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

I’ve been slacking in my grammar studies for far too long now. :confounded:

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Well it seems like we’ll have something to talk about then at least :smiley:

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Post is open! この本を盗む者は 📚 🪄 (Advanced Book Club)

I did my best with the schedule but there are very few breaks to work with that actually have the star dividers so I had to rely on the less obvious narrative breaks (seen by extra spaces / paragraph breaks).

All in all though I think it should be ok? Please let me know if any thoughts or concerns, this is my first time running an ABC pick.

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Yeah, it’s not my kind of book, but it definitely seems like a book club is the right environment in which to read it.

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On the flip side, I’m pretty sure fourth place is the best Nausicaä has ever managed. :slightly_smiling_face:

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We’re currently voting in the Intermediate Club, but the participation is not as high as it used to be, so I figured maybe some of you overlooked the ongoing poll? In any case, if you’re interested in participating in the club on the side, please go here:

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wish my level was high enough to read intermidiate content :frowning:
But then again i like extensive reading. Intensive reading sadly demotivates me.

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Calling all armchair detectives! :female_detective: Voting for the Natively Mystery Book club is now open and there’s a decent bit of overlap between the userbases so giving it a shoutout here. The voting will be open for one week, then there will be a 2 week break for people who prefer paper to get their copies.

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I bought it from CDJapan in the end, and the answer turns out to be that it’s a hardback, not paperback. I think it’s too recent a book to have come out in paperback yet.

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This is a bit off topic but I saw on Natively that @Naphthalene you read 86. I just started reading and I would love to know what you thought of the book from a learning and enjoyment perspective.

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I’m not really sure how to qualify it from a learning perspective. There are many sci-fi words, as can be expected of the setting, and they all get fake furigana. I guess that’s a way to practice kanji? The writing felt otherwise standard for a light novel, so, be it narration or banter between characters, there’s nothing special in terms of grammar.

In terms of enjoyment, it was fun enough, but the plot felt very basic. I feel like I have heard that story in one form or another many times before. I have volumes 2 and 3, but I don’t feel compelled to read them right away. (Probably soon™ though)

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Glad you say that… I recently thought I’d watch the anime, but after two episodes it felt super obvious to me where this is heading, so… I guess I’ll find another anime at some point :joy_cat:

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Thanks for the summary! I basically started this to branch out into SF a bit so having a bunch of that vocab is obviously great. Need to get used to the jargon though ^^.

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Hello all, just a quick heads up that the current book’s schedule is not very long, and thus we will be voting again next week! I will probably set up the poll on Wednesday.

We currently have 15 proposals lined up, which sounds like a good amount to me already! But if you want to get your favorite new proposal added to the list, now is the time! There are five slots that can still be filled, and all proposals that come after that will need to wait until spaces open up in the current list (due to books being picked or proposals being retired due to lack of interest).

No matter whether you’re planning to propose something or not, please have a look at the current nominations, check out the previews to determine your favorites, and while you’re at it, please fill in the difficulty polls as well! :+1:

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In 2.5 years we managed to read 12 books in this club, and I think that’s a good reason to celebrate! :tada:

And I figured that a nice way to celebrate is to run a poll in the tradition that @Naphthalene started in the Intermediate club: Let’s run a

Book Club Pick Celebration Poll!

This poll celebration covers the books #1 to #12 (they were selected in poll #1 to #10).
I was planning to run this poll after book #10 already but I forgot I figured that 12 is the nicer number anyway :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Which books have you read (either with the club or on your own)?

  • 本好きの下剋上
  • 雪国
  • 容疑者Xの献身
  • すべてがFになる
  • 人間失格
  • 乳と卵
  • パノラマ島綺譚
  • 本陣殺人事件
  • 薬屋のひとりごと
  • 海辺のカフカ
  • 狼と香辛料
  • ユージニア

0 voters

What’s your favorite book of the list? (Regardless of whether you read it with the club or not)

  • 本好きの下剋上
  • 雪国
  • 容疑者Xの献身
  • すべてがFになる
  • 人間失格
  • 乳と卵
  • パノラマ島綺譚
  • 本陣殺人事件
  • 薬屋のひとりごと
  • 海辺のカフカ
  • 狼と香辛料
  • ユージニア

0 voters

Conversely, what’s your least favorite book of the list? (Regardless of whether you read it with the club or not)

  • 本好きの下剋上
  • 雪国
  • 容疑者Xの献身
  • すべてがFになる
  • 人間失格
  • 乳と卵
  • パノラマ島綺譚
  • 本陣殺人事件
  • 薬屋のひとりごと
  • 海辺のカフカ
  • 狼と香辛料
  • ユージニア

0 voters

Feel free to also comment on what you think of the organization, what you’d change, which book was the easiest/hardest, etc.

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How should I vote if I started with the club and finished it on my own later?

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My vote should come as no surprise. I noped out of 海辺のカフカ pretty hard early on :sweat_smile:

容疑者Xの献身 has a special place in my heart as the first fully Japanese book (not translation) that I read which I actually liked :joy: I’m not sure it’s really in my top favorite books, but it’s special to me.

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I’ve only read 4 total of the books (ユージニア and 狼と香辛料 with the club, 雪国 and 本陣殺人事件 on my own before I found this place). I put 雪国 down as least-favourite, but not because I disliked it but merely because I enjoyed the others more. I find it tricky to compare ‘serious literature’ with ‘entertainment reading’ though…

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After posting this, I also wondered whether this isn’t more restrictive than it should be. After all, we should be taking about the books themselves, not about whether we read them at a certain point in time, is my point of view. Will change this!
Everybody who voted already, please feel free to check more books if applicable now!

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There’s also the “lurked in the book club thread a year after the club read it” possibility, though fortunately that’s covered by Nicole’s change to the poll :+1:

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