To all mystery fans who enjoy juggling multiple books at once: Why not come over to Natively and vote for the Mystery Novel Book Club’s next pick? Poll closes on October 17th, and reading starts on Halloween 
, barely a week before the ABC starts reading ユージニア!
5 Likes
Quick heads up to everybody who is planning to nominate something here: Now would be a good time 
I’m planning to run the next poll from Dec 19th, and currently there are 6 seats available for proposals 
See you there!
9 Likes
四畳半神話大系 (The Tatami Galaxy)
Author:森見 登美彦
Summary
Japanese
超高速で空転する、これが僕らの青春だ！『夜は短し歩けよ乙女』の森見登美彦が贈る必笑青春コメディ
私は冴えない大学３回生。バラ色のキャンパスライフを想像していたのに、現実はほど遠い。悪友の小津には振り回され、謎の自由人・樋口師匠には無理な要求をされ、孤高の乙女・明石さんとは、なかなかお近づきになれない。いっそのこと、ぴかぴかの１回生に戻って大学生活をやり直したい！ さ迷い込んだ４つの並行世界で繰り広げられる、滅法おかしくて、ちょっぴりほろ苦い青春ストーリー。
English
Spinning at super-speed, this is our youth! A hilarious coming-of-age comedy from Tomihiko Morimi of The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl.
I’m a dull third-year university student. I imagined a rosy campus life, but reality is far from it. I’m pushed around by my bad friend Ozu, the mysterious free spirit Master Higuchi makes unreasonable demands, and I can’t seem to get close to the solitary maiden Akashi-san. I just want to go back to being a spick and span first year student and start my university life all over again! A funny and slightly bittersweet coming-of-age story that unfolds in four parallel worlds in which the characters have wandered.
Translated with DeepL Translate: The world's most accurate translator (free version)
Length: 405
Category: Dark comedy, Psychological, Romantic comedy (according to Wikipedia)
Availability
Amazon Paperback
Amazon ebook
Bookwalker
Personal Opinion
I watched a few episodes of The Tatami Galaxy anime and was impressed by both the art style (unrelated to the book) and the plot. Apparently it’s about a university student who tries and fails to live the university life of his dreams, then each episode (and I assume chapter) he starts afresh as if the previous chapter hadn’t happened, only to fail again in new ways. As soon as I found out the anime was adapted from a book I decided to get it, and postpone watching the rest of the anime until I’ve read the book.
It’s graded Level 43 on Natively, but I’m not sure why.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- It’s supposed to be funny yet deep
- About university life
- Has a very cool anime based on it
Cons
- Might feel repetitive? The same period is repeated each chapter, but the events are different each time.
- About university life
- Looking at some reviews, they mention “modern” language. I’m guessing there may be specialized vocabulary of this particular age/social group that might pose some difficulties. Maybe the Natively level has to do with that.
Preview
Please refer to the Bookwalker 試し読み where you can read quite a few pages.
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this book?
- No effort at all
- Minimal effort
- Moderate effort
- Significant effort
- So much effort my head might explode
- I don’t know
0 voters
6 Likes
Wow, that was quick! 
Thank you, much appreciated!
2 Likes
Skimming the preview the vocab spread is big and it kinda of jumps from idea to idea and isn’t straightforward narration. I’m guessing the combo of those two pushed the ranking up, but many of the books it’s being compared to I haven’t read so not much more insight than that.
5 Likes
この本を盗む者は
深緑 野分:
Summary
Japanese
書物の蒐集家を曾祖父に持つ高校生の深冬。父は巨大な書庫「御倉館」の管理人を務めるが、深冬は本が好きではない。ある日、御倉館から蔵書が盗まれ、深雪は残されたメッセージを目にする。“この本を盗む者は、魔術的現実主義の旗に追われる”本の呪いが発動し、街は物語の世界に姿を変えていく。泥棒を捕まえない限り元に戻らないと知った深冬は、様々な本の世界を冒険していく。やがて彼女自身にも変化が訪れて―。
English
Fukafuyu is a high school student whose great-grandfather is a collector of books. His father is the caretaker of the Mikura-kan, a huge library, but Fukayuki does not like books. One day, a book is stolen from the Mikura-kan, and Fukayuki sees a message left behind. The book’s curse is activated and the town is transformed into a world of stories. When Fuyuki learns that the curse cannot be undone unless the thief is caught, she ventures out into the various worlds of the book. Eventually, she herself begins to change…
(from DeepL)
Length: 344
Category: Fantasy
Availability
Personal Opinion
This has been on my 積読 pile for awhile and I should probably get to it. If I’m being perfectly honest the summary reminds me of The Pagemaster 
I should call out that it has a high rating on Natively (46), but only one grader thus far and a ‘tentative’ grade at that, so it’s still in flux. Looking at the preview (and only the preview) I wouldn’t worry about it being over the level comfortable for the readers in this book club
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Seems unlikely to have anything gory or sexual
- Less than 400 pages
Cons
- Nothing springs to mind
Preview
Please use the Amazon or Bookwalker links above to see previews of the book
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this book?
- No effort at all
- Minimal effort
- Moderate effort
- Significant effort
- So much effort my head might explode
- I don’t know
0 voters
8 Likes
Wow, two banger nominations from the word go. Seems like a great time to join the club 
5 Likes
Just DeepL struggling with Japanese names
10 Likes
What’s interesting is the name is written differently in the Japanese blurb too?
I don’t know what to believe anymore.
Also, the English one is gender fluid.
9 Likes
さわらびの譜
Author: 葉室 麟
Summary
Japanese
揺れる想いと、藩の非道。伊也は苦難を打ち払えるか？
「わが想いは一筋の矢の如し、届け――！」
扇野藩重臣有川家の長女・伊也は、藩随一の弓上手、樋口清四郎と渡り合うほどの腕前。競い合ううち清四郎に惹かれていく伊也だったが、妹の初音に清四郎との縁談が持ち込まれる。伊也とのあらぬ噂により、藩主の不興を買った清四郎の汚名をそそぐため、伊也は清四郎と弓勝負で立ち合うことに――。有川家に身を寄せる謎の武士の正体とは。姉妹の揺れる想いの行方は。くすぶる藩の派閥抗争が彼女らを巻き込む。
高潔な志が清々しい感動を呼ぶ、時代長編！
English
Shaken feelings and the clan’s inhumanity. Will Iya be able to overcome the hardship?
My love is like an arrow, deliver it!
Iya, the eldest daughter of the Arikawa family, the chief vassal of the Ogino clan, is so good at archery that she competes with Higuchi Seishiro, the most skilled archer in the clan. As they compete with each other, Iya becomes attracted to Seishiro, but hisher younger sister, Hatsune, is proposed to marry Seishiro. Iya decides to fight Seishiro in an archery contest to clear his name, which has been brought into disrepute by the lord of the domain because of an unfortunate rumor about Iya. What is the identity of the mysterious samurai who has taken refuge in the Arikawa family? What will happen to the sisters’ wavering feelings? The factional strife of the smoldering clan engulfs the sisters.
A historical novel with noble aspirations that will move you with fresh emotions!
(Translated with DeepL, because I’m lazy 
I have corrected the pronoun where the AI was incorrectly suggesting incest but otherwise left it alone.)
Length: 312 pages
Category: historical/romance
Availability
Paperback on Amazon
Ebook on Bookwalker
Personal Opinion
So, this one’s from my to-read pile; I figured I’d nominate it to see what the club’s appetite for historical fiction is – maybe you’d like a change from mystery fiction? 
I’ve read and enjoyed a book by this author before (草雲雀), and I found it a fairly easy read as historical fiction goes. Author has won the usual collection of awards including 歴史文学賞, 松本清張賞 and 直木賞, though not for this book in particular.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- It’s only just over 300 pages, which hopefully compensates for historical-setting vocab issues
Cons
- If you haven’t read historical fiction before, there’s a bit of genre-specific vocab that might increase the difficulty
Preview
The Bookwalker preview has pages 1-60
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this book?
- No effort at all
- Minimal effort
- Moderate effort
- Significant effort
- So much effort my head might explode
- I don’t know
0 voters
5 Likes
I don’t know what it is but I feel like I really enjoy the writing style in さわらびの譜 from the little I read. Maybe I was biased by the pretty 和風 cover 
2 Likes
Amusingly none of those are right – the preview furiganas it as Mifuyu…
9 Likes
Which seems like the obvious reading, no? I get that there are non-straightforward readings for names all the time, but that one didn’t seem difficult to guess.
1 Like
While in some parts of the world the weather starts to be nice and warm, in others it’s getting colder and colder, and what else do you need to survive the winter than a good book?
Therefore:
Let’s have a Poll!
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 “so much effort my head might explode”. 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 per week 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 February 4th (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.
- Fast: 86―エイティシックス― [2.7]
- Fast: クォンタムデビルサーガ アバタールチューナーⅠ [3.13]
- Fast: マスカレード・ホテル [1.9]
- Fast: 風の谷のナウシカ [3.13]
- Fast: 化物語(上) [2.57]
- Fast: 虐殺器官 - Genocidal Organ [3]
- Fast: 蛇にピアス [2.29]
- Fast: 感応グラン=ギニョル [3]
- Fast: 村上海賊の娘 [2.78]
- Fast: 砂漠 (さばく a campus life) [2.33]
- Fast: 四畳半神話大系 (The Tatami Galaxy) [3.4]
- Fast: この本を盗む者は [2.5]
- Fast: さわらびの譜 [3]
- Hard: 檸檬 [3.67]
- Hard: 風立ちぬ [3]
- Hard: 午後の曳航 [3]
- Hard: 文字渦 [3.88]
0 voters
3 Likes
No さわらびの譜 ? Did it miss a nomination deadline?
1 Like
Oh, did I overlook a nomination? 
Let me check…
1 Like
I see! I forgot to scroll through the thread to see if there were any nominations that did not make it into the overview in the OP 
It’s fixed now 
@Belthazar would you be so kind and re-cast your vote for Nausicäa? Thx!
4 Likes
Everyone should re-cast their vote for Nausicaä.
7 Likes
Is difficulty affecting anyone else’s votes?
I personally would love to read 四畳半神話大系 but it seems a tad bit hard for me to read on fast pace (and it’s definitely long enough that it needs decent pace)
4 Likes