There is a section “Buying Books” which describes the available options.
Also, there are lots of ideas for which books to read, if you are looking for inspiration!
And don’t forget, you can always use a book club’s existing threads even years after the book has officially been read, and you can even still ask questions - there are probably still some helpful souls around.
Translating is hard, so here’s the short version: It’s about this high school girl who’s self-conscious about her blue eyes, when suddenly this 5 year girl with blonde hair and blue eyes starts living at her home.
I just finished the first volume (out of three) and it was super cute. Really light read, which should (hopefully) balance out the challenge of lack of furigana for the beginner book club.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Mostly a lighthearted family story.
Some nice comedy thrown in.
Entirely everyday language.
One of the main characters is young, so her dialogue is in hiragana and easy to understand.
Cons
Basically no furigana. Even the names only get furigana once throughout the whole volume.
A lot of really tiny, handwritten text.
Pictures
I don’t have an easy way to get pictures for this, so check out the preview in the Amazon or Bookwalker links above, or read the first chapter on pixiv
When is voting for the next read going to start? It’s taking longer than usual for books to arrive now (just received a book i ordered in May today ) so the sooner the next book is decided the better.
We could bring the vote forward a week or two. I’d been planning for the 15th of August, but it’s true that there are still shipping issues.
How do people feel about opening the vote this week, say on the 30th? That would give us ~8 weeks lead time. It’s not very much notice to get any further nominations in (but we have plenty already) or read samples though.
This is very little notice, sorry, but we’re looking at holding our vote for the next book fairly soon. If you have time, please take a look at the nominations listed in the OP - where there are links to their nomination posts - and have a look at the samples to vote on how difficult they seem to you.
It’s most helpful if you can do a reasonable number of them (not just the one you want to read!), so that we get the benefit of the comparison between different picks
Midoriya inherits the superpower of the world’s greatest hero, but greatness won’t come easy.
What would the world be like if 80 percent of the population manifested superpowers called “Quirks”? Heroes and villains would be battling it out everywhere! Being a hero would mean learning to use your power, but where would you go to study? The Hero Academy of course! But what would you do if you were one of the 20 percent who were born Quirkless?
Availability
Both Digital and Physical in this link, pick your preference when buying
Personal Opinion
Gonna be honest, I fell in love after watching one episode of the anime, bought the manga and that’s where I am now. I was just so captivated about the beginning, I want to know where it goes!
Pros and Cons
Pros
It is a currently active and popular series. Might help lure in more/new people
When Light Yagami finds a notebook giving him power over death, will he use it for good—or evil?
Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects–and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note , a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life?
Availability
Both Digital and Physical in this link, pick your preference when buying
Personal Opinion
This is my absolute favorite Manga (and Anime). The story is very captivating and thought provoking, and art is absolutely beautiful. I can never get enough of it. I did try to read it in Japanese a few years back, and on my own found it a bit hard (a chapter in the beginning has a few text heavy political/police talk pages, but rest is better, and was before I had read anything substantial before)
Pros and Cons
Pros
A well known and popular series
Uses furigana
Cons
Slightly older, so might be less straight forward to buy new copies
I know, I know… it’s not nominations time. But this book is currently discounted on BookWalker (until August 27th) and probably also elsewhere, and so I thought since I will eventually nominate it anyways, I could as well do so already, for those who might be interested in taking advantage of the sale.
小川未明童話集(1)- Ogawa Mimei’s Collection of Children’s Stories, Vol. 1
Summary
Ogawa (1882 - 1961) is known in Japan as the founder of modern children’s literature. He often chose everyday scenarios for his children’s stories. Also, his stories often incorporate religious and philosophical symbolism and the cycle of life. The death of creatures is not final, but is instead just the opportunity to appear in a different form.
This book is (as the title suggests) a collection of children’s stories and fairy tales. It contains two of Ogawa’s most famous stories, “The Ox Woman” and “The Red Candle and the Mermaid”. The stories are rather short, it seems; the book contains 17 stories while it has only 136 pages (according to Amazon).
(Maybe we can read them in increasing length, to get a nice ramp-up? )