In a Parallel Universe™ known as the Natively forums @omk3 started to wonder about what the Compulsive Readers club should read next, and encouraged me to step forward and suggest something from my ginormous 積読 pile, which I happily follow up to here
I have this habit of buying books that I know next to nothing about So I basically wrote down here what I know about them. Maybe one or the other strikes your fancy?
バイバイ by 鷺沢 萠
170 pages
She is a representative of the so-called “Freeter”-Literature (“freeter” are people who work only part-time). A few of the author’s books were nominated for the Akutagawa prize, but none ever won. The author herself [trigger warning]committed suicide at age 35, and I don’t know how much this influences her writing.
Unnamed Memory I 青き月の魔女と呪われし王 by 古宮 九時
404 pages. Warning: Light Novel!
Romance, kinda medieval setting. Vanilla recommended as good N1 grammar practice.
むらさきのスカートの女 by 今村夏子
160 pages.
Akutagawa winner.
アンダーグラウンド by 村上 春樹
780 pages. Warning: Non-fiction!
Interviews around the gas attacks on the Tokyo tube in the 80’s (I think?). Curious to see whether he’s able to sneak in some Murakami scenes Might be gruesome and/or sad, on the other hand.
It’s basically three parts (iirc) so we could decide to just read one of them.
木洩れ日に泳ぐ魚 by 恩田 陸
298 pages.
Onda Riku - curious to see whether I will like this book of hers. I learned the term 木洩れ日 in 鹿の王 and love it ever since, so this can’t be a bad book, I figured.
舞姫 by 森鴎外
34 pages. Warning: Old!
One of his most famous books. Available on Aozora but unfortunately only in old Japanese (as far as I could see). I found one edition on BookWalker that got modernized, which is what I will be reading (but please feel free…).
献灯使 by 多和田葉子
224 pages
Akutagawa winner. Book has been translated (the English title is “The last children of Tokyo”). Dystopia. Author is Japanese but moved to Germany long ago (she also writes in German).
夏の約束 by 藤野 千夜
200 pages
Akutagawa winner. The author is a trans woman.
新装版 御宿かわせみ by 平岩 弓枝
299 pages
Edo time drama. Warning: long series (~35 books). My Japanese host mother’s favourite author. (I don’t think that says anything in terms of quality or such, though. It just carries a bit of nostalgia for me.)