Intermediate Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: 変な家 // Next: 妊娠カレンダー

[ekuroe]

I think I’ll continue reading on my own this round and hopefully join for the next book. But happy reading everyone!

[Domjcw]

I’ve created a thread for the next book セーラー服と機関銃

have started a conversation there about the schedule - drop in and let me know any ideas

[Akashelia]

So there is some interest, but also some people who are too busy and some people who voted no, so let’s leave it be and wait for the next official IBC vote to see if it gets chosen there.

[lily31]

I will join you for the next book this is my first time in a book club, I took a look at the book and it looks like the right challenge for me. I passed N3 last July and restarted wanikani by the end of December (last try was 3 years ago and I made it to level 14ish). Really looking forward to it!

[NicoleIsEnough]

Traditionally we have been trying to help the book club participants judge the books’ difficulty levels by running a poll for each nomination. This poll has the disadvantages that the number of participants is very small (and varies from book to book), that the answers are highly subjective and that people’s judgments will change over time so that it’s somewhat useful, but not as much as I’d like it to be. (Plus, it takes me some time before each book selection poll to update the results.)

Additionally, we now have the gradings for each book over at Natively which are established by a much wider user base and therefore feel more reliable and neutral than our polls. (Granted, they are not 100% perfect either, but the more people grade books, the better they’ll get eventually.)

The Beginner Book Club has already dropped their polls and switched over to Natively levels, the Absolute Beginner Book Club seems to be in the process of doing the same, and so I was wondering whether we should do the same for the Intermediate Club?

• Yes, drop the polls already
• Nooo, I need the polls
• I don’t care either way

[Akashelia]

Thanks for making the Natively list

WK Intermediate Japanese Book Club Nominations | Japanese list by nikoru

I will make one for the previous picks one day, if I’m not too lazy and if no one beats me to it… yes that is a challenge, go ahead :x

[NicoleIsEnough]

@Akashelia

one for the previous picks

Oh that’s an excellent idea!

Edit: Challenge Accepted Books read by the WK Intermediate Japanese Book Club | Japanese list by nikoru | Natively

[Domjcw]

How do I add a link in Natively to the book club for セーラー服と機関銃？

[Domjcw]

that’s great to hear - welcome to the book club!

[NicoleIsEnough]

I think you need to go to the book in question, press the “Have feedback?” button and tell them to add the WK bookclub marker plus any links you provide. They should add this within a day or something.

[NicoleIsEnough]

The poll has decided that we should drop the difficulty polls here! I will go and adapt the nominations template accordingly.

[Domjcw]

We have a week until the official start of the セーラー服と機関銃 book club

The kindle version is currently on sale, so if you weren’t sure if you were going to join us for this one, feel free to have a look (or download a sample)

Amazon.co.jp: セーラー服と機関銃 (角川文庫) 電子書籍: 赤川 次郎: Kindleストア

[Phryne]

Oooo, that’s a steal! Thanks for the reminder

[Akashelia]

We had a discussion in the BBC and ended up agreeing on trying a new Book Club:

[Looking for Nominations! 2/20] The Manga-Exclusive Intermediate Book Club

Welcome to the Intermediate/Advanced Manga Book Club! In this club we choose a Japanese book together and read it following a weekly schedule. We help each other with grammar, compile a vocabulary sheet together and discuss the story. As Wanikani community currently is: the ABBC reads mostly manga / books in the levels 20 or below (N5/N4) the BBC reads mostly manga in the levels 20 to 27 (N4/N3) the IBC reads mostly books in the levels 27 to 30+ (N3/N2) the ABC reads mostly books in the level…

I have moved the nomination for とんがり帽子のアトリエ and NANA over there

[Akashelia]

I have removed the nominations for とんがり帽子のアトリエ and NANA from the first post and moved them to the Archive, @NicoleIsEnough if you want to remove them from the Natively list?

[NicoleIsEnough]

Thanks for the ping! I wasn’t sure whether y‘all were planning to duplicate or to move the nominations, so I waited for a clear signal
The two entries are removed.

[NicoleIsEnough]

Hey all, the current book club pick is approaching its end, and so we should have a new pick poll soon

This means, now is a good time to post your nominations! We have 7 open slots, so let’s see what you’d like to propose!
Please make sure to use the proposals template in the OP and to stick to the suggested page count of at most 300-350 pages.

I’m planning to set up the new poll on Wednesday (May 15th) so please nominate before that date.

[araigoshi]

終末なにしてますか? 忙しいですか? 救ってもらっていいですか? / SukaSuka / WorldEnd

Author: 枯野 瑛
Page count: 281
Natively link: 終末なにしてますか? 忙しいですか? 救ってもらっていいですか? | L34

Summary

Japanese

使い捨ての少女兵たちと、時代遅れな雇われ教官の、儚くも輝ける日常。

ヒトは規格外の《獣》に蹂躙され、滅びた。たったひとり、数百年の眠りから覚めた青年ヴィレムを除いて。ヒトに変わって《獣》と戦うのは、死にゆく定めの少女妖精たち。青年教官と少女兵の、儚くも輝ける日々。

– Book Walker

English

Everyone wants to be remembered… Untold years after the strange Beasts drove humanity to extinction, Willem emerges from his slumber as the sole survivor. A new civilization of various other races has risen on the floating islands, but there’sno place for a featureless human among them. After aimlessly wandering for a time, Willem grudgingly accepts a job with the military, only to discover that the “weapons” he watches over are in fact young faeries. As he slowly learns more about the children and how they’re linked to his past, the war with the Beasts grows increasingly desperate. When the girls prepare to fight a hopeless battle, is there anything a lone human can do…?

– Anilist

Availability

Physical: Rakuten | Amazon JP | CD Japan | Amazon US | Kinokuniya JP | Honto
Ebook: eBook Japan | BookWalker | Amazon JP

Personal Opinion

I watched the anime a few years ago and enjoyed it. The world setup is decently interesting, sort of post-post-apocalyptic, and has some good mysteries to explore

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

• Interesting world.
• Mysterious backstory to get into

Cons

• Slightly on the shorter side (280 pages, but like 15 of them are character previews)
• Can stray a bit harem-y at times

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One

Additional Pages

Also note that Crunchyroll has episode 1 of the anime adaptation for free on YouTube (though I’m sure region locking is a disaster as always). Don’t start at 0:00 - the anime starts at the end and the LN does not. But start at 4:10 to 6:30 for a nice special epsiode 1 opening of the world.

[Domjcw]

@NicoleIsEnough

Hey all, the current book club pick is approaching its end, and so we should have a new pick poll soon

Thanks @NicoleIsEnough

how long before one book club finishes do you normally do the voting?
we aren’t going to finish セーラー服 until probably mid July, so there might be a bit of time
(We don’t have a weekly schedule until then - I’ve been doing it in stages…)

[NicoleIsEnough]

@Domjcw

we aren’t going to finish セーラー服 until probably mid July

Oh ok thanks for the heads up! I looked at the current schedule and thought that it’s about time - but if you‘re still reading then that’s totally fine with me
I usually try to get the poll up about 6 weeks before the start of the next book (there’s usually a 1-week break between books). So it should be fine to run the poll in early June in this case.

Still, the call for proposals is valid! If you want to get your favorite book onto the list, now is a very good time!