Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: 気になってる人が男じゃなかった // Next 葬送のフリーレン, then ウスズミの果て

Oh excellent! One thing of note, is ones name when registering for a Y!JP account. I didn’t get a picture, but I believe I recall it saying it might be visible to other users? It said it could be changed at any time, so just a global FYI. I just used my ID again.

@seanblue do you think it would be a good idea to include a link to the guide @Kazzeon linked to in the OP? A lot of proposed books currently have links to ebookjapan. Thoughts?

We should probably just update the links to the new site, no?

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Sounds good. I can start amassing the new links and do a mass update of the OP tomorrow (it looks like I can edit the OP–is it open to all users?).

The current/old site will remain open to use for a few months (“until spring”). Should we keep the old links and just add these as “eBookJapan (new site)” for now, until they officially shut down?

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If you can already purchase books on the new site, removing the old links is fine. And it is a wiki, so anyone can edit it. Thanks for taking care of it!

Ah, interesting, thank you.

Yep, I also agree that one thread per week is probably best for keeping things active. It’s more confusing to follow after the fact, but that’s less important.

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So… Have we started? is this the thread we are discussing it? What chapters are we doing this week?

The OP of this thread has a link to the Home Thread for our current book.

There you’ll find the entire schedule, and links to each discussion thread as it appears.

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I’ve been reading (very painfully) Yuru Camp and I just want to warn anybody who also wants to: It’s pretty advanced. A lot of the grammar is perfect so that’ll make it easier to read, but the vocabulary is a little extensive, I think.

I do know however, that the Kanji usage is super high. There are a ton of kanji that aren’t even on Wanikani. The vocabulary I’ve found at the beginning with unknown kanji: 逞しい、稀、錆、貰う、煤。I’m assuming there’s a ton more and I have no idea at what level you’re supposed to learn any of them.

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I un-nominated ご注文はうさぎですか for similar reasons. It would usually take me 2 hours to read an 8 page chapter, and even then there was plenty I didn’t understand.

Practice all the kanji.

Love Yuru Camp so much. Gotta read.

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Okay, all eBookJapan links in the OP should be updated to the new site. If I missed one or if a link is broken let me know and I’ll fix it.

Most of the books used the same ID in the URL between sites, except for Attack on Titan and Detective Conan. I looked but didn’t see a version using those ID tags on the new site, so I matched covers. The ones I added should be the same editions.

Of interest: the new site is on average 20円-40円 more expensive. If you haven’t migrated your account yet and were eyeing some books you may want to pick it up before you do so.

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I haven’t decided yet if I want to buy ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 as hard copy or the digital version. It actually depends on how I will be able to read the digital version. I haven’t read an ebook in years and currently don’t havy any app/reader installed. Is it possible to take any notes and highlight text parts? Can you copy/paste text (in order to easily look up words in a dictionary)? If yes, which app do you recommend for anrdoid (any with a built-in dictionary)?
And if I understand correctly, a lot of online shops for Japanese ebooks only offer ebooks for their own app? So you can’t use these ebooks with just any reader?

Thanks in advance for recommendations!

I don’t know about many readers, but I use booklive (I installed an apk for it). It lets you select the text, then you can choose “search” and copy it from there. You can also select and add memos, or markings, or search in internet dictionaries (wiki, goo.ne and just google search).

I suppose other readers can do similar things, but I don’t know:DD

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I can confirm that my Kindle Paperwhite can do that for novels (doesn’t seem to work for Manga).
It’s pretty useful and buying books off Amazon is easy.

It’s mainly why I’m using the digital versions for the book clubs (except for Shirokuma which I already own).

Do you know if it’s possible to use booklive as a reader for ebooks from other vendors?

If you buy an ebook off of bookwalker or ebook Japan (now Yahoo! Japan) you can only read those in their respective proprietary readers, either in the browser or on the desktop or on mobile (although for the new Yahoo! there does not even seem to be an app outside of Japan).

Thank you for your reply. Maybe I should have specified, but I’d like to know if I can use ebooks from vendors who sell ebooks not just available for their own readers on the booklive app.
Sorry, I’m basically a newbie in regards to ebooks and ereaders. I guess a standard format is EPUB? So if a vendor sells a digital copy in EPUB format, will I be able to read it on the booklive app? And vice versa, if I buy a book on booklive in EPUB format, it is possible to use any other reader supporting that format?

Oh ok, understood. I guess I answered like this because I do not know of any vendors of Japanese books that let you download the book as EPUB. You mentioned booklive but a quick Google search gave me this article

which talks about booklive’s mobile app (“If you want to browse a book from a mobile device, you need to install their mobile app.”). This does not mean you cannot download EPUB, of course, but it makes me quite suspicious :wink:

Do you know of any sites that let you download Japanese books as EPUB?

It’s not just about Japanese books. I’m asking in general (e.g. when I buy a German or English book from a German vendor). I’m asking because I’m planning to read more digital books in the future and it would be handy to have just one reader installed on my android instead of 5 or 6 different readers depending on where I’m buying from. So if I can use the booklive app for everything… that would be amazing (given that it is available outside of Japan…)

Well at least in the description, I think it usually says “コンテンツ形式:EPUB” on booklive…?
Might depend on the book but e.g. the latest hana yume: https://booklive.jp/product/index/title_id/517209/vol_no/026

Pretty random time to bring this up, but I was looking at the complete edition of Dragon Ball; is it really equivalent to three standard volumes? It seems like that would mean it contains 36 chapters, which would be rather a lot for one book club pick, wouldn’t it?