wondered about this as well :laughing: I started almost all of the books of this club but dropped a bunch of them for various reasons. But in order not to overcomplicate things, I think this can be decided by everybody as they see fit…

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I guess that’s mostly true. I don’t remember when, but I have seen people mention before “I won’t join the club this time since I have already read that book”. Still, I guess that case is too infrequent to really matter.
On the other hand, I read 86 because of the nomination in this book club (impact!) but it won’t be measured by the poll (but that also doesn’t matter too much, I guess).

Sounds good to me!

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Thank you all for your input on 雪国! I might tackle it at some point. (Completionist gotta complete…)

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Since 容疑者Xの献身 is currently this club’s favorite book, マスカレード・ホテル is definitely going to win this time, right? :innocent:

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I stopped voting for it after I finished watching the movie :sweat_smile: The movie was good, but I didn’t love it enough to want it again in book form.

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Although I agree with everyone on the story (the main character was a bit of an ass), I actually really liked the writing in 雪国. I read it with the book club a little over two years ago, but I can still distinctly remember the way certain parts were described, especially the first part on the train when the main character arrives and later parts where he is walking around the town. It’s an evocative way of writing that really gives you a sense of place. I definitely don’t regret reading it.

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Yes, that initial scene on the train is really well done.

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I’ll be reading 海辺のカフカ sometime after March thanks to @NicoleIsEnough and @Myria graciously supplying me with the books, so… You may want to read speedily. :eyes:

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so what be going on around here anymore?

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Challenge accepted :grimacing:

Reading books. Same old, same old.

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Oh, by the way, why did you drop the book? I’m considering reading it but maybe I should reconsider? :sweat_smile:

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Graphic animal cruelty. I thankfully got clued into it by someone else before I reached that part. I’m sure it would have ruined my day.

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