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

Fffff I’ve ended up buying kino, your name, and girl’s last tour 1-6 on kinokuniya instead because of a combination of kino’s not being in cdjapan and an order that big being free shipping on kinokuniya.
Kinda bummed though because I had been looking forward to those sweet, sweet low cdjapan prices.
My wallettttt.

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To be fair, there are only 3 people who selected “only Your Name” and I’m one of them. I personally don’t care if its selected or not, honestly, so so far we know of at most 2 people who would be upset. And maybe they wouldnt even care that much, who knows.

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Have most people seen the Your Name movie already? I haven’t yet, everything in the summary on Wikipedia was new to me. I’ve seen at least the first few episodes of the first Kino’s Journey anime though.

I would, personally, recommend going ahead and seeing the movie before reading the book. The movie is really good in a way that’s difficult to explain. Although for one: if you like animation for its own sake, its beautiful.

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I tried, but, fun fact, I have phobia of (the fact of being seen as crazy, there’s probably a name for that), and stuff like body swapping triggers it hard. In the end, I just turned to sound of, and only watched the visual :upside_down_face:
I was considering not joining if Your Name wins, for the same reason, but maybe it’s time to face my fear (plus I will be with people, so that’s a plus).

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Alright, I’m going to order キノの旅, 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, 魔法少女育成計画, and 霧のむこうのふしぎな町 as far as novels go. I’m also going to get Shin Kanzen Master grammar N3. I should probably also get Tobira because I don’t think Shin Kanzen Master is enough to actually teach me the N3 grammar points properly.

Any thoughts on if I should also get Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar? I already have the Basic one as well as Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns for Teachers and Learners, so I’m not really sure if I need it.

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I actually totally feel you on this, because I have some similar things that… phobia might be a strong word, but they kinda trigger an emotion in me that I can’t handle. Specifically, I’m sensitive to memory stuff. If we go a whole movie/series/book and then people forget about each other (through mystical means), I’m going to suffer some awful emotions that I can’t really articulate. I would list examples but due to the nature of the story element, all examples are super spoilery.

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I like having the complete set, but I’m glad someone else bought them for me, because I’ve found that I’m so used to searching for grammar online, that now even though I have the books, I’ve typically done a big internet search and found what I need before I even remember that I have the books.

Small Your Name spoiler

Yeah, in that case, Your Name is very much not for you.

I have the whole set. All three frequently get used for forum posts here. Though, while I’ve read the Beginner literally from cover to cover, I’ve still only gotten halfway through the Intermediate…

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I’ve already seen it, and it bothers me, but I choose to believe that they remember everything when they see each other. The framing of the movie actually seems to suggest it, as if the entire movie is what flashes through their minds when their eyes meet, as everything that happened to them is sandwiched in the moment just before and just after their eyes meet in the present.
But it still bothers me in an unavoidable kind of way. Also it’s old enough: Chrono Cross put me in a funk for a solid two weeks after completing it.

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I’m on page 200 \o/

I’m not going to think about getting the next one until I finish this one though. I’m used to relying on the Internet to look up things

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Yeah I know, I was just trying to think of some levelling to work out how easy/hard it would be and how much extra vocab I’d be missing. I used JLPT cuz it’s the only way I have of really judging my current level besides WaniKani level.

That’s actually a plus for me as, while I don’t want to, I should really start weening of the furigana. I mainly read Shounen which is full of furigana.
So picking up LNs with less furigana is exciting for me, even if it is a little scary.

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I’d say go for it then. The worst that happens is you decide you’re not ready and try again later.

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Hi. I’m the one who nominated Your Name and I voted to read it only. I just wanted to say no hard feelings if we decide to just read Kino this time. As much as I want to read Your Name I’m happy to go with what the group wants (whether that is one book or parallel) , and I’ll jump in on the next book if it’s one I’m interested in.

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I’ve already started Kino and have just been marking places in the book to ask y’all about.

Also, I use the Midori app bookmarks for flash cards and review. I’ve been bookmarking the words I don’t know and the words in kanji I couldn’t read. Would anyone like a copy of the list I have so far? I can export it as a CSV or a Midori app file.

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FINALLY FINISHED READING THE TREAD !!!

You guys are wayyyyy to active for me to follow ha ha. Anyway I will try to answer one of the question asked(it’s prob too late though) the thing about people leaving bookclub or lurkers.

I was in the first bookclub group reading N.6. I won’t tell the entire story but I couldn’t keep up at all. So when they had finished the book I was only at the half. Which is why I haven’t participated in the following book or in some of the discussion about the book. It was my first Japanese book. I had bought a set of 6 books of that series and I must finish a series I have started. (I plan on finishing the book 4 tomorrow :slight_smile: ) So I continue reading alone and set aside the book club until I felt comfortable enough to return with a good speed.

I joined 時のかける女性. Since I had finished my book and didn’t have time to start another before the beginning I started taking some advance on the book. I was reading one chapter per day when the book club was ready one per week so I almost finished before they had started. I followed the thread at the beginning but couldn’t do anything since I had no question and the questions were already all answered (Are you guys sleeping or something?) So yeah not much participation here neither.

I am studying in University so my free time is getting rare and I do have trouble following these book thread. So yeah I was one of these people that drop before the end because I couldn’t follow or had no more interest/use in following. Another reason Is the lack of motivation for some of the books that was nominated. I already had books to read so unless I wanted to read them I had no interest in joining. I know it’s kinda breaking the book club compromise like it was said before but I someday I have a hard time concentrating on books I want to read so I don’t want to try books I don’t wanna.

I appreciate the book club before it helped me a lot in Japanese and I don’t though I could read a normal Japanese book. I am interested in キノの旅 but I don’t know yet if I will follow with you guys. I leaning on the yes side though.

Btw I don’t know if it’s relevant for someone like to say that but I am against the splitting of the book club in two thread. The number of people that wants to manage them is too low(We would need substitute if something were to happen) and if they want to read the book they will just do it on their own anyway. But that’s just the opinion of a lurker so you don’t have to mind it.

Definitely going to use that expression I like it.

Btw cheers up guys the book club is filled with love not hate.

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So I have something sort of similar to this (maybe not necessarily the same “being seen as crazy” notion, but the criss-crossing knowledge/ fading memories/ trying to save one another that you have to endure throughout the whole thing provides me with some extreme stress) and that’s one of the reasons I held off on this thread a bit. I was afraid 君の名は would win simply due to name or popularity, and I didn’t want to read about it and experience that stress again.

I am happy to see that キノの旅 won in the end, and I’ll go ahead and order my copy (if I can find it D:). There were also some good points made about the club and the notion of “passerby voting.” But it looks like we’re on a good path now, and it seems like there will be good participation even if there are other people reading 君の名は. Thanks for putting so much effort into the club, everyone. I’m excited to finish 時をかける少女 and move on to this to further my reading. It really does help. :blush:

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Sorry to ask what might be a dumb question, but the links in the first post seem to show that Kino’s Journey is actually a series of books. How many books are there in the series?

Well I placed my order. Expected delivery is anywhere from February 16th to March 13th, a far cry from the usual 3-6 days. But half the things in my order were back-ordered, so it can’t be helped. Hopefully it gets here before we start reading.

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:tada::tada::tada:
Congrats! I think I remember a while ago seing you post in the original thread about finishing book 2. How is the series so far?

I knoooooow. It’s frustrating amazing :stuck_out_tongue:

I think it’s a fair point. The book club should be fun, not feel like a death march.

:partying_face: :ok_man:

Yes, that’s a risk. But we do have at least two person for each, plus some who said who are okay managing either, so I think we are still in the green. If we try and fail, well, that’s life. If we don’t try, I feel like we automatically fail.

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