40
49
42
46
44
41
43
43
34
58
Lenghts
The average is 44
The last week will be heavy (a little bit) but this is the advanced book club, people can probably handle it
Even if the last week is heavy, since it’s the last week and people won’t be falling behind on further reading even if they don’t finish on time, it doesn’t seem like it would be that big of a problem to me either.
If we apply the usual one-week-break between books, that means we will start reading it on April 10th.
Also, I cleaned up the nominations, and sadly I must say that アウト is out because of lack of interest in the past three polls. Which, on the other hand, gives us some more space for new nominations!
Hey, I’d like to join this club starting with the next book (すべてがFになる). I’ve been reading Haruki Murakami’s ノルウェイの森 for a long time, but the end is currently in sight and I want to read more books. I need to raise my reading pace though. Hopefully this club will help me do that.
I’m also currently studying for the N1, so I hope this will help with that too.
Breasts & Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own.
It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and frustrations.
On another hot summer’s day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless.
(from this review of an English version)
I like the subject of criticism towards society and its norms
Very short (only 133 pages), so it’s a quick read (maybe 4 weeks or a bit longer?)
There are at least 2 English translations available, called “Breasts and Eggs” (one of which interestingly translates Osaka-ben to Manchester dialect).
Cons
Kawakami’s writing often employs Osaka-ben
She also incorporates experimental and poetic language into her short stories and novels, citing Lydia Davis and James Joyce as literary influences
(I actually don’t think these are con’s, it might just make the book harder to read, so I listed them here.)
I hope the excerpts @Myria posted in the akutagawa thread and my fuzzy memory from when I read the sample pages when you nominated it before fused into an accurate assessment.
It feels weird to be one the same effort vote as @Naphthalene somehow.
Time flies, and we’re already almost halfway through our current pick
That means that the next poll is already around the corner, and if you want to throw your favorite book(s) into the ring, now would be a very good time for that
We currently have 11 nominations in the “fast” category and 5 entries in the “hard” category - this does not leave much space but we can take on 4 new nominations!
Have a look at the List of Proposed Books section in the first post for details on each book. Every book has a difficulty associated with it (based on the book club members’ votes, thus subjective) out of 5, where 1 means “no effort at all” and 5 means “impossible, even with everyone’s help”. The difficulty is annotated in the poll in square brackets after the book’s name.
Do not rely solely on difficulty when making a choice. Please have a look at the nomination posts and text samples if you haven’t already.
Expected reading pace: The proposals fall into two categories, Fast and Hard. We aim to read fast books at 30-50 pages and hard books at ~15 pages per week (that number might vary a bit throughout, depending on the book’s breaks and chapters). For manga, depending on difficulty and chapter length, we will probably read one to several chapters per week. The pick’s exact reading schedule will be negotiated before the book club kicks off.
Start of Book Club: We will start the next book on July 3rd (after a one-week break).
Poll duration: The poll will be closed within a week (and most likely before that), whenever it looks like voting has dried up. You can choose up to 5 options.
I do remember us talking that it’s at least expected to try to read the book with the club if you vote. At least I think it’d be a bit shame for someone to swing the vote if they are not participating, as it affects if current people get to read what they want