I don’t know that much about the book, but the summary states: … is only very loosely a novel and is composed of a series of essentially distinct stories […] each of the eight hostages recounting a story or memory they had written [during their captivity] so it seems like the core of the book has not much to do with the hostage itself.
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Yes, I also read some more reviews and it certainly seems to be a framing device more than anything else. Still not my favourite setting for a story, but it’s Ogawa so I’ll trust her. I added my vote.
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I am not a big fan of 人質 situations and I was thinking of reading 僕が愛したすべての君へ at some point anyway, since I’m a sucker for romance, but might give 人質の朗読会 a try if it’s not terribly challenging and attainable.
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Thank you! I guess now I need to wait another day, though, as I just announced the poll in the other clubs, and it would be a bit of a d*ck move to announce it and then close it straight away, I guess 
I cannot speak for this book, but we read another book of hers in the club and everybody said that her language is pretty straightforward and not difficult to understand.
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Which other book was it? And how does it compare to コンビニ人間, for instance?
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Her other book was 博士の愛した数式 - The Housekeeper and the Professor 🎓🧮 (Intermediate Book Club) . For comparison with コンビニ人間, hmmm, that’s difficult for me as I read them quite far apart (so my language level probably changed in between). I would say 博士 has some episodes around mathematics which isn’t an easy topic for many people, and there is some vocab around that as well, of course. But although Natively rates them L34 vs. L29, I wouldn’t say they are that far apart language-wise.
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Of course, don’t close the poll just because of me! We definitely need more voters (and readers) if they’re interested! I’d give it a day or two at least. Have people moved on to reading on their own, I wonder?
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I don’t vote if I’m not sure I’ll end up reading with the club. So maybe there are more people with a fear of commitment?
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Oh yeah, that’s a good point as well. We now have the reading challenges where everybody reads on their own, it feels, and also so many reading groups where a small group reads stuff more or less quickly. Plus, we always had variation in the number of poll participants. But 21 is rather at the very low end.
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Thanks for the other title! I found it on Natively and it looks like it has ratings for it to be harder than コンビニ人間. But of course it’s still subjective, and コンビニ人間 is one of the easier book titles I read. To me personally it’s even easier than 君の名は.
I can’t say for others, but to me personally often the poll votes go in the direction of a story I am okay with reading, but not わくわく enthusiastically .
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Well, of course no one has to read with the club if they don’t like the book the club picked, this goes without saying. But this doesn’t explain why people wouldn’t vote in the poll, unless none of the choices are interesting to them. In which case of course, why not nominate a book they’d be interested in? 
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Wow I didn’t realize she wrote that book! I read it in English many moons ago and loved it. All the more reason to actually try to keep up with the book club if it does get picked!
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博士の愛した数式 is still on my list to read, but since I haven’t yet I don’t have that “ohh this author!” push to read 人質の朗読会. And generally I’m very much not inclined to read a book where hostage taking is involved in the setup.
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There have been no changes in the poll during the last day, and so I declare our next winning pick to be
僕が愛したすべての君へ
Thanks to @seanblue for nominating it! 
At the same time, we are looking for a volunteer to run this club. Who would be interested to do this? Don’t worry even if you’ve never run a book club before, there are lots of experienced people around for support if you need it, and there are the excellent Tips for Running a WaniKani Book Club with guidelines and templates and such. If you are interested, please say so in this thread.
Unfortunately, we also have to say goodbye to a nomination: リング missed the threshold three times in a row. 
Thanks to everybody who voted, and have fun with our next pick!
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Oh I almost forgot to mention: Currently there is a 50% coin cashback campaign on Bookwalker for those who prefer to read that way. The sale lasts only until 2023-01-07T14:59:00Z so make sure you make your purchase in time!
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Hey all 
just a quick reminder that we still have a minor issue to resolve before we can proceed with reading our next pick!
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I count 10 volunteers!
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I can run it. I think I’ve been around long enough that I’m about due…
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Nice, thank you! 
If you need any help or anything, just shout please!
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Haven’t been participating in a book club for a while so I’ll join this upcoming one 
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