I’ve been doing the same and I think (hope) it’s been being effective.
Perfect example actually is from the above discussion between Snowflying and LucasDesu - I could work out what was going on with the bodies and Yamase’s role, and that was basically enough for me. However, I had no idea what type of machine he was using until I read this thread.
I guess everyone just needs to find their own sweet spot between how much looking up you can tolerate Vs how many little details you can tolerate letting slip. (I fear mine might be slightly too far to the letting details slip side, but there’s always the option to reread more carefully later.)
As for the ‘body handling’ - I’d say yes, there’s definitely something very wrong going on beyond what we’ve seen so far, but I don’t think it can have too much with Yamase’s old job. Maybe something before the corpses arrived with him?
Got a question from Chapter 2…again…(I’ll get to 3…someday… )
On p.67 (see? made a little progress), I’m not sure of this bit:
「嘘つきの上に大をつけてあげてもいいわ。」
Now, my guess, based on Weblio, is that 「大」could mean 「大[嘘]」, especially since 「嘘」 was already used at the start of the sentence? In which case, it might mean, “Don’t tell a bigger lie on top of that one,” (not precisely what I mean, but the most natural way I can put it). Is this right?
I know I shouldn’t sweat the small stuff when I understand the rest of what Safu is saying, but when I come across grammar/expressions like this I just want to know if I’ve worked it out correctly if I’m totally on the wrong track
嘘つき is a liar. So in essence she’s saying, “You wouldn’t mind me adding the word ‘big’ on top of calling you a ‘liar’?!” I know this sounds awkward, but that’s the gist of it. If were to put the entire line in natural sounding English it would probably go, “I said, ‘liar.’ In fact, a big fat liar, if I say so myself…”
Oooh, that makes more sense!! See, I realllly gotta review the giving/recieving words (あげる/もらう/etc.). I always forget, and then I come across something like this and am reminded.
To be honest, trying to put that into words was really difficult because the ～ていい grammar point is usually taught as a question for permission “～てもいいですか”, not as an emphatic statement conjoined with あげる. So I ended up getting a lot from studying this specific structure as well.
For those who have been following the pacing of the book club, we have past the halfway point of the story. What do you think about how the story has been progressing? Do you have any predictions about the story’s projection from this point forward? Any questions or mysteries you wish for the author to reveal before the end of this book?
Had some catching up to do but made it through the end of chapter 3! I don’t think my comprehension was perfect but, I’ll theorize a bit on what might happen next~
Nezumi is back in the story! Now that Shion is in contact with him again I imagine the focus of the story will shift to Nezumi for a while. Ever since their first meeting I had the sense that Nezumi belongs to some hidden group of people, perhaps a group of non-citizens who raised him? Probably some form of resistance movement, though it’s unclear how organized they are at this point. I imagine we’ll meet them next (though I may immediately be proven wrong when I turn the page lol).
As for the end of this book, I have a feeling we haven’t seen the end of Rashi. I also feel like we’ll probably climax with some sort of revelation about the nature of No. 6 - both of these things make me imagine our dynamic duo will venture back into the heart of the city and have a tense encounter with Rashi and/or another higher-up in the city. My instinct is to place this encounter at the 月の雫 but, the author might save that for another book As for the nature of this revelation, I’d like it if the author gave us some details about why the powers-that-be don’t want knowledge about the strange-disease-of-death getting out. Considering how cruelly they treated Shion when they found out how much he knew, I presume it’s not just because they don’t want to cause a mass panic
I know what happens next so won’t talk about this book, but for the series as a whole - well, I pretty much agree with @Snowflying. Seems like the city is doing some sort of experimenting - although I feel like the two deaths so far may have been whatever’s going on accidentally spreading rather than a part of any plan - and I’m pretty positive the final showdown is going to be in the moondrop thing, too. I see Rashi having more of a part to play - but I feel like he’s more of a henchman than a major player.
Which introduces an interesting point - who is running No.6? It’s not Rashi and he’s the only ‘bad guy’ we’ve met so far. Despite all the exposition about the operation of No.6, the totalitarian nature of the place, the necessity of pledging loyalty every day, there’s been no mention of any people in charge. Could it be run by some sort of computer system? Also no mention so far of other cities - the name No.6 would lead you to believe there are more (or maybe this is the sixth iteration of previously failed experiments?) - or what’s outside No.6 and what the city’s been built to keep at bay.
Anyone intending to read all the volumes, by the way? I probably won’t, to be honest.
I like your predictions! I think we’re all in agreement that there must be some sort of confrontation with Rashi. I also agree with @riccyjay that there is some type of human experimentation thing going on in the city. I think Nezumi’s role in the story is has some sort of significance as well. What was the manhunt that involved him fleeing to Shion’s home? What was he running from? And why was he conveniently around when everything began to start to go south with Shion? Of course I’ll be pissed if I don’t learn more about the strange illness by the end of the book.
I’m getting so sucked into the book. I want to know how everything turns out (or at least what direction it’s going toward), which in turn has increased the speed of going through the book. I really hope the end won’t leave me hanging as that I don’t really plan on reading the rest of the series.
Yeah, I’m really liking the story and definitely want to know more, but it’s too bad it’s a 9(?) book series. I know myself well enough to predict that I wouldn’t make it through them all even if I tried
Human experimentation seems super plausible. A thought I’ve had on Nezumi - we know he was in the custody of the government (and had the VC implanted in him) sometime before he was 12. His name is Rat. Perhaps…a lab rat? Thinking about it this way, I might throw out my other theory and guess he grew up in the custody of the city. The night he first met Shion was when he made his escape. This could explain how he somehow “got into” the center of the city, even though he’s not a citizen.
Oh, a couple questions I had about Chapter 3:
Where does Nezumi’s daring rescue take place, exactly? Some (apparently forested) area between the gate into the West block and the gate into…everywhere else, or something? XD
Alright… settling into a 6 hour transcontinental flight with my copy of No. 6, jisho on the in-flight wi-fi, and a gin & tonic. Time to get caught up.
IDEA: can we keep a list of characters into the OP? Like, name, reading, and a basic description to jog the memory of who they are? We could put everything other than the name behind spoiler tags maybe? I know there’s a memrise course but I don’t use memrise and I want a quick reference for the multitude of times I forget.
Nice idea. I added the other two characters. I don’t think there’s anyone else to add.
This is actually one thing I’ve found as evidence of how your reading improves as a skill over time. When I’d start a book before, character names used to drive me nuts. They’d have furigana the first time they’re mentioned but after that it would disappear. I’d be like: this is impossible! How can Japanese people even remember this! But now - while I still do have that problem sometimes - I’m finding I’m getting much, much better at remembering after just one look.
Similarly, I find my ability to pick words out of text is improving. Even books which I could comprehend pretty well (eg No.6), when I just scan over a whole page, it still looks like a bunch of incomprehensible symbols. However, slowly I’m staring to find key words begin to jump out at me. For example, I was reading another book yesterday and just flicking through the pages to see when the chapter ended and I noticed the word ネズミ in katakana. I guess I’ve got kind of conditioned to attaching significance to that word / name from this book. Can’t imagine looking at a page of Japanese will ever be like looking at English, but I guess the more you read, the closer you can approach to that.
I actually asked a Japanese person about this once, and her reply was “I always forget and just read without knowing how to pronounce the name.” I thought that was really really funny.
fwiw I often forget who all the characters are in English literature too… I think I’m just not good at paying attention to information the first time it’s given to me…
Haha. Yeah, same here. At least in English books though the names aren’t written in letters you’ve never seen before.
Worst for me is Russian literature (in English) where characters can get called by any one of their names by different people, plus some first names have multiple diminutives that often seem to lack any connection to the original name.
Edit: Oh, and for this thread - today is the scheduled start of chapter four, right?
If my memory of the anime is accurate, and the book is the same or very similar…
…then I’m going to say absolutely nothing about either of your theories. Teeheehee! XD … I’m awful, aren’t I? …Blah blah blah, just making this spoiler look bigger. Blah blah… I hope my memory is accurate. Also, I have no idea how much of the book(s) the anime covered… blah blah… Teeheehee…!
@AnimeCanuck You have to redo the spoiler. It’s exposed! I found that blur spoiler function doesn’t work over paragraphs of text.
EDIT: Didn’t read your edit. But if you limit the blur spoiler to just a paragraph and do the same for the next paragraph it should take. It’s just you can’t blur spoiler for an entire block of text that spans multiple paragraphs; each individual paragraph must be blurred for it to take.
)
As for the nature of this revelation, I’d like it if the author gave us some details about why the powers-that-be don’t want knowledge about the strange-disease-of-death getting out. Considering how cruelly they treated Shion when they found out how much he knew, I presume it’s not just because they don’t want to cause a mass panic 
Then again, thanks for refraining from actual spoilers 
(As always, let me know if I change stuff too much lol)