# How to get a start in reading books in Japanese **URL:** \ **Category:** Reading\ **Created:** [September 13, 2026, 3:16pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725 "2026-09-13T15:16:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DaraM18](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/daram18/32/680548_2.png) [@DaraM18](https://community.wanikani.com/u/DaraM18)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 3:16pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/1 "2026-09-13T15:16:10Z")
Interesting Japan Times article [https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2026/09/11/language/japanese-reading-basic-books/](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2026/09/11/language/japanese-reading-basic-books/) ---
**Author:** ![YandrosTheSane](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/yandrosthesane/32/728374_2.png) [@YandrosTheSane](https://community.wanikani.com/u/YandrosTheSane)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 3:59pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/2 "2026-09-13T15:59:12Z")
I don’t think that that article was written by someone who has 体験… ---
**Author:** ![NicoleIsEnough](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nicoleisenough/32/87285_2.png) [@NicoleIsEnough](https://community.wanikani.com/u/NicoleIsEnough)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/3 "2026-09-13T19:57:47Z")
I thought it was a fairly accurate assessment, though… 🤷‍♀️ ---
**Author:** ![YandrosTheSane](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/yandrosthesane/32/728374_2.png) [@YandrosTheSane](https://community.wanikani.com/u/YandrosTheSane)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 9:50pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/4 "2026-09-13T21:50:01Z")
I’m sorry I’d like to have a thoughtful reply but reducing the gating of getting into reading to mere kanji / grammar knowledge just show for me (recently “scarred” by my own learning) that the writer doesn’t pass on the agonizing effort and countless hours it takes to get into it and the many many underlying aspects and flavors it covers. ---
**Author:** ![Pancakes25](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/pancakes25/32/740445_2.png) [@Pancakes25](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Pancakes25)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 11:40pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/5 "2026-09-13T23:40:02Z")
Starting out by punishing yourself by studying grammar is an excellent way to steer yourself towards quitting. Tadoku books are the intro anyone needs to start reading Japanese. It even includes audio so you aren’t frozen guessing how the kanji sound. Audio + Tadoku books is a powerful combination that will make you a Japanese reader. Studying grammar is like studying mathematical rules. Its like studying the chain rule and all the rules for derivation and integration in calculus. ---
**Author:** ![DaraM18](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/daram18/32/680548_2.png) [@DaraM18](https://community.wanikani.com/u/DaraM18)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2026, 12:41am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/6 "2026-09-14T00:41:48Z")
I don’t think it’s a deep or detailed article but I thought the categories and examples were a bit interesting. ---
**Author:** ![NicoleIsEnough](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nicoleisenough/32/87285_2.png) [@NicoleIsEnough](https://community.wanikani.com/u/NicoleIsEnough)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2026, 11:35am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/7 "2026-09-14T11:35:14Z")
> [@YandrosTheSane](#): > > the writer doesn’t pass on the agonizing effort and countless hours it takes to get into it and the many many underlying aspects and flavors it covers. Oh yeah, granted, the article is very much reduced to the mechanics and leaves out the grind. If that’s your complaint, I am with you. It’s just that the article sounded pretty much like the route I took, in a nutshell 🤷‍♀️ > [@Pancakes25](#): > > Studying grammar is like studying mathematical rules. That’s probably why I like it 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![mitrac](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/mitrac/32/476810_2.png) [@mitrac](https://community.wanikani.com/u/mitrac)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2026, 11:59am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/8 "2026-09-14T11:59:16Z")
> [@YandrosTheSane](#): > > I don’t think that that article was written by someone who has 体験… I’m with you, the jump from picture book to children’s books and manga is huge. I get that people manage that, but for me personally, graded readers and Satori reader were indispensable and made the transition way more satisfying and less grindy. It’s a shame the author took a ‘content aimed at natives only’ approach. I wonder if that position was taken because they seem to have experience of people with spoken fluency (the start of the article mentions this). So I suppose if someone had developed a wider vocabulary due to eg living in Japan and being conversationally fluent, ok, then I guess children’s books are manageable. > [@Pancakes25](#): > > Audio + Tadoku books is a powerful combination 💯definitely agree, the audio in graded readers and Satori was extraordinarily helpful ---
**Author:** ![gangerM](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/gangerm/32/753841_2.png) [@gangerM](https://community.wanikani.com/u/gangerM)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2026, 1:00pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/9 "2026-09-14T13:00:08Z")
After I read it I get the feeling they deliberately avoided naming specific services that (might) be a free add for those services. Which could be why they did not mention Tadoku or Satori. From that perspective it can be read as a list with levels of difficulty, which might allow someone to find other things they might not have thought about when looking for what to read. ---
**Author:** ![DaraM18](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/daram18/32/680548_2.png) [@DaraM18](https://community.wanikani.com/u/DaraM18)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 2:36pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/how-to-get-a-start-in-reading-books-in-japanese/75725/10 "2026-09-22T14:36:12Z")
I guess it’s okay to post here - a very impressive English language test result from a young Japanese student: [https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260917/p2a/00m/0na/063000c](https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260917/p2a/00m/0na/063000c) emphasizing no pressure tadoku as the main study method. AI description about the test: _Eiken Grade 1 is extremely difficult. It is the highest level of the Eiken English proficiency test in Japan, featuring a low pass rate of about 10% and requiring an advanced university-level vocabulary of 12,000 to 15,000 words_. Seemingly it includes writing and speaking.