Funnily, they show up as ‘currently not available’ on amazon… I think that has to do with my amazon.jp account…
But the same volumes (1-3 for NANA, 1 for ご近所物語)are free on ebookjapan as well and i actually went and read volume 1 of ご近所物語 right after we talked about it, and enjoyed it like mad!
I finished reading ご近所物語 today (though the word ‘reading’ is a bit of a stretch). It was actually pretty hard, granted I ‘read’ it without a dictionary, so I’d definitely like to come back to it at some point. It’s fairly text heavy and my grammar is pretty rough (though I just started on Bunpro last week, so hopefully that part improves).
Some are free for a limited time, and some are free permanently, however, when you buy them and have them forever on your Kindle IIRC.
I just set up a kind of list for free books, if you’re interested.
Here’s a poll to gauge interest in 霧のむこうのふしぎな町. I don’t really know anything about the book. It just has good reviews and seems targeted towards a younger audience, similar to 時をかける少女 or 魔女の宅急便.
I’m not interested in reading this book
I might be interested, but would need more information
I’d be interested in reading it with the beginner book club, even though it’s slightly longer than the 200 page limit
I’d be interested in reading it with a standalone book club, at the beginner book club pace of 10 pages per week (~21 weeks)
I’d be interested in reading it with a standalone book club, at a pace of around 15 pages per week (~14 weeks)
I’d be interested in reading it with a standalone book club, at a pace of 20 pages per week or faster (~11 weeks or less)
I’m considering nominating Hunter X Hunter vol1. It’s fairly easy to read (except for Kurapika’s dialogue, Jesus H. Christ child please calm down you don’t need to talk so formally).
I’m also reading やがて君になる which is fairly easy but might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Thanks for setting this up, I’d be keen to see what everyone else thinks, imo I’m never put off by the length of a book and I don’t personally see the need for a page cap, since lately we’ve been picking two choices anyway and we can always just read a little faster, but that’s just me.
I don’t think that would be a good idea for the beginner book club. Early on, even 10 pages per week can feel like a lot. (Actually, I sometimes still feel that way, albeit with slightly harder books.)
Good to know it’s relatively easy. I’m planning to read that sometime in the next couple months. I’m probably going to buy about half the series first, and then assuming I like it I’ll buy the rest after the final volume comes out in November.
Maybe you should nominate it then. You say it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s true, but in that case they just won’t vote for it. No harm in trying.
Thanks for the info. I heard there were 2-3 chapter left before the end, and I was curious about when was the final volume’s release date. I’m definitely reading it.
I’ve put together a nomination already I counted the pages of text and it only has about 170 - my estimate is that it will take 16-17 weeks, which is on the long side but not unacceptable, I don’t think?
I was going to wait until we’d started One Week Friends to post it but sounds like I should just go go go!
page numbers
Chapter
Pages
Chapter 1
20
Chapter 2
23.5
Chapter 3
23.5
Chapter 4
25
Chapter 5
21
Chapter 6
15.5
Chapter 7
21
Chapter 8
21.5
Total: 171
possible schedule
Week
Chapter
Pages
Week 1
Chapter 1
4
Week 2
Chapter 1
7
Week 3
Chapter 1
9
Week 4
Chapter 2
11
Week 5
Chapter 2
12.5
Week 6
Chapter 3
11
Week 7
Chapter 3
12.5
Week 8
Chapter 4
12
Week 9
Chapter 4
13
Week 10
Chapter 5
10
Week 11
Chapter 5
11
Week 12
Chapter 6
7
Week 13
Chapter 6
8.5
Week 14
Chapter 7
10
Week 15
Chapter 7
11
Week 16
Chapter 8
10
Week 17
Chapter 8
11.5
It’s a bit more than ten pages per week, but each page has fewer characters than 時をかける少女
More like impatient I tend to channel my excess excitement after voting and things like that into needlessly preparing things ahead of time it’s been sitting in OneNote for weeks…
I’ve also been holding off on nominating things I’ve read that seemed appropriate difficulty-wise for the same reason, but maybe I should then …or maybe I shouldn’t or maybe I should …or maybe I shouldn’t
Can also second that bloom into you definitely is pretty easy
For those who are impatient AND bookwalker addicts: There is a coin top-up for the book until Monday (15.) morning (Japan time).
It already looks super-cute Glad to hear that the contents keeps up with the wrapping.
Another plus is that there is a FloFlo list for it (and it states that there are only 2570 words in the book, which is even less than Time Girl). But lots of the words seem to be written in Kana, which of course leads to the occasional misparse on FloFlo, as for example:
Alright, at the risk of stealing @seanblue’s thunder…
霧のむこうのふしぎな町
(The Mysterious Town Beyond the Mist)
Summary
During the summer holidays, six-year-old Rina is sent on her own to stay in the village where her father stayed as a child. Getting off the train, the townspeople are only half convinced that her destination, the valley of mist, even exists. Following their uncertain directions she eventually finds her way, and her experiences over the summer with the eccentric residents help her to grow in confidence.
Winner of the 1974 Kodansha Award for New Writers of Children’s Literature.
This story apparently inspired elements of Spirited Away (the actual plot is totally different) so it might be interesting from that perspective, and it was well-received at the time of publication (admittedly a while ago!).
It’s aimed at children so might be light on kanji, but that’s hard to avoid and can actually improve your hiragana parsing ability. It also features some dialectal speech which you can see in the sample pages - this can make looking up vocab trickier, but is hopefully something we’d get used to quickly.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
Interesting if minor link with Spirited Away
A full book that’s still short enough for this club
Cute illustrations!
Cons
It would be a longer pick; probably 16-17 weeks
Similar to most children’s books, it probably has light kanji usage