# Difficulty reading easier content?

**URL:** <https://community.wanikani.com/t/difficulty-reading-easier-content/55959>\
**Category:** Reading\
**Created:** [February 23, 2022, 9:30pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/difficulty-reading-easier-content/55959 "2022-02-23T21:30:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![seanblue](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/seanblue/32/579844_2.png) [@seanblue](https://community.wanikani.com/u/seanblue)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/difficulty-reading-easier-content/55959/4 "2022-02-23T22:42:53Z")

</div>

> [@Iluminari](#):
>
> This is my first light novel, so I was expecting it to be challenging…however I’m finding that words that I know such as 不思議 are written in hiragana, so it’s making the sentences quite long winded and confusing to read. Is this a normal thing for light novels?

Part of the problem here is that 時をかける少女 _isn’t_ a light novel. I don’t think it’s technically a kids book, but it’s much closer to a kids book than an adult-targeted novel or light novel in terms of kanji usage. I think what you’re experiencing is pretty normal and I’d guess that most Japanese learners who learn a lot of kanji experience this at some point. That said, I agree with @downtimes that reading words in kana “simulates” listening practice in a sense, so if you can’t recognize a word in kana it probably means you don’t know the word well enough. But if you want to read a book with more “normal” kanji usage, you’re definitely better off reading an adult-targeted novel or an actual light novel.

Specifically, if you want to read a standalone novel I’d recommend かがみの孤城. It has normal kanji usage but is on the easier side, so I think it’ll be good for a first book (or second if you finish 時をかける少女). There’s a book club which is currently about halfway done the book (which was split into two parts, so we’re nearly done the first part). I already finished the whole book and loved it. [かがみの孤城 (Kagami no Kojou) Book Club](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8C%E3%81%BF%E3%81%AE%E5%AD%A4%E5%9F%8E-kagami-no-kojou-book-club/53156)

If you want to check out a longer light novel series I’d recommend 本好きの下剋上. I think this is also on the easier side, but it’s slightly harder than かがみの孤城 in virtually every aspect of the language. There was also a book club for this for the first three books, along with a discussion topic for subsequent volumes. I’ve read the first 14 books so far and it’s very consistently enjoyable. [本好きの下剋上 home thread](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E6%9C%AC%E5%A5%BD%E3%81%8D%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%8B%E5%89%8B%E4%B8%8A-home-thread/45054)

---

_[View the full topic](https://community.wanikani.com/t/difficulty-reading-easier-content/55959)._