Join Us! デスノート ・ Death Note (Beginner Book Club) // Upcoming: Short stories

You can buy from JP amazon there is a great guide on this forum https://community.wanikani.com/t/buying-digital-japanese-books/10603/151

I would suggest Bookwalker if you want to read on PC/iOS/Android. You don’t need a VPN or Japanese address to sign up.

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Was a bit tricky, but I managed to grab the color kindle version. A bit concerning that I was able to buy it with a Japanese billing address (it wouldn’t allow anything but a Japanese billing address)… But I’ve got it!

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Went to Book Off last night and grabbed the first two volumes. And the Househusband ones, even though it’s probably way too late to get caught up on those.

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I’m on holiday for a third of the book club and don’t know how active I’ll be, but I just bought the kindle version of the first volume and will try to read along. I’m a bit nervous because I also remember it being quite wordy (and for wordy stuff I usually prefer non-comic books), We’ll see how it goes!

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I was just looking to join my first reading club! I have the whole series on the shelf but have only gotten through the first three novels. Looking forward to actually learning the kanji this time instead of utilizing the furigana.

Cheers!

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ONLY?!?!?!?!?!

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Haha! You’re too kind!!

It helps that I have seen the show a dozen times but without the furigana I would have been toast

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I ordered black and white copy from CD Japan. Words are too small for my eyes. I am afraid I will end up using Google a translate for every box :frowning:

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It’s something that you want to avoid doing too much if you can, but if you need to use translation tools every now and then when starting out it’s also not the end of the world. You will find as you keep reading that gradually you stop needing to as you are exposed more and more to things.

What I would probably advise when coming up against something that you don’t understand is to use the following kind of process (I’m not sure how much you’ve read in Japanese before so apologies if some of these are too obvious but hopefully at least a little helpful to someone in the thread) -

Do you get most of the sentence but are missing a word or two?
Look up those words in a dictionary or in the vocab spreadsheet and see if it then makes sense. If not then if you post in the bookclub threads and give the page number and what you don’t understand then someone will help you out. Chances are that there is at least someone else puzzling over the same thing that you will be helping out! It can be helpful if you try to set out what you think it might mean - I used to find quite often in the first book clubs I joined that I would actually figure out what something meant in the process of trying to ask my question in the thread :sweat_smile:

Just completely lost with a sentence. The 'ah! what even are the words/particles/grammar here???" feeling

In these cases, the site [ichi.moe] (https://www.ichi.moe) is your friend. If you type in the whole sentence there then it will break it down for you and highlight the vocab, grammar etc. Again, this might give you enough to figure it out - of not then again that’s a good time to ask a question on the thread.

I have tried the above and am still really struggling/just too many unknowns to do the above every time it is needed
This is probably a sign that the thing you are reading it too tough for you at the moment BUT if you are still having fun and are motivated enough to want to keep going (this was me trying to read ハイキュー a few weeks into starting learning Japanese lol) then using a translator as a last resort is no big deal. I’d probably advise using www.deepl.com over Google translate as it tends to be a bit more reliable. If you are doing this, I think you can still learn something if you try to work backwards from the translation and are like ‘okay, can I now see how this works?’(possibly with the help of some of the methods above). If the translation doesn’t seem to make sense or you don’t get how it is fitting together then again, a good chance to post in the thread for some clarification.

I am definitely no expert but these are kind of the stages that I tend to try to use when reading in bookclubs. Hopefully they are a little helpful to someone :slight_smile:

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One thing to add to @sycamore 's post. The first week or two will be the hardest (especially if you have never read the work before) since you don’t have any context yet and exposition tends to be more difficult on average. But once you have built up a familiarity with the writing style of the author, the characters and the world, it will become easier!

And if it is purely a word size problem the digital versions might be a good bridge, since you are able to zoom into those!

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I have to use readers to tolerate the itty bitty print. Digital would be nice for zooming but I still prefer paper. Usually a 1.5 or 2 is perfect for me…but you can even run to your local drug store and try them to find the ideal magnification for your own eyes. They are super cheap and can be found almost everywhere, the cheapest place to get them is probably amazon, but there are even fancy small folding ones that fold in half w/o arms for ultra portable…

and when all else fails there is a camera in the phone…pic and ZOOM!!! don’t need that trick often but when the font is gawd awful or something like that… good enough.

If this is your first read then, I might point out a thread posted by @ChristopherFritz which I can’t find but I remember being posted (so tag you’re it). But your first book/manga/etc…you aren’t really reading you’re researching or something like that…which is pretty frustrating in the beginnning…but that post was really well done (if only I could find it)…ultimately if you aren’t enjoying the content it’s just going to be work and you will probably quit. it’s very difficult in the beginning to find the right difficulty level with content that holds enough interest to make the “work” part tolerable.

If you find this one too difficult, drop it…come back to it later :wink: The nice thing is physical books don’t run out of battery and you don’t need an internet connection. Ultimately, things might be different 6 months from now and certainly a year later you’re vocab should grow and assuming you are working on grammar and reading something…things will get easier.

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I saw that the kanji in the panel that @Marusiaside posted are also pretty blurry in the Bookwalker version, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out together. The vocab list will be your friend :smiley:

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Definitely this. Words of wisdom.

I think for reading anything, it’s important to be patient with the work and with yourself trying to read it - just let things naturally grow easier with each step you take.

Once the ball is rolling, you’ll find yourself enjoying the reading process more. :slight_smile:

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What do you feel is holding you back on better understanding when reading? Lack of vocabulary? Weak understanding of grammar? Maybe something else? Or are you uncertain?

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@Shadowlauch I don’t see a link to a discussion thread in the OP post. How is this book club going to work, more practically I mean? :slight_smile:

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While I know kanji is quite small in manga, there’s furigana on this one to help you. You can always use Jisho for words that you don’t get along the way. :slight_smile:

You might also consider buying a pair of cheap reading glasses. I’m starting to need ones myself, even when it’s seeing stuff far away that’s the more difficult part of me. XD

But, as for understanding grammar. That’s what this reading club is for. Asking questions!

Just ask away about everything and nothing and bring on the conversation. Let’s figure it out together! :high_touch:

Edit: Also forgot to say that while you can look stuff up on Jisho, relying on the vocab sheet in Google docs that we’re collectively working on, is also defo a way to get help reading! :slight_smile:

So, Google translate means you won’t be using this book club much at all. That’s just reading on your own. There is no shame in asking questions and getting help. That’s why were doing this. :slight_smile:

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The discussion post for week 1 will go live in about 12 hours. I will add the link to the main post!

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I see! Thanks for the heads up! Looking forward to join in. Even though I currently don’t plan on sticking around after v5…unless I make a priority and buy them all. :thinking: I really should, but money and all that…

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I guess I should start doing some actual reading then! XD

Been putting it off for my other book/anime clubs, but tonight is a good time for sure! :slight_smile:

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I am already using reading glasses for the last 10 years :slight_smile:

Will try to follow your advise and increase the level and will write to Amazon Japan to get my account back. They removed my Kindle privileges after a bad luck with negative card balance.

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