You’re not late, we are still in the first week 
Welcome !
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Hey there.
Happy you are joining us in this reading adventure.
Yes the first few pages have a lot of Katakana vocabulary with food specific items you probably won’t know if you haven’t been living in japan for longer!
This thread here is just an aggregation thread for the organisation and general topics regarding this club. We split the book into weeks of assignments and each Week gets it’s own forum thread. So you don’t have to be spoiled if you are reading a little bit later and can enjoy discussions limited to the content of the first week.
You’ll find the week 1 thread here .
In this thread there is also a vocabulary sheet linked where people have tried to come up with the most sutable translation for basically every word in this first part. The sheet is on google docs and split into weeks too. It can be found here (See tabs on the bottom)
This vocabulary sheet should be able to answer most of your vocabulary questions. If you still feel unsure after browsing through, feel free to post another question topic in the Week1 thread please.
Most of your lookups seem to be correct. The most glaring one I find fault with is
It’s conditional 死ねば and means something along the lines of “It would be better if they were dead/if they died”
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okay. It seems i’m really bad at pacing myself. Binged volume one down. I’ll try to add words to spreadsheet as i will be adding them to houhou srs anyway. ;-;
Edit. That’s my first japanese book i finished! Yaaaaaaay!
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Hi! I’ll try to read along on this one. I’m not exactly an absolute beginner when it comes to reading, but I’ve been waiting for one of the book clubs to start a new book! I’ll look for the book when I come home tonight and I’ll try to go through the first chapter before week 2 begins! Looking forward to it!
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Actually the first chapter is split into 2 parts to make it easier for beginners to ease into. So technically you have the next week too to finish the first chapter ^^.
Hope you’ll enjoy your read.
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Hi! I was looking forward to join so much, I even ordered the book from mangarepublic and although it was very fast to arrive to Czech Republic, it got stuck at the declaration office for the past 2 weeks 
would anyone be so kind to send me screenshots just of the first chapter so that I don´t fall completely behind? It is my first manga in Japanese and I am really excited 
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If you visit this page and go to the gray button that says 無料立ち読み, you can read the free preview. This has the whole first chapter available.
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Got it! Thank you for help! Hopefully till the next chapter my copy finally arrives
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Držím palce! S celníky bojuju už měsíc a něco o zásilku z UK. 
Zásilky od maminčiných kamarádek z Japonska se taky rychle zbavit nechtěli (dva měsíce?), ale koupené zboží má snad vyšší prioritu jak dárky. 
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Jsou to šmejdi když jsem tam volala, tak mi prakticky řekli, že přijede 2 tisíce balíků najednou a oni jeden po druhém řeší a zdá se že ten můj je teda asi někde na konci kdyby si to předtím alespoň roztřídili nebo já nevím, vždyť ta moje jedna knížečka nemá žádné clo
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I skipped this manga some weeks ago, but then saw it here in a book club (and for free), so I thought why not give it a try and today… I read all 3 volumes - definitely not your standard manga + I really love the art
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yay, so i’m not alone in binging XD Hell yea! But after vol 1 i moved to bbc to read yoru cafe. I hope that when i finish i will be still motivated enough to move forward with happiness.
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Taky jsem měl nemilé zkušenosti s proclením, české poště to trvá věky a když jsem jednou objednával přímo z amazon.jp (dodáváno DHL), tak ti pro změnu vytasili s tím že za proclení chcou 650 korun (samozřejmě když už bylo zboží na cestě bez možnosti vycouvat - naštěstí to byla kopa učebnic, takže se mi to pořád vyplatilo oproti kupování lokálně), myslím že tyhle importy mimo EU jsou vždycky prohra Od té doby jsem přešel radši na kupování jp-related věcí z obchodu Verasia (který je v EU), ale nabídka mang holt není převratná
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Week 2 thread is live! It was great to see so many people start the book last week, including many people who have never completed a Japanese book before.
For those of you who haven’t started yet, or haven’t finished the week 1 reading don’t worry. The week 1 thread will stay open for questions and discussion about those pages. If there is a question not already answered in the discussion or vocab sheet please do post, there will be several people still watching that thread who will be willing to answer questions.
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Well done everyone who made it to the end of week 2. Remember there is plenty of time to catch up. If there are questions from readings in a previous week please do ask them. People will still be watching these threads and will respond. Week 3 thread is live:
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Hello ya’ll
I have a bit more time on my hands these days and I’n going to give this another shot. I’ll be starting in on Happiness a bit late, I hope ya’ll don’t mind if I post questions to the old threads ^^"
Maybe starting late will actually relieve some of the stress I had about falling behind last time?
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Welcome, and please feel free to post questions all you want. You’re not especially late in any case, we’re only at the start of the 3rd week!
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oof, I haven’t kept an eye on this club, due to being too busy over Christmas. I only just noticed it now, read the synopses and just “yeah I need this!”
Popped by eBay and grabbed the full set, cause I don’t like owning single mangas from series =P
I’ll try to catch up, and if a spin off club emerges I’ll be joining 
Hope they arrive before it ends 
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Voting is open for the next Absolute Beginner Book Club pick:
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Week 4 thread is up. Good to see lots of people still reading along!
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