Hey all, I will start the next poll later this week (let’s say 2022-07-14T06:00:00Z or something), so if you have any interesting books to throw into the ring, now’s the time!
Advanced Japanese Book Club // Now reading: 四畳半神話大系 (The Tatami Galaxy)・Next: Nausicaä・Next: マリアビートル
8 Likes
村上海賊の娘
Author: 和田竜 (Wada Ryou)
Summary
Japanese
(Source: 村上海賊の娘 - Wikipedia)
主人公・景（きょう）は、戦国時代に瀬戸内海を席巻した村上水軍の当主・村上武吉の娘である。景は、軍船に乗り瀬戸内の海で狼藉を働く者を成敗したり、男勝りの活躍をする。ある日、毛利家から信長に追い詰められ窮地に陥った本願寺を救うため、物資を輸送してほしいという依頼が来る。村上水軍は毛利方に加勢することを決め、景も戦いに身を投じていく。
(Source: Amazon)
時は戦国。乱世にその名を轟かせた海賊衆がいた。村上海賊――。瀬戸内海の島々に根を張り、強勢を誇る当主の村上武吉。彼の剛勇と荒々しさを引き継いだのは、娘の景（きょう）だった。海賊働きに明け暮れ、地元では嫁の貰い手のない悍婦（かんぷ）で醜女。この姫が合戦前夜の難波へ向かう時、物語の幕が開く――。本屋大賞、吉川英治文学新人賞ダブル受賞！ 木津川合戦の史実に基づく壮大な歴史巨編。
Length: 343 pages
Category: Fast
Availability
Personal Opinion
A (Japanese) friend of mine recommended this to me. It is set in the Seto Inland Sea, has pirates and history, so what can possibly go wrong? 
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Pirates!
- Won the 本屋大賞 as well as the 吉川英治文学新人賞 and the 親鸞賞, plus the author won prizes with other books as well, so I expect the writing to be of decent quality.
Cons
- This is the first book of a series of 4, and I don’t know how well the first book can stand on its own.
- The contents might be complicated and confusing as it probably contains lots of historical details.
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
4 Likes
It has a 登場人物 at the front listing all the characters’ names with furigana so you know how to read them. For me and especially for a historical book that is a massive pro 
I have terrible trouble guessing and remembering name readings, and names of that time period seem to follow totally different conventions from modern ones.
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Another big pro for me is that, judging by the first couple pages, all the places and times seem to get an annotation about their current equivalent. Which is great for people like me who don’t know much about historical Japan. 
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I don’t have any new nominations, but I do have a quick updated pitch for 文字渦 which I nominated previously, since I’ve read 3 (of 12) stories/chapters from it now!
It’s definitely very difficult, and it’s definitely very dry, but I’ve found it extremely interesting so far!
And I’d be happy to reread those chapters and read the rest with a book club, as there would definitely be interesting things to piece together and ask questions about, and in particular very interesting things done with kanji.
The way I would sort of describe it so far, is it’s a bit like snippets of various kinds of non-fiction from a world where kanji have a mysterious power. The fun of reading it is tied with piecing together along with the characters just how that power manifests in the particular story.
The dryness comes from not focusing very much on like… narrative… or characters… or plot… But when I’ve set aside time to read through a chapter I’ve been enthralled anyway because wondering what’s going on in the story’s world is a compelling mystery in and of itself! (and I still don’t know if it’s all connected, or if they’re isolated premises)
Which means the reading’s been very rewarding for me, at least so far.
Spoiler-free summary of the chapters I've read
- A sculptor working on the Terracotta Army, along with the formation of kanji, is used as a lens to question poetically the relationship between people and ideas, and their representations.
- In the future, a character investigates an extremely unusual text file found far away from earth.
- A narrator reports on a local culture where kanji are used in recreational duels.
I think it would be a good fit for the advanced club because the discussions would be motivation to press through and think fully about what’s going on! And support to make it more accessible.
Just thought I’d update while I’m still in that “started, but not very far into it yet” sweet spot!
8 Likes
Aaaaannnddd…
We Are POLLLLLLLL!
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 August 27th (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― [2.67]
- Fast: クォンタムデビルサーガ アバタールチューナーⅠ [3.29]
- Fast: 狼と香辛料 [2.67]
- Fast: マスカレード・ホテル [1.89]
- Fast: 風の谷のナウシカ [3.13]
- Fast: 化物語(上) [2.8]
- Fast: 虐殺器官 - Genocidal Organ [3]
- Fast: ユージニア [2.25]
- Fast: 蛇にピアス [2.33]
- Fast: 感応グラン=ギニョル [3]
- Fast: 村上海賊の娘 [2.83]
- Hard: 檸檬 [3.6]
- Hard: 風立ちぬ [3]
- Hard: 午後の曳航 [3]
- Hard: 文字渦 [3.86]
0 voters
7 Likes
The poll is going in an interesting direction so far 
Just FYI, I had a quick look at Spice and Wulf, and it happens to have 6 chapters (they differ a bit in length, but I guess we can balance that) with an average of 50 pages per chapter. So if the poll stayed like this, my idea is that we could actually have Spice and Wulf as a quick read first, followed by Eugenia 
10 Likes
Alright, voting has dried up by now, and so I would like to announce our new winner, 狼と香辛料 aka Spice and Wolf!
Like I said, I’d like to see whether we can read this as a short club. In order to figure this out, I will set up its home thread and then we can discuss the schedule over there.
EDIT: As promised, here is the home thread for 狼と香辛料 - Spice and Wolf 🐺 (Advanced Book Club) with a schedule suggestion and poll.
Also if somebody could help me with a combo breaker please 
9 Likes
How about we also read the third place after that? 
5 Likes
Ah, looking at your votes, I guess we should just ditch the first place and go with 2nd and 3rd 
I case you’re in the mood for more reading in the mystery genre, there’s a brand new Mystery Novel Book Club over at the Natively Forums, and it’s now voting for its first pick! Why not come have a look?
I hope it’s okay to post a link to a non-WK book club here. If not, let me know and I’ll delete it.
10 Likes
十角館の殺人 is winning currently . Been meaning to check that out.
I’ll have to see what the pace comes out to, I’ve noticed it’s kinda hard to read mystery if it’s slower than the ABC pace .
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@Redglare Thanks for finding the last (I hope ) broken link
I somehow produced this wrong link at some point and then diligently copied it everywhere 
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My friend is just starting to read Haruki Murakami’s ノルウェイの森
… do you have any tips or Vocabulary list?
1 Like
jpdb has a full vocabulary list (and also an SRS if they need it): Norway no Mori – Prebuilt decks – jpdb
Other than that, most Murakami books are not very difficult (this one here has difficulty level 6/10, which is calculated from the text, so quite reliable). Good luck to your friend!
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Thank you, YOU ARE THE BEST!!
I searched ankiweb and came up with empty hands
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Just a quick note to let you know that we are looking for nominations!
The next poll will start on Sept 20th (or so), so please propose your books before that date
2 Likes
砂漠 (さばく a campus life) // moved from intermediate
Author: 伊坂 幸太郎 | Kōtarō Isaka
Page count: 512
Natively: His other books are L30-L37
Summary
Japanese
この一冊で世界が変わる、かもしれない。仙台市の大学に進学した春、なにごとにもさめた青年の北村は四人の学生と知り合った。少し軽薄な鳥井、不思議な力が使える南、とびきり美人の東堂、極端に熱くまっすぐな西嶋。麻雀に勤(いそ)しみ合コンに励み、犯罪者だって追いかける。一瞬で過ぎる日常は、光と痛みと、小さな奇跡で出来ていた――。明日の自分が愛おしくなる、一生モノの物語。限定の書き下ろしあとがき収録。 (Source: BookWalker)
English
Google Translate:
This book might change the world. In the spring when he entered a university in Sendai City, Kitamura, a young man who had calmed down, met four students. Torii who is a little frivolous, Minami who can use mysterious powers, Toudou who is extremely beautiful, and Nishijima who is extremely hot and straightforward. He devotes himself to mahjong, works hard at joint parties, and chases even criminals. Everyday life that passed by in an instant was made up of light, pain, and small miracles. A lifelong story that will make you love yourself tomorrow. Includes a limited edition postscript.
Availability
Amazon including Kindle and Audible versions | Audiobooks | BookWalker
Personal Opinion
Looks interesting! I am not a very opinionated person (:
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Audiobooks available
- Relatively easy to read among this author’s work
Cons
- Probably a bit long
- Not as much a social commentary as his other work?
Pictures
Pages 1-49 on BookWalker 試し読み
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
3 Likes
You know I looked at this book ages ago and the summary didn’t really draw me in so I passed on it. Looking at the other books the author has written though, several are on my wish list. 
That’s promising!
3 Likes