Intermediate Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: セーラー服と機関銃

Wow kumirei, this is so nice! Thanks a lot ^^

I noticed that in the beginning book club thread they’re considering allowing multiple votes for book choices so that they can actually determine if certain books have appeal to the members of the group. Would that be possible for our group to implement because it could possibly give us a better indication on what books to continue in future polls? What do some of the members think about that? I can say with certainty that none of my picks have ever been popular and that perhaps books that tend to get a buzz right before the poll tend to get chosen. Having multiple votes could possibly counteract this effect.

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I agree that having multiple votes would be nice. People might have multiple books they’re interested in, and it also gives them more of a say in what we read even if their first choice isn’t popular. :+1:

It could also be helpful to have two polls. One poll on all the books where we have many votes to see which books are currently popular. From that poll we could choose about 5-10 books. Then, a second poll to choose our final favourite book as next book club book where we could have two votes to chose.

That’s definitely something we could possibly implement as well, provided that a clear winner isn’t determined by the first vote.

I could definitely add multiple votes on the next poll. Since we’re not seeing a steady flow of pitches, I’ll put the poll up today. How many votes should I give each person? Let them chose 2 or 3 ? Also imo, I don’t want to do two polls because we actually did do that last time and less people voted on it and didn’t make a difference at all. Autumn prison won by a long shot in both.

But if you guys really want to do that, then we can.

Also, @LucasDesu I think books that have a good pitch are more likely to be chosen, or one that has a popular anime. I think people can relate more to books like this. So If you have a book that you want to win you should give a pitch for it.

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I don’t have any ideas in particular. I’m in it for the experience. I know that it has held me accountable to finish the books and plus people notice things that I just glaze over for whatever reason. I think three votes should be sufficient

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@Jintanuki @riccyjay Can you guys actually make your pitches wiki posts so that I can just copy the formatting? If not just add it to this post.

edit: Never mind I don’t think I make wikis anymore, can any of you make a wiki?


Title: ドアD (Door D)
Japanese Level: ☆☆

Synopsis: Yuna and her 7 university tennis club friends were kidnapped and woke up in an unknown room. With only one locked door, and water filling into the room fast, they must figure out a way to escape before they all drown.

There’s a lever that opens the door. But it only holds the door open while pulled. One person will have to remain.

And this is just the start. Through a series of death trap rooms, and chances of survival slim, each other’s humanity will be tested. Will the group make it out alive? Will anyone make it out alive? And what awaits upon getting through the final door?

First Page

Why it might be a good choice:

  • It sounds interesting, it’s a psychological Thriller. What more you can ask for, am I right?

  • It has a Kindle version

  • And apparently easy Japanese

  • 絶望

Why it might not be a good choice:
“A lot of 山田悠介 (Yamada Yuusuke)’s works get highly criticized online because his ideas can seem a bit outrageous and his writing is way too simple. The fact that his works sell so much despite this negative criticism just fuels even stronger criticism” - the guy who wrote the article describing the book

Source

君の名は

Mitsuha, a high school girl living in a small town in the mountains, has a dream that she’s a boy living in Tokyo. Taki, a high school boy in Tokyo, dreams he’s a girl living in a quaint little mountain town. Sharing bodies, relationships, and lives, the two become inextricably interwoven–but are any connections truly inseverable in the grand tapestry of fate?

Written by director MAKOTO SHINKAI during the production of the film by the same title, your name. is in turns funny, heartwarming, and heart-wrenching as it follows the struggles of two young people determined to hold on to one another.

キノの旅

Kino wanders around the world on the back of Hermes, her unusual, anthropomorphic motorcycle, and discovers that the world’s imperfections hold its true beauty.

魔女の宅急便

Kiki is a resourceful, spunky girl who follows her maternal tradition to be a witch. She possesses only one gift of witchcraft – the power to fly. Like all young witches, she sets out at age 12 to find a town of her own. With her ever-present companion Jiji – a cynical and faithful black cat – Kiki departs on her broomstick and arrives at a big town near the ocean. Though nervous at first, she soon sets up a business delivering packages.

Kiki meets all kinds of people and has many adventures. She befriends the thief who stole her broomstick and saves the town’s traditional New Year’s marathon with some courageous and timely flying.

Throughout, Kiki’s confidence and self-awareness grows as she learns to value her unique talents. And with Kiki’s help, the townspeople realize that everyone has some magic that gives them their own special character and vitality.

This is a charming and delightful tale that is reminiscent of children’s favorites The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy and Astrid Lindgren’s Adventures of Pippi Longstocking. Black and white line drawings sprinkled throughout reveal the humor and warmth in everything Kiki does.

1 Like

To get the formatting you can use the Quote Whole Post button

Still it doesn’t look as nice :thinking:

Did you use the Quote Whole Post button or the Quote button? This is how it looks when I do it:

Um, when I highlight it I only see the quote button as an option.

image

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  • ナナブンノイチ (One in Seven)
  • 赤い悪夢 (5分後に意外な結末)
  • ドアD (Door D)
  • 君の名は
  • キノの旅
  • 魔女の宅急便
0 voters

Title: ドアD (Door D)
Japanese Level: ☆☆

Synopsis: Yuna and her 7 university tennis club friends were kidnapped and woke up in an unknown room. With only one locked door, and water filling into the room fast, they must figure out a way to escape before they all drown.

There’s a lever that opens the door. But it only holds the door open while pulled. One person will have to remain.

And this is just the start. Through a series of death trap rooms, and chances of survival slim, each other’s humanity will be tested. Will the group make it out alive? Will anyone make it out alive? And what awaits upon getting through the final door?

First Page

Why it might be a good choice:

  • It sounds interesting, it’s a psychological Thriller. What more you can ask for, am I right?

  • It has a Kindle version

  • And apparently easy Japanese

  • 絶望

Why it might not be a good choice:
“A lot of 山田悠介 (Yamada Yuusuke)’s works get highly criticized online because his ideas can seem a bit outrageous and his writing is way too simple. The fact that his works sell so much despite this negative criticism just fuels even stronger criticism” - the guy who wrote the article describing the book

Source

君の名は

Mitsuha, a high school girl living in a small town in the mountains, has a dream that she’s a boy living in Tokyo. Taki, a high school boy in Tokyo, dreams he’s a girl living in a quaint little mountain town. Sharing bodies, relationships, and lives, the two become inextricably interwoven–but are any connections truly inseverable in the grand tapestry of fate?

Written by director MAKOTO SHINKAI during the production of the film by the same title, your name. is in turns funny, heartwarming, and heart-wrenching as it follows the struggles of two young people determined to hold on to one another.

キノの旅

Kino wanders around the world on the back of Hermes, her unusual, anthropomorphic motorcycle, and discovers that the world’s imperfections hold its true beauty.

魔女の宅急便

Kiki is a resourceful, spunky girl who follows her maternal tradition to be a witch. She possesses only one gift of witchcraft – the power to fly. Like all young witches, she sets out at age 12 to find a town of her own. With her ever-present companion Jiji – a cynical and faithful black cat – Kiki departs on her broomstick and arrives at a big town near the ocean. Though nervous at first, she soon sets up a business delivering packages.

Kiki meets all kinds of people and has many adventures. She befriends the thief who stole her broomstick and saves the town’s traditional New Year’s marathon with some courageous and timely flying.

Throughout, Kiki’s confidence and self-awareness grows as she learns to value her unique talents. And with Kiki’s help, the townspeople realize that everyone has some magic that gives them their own special character and vitality.

This is a charming and delightful tale that is reminiscent of children’s favorites The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy and Astrid Lindgren’s Adventures of Pippi Longstocking. Black and white line drawings sprinkled throughout reveal the humor and warmth in everything Kiki does.

2 Likes

Hmm… Why is there only 6 books in the poll? I wanted to vote for 時をかける少女. This looks more like the second round of voting. What’s the point in multiple votes then?

I don’t really think it makes since to keep redoing every book which is why I said if you have a previous book that you want included, then re-pitch it. You didn’t have to make an elaborate pitch you could of just copied the name and description. When the idea for multiple votes came up, Lucas didn’t explicitly state that we should include all books in the multi vote, he just said it would help give us an idea in what we should keep for future books. This would be more effective if more people had spoken up and said what books they wanted included, or if what he really meant was to put all books on one last time. If this is what you guys expected, I apologize for the misunderstanding, but if you really wanted that book on the list you should have said something before Lucas even proposed the idea.

Do you guys want me to redo the poll with all books included one last time?

  • Yes, please.
  • No, its fine. I’ll re-pitch the books I want next time.
  • No, but lets include all books next time.
0 voters
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I’m not even going to vote in any of the polls since I don’t care which book we read, but I don’t see why you would limit the choices?

Well, I asked how many choices I should include, and one person answered 3, so I set it to 3.

Sorry, I didn’t notice that part about re-pitch. I just assumed that all previous books would be included.

No, you’re fine. I just want to make this as fair as possible.