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

The trick is to read other stuff at the same time.
I read the week’s chapter of ARIA and 時をかける少女 the day it’s “available”. It’s like watching a show on TV.
The rest of the time, I’m just reading what ever I feel like (the webnovel LV.999の村人 at the moment)

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How about the increasing speed approach used for 時をかける少女?

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Right, and I would be reading/translating oreshura alongside it so I wasnt worried about that. Ive definitely got other stuff I can put my time into. Its more like I just will be interested in the story and am a bit impatient.

If thats anything like im imagining, it sounds like it could be hilarious lol.

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We should double what we read each day. By day fifteen, we’ll already be reading a hundred books per day. :slightly_smiling_face:

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It was at the start, but then it got more serious.
It’s also of a much lower quality than professional stuff (similar to how a webcomic is pretty far from the quality of a professional comic). Still, pretty nice. It’s a bit of a one punch man kind of story, set in a fantasy world.

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君の膵臓を食べたい

Summary

ある日、高校生の僕は病院で一冊の文庫本を拾う。タイトルは「共病文庫」。それはクラスメイトである山内桜良が綴った、秘密の日記帳だった。そこには、彼女の余命が膵臓の病気により、もういくばくもないと書かれていて―。読後、きっとこのタイトルに涙する。「名前のない僕」と「日常のない彼女」が織りなす、大ベストセラー青春小説!

A high school boy finds the diary of his classmate―only to discover that she’s dying. Yamauchi Sakura has been silently suffering from a pancreatic disease, and now exactly one person outside her family knows. He swears to her that he won’t tell anyone what he learned, and the shared secret brings them closer together in this deeply moving, first-person story that traces their developing relationship in Sakura’s final months of life.

Availability

Amazon has both physical and e-book versions:

Personal Opinion

I haven’t read the book before, so I can’t attest to how good it is personally, but I recently did a book review lesson at a Japanese high school, and many of the students highly recommended this book. It’s pretty popular right now, and even has a movie adaptation.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • It’s hip with the kids.

  • It’s set in a real world setting, so there should be more everyday vocabulary in it.

  • I really want to read it. :wink:

Cons

  • I don’t know how deep they get on the medical terminology, so it’s possible there will be some dense pages to get through (Didn’t see anything too difficult on a quick skim through).

Pictures

(Sorry for low quality)

First Three Pages of Chapter One

Additional Pages

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Just right
  • Challenging
  • Impossible, even with everyone’s help
  • I don’t know (please click this if you’re not voting seriously)

0 voters

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAA BEST SUGGESTION EVEEEEEEEEEEER


We can now close nominations guys. It has been decided.

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Let’s just hope the others are as enthusiastic as we are :grin:

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Do I need to do the whole template thing if I’m nominating Kino’s journey? It’s been nominated many times now iirc :stuck_out_tongue:

Aside from that, I’d also be down to read zero no tsukaima (sorry for the romaji, don’t have an IME atm :stuck_out_tongue: ), bought both while in Japan so either would be fine with me :smiley:

I’ve been meaning to watch the movie, sure. Dunno if I’d call it the best suggestion ever, though. :stuck_out_tongue:

Actually, the English translation of the novel was released here last November, and the manga version comes out this week…

Did you just do that because you didn’t like the cover…?

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Guess that means we’re going to have to fight then! Q(o_oQ)

…er… I thought we were the Weird About Our Books Club?! Don’t judge me! :see_no_evil:

I also don’t think I’m anywhere close to being ready to tackle a full-on book of that length without furigana, and I like pictures!

@neicul you could probably just copy and paste the nomination from the Beginners’ Club (maybe tweak the pros/cons).

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One of the reasons I think Kino’s Journey would be a great pick is because it seems to have a good balance with furigana. Plus it’s not too long. I think personally it would make for a great transitionary book to go from beginner to intermediate.

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Nath or I will nominate it if you don’t want to.

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Kino no Tabi - キノの旅

Summary

In Kino’s Journey , the protagonist, Kino, accompanied by a talking motorcycle named Hermes, travels through a mystical world of many different countries and forests, each unique in its customs and people. They only spend three days and two nights in every town, without exception, on the principle that three days is enough time to learn almost everything important about a place, while leaving time to explore new lands.

Availability

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.jp/キノの旅-Beautiful-World-電撃文庫-時雨沢-ebook/dp/B00O4QK3IK/
Ebook: 無料まんが・試し読みが豊富!電子書籍をお得に買うならebookjapan

Personal Opinion

I didn’t read it yet but I really want to. Bought it while in Japan as I heard great things about it and about the difficulty. Extra: have @MissMisc’s opinion:

That being said, reading the sample I posted below, I think people around N2 should be fine on their own, so it would be challenging at N4-N3, but that’s what makes it a good learning target for the club, I think.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • Word list available on floflo (and soon Kitsun), and the word count is quite low (i.e. not too much vocab to look up)
  • Each chapter seems to be self-contained, so it’s easier for people to skip ahead to catch up with the group.
  • Good length for the intermediate club (slightly over 200 pages of text)

Cons

  • Self-contained chapters mean that character progression may be slow or non-existent.

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One


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Additional Pages

About two pages per screenshot

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Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Just right
  • Challenging
  • Impossible, even with everyone’s help
  • I don’t know (please click this if you’re not voting seriously)
0 voters

100% copy paste from @Naphthalene’s post with some adjustments :stuck_out_tongue:

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That’s my dog’s name.

Instantly has my vote

:eyes:

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I thought you said you never read Harry Potter :wink:

There’s several notes in there about the nomination being for the beginner book club. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I had to google to get the reference

And I haven’t. I gave him the name “Hermes” because of the Greek God. My other dog is Kronos :joy:

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