We could stick to the original page count divisions, but change the amount of time we take, eg we schedule two weeks to cover IBC week 1. Once we start thinking about speeding up it won’t be a lot of help, but initially it could make things a little less confounding. 
6 Likes
Btw, I noticed コンビニ人間 already had a repeat book club that used the original threads. That doesn’t stop us having a rereread book club!
8 Likes
I loved this movie (and watched it for Kirin Kiki who just breaks your heart with her performance). I had no idea it was based on a book, but I’m all for it!
Having read 世界から猫が消えたなら, I also second it being a good fit for the club. It was my first completed novel after 夜カフェ, and it was a nice level up. I wouldn’t reread it any time soon since I finished it recently, but I’d love to follow the discussion.
I’m also looking for an excuse to read コンビニ人間, so I’d be happy to join in especially if it means reading it at a slower pace than the IC.
I’d like to read these at some point but the page count for some of them might be too long. The levels should be between 27~30 though.
キノの旅
キッチン
コーヒーが冷めないうちに
おいしいごはんが食べられますように
カラフル
15 Likes
I mentioned this to someone else in the read every day thread, but I don’t think that’s a good “intro to novels” book due to it being written in a stream of consciousness style and often not making clear who is narrating.
Great book though!
12 Likes
If you do end up rereading コンビニ人間, you should totally re-reuse those threads. I always enjoy it when threads for older reads have new life blown into them as a new cohort of readers post their observations 
13 Likes
I do agree with that. It could also loop in those who’ve read the book with the original club to help answer questions.
On the other hand, we have the main fact that our reading assignments will not correspond with the IBC threads to start and might not be the same until the last third, if at all. And it would make it a lot more labor-some to figure out how much of a thread someone can read, and a lot more jumping around might be needed. And any spoilers for content wouldn’t be readable until we finish the whole assignment covered by that thread. And that complication might stunt the discussions we would have otherwise had if we used our own threads.
This is why I’m planing to present it as a poll, so we can decide together, and maybe that poll should only appear after we’ve decided on the book, so we can look at the specific threads and see how well they’d work for our slower club.
The benefit of the clubs here on the WK is that they stay around forever even after something is finished. And for that reason, it would be better to keep it all together in the same threads, but at the same time, we have to consider what would benefit us best going through the book this time. 
I can promise though that if we decide to have our own threads, I will still encourage people to check the original threads, especially when we finish each original weekly assignment.
9 Likes
Thinking about these books makes me realise how much I’ve come to appreciate the Natively website. The reading level assessment, star ratings and reviews are so helping in thinking about which one to read. The star rating for コンビニ人間 is based on 133 ratings, and it’s grading is based on 1229 gradings from 143 users!
14 Likes
I think it’d depend on translation if this is intermediate or advanced, but anyone interested in a Japanese version of Dracula Daily? This would definitely be an offshoot book club, but I was thinking with the slower pace, it could also fit with what people are looking for with the primer. Some dates are definitely heavier reading though.
7 Likes
Ah, おばちゃんたちのいるところ! It is a series of short stories so jumping in and out is possible, and it’s a later book club so it has a vocabulary list! Looks like the Natively level is a little harder than the others though.
11 Likes
The kansai-ben in the first story in the collection might make it feel like a bit of a tricky start, though that doesn’t continue throughout the whole book.
6 Likes
Yes please! I’m (very slowly) reading キノの旅 1 at the moment, and while I’m not interested in following old book club threads, a new book club for it would be great!
(Also, this is my first Natively L29 book. My previous highest one was L24. And… surprisingly, I can read it! I have to look up a ton of vocab and occasionally DeepL-sensei has to assist me, but I can read it, which is more than I expected.)
12 Likes
The difference between reading beginner manga and adult fiction is conviction.
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It’s a good option, but the thing that would put me off using this is the change in viewpoint. Each story comes from a different narrator, so you don’t get accustomed to a particular writing style or speech pattern.
I actually read 85% of it with the IBC, then lost my motivation when the club finished - but I’m planning to finish it soon! (Just need a week where I’m up to date on all my other clubs…)
Though I have read a couple of books with the IBC, they’ve always been a battle for me, so I’m interested to join this club anyway!
12 Likes
So we’re here. We’ll have a poll for which book to do and start date. Schedule and whether to use our own threads or not will wait until we have a book picked, which will be a week from when I post this, so I’ll close the polls sometime on Sunday, May 14th.
But first let me go through the picks, and mention info, advantages, and disadvantages. Please feel free to check out the ratings on Natively, and book club threads and such. In the club threads, you can often find a link to the nomination post that will include a description of what the book is about.
I’m not including books that are too long (unless they are short story collections were stories can be skipped), and I also cut おいしいごはんが食べられますように because we have a recommendation that it wouldn’t be a good place to start (stream of consciousness writing can even be hard to read in a native language).
コンビニ人間
Natively, WK book club (repeat club), well populated vocabulary sheet (and vocabulary list can be found at Koohi)
168 pages, recommended as a good starter by multiple people (just check this thread for those, not to mention many other places on the forum)
キッチン
Natively, WK book club, no vocabulary sheet (but vocabulary lists can be found at Koohi and jpdb)
200 pages, contains an unrelated short story at the end which we can skip if we want, recommended but with the warning that it can be pretty heavy theme-wise
夜市
Natively, WK book club, no vocabulary sheet (but vocabulary lists can be found at Koohi and jpdb)
179 pages, consists of two short stories (the titular story is 90 pages long)
コーヒーが冷めないうちに
Natively, WK book club, vocabulary sheet (and vocabulary lists can be found at Koohi and jpdb)
348 pages, consists of four short stories/chapters with an overarching story so we could skip 1-2 stories but realize we wouldn’t be getting the whole overarching story
世界から猫が消えたなら
Natively, WK book club, no vocabulary sheet (but vocabulary list can be found at jpdb)
229 pages, the wk club was an unscheduled one, so there is no schedule nor separate threads, just one main one
はたらく魔王さま！１
Natively, WK book club, no vocabulary sheet (but vocabulary list can be found at Koohi)
312 pages, a little long, part of a series that is currently 22 books long so reading only the first one might not come with a satisfying end, the wk club has no weekly threads but it does have a schedule
キノの旅１
Natively, WK book club, no vocabulary sheet (but vocabulary lists can be found at Koohi and jpdb)
248 pages, while this is part of a series, each chapter seems to be only loosely connected to each other, so only reading the first volume should still provide a full story (well multiple ones, but you get my drift)
おばちゃんたちのいろところ
Natively, WK book club, vocabulary sheet but only for the first week and with no page numbers
261 pages, collection of 17 linked short stories with different view points each time (meaning a new style to get used to for each story, raising the difficulty), the first story (especially) has a lot of kansai-ben
あん
Natively, no WK book club, no vocabulary sheet (nor vocabulary lists)
239 pages, has no resources
カラフル
Natively, no WK book club, no vocabulary sheet (but vocabulary list can be found at jpdb)
259 pages, comes with trigger warnings (see reviews on Natively), no resources except a vocabulary list on jpdb
Now that I’ve finished the info list above (it took a while…), let’s get to our two polls!
If I may be so bold as make a recommendation: since we’re doing this as a first harder/IBC level book, the more resources and helpful stuff we have available, the easier the transition will be. Please keep that in mind.
What book should we read?
- コンビニ人間
- キッチン
- 夜市
- コーヒーが冷めないうちに
- 世界から猫が消えたなら
- はたらく魔王さま！１
- キノの旅１
- おばちゃんたちのいろところ
- あん
- カラフル
0 voters
When should we start?
- June 17
- June 24
- July 1
- July 8
- July 15
0 voters
10 Likes
I won’t vote as this club is not intended for me, but if キッチン or あん are picked I’d be interested in reading along (although probably faster) and participate in the discussions.
I may also participate (for help or comments) if a book I’ve already read is picked, of course.
Happy voting!
16 Likes
It is always hard for me to vote on these polls, since I want to read almost all of the books available. But I tried to go for some of the ones with a lot of resources. As for starting date, I am fine with anything 
4 Likes
I hope we can have あん as a bookclub pick or as its own independent club some time in the future, as I would love to join (though it might still be a bit hard for me at the moment).
9 Likes
It’s nice that the books that sound most interesting to me are also the shortest! The starting dates I chose were more convenient for me (taking advantage of a three-week holiday break) but I’m happy with any time.
4 Likes
Maybe it’s a little late to bring this up but I may not participate if コンビニ人間 is chosen as I tried once to read this book in English and could not finish on account of the repetitive vitriolic mysoginistic rants. (Not a massive spoiler, I think.)
2 Likes
Well sure, there’s a character who does that a lot, but that’s not the overall message of the book at all
11 Likes