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Readership stats
I’m reading along with the club
I’ve already read this and I’m here for the discussion
I had no intentions of reading the book, but I desire to click a poll
I haven’t finished this week’s reading yet (started a bit late due to other reading I’m wrapping ) but I started it and there’s a reference to a book called ちびくろサンボ which rang a bell, and indeed, it’s a real book, known in the west as well although much more controversial here than it is in Japan. English wiki link
Given that Butter apparently sold very well overseas, I wonder how that reference went down with English speaking audiences I suspect this will be an interesting book to read reviews of when I’m done
Yeah, I’ll finish today (not yet finished), but that part about this book let my jaw drop a little. I haven’t heard about that book before but the story in the book according to how it is described in Butter is also utterly wild.
Reiko justifying why she bought it even though it is basically out of print was also interesting to read.
So I’m finished now with this week’s reading. Was nearly at the end already without realizing it…
My unstructured thoughts so far:
The descriptions are really detailed. The author takes her sweet time to describe everything in great detail. The appearance of the protagonists, the places our protagonist inhabits and what she thinks about them, and especially the food.
I think this is a pretty foot centric novel after reading the first part . If more recipes follow, I maybe have to try some of them ^^.
Overall, it took me quite a while to get used to the writing style. On two occasions, the dinner at Reiko’s house, and when Rika was in the room at work with her colleague (sofa), I had quite the trouble to keep up with what was happening. The random “quotes” that were used to bring in facts about the case and also who was speaking what line were sometimes hard for me to follow.
Also, the sudden jumps without a new paragraph took me for a spin sometimes.
But at least I think even if one doesn’t follow these parts 100% nothing essential to the story is lost. It was mostly just describing fluff to set the scene for our other protagonist, Kajii.
She was quite intriguing. At least, I can 100% sympathize with her stance on butter. I don’t understand people who voluntarily eat something as low quality as margarine . When Rika picked up margarine because the butter was sold out, I was aghast at her choice. Probably the Japanese way; One can not go empty-handed, even if the other party told you: don’t bother if it is sold out.
I think this will be a slow one, which is remedied a little by the advanced book club pace at least. I think I’m used to the writing now, the last few pages went by pretty fast. Though, much of that was also dialog, so let’s see how my next week’s reading will go.
My main my now is oh boy Kindle is predicting it’ll take me 29 and a half hours to finish this book, which means reading about 24 minutes everyday until the end of the book club to stay on pace. I’m going to try to stay on track but it is daunting!
It’s been a while since I’ve read a book at this difficulty level. Im trying to be good and look up all of the words I don’t know/can’t read but there are a lot. The dialogue parts are smoother to get through though.
I am interested in where the story goes and its lens so I will keep at it!
Just finished this week’s reading myself. Like @downtimes it’s taking me a bit to get used to the writing style, but I think any real issues I’m having are just due to being tired in the evenings when I read. I enjoyed our first meeting with 梶井, and looking forward to Rika expanding her own world of food.
I finished this late, also due to being tired in the evenings like @eefara . This is not a good book to relax after work with, at least for me.
I also found the descriptions and backstory detail exhausting to read. It reminded me at some points of reading 理由 by 宮部みゆき which was in itself a feat of endurance. Some parts however were fine and I read with interest. I think generally the author’s writing style just isn’t to my taste in that it feels very uneven and the heavyness of some sections (in regards to the detail) feels to crush the lighter - but oddly more telling! - sparser sections. Since I’m reading with the audiobook I decided to speed up the narration to 1.2x which is helping a lot for me to get through some dense bits. The vocab in here doesn’t hold back, though, so I know this isn’t an option for everyone.
I am catching up after reading part 2 of 国宝. I quite like the book so far! I had no idea what it was about (still not sure tbh) but so far I like the themes of feminism (despite Kajii saying she hates feminists) and butter. I was surprised by how much the book is actually about butter! Truth in advertising! And I for one also like the writing style.
Boy, you are in for a treat. I can spoil you that at least one other brand from your video makes an appearance as well .
Interesting video. I didn’t expect him to actually taste the difference with the chicken and mushrooms. It’s probably because margarine has a different burning point, and that changed the taste of the butter samples.
It was funny seeing him struggle with his bread samples and loving the margarine sample ^^.
Yeah seeing him mistake margarine for Échiré butter was painful ^^’ He has a bunch more videos like that btw which you can find by searching for “意味あんの”.
) but I started it and there’s a reference to a book called ちびくろサンボ which rang a bell, and indeed, it’s a real book, known in the west as well although much more controversial here than it is in Japan. 
I suspect this will be an interesting book to read reviews of when I’m done
. If more recipes follow, I maybe have to try some of them ^^.
. When Rika picked up margarine because the butter was sold out, I was aghast at her choice. Probably the Japanese way; One can not go empty-handed, even if the other party told you: don’t bother if it is sold out.