The relavent part in the poll post
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Oh woops, should have read the instructions first 
Thank you
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If you are interested in testing the waters beyond the Beginner Book Club AND want to read a (non-manga) book, here’s a quick heads up that the Intermediate Book Club is currently voting for their next pick!
Before voting, please make sure to check the reading samples of the books you are interested in (the nomination posts are all linked in the thread’s OP) so that you can gauge the steepness of the difficulty ramp-up ahead of time.
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The 月刊少女野崎くん book club has started!
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Today I was looking at online shops that sold physical Japanese books and had a good laugh with this machine translation of Komi can’t communicate.
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I was a bit surprised when I just realized that the last week of 月刊少女野崎くん has already started! With that I thought it would be a good time to give a quick rundown of the schedule for this club in the next months
- Feb 04th: last week of 月刊少女野崎くん starts
- Feb 18th: start of 古見さんは、コミュ症です。
- Mar 13th: start of the vote for next book
- Apr 22nd: start of the last week of 古見さんは、コミュ症です。
- May 06th: start of newly selected book
Currently we could use some more nominations. If you have anything you think would be a good fit for this club, please feel free to nominate it!
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I plan to nominate ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活, but don’t have the time right now. I’m sure you’ll remind everyone again though, and I should be able to write up the nomination later this month.
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Today we are starting the new book club! If you are interested have a look at the link below!
Could one of the regulars change the title to: Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: 古見さんは、コミュ症です。 Thanks 
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When clicking on the link, it tells me that the page doesn’t exist
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I had that issue too, but then I tried following the link a second time, and it worked. I haven’t had that with any other links today, so I wonder what is causing it.
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Ah yes, after a couple more tries it did work for me too. Huh, might just be a temporary server issue.
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There was a small mistake in the link that might have caused the issue, that I have now fixed
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One more week until we vote on what to read next. If you have any ideas for nominations please nominate them!
@seanblue small reminder
It would be great if one of the regulars could change the title to [Looking for Nominations] Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: 古見さんは、コミュ症です。
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ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活
Natively: ひとりぼっちの○○生活 1 | L21
Summary
Japanese
友達ってどおしたらできるのかな…。 極度の人見知りの女の子・一里ぼっち。中学でクラス全員と友達にならないと、唯一の親友と絶交しなければならない!? 絶体絶命友達つくろう計画、奮闘の第1巻！
English
Hitori Bocchi, a girl with social anxiety who has difficulty communicating with others. Before starting middle school, her friend Yawara Kai, who will be attending a different school, tells Bocchi she is breaking off their friendship until she can make friends with her entire class at her new school. Thus, Bocchi is left with the task of befriending everyone in her class before graduation.
Availability
Physical: Amazon, CD Japan
Digital: Kindle, Bookwalker
Personal Opinion
One of my favorite manga series. It’s cute and funny. What else do you need!
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Short chapters
- Light on text
Cons
- Very little furigana (could be a pro given the sparse text)
- 14 chapters, so requires many weeks or reading two chapters per week most weeks
Pictures
First Three Pages of Chapter One
Bookwalker preview: https://viewer-trial.bookwalker.jp/03/13/viewer.html?cid=a0a64fb7-c282-4e21-b532-9fb249e2586f&cty=1
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this book?
- 1 - No effort at all
- 2 - Minimal effort
- 3 - Moderate effort
- 4 - Substantial effort
- 5 - So much effort my head might explode
- I don’t know
0 voters
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Just as an added note on ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活: While the premise might feel similar to the current book 古見さんは、コミュ症です, they are almost nothing alike. I’ve only watched the anime for 古見さんは、コミュ症です, but I think ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活 is far easier and far less weird than 古見さんは、コミュ症です.
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Compared to what? Kinda looks to be fairly typical of yonkoma to me. Which is to say, between one and a half times and two times the usual bubble density of regular freeform manga.
Oh, I dunno. Komi certainly doesn’t have a habit of vomiting every time she makes a new friend. 
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Compared to a lot of other 4-koma manga I’ve read. 
Yeah, but Komi-san has Najimi, who is 10 times harder to understand that anything in Hitori Bocchi. And some other insane characters too. Maybe I’m just biased by how the anime was adapted and the manga isn’t as hard, but that is why I prefaced my statement by saying I had only watched the anime adaption.
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Buying Mittens / Gon, the Little Fox (Japanese masterpieces to read by age 10)
Natively: Level 22
Summary
5 short fairy tales for children written by 新美 南吉 (Niimi Nankichi):
- 手袋を買いに (Buying Mittens): When a cold winter comes to the forest, a little fox awakens one morning to the magic of a first snow-fall. His romp in the snow is cut short, however, when his cold, wet paws turn peony colored. What he needs, his mother decides, are some woolen mittens the size of his little paws. And so begins an overnight journey into the village where humans live…
- ごん狐 (Gon, the Little Fox): Gon, a mischievous little fox, loves to cause trouble… but one day realizes that one of his pranks had gone a bit too far.
- 花のき村と盗人たち (Hananoki Village and the Thieves)
- 決闘 (Duel)
- でんでんむしのかなしみ (The Sorrow of the Snail)
Availability
Physical: Amazon | CD Japan
Digital: Kindle
Personal Opinion
A while ago I stumbled upon ごん狐, which turned out to be the first story that I read in Japanese that I liked so much that I gave it 5/5 stars on Natively. Despite being a fairy tale for children, neither the writing style nor the content felt childish to me at all.
Since then I’ve been wanting to read other stories by 新美 南吉. And because I’m also a sucker for cute art, this book that collects ごん狐 and four other of his short stories seems like a perfect choice for me!
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Extremely cute art (see “Additional pages”
). - The stories are not connected, so starting late or only reading one or two stories with the club is not a problem.
- Japanese kids read ごん狐 in elementary school literature classes.
- …but despite being written for children, at least ごん狐 was very enjoyable for adult me.
- Full furigana.
Cons
- Not all stories are exactly happy.
- Some language is a bit old-fashioned.
- A few words usually written in kanji were written in kana in ごん狐, so it’s possible the same is true for this book.
Trigger Warnings (major spoilers)
-
death
Pictures
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this book?
- 1 - No effort at all
- 2 - Minimal effort
- 3 - Moderate effort
- 4 - Substantial effort
- 5 - So much effort my head might explode
- I don’t know
0 voters
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Dreamin’ Sun
Summary
Shimana Kameko decides to skip school and run away from home after feeling overshadowed by her six-month-old brother and new stepmother. After leaving home, she stumbles over a man wearing a kimono who has apparently been locked out of his own house. Desperate to get back in, the man offers Shimana a place she can rent from him if she can fulfill three conditions: find the house key, tell him why she ran away, and have a dream.
Takano Ichigo is known for her manga series Orange, which is more serious. This manga is pretty much pure shenanigans. There are still serious things, but most of the time the tone is kind of just … silly?
Availability
Physical: Manga Republic, Amazon JP, CD Japan
Digital: Kobo, BookWalker (currently on sale)
Personal Opinion
As I noted above, this manga has a much lighter tone than the more well-known manga Orange. I think Takano-sensei’s art and characters are really great, and this story is really fun. Also, if you’re interested in reading Orange, Dreamin’ Sun might be a good way to get familiar with Takano-sensei’s writing style (at least, I always find it easier to understand writers I have read before than ones I haven’t. I was procrastinating catching up on Orange today and easily read the first 115 pages of Dreamin’ Sun.)
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Funny! But not 4-koma
- One continuous story with plot development
- I think we can probably read it in about 6 weeks (or less)?
- Furigana
Cons
- I can’t think of anything
Pictures
First Three Pages of Chapter One
Note: the tone of the first three pages is very different from the whole rest of the book. See the following 8 pages under additional pages.
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this book?
- 1 - No effort at all
- 2 - Minimal effort
- 3 - Moderate effort
- 4 - Substantial effort
- 5 - So much effort my head might explode
- I don’t know
0 voters
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