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

I believe I wanted 300 to begin with. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Can people who have read the books give a rating on how they liked the book?
I’d like to start reading but I don’t know which one to start with.
Maybe at the end of the each thread, there can be a rating for those who have finished reading and then update the topic post with the rating?

I’d like to read Haruhi because it’s an anime light novel.

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I just added a poll in the home thread of Haruhi.
コンビニ人間 got its own poll, with a satisfaction rating of 4.3/5 out of 19 voters.

Edit: I wrote some of my thoughts on the different books in the Comparison of Book Club Picks thread.

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What do you mean by “start reading”? As in first time reading anything native in Japanese? First time reading a book? Or just reading more consistently? Recommendations will significantly differ based on your answer to that.

Yes, first time reading anything native in Japanese as well as a novel that is non academic and purely for enjoyment of the brain. I would like to use it to study for N2 and have a good time as ShinKanzen Master is killing my brain.

I have never read a book in English outside of school.

Then I’d strongly suggest against ハルヒ. That book is very hard for a first pick. You don’t have to take my word for it, just go look at the preview and read the first sentence.

If you want to get something from the book club, I’d say コンビニ人間, 秋の牢獄 or キノの旅 would be easier picks while being enjoyable.

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Of the books I’ve read, I’d recommend コンビニ人間. It was by far the most enjoyable, a reasonable difficulty at my N3-ish level, and it’s relatively short.

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Thank you. Will pick it up along with my copy of Pokemon today after work.

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最先端の日本酒ペアリング ー SAKE PAIRING

Summary

Japanese

内容紹介
【驚きの日本酒体験を書籍化! 】
日本酒イノベーター・千葉麻里絵のペアリングの技法を大公開!

誰もが驚く大胆な日本酒と料理のペアリングを打ち出し、
日本酒界のイノベーターとして注目される『GEM by moto』の千葉麻里絵さん
そのペアリング理論と実践、レシピ例を1冊にまとめた書籍が
『最先端の日本酒ペアリング』です。

東京・恵比寿の日本酒バー『GEM by moto』
ここで店長の千葉麻里絵が考案してきた日本酒と料理のペアリングは
「こんな味わい、初めて! 」と感激を呼び多くのお客様を魅了する

「どぶろくにブルーチーズハムカツ」
「いくらに吟醸酒」など、従来の日本酒と料理の組み合わせには 見られないものが数多く、その意外性に虜になる人も。

今まで培ってきたペアリング理論と実践をまとめた1冊。
ペアリングの理論とともに実際に『GEM by moto』で
提供してきた日本酒と料理のペアリング実例30種類以上を紹介

English

Introduction
[A book of amazing sake experiences!]
Sake innovator, Mari Chiba’s pairing technique is unveiled!

Everyone was surprised by a bold pairing of sake and food,
Mari Emi Chiba from “GEM by moto” attracting attention as an innovator in the sake world
A book that combines the theory and practice of the pairing and recipe examples into one volume
“The most advanced sake pairing”.

A Japanese sake bar “GEM by moto” in Ebisu, Tokyo
Here is the pairing of sake and food that the store manager Marie Chiba has devised.
“That taste is the first time!”

“Blue cheese ham cutlet”
There are many things that cannot be seen in the traditional combination of Japanese sake and cuisine, such as “How much Ginjo Sake”, and some people are captivated by its unexpectedness.

One book that summarizes the pairing theory and practice that has been cultivated so far.
Actually with GEM by moto along with the theory of pairing
Introducing more than 30 kinds of sake and food pairing examples.

Availability

Amazon

Personal Opinion

I'm not expecting this to win the poll but I'm reading this and finding it really interesting and also pretty squarely on my N3ish reading level*. I got a big ego boost last night at a sake event when I mentioned I was reading it so here it is.

Chiba Mari is a bit of a legend in the sake world with her innovative approach to pairing food and sake and this book is her manifesto and manual. Her shop in Tokyo is a must visit (although I haven't visited it yet). The book itself is part her paring theory, part recipes and part the science of interactions between the flavour chemicals in food and drinks.

I thought it would be fun to read a non-fiction book, although I fully admit this is a niche subject and very much my passion. Perhaps one of the detective Konan history manages might be more general appeal non-fiction.

Pictures

Prologue

Start of the Chapter on Warmed Sake

Recipe for Blue Cheese Ham Katsu - you should cook this

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Challenging
  • Impossible
  • I don’t know (please click this if you’re not voting seriously)

0 voters

*NB I probably know a lot of Sake specific Kanji so this might be more difficult than I think

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I don’t drink alcohol of any kind, so not for me. :sweat_smile:

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I do like a good recipe (and a good sake :D), but I’m not sure how you’d go about organizing a regular reading amount for something like this. I guess you have something in mind. :slight_smile:

I see on amazon that this book has 189 pages. Is it mostly recipes and practical how to’s, then, as in those pages? Or are there parts with longer sections of text on one topic, like, I don’t know… personal history, sake history, things like that?

That ブルーチーズハムカツ sounds very good indeed.

Just a heads up, I will be posting a home thread for 獣の奏者 sometime next week to figure out who’s interested (beyond those from the previous poll, who I’ll tag), see when people want to start, etc. I figured since the book club is gonna happen anyway (based on the previous poll) it’d be simpler than cluttering this thread.

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I’m currently reading it very slowly between other things but maybe I’ll put it on hold for now and wait. :+1:

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What is “very slowly”? The plan is to read this at roughly an intermediate book club pace, so an average of around 15 pages a week.

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I’m not reading at a set pace or anything right now. More like whenever I have a few minutes and no physical books around or book club books to catch up on. I’m partway through chapter 2 right now after maybe 2-3 months or so of reading inconsistently.

I don’t mind holding off and reading one of the other few books I started but haven’t finished yet instead while waiting.

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Ahh I read the translation of Kitchen in my final year of school for english! Fantastic book, hope my Japanese skills get to a point where I can read the original.

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Alright, nominations are closed for this time.

Please take the time to have a look at the new nominations; some of them only have 4 votes so far.
I will put up the poll at the end of the week.

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We already have 11 people who say they’ll be reading the book. So far so good! Based on early polling, the start date will likely be mid January or early February.

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Well, it is now the end-ish of the week, so why not open the poll.
Additionally, I haven’t seen that many new votes on difficulty. Anyway,

Poll for the next book is here!

Please see the List of Proposed Books section in the first post for the details for each book. Every book has a difficulty associated with it (based on book club members voting, thus subjective) out of 5, where 1 means “no effort at all” and 5 means “impossible, even with everyone’s help”.

Do not rely solely on difficulty when making a choice. Please have a look at nomination posts if you haven’t already.

We will start the next book on January 4th or January 11th. (1 or 2 weeks of break, respectively)

I will close the poll within a week (and most likely before that), whenever it looks like voting has dried up. You can choose up to 5 options .

  • Your Name [3.10/ 20 votes]
  • Wolf Children Ame & Yuki [2.38/ 21 votes]
  • Night Market [2.73/ 15 votes]
  • A lollipop or a bullet [2.91/ 11 votes]
  • Tokyo Cat Stroll [2.73/ 11 votes]
  • ブギーポップは笑わない [3.10/ 10 votes]
  • ポーション頼みで生き延びます! [3.50/ 8 votes]
  • 氷菓 [3.20/ 10 votes]
  • All You Need Is Kill [3.38/ 8 votes]
  • Smoothly Memorise with Manga and Repetition: The Hyakunin Isshu [3.25/ 8 votes]
  • 空挺ドラゴンズ [2.60/ 5 votes]
  • ifの悲劇 [2.57/ 7 votes]
  • 1リットルの涙 難病と闘い続ける少女亜也の日記 [2.57/ 7 votes]
  • 最先端の日本酒ペアリング ー SAKE PAIRING [2.50/ 4 votes]

0 voters

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First I was so confused why Your Name had 20 votes but is losing! :smiley: Took me a while…

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