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!
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.
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!
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 Nov 5th (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.
Living on a boat actually. There’s talk of satellite internet but I don’t have high hopes. With no particular schedule I’ll probably read Eugenia, 1Q84 and the next S+M among others while I’m away.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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…
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