Thanks a lot for the detailed description of the difficulty level. I’m probably a high N4 level, maybe just breaking into N3, although I haven’t taken the real tests, just samples online and some study books.
I’ve ordered Autumn Prison and was planning on participating, but without any long descriptions of the infrastructure and social systems of an imaginary dystopian city I may reconsider. 
Zone of proximal development, if you will
sorry… the teacher will leave now… hehe
Would it be possible to get books for beginners for which we could get an accompanying audio book? I’ve heard that it helps greatly.
Just ordered Autumn Prison! Should be here in about two weeks! :3 よろしくね～
I’m really looking forward to participating in this book club 
cant wait
As for the beginner club, I am fine with whatever we choose as long as it is easy. According to the 80/20 theory you need to understand 80% of what you just read/heard to feel like you comprehend it at all. That is the sweet spot we should aim for. The moment you understand less than 80% you get so confused you feel like you understand nothing, or so the theory goes.
So yes, we should start simple, and can try advance as we learn more together.
Though there are a few who asked to wait till next year to start, I don’t think it is right for all of us to wait that long. Most of us are ready now. We should start figure out what book/manga we want to read and make a start date based on how long it will take for people to get the book/manga. By the time they are ready to join we are probably on book 2 or 3, so they can join in on a new project if they like.
I’m fine doing children’s books. I buy a lot of material meant for children, even “baby” stuff (bilingual good night stories for toddlers) I love reading Fairy tales. I have the little books made by the same people who also have an anime with many of the same tales. Reading them after having seen the anime makes it so much easier to understand, but there are still a good 10-20% I don’t understand at all but can guess from context and pictures. But I have some meant for first graders with little to no art and just to complicated for me to know what is going on at all. I know enough words, but fall below the 80/20 so I lose the complete picture.
I have a book you might enjoy
I think you’ve slightly misinterpreted what we’re saying. I’m with you - the best reading material for your level should feature only a few words per page you don’t know, and you should be able to comprehend the plot without them. However, while ideally reading shouldn’t be a struggle, if beginners want to try something native speakers would read, there’s really no other option. N4 appropriate material simply doesn’t exist outside of material specifically produced for learners.
@Iwasneverhere - I’d be happy with 5 pages per day again - but maybe we should wait till more people have the book and see what the majority can handle. Maybe people who already have the book (@Answa, @Abstormal, @Scaso, @willem3141, @mitsuki777, @downtimes, @atrejub) could check out the first few pages and see what you feel would be good? It only has three chapters but each is about 60 - 70 pages. Maybe one chapter per month would be good?
I picked the “have it” option cause I felt the “planing to get it” felt like a “haven’t bought it but I think I will”
I have bough it but it is still in transit, it should be here very soon. Sorry for the confusion. Hope the others can answer though =)
I just purchased the book yesterday. It seems there will be a group of people who are interested in reading the book. So I’m okay with the pacing being on the slow side. In the end, I want an opportunity discuss a book with people rather than creating an elite group of people who can breeze through books “for the heck of it”. If it’s decided that it’s best to split into two groups, I’m also okay provided that I have an opportunity for it to feel somewhat like a book club.
Question regarding the OP, do we need to clean up the details so that we can accurately show who is reading Autumn Prison and who is reading No. 6? Additionally, it would be helpful to know who is still active in the group so that it’s accurate. Perhaps we could get this done before the start of the second book?
@Iwasneverhere whenever you get a chance, could you turn the No. 6 OP into a wiki so it can be updated in your absence? I’d like to update the details about where we are in the book and the pacing as well.
my copy is still in transit, it should be here next week, hopefully
Mine is also still in the mail.
Okay, it should be a wiki now.
I totally understand that - like Ryouki said, if most people want to start now, then you guys should go ahead. I definitely don’t expect everyone to wait on my account. 
As for type of book, I would be interested in literally anything I can actually read, so…not picky over here xD
Thanks for your assessment.
If you can read 5 pages in 15 minutes during a commute at an N3-ish level, perhaps those of us at the weird cusp somewhere between N5 and N4 will be able to read 5 pages a day with minor-to-comfortably moderate difficulty. (My JCAT scores were weird… see that thread and my long debate over them with Leebo… I feel like I’m not quite finished N5 when it comes to Grammar, but in other areas I’m higher.)
I am hopeful for this! ^^
I wonder how much easier it is than 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱…? It’s been over a year since I tried to get into it (and my comprehension has improved since then, according to JCAT) but back then it took me a half an hour to work through the first sentence! (It had many phrases and clauses.)
Will you be making another vocabulary course for memrise for Autumn Prison? That would likely make the book even more accessible to those of us at lower (reading) levels.
There used to be a group who read Yotsuba aloud to one another on @hinekidori’s old Mumble server. He no longer has the server, but there are other voice applications out there. I participated in it a few times, and wound up with a digital copy of the first volume. Now I’m reading it on my own - it’s easy enough that I don’t feel the need to check the meaning with others (even if I have to look up between 10 and 50% of the words depending on the page). Re-imagining something like that for the Beginner group may work.
There are also children’s books, like the ones I have of fairy tales (I read Princess Kaguya) entirely made up of hiragana - while it was meant for such young children it had spaces between the words (hooray, I didn’t have to deal with that kind of hell), I found myself not recognizing vocabulary I know the kanji for - merely because it was hiragana instead! I’d look something up and I’d be like “OH… that… I knew that…” Very simple, also with pictures… only they do not have kanji. At all.
Thank you so much.
To those currently reading No. 6:
The OP has been made into a wiki. I’ve updated to reflect the current place, added a note regarding the current reading pace of the group, and left a note encouraging conversation about any place in the book prior to the most current discussions going on. If there is anything else missing or should be added, please let me know or make an edit.