Oh yeah, I’m definitely not gonna read a book I don’t want to read, and currently the only book on the list I want to read is loitering near the bottom, sooo…
This sort of book club is a bit different to the real-life book club I’m in - aside from the fact that there’s generally only four or five of us, it’s also a sci-fi and fantasy focused club, so I’d probably enjoy, or at least be able to tolerate, any book that won, even if I didn’t vote for it. In this book club, the only common link is they’re books that are written in Japanese, so there’s no guarantee that it’ll even be a genre I enjoy. Currently, the first book on that list I might want to read is in fifth place, but I’m also not looking to start another novel right now.
My initial approach towards the book clubs here in the forums was „I‘ll try out each book and if I like it - great; if I don’t like it - I learned something.“ but I‘ve noticed that I‘ve started to become more picky recently. So I can totally relate to your thinking.
Just a quick heads up for those of you who like to read some classics: The Beginner Book Club will read short stories by Ogawa Mimei from Aug 28th
The author is known as the founder of modern children’s literature in Japan.
Of course the reading speed will be very slow (given it’s the Beginner Book Club), but as the short stories are independent from each other, it should not matter too much if you need to wait for the next week. (Or if you don’t wait at all )
A quick heads up for those interested in Bakemonogatari:
Maybe you’d like to hop over there and read the book with that group?
Having said that, I’m not sure whether it makes much sense if we have the book nominated here and also have an informal reading thread (although at a different speed) over there @d-hermit what do you think?
I made a trip to the one Japanese bookstore in Paris. I was hopeful they’d have 人間失格, since it’s such a classic, and they did! But no such luck for Doctors in Isolated Room, although they had a few other books from the same author. I’m gonna have to order it from amazon jp. I should probably get on the ebook bandwagon but I don’t have an e-reader, and I like having the books on my shelf like trophies, as long as I have space for them…
Just a quick reminder for everybody that today is the Advanced Book Club’s 1st Birthday!
I must say I’m really happy how it developed so far, with so many interesting picks from different areas and genres, and a lot of exciting proposals being lined up!
Plus, we will celebrate this birthday by kicking off reading 人間失格 this weekend - stay tuned and join in!
For those of you who are still contemplating joining the youngest book club spinoff 冷たい密室と博士たち (or who have not read the main book すべてがFになる yet), the whole series is currently discounted (as in, pay less money when buying) on Bookwalker (and probably elsewhere as well?)