[Looking for Nominations!] Beginner Japanese Book Club // Starting Soon: Death Note

[Radish8]

Ah, thank you, that’s perfect!

“The first SD volume here contains maybe the first three volumes of the original story-wise.”

Yeah, I’m actually quite drawn to it for that reason too. I don’t know how many volumes the original series has, but I can’t imagine getting through them any time soon!

Have any of the nominations stood out to anyone as the one you really want to read?

I can’t make up my mind I quite liked the anime of non non biyori, and slice-of-life always seems good for the book club, but I’m concerned it will contain lots of slang and I’ll struggle. The one with essays about pets actually looks pretty entertaining, and I like that the chapters are each quite separate; makes it easier for people to drop in / catch up. Wandering Son looks like a good story, Natsume is lovely…

[Belthazar]

I don’t know how many volumes the original series has

Forty-two.

Seriously. Maybe don’t tell Koichi, or we’ll never hear the end of it.

[seanblue]

I can’t make up my mind

Good thing you can vote for as many as you want.

[Talena]

I’d prefer a manga. I’m doing much better reading manga than books at this point. I’d love to read Wandering Son and Is the Order a Rabbit?, but at this point I still need furigana. (I need to quit slacking on leveling!)

I conveniently already own 名探偵コナン, but I’d happily read any of the suggested manga.

[seanblue]

If Is The Order a Rabbit wins I could probably be convinced to go through the entire first volume and write the readings for every word in a spreadsheet…

[seanblue]

Poll for the next book is here!

Please see the “List of Proposed Books” section in the first post for the details for each book. Every book has a difficulty associated with it (based on book club member voting) out of 5, where 1 means “no effort at all” and 5 means “impossible, even with everyone’s help”. Please consider the difficulty when voting and you can check the first post for links to sample pages so you can gauge difficulty for yourself.

We will most likely begin reading on September 1st, one week after we finish reading Aria the Masterpiece.

I will close the poll on by Sunday, August 5th. You can choose as many options as you want. The difficulty based on the book club member voting is next to each option in brackets.

• ご注文はうさぎですか (Is the Order a Rabbit?) [Manga] [3.36]
• 絶叫学級 (Scary Lessons) [Book] [3.26]
• のんのんびより (Non Non Biyori) [Manga] [2.81]
• 名探偵コナン (Great Detective Conan) [Manga] [3.33]
• Dragonball The Complete Edition [Manga] [3.00]
• トラちゃん [Book] [3.59]
• しろくまカフェ (Shirokuma Cafe) [Manga] [2.38]
• 放浪息子 (Wandering Son) [Manga] [3.36]
• 夏目友人帳 (Natsume’s Book of Friends) [Manga] [2.83]

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Follow up polls!

Beginner Japanese Book Club // Coming Soon: The Way of the Househusband

IMPORTANT: Follow up Polls Context: If we only pick the top item from the current poll, we will have to vote again before we even start that book, or we will have a huge gap between this next book and the one after. Therefore, I propose that we pick two volumes to read with this poll, either two volumes of the winning manga, or the first volume of the winner and the runner up. For comparisons to past manga, Yotsubato’s chapters ranged a lot. Sometimes they were as short as around 25 pages. Oth…

[Toyger]

Since there won’t be that much time from voting ends till new book starts I went ahead and bought the currently run away lead
(already own second place)

If something else takes the lead I’ll just do the same =P

I got it much cheaper on eBay than Amazon, as amazon gives no “snail mail” option, only priority shipping which costs more than I want to pay if I can avoid it. The shipping on amazon alone cost more than the item + free shipping on eBay, and will arrive mid to late August

When the new book/manga starts, should we start the voting for next one almost right away? Especially if we get one of the current top two, there won’t be much time =)

[seanblue]

Since there won’t be that much time from voting ends till new book starts I went ahead and bought the currently run away lead
(already own second place)

Which one did you buy and which one do you already own (since the one in the lead now may be different from when you posted)?

When the new book/manga starts, should we start the voting for next one almost right away? Especially if we get one of the current top two, there won’t be much time =)

Or we can just read the top two back to back? Depending on how long each one is I suppose. Unfortunately I don’t know how many chapters each manga has.

[Radish8]

But what were the top two options when you commented? I’ve seen them change as / since I voted, so I’m intrigued ^^

edit: omg seanblue I didn’t even see that you were writing

[seanblue]

Yeah ご注文はうさぎですか was in the “runaway lead” when I went to bed last night, with all three voters voting for it.

[Toyger]

Hehe, yeah, they moved a lot

The Bunny one had a huge lead, about 75% had voted for it or so. But now it is third, lol! I already have Shirokuma Kafe =)

I agree, if a manga wins, doing second place next would be a good idea =^_^=

[seanblue]

Right, that wasn’t needed for Aria the Masterpiece because it was actually two volumes. I imagine many of these could have about 5 chapters, so doing the top two makes sense to avoid long breaks between books and constant voting. Of course, ご注文はうさぎですか is weird and has 13 (and a half) chapters, but each chapter is only 8 pages long.

[Toyger]

Yeah, that helped =)

I guess, if a manga wins we could vote over “doing one volume each of first and second place” vs “do two volumes from the winner”?

[seanblue]

Yeah that’s a good idea. I’ll open that poll partway through the voting if it seems to be headed in that direction.

[Radish8]

I agree doing two seems a good idea if the top pick is a short one. Plus I just discovered that I’ve been completely misunderstanding the customs laws in the UK so I’m now keen to package up as much of my future reading as possible into one order

I like Toyger’s poll idea as well - I’ll almost definitely vote for variety unless I hate the second place option

[seanblue]

Plus I just discovered that I’ve been completely misunderstanding the customs laws in the UK so I’m now keen to package up as much of my future reading as possible into one order

Yep, for the U.S., Amazon charges a base 600 yen regardless of order size. That’s why last time I got Aria the Masterpiece volume 1, ご注文はうさぎですか volumes 3-6 (I already had the first two), and 時をかける少女.

This time around I’m definitely getting the remaining volumes of Aria the Masterpiece and probably a few others from my wishlist, such as Non Non Biyori, 放浪息子, 絶叫学級, and Penguin Highway.

[Radish8]

Ah, I see. The intricacy for the UK is that you only pay tax on orders between £15 and £135, not import duties at all - and books are tax-free I’ve been stupidly putting in all these orders carefully under £15…

Yep, my next lot is gonna be all of Aria, the next book club picks, Penguin Highway, a few from FloFlo… and that’ll probably be my budget for a whole year if not more

[Naphthalene]

The Bunny one had a huge lead, about 75% had voted for it or so. But now it is third, lol!

*sad face*

Well, book club or not, that’s the one I’m reading next

[Toyger]

We have tax free on books too, including manga! =D
Rule say “comics, if sold chapter by chapter and then made in to a collection; counts as book”, which counts for tankobon! =D

[seanblue]

You must really want to read it too, because it’s the only one you voted for.

I voted for four entries, but I’ll change my votes towards the end if I need to.