Master List of Book Clubs

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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Introduction

There are several book clubs here on the forums. Reading along with a book club can provide a great source of motivation, and there are a lot of people to help you out with questions, enabling you to tackle harder content.

Many of the book clubs have community vocabulary lists, so they can be a great resource even if you’re reading after the book club has moved on. Additionally, you’re always welcome to ask questions even after a book has been finished by a book club. People are always happy to help out.

The purpose of this thread is to be the master list of book clubs. That way, you only have to come to one place to find every book that has ever been discussed on the forums.

Some book clubs also do weekly “read aloud” sessions, where everyone takes turns reading part of the the previous week’s assigned reading. While general book discussion, grammar questions, etc. should take place on the these forums, the read aloud takes place on this Discord server.

For non-reading clubs see this topic: Master List of Other Media Discussion Threads

Editing Note

If you are going to edit this post to add a book club link, please use the following format:
[Book Club Title](https://community.wanikani.com/t/x/{threadid}).

i.e. replace the thread title with ‘x’. This will ensure that the post is easy to edit in the future and will decrease the chance of the links breaking from updates to the forums.

Please note: If you want to make a major formatting or content change to this post (not just adding an additional book), please post your proposal and see if others agree before making the change.

Book Clubs

Absolute Beginner Book Club

The Absolute Beginner Book Club is intended for people around an N5 level.

Absolute Beginner Book Club Home Page

Offshoot book clubs:

Finished books:

Current book:

Upcoming books:

  • TBD
Beginner Book Club

The Beginner Book Club is intended for people around an N4 level.

Beginner Book Club Home Page

Offshoot book clubs:

Finished books:

Current book:

Upcoming books:

  • TBD
Intermediate Book Club

The Intermediate Book Club is intended for people around an N3 level.

Intermediate Book Club Home Page

Offshoot book clubs:

Finished books:

Current book:

Upcoming:

  • TBD (starting June 24th)
Advanced Book Club

The Advanced Book Club is intended for people around an N2-N1 level.

Advanced Book Club Home Page

Offshoot book clubs:

Finished books:

Current book:

Upcoming book:

  • TBA
Visual Novel Book Club

The Visual Novel Book Club is intended for anyone who wants to/likes reading visual novels* (VNs), but because they tend to be quite long, the reading pace means the club is a better fit for the intermediate-advanced stage.
*think novel in video game format, although with little to no gameplay (see home thread for a more complete explanation)

Visual Novel Book Club Home Page

Offshoot VN clubs:

Finished VNs:

Current VN(s):

Upcoming VN:

  • n/a
Miscellaneous Book Clubs (scheduled)

This section contains books that were not selected from normal book club polls, but are/were still run using a schedule. The list is ordered by difficulty and then start date.

Book Difficulty Start Date Status
おじさまと猫
(Old Man and a Cat)		 Absolute Beginner 2020-08-24 Hiatus
Sailor Moon Beginner 2020-01-01 Completed
アオハライド
(Ao Haru Ride)		 Beginner 2020-02-01 Completed
クレヨンしんちゃん
(Crayon Shin Chan)		 Beginner 2020-02-17 Hiatus
ブラックジャックによろしく
(Say Hello to BlackJack)		 Beginner 2020-04-05 Inactive
One Piece Beginner 2020-09-02 In Progress
3月のライオン
(March Comes in Like a Lion)		 Beginner 2020-09-12 Inactive
ドラゴンボール SD
(Dragon Ball SD)		 Beginner 2020-10-31 Hiatus
やがて君になる(1)
(Bloom into you)		 Beginner 2021-03-15 In Progress
暁のヨナ
(Yona of the Dawn)		 Beginner 2021-03-15 In Progress
幸色のワンルーム
(Sachiiro no One Room)		 Beginner 2021-06-04 In Progress
呪術廻戦 0
(Jujutsu Kaisen 0)		 Beginner 2022-02-23 Completed
Orange Beginner 2022-07-02 Completed
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Intermediate 2020-01-15 Hiatus
Doki Doki Literature Club
(Visual novel / game)		 Intermediate 2020-01-18 Inactive
獣の奏者
(Kemono no Souja)		 Intermediate 2020-01-25 Completed
マンガ✖くり返しでスイスイ覚えられる百人一首 Intermediate 2020-07-18 Hiatus
文豪ストレイドッグス わん!
(Bungou Stray Dogs: Wan!)		 Intermediate 2020-08-31 Hiatus
Harry Potter Intermediate 2020-09-01 Completed
狐笛のかなた Intermediate 2021-01-16 Completed
囀る鳥は羽ばたかない
(WaniKani Members Only) 		Intermediate 2021-05-21 Discontinued
かがみの孤城 Intermediate 2021-11-06 Completed
A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar Intermediate 2023-03-25 In Progress
桜蘭高校ホスト部 Intermediate 2023-05-20 In Progress
Re-Zero Advanced 2019-07-01 In Progress
DanMachi Advanced 2020-02-10 Hiatus
1Q84 Advanced 2020-08-01 Completed
半落ち Advanced 2023-01-02 In Progress
Miscellaneous Book Discussions (non-scheduled)

This section contains books that were not selected from normal book club polls and do not have schedules.

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I mostly ripped the introduction from Resources for Starting to Read Japanese Content (thanks @Radish8!). Let me know if you want me to add or clarify anything.

If people like this thread and the general format, I’ll ask to get it pinned and eventually make it a wiki so anyone can update it. I’ll also update the book club section from the resources thread to just link to here.

Also, does anyone have a better word than “offshoot”? I can’t find the right word. “Ongoing”? “Continuing”? “Recurring”?

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This is great! :books::durtle_love: お疲れ様(^^)

Hmmm… “spin-off”? “Continued”? :thinking:

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Spin off is what I first thought of too!

I think this is a really helpful master thread to have. I know I’ve been confused about which thread to go before! :smiley:

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I love it! organisation :star_struck:

I’m also on team spin-off :+1:

You’re definitely going to want to turn it into a wiki at some point, or you’ll forever be committed to personally updating the current and finished books for all three clubs :stuck_out_tongue:

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ktheres a graded reader book club. im not able to search gor the link right now, though.

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Thank you for the overview!! This is also so useful for reading back in past book club discussions

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heres the link for the graded readers book club.
thanks @Abstormal

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An this one should also be listed; (I guess we could be together, the Graded Readers and the 多読, as we are "No specific book, just a push to read more and a place to talk about it/ask questions. Not sure what to call us though, since both are anything from pre N5 to past N1 =P )

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@Abstormal I was going to list the 多読 thread, but it felt out of place. I’m also not sure how to list the graded readers thread if you’re not discussing specific books. Do those threads make more sense in the general reading resources thread instead?

@Radish8 Yes, I will definitely be making this a wiki after a couple weeks. :grin:

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I definitely think the 多読 thread makes more sense in the general thread. I suppose it does provide motivation, but it’s not really a place where you can e.g. access a vocabulary sheet or ask grammar questions about the book you’re reading (not that people wouldn’t help if you did, I’m sure!).

It would make sense to me to have a line pointing to the 多読 thread as a place to look for possible recommendations, moral support and reading motivation.

The Graded Reader thread doesn’t really strike me as a book club, again because the key point of a book club in my eyes is that you’re reading the same thing, but I think the idea is for it to function quite similarly to e.g. the miscellaneous discussion threads. People can discuss the stories if they want and ask each other what they thought of different sets / volumes, and ask for help with any grammar they don’t understand.

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I wonder if it would get confusing if the Absolute Beginner Book Club ever votes to read a graded reader. :thinking:

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Very true.

I personally don’t think they should include graded readers for foreign learners, because the whole point is to read them fairly smoothly without needing to look stuff up, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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They are both basically the same kind, where we don’t pick one specific book, but inspire to read and can ask question, though mine has a somewhat limited number of books where the two sets of Graded Readers is the main focus (or meant to be at least) The Parallel texts comes with explanations of their own so might get less questions, but is also a good place to start because of it, so I included both kinds =)

I think they could both fit in the Miscellaneous, since they are Discussions

If the Absolute Beginner picks one, it will be just one of very many. And it didn’t seem likely as the general group thought they are too expensive, so I made the thread for a place for those who do have hem and want to talk about them.

We do both Graded readers and parallel texts (I love parallel text, they are generally “harder” (more natural language with you normal mix off all grammar, closer to native material or actual native material)
I allowed it in the book list, since it is there to help people find book of the Reader and parallel kind. I doubt it will be a focus in the comments (though it is allowed should they have questions =) )

Guess I should have both as part of the title (Though the main focus is the two sets of Graded readers + the app)

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Not totally certain, but think you may have misunderstood - I don’t think the Absolute Beginners’ Club should do graded readers for foreign learners ^^ I think having a thread for asking questions about graded readers makes a lot of sense.

(also a big fan of parallel text by the way)

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Ah! I thought you meant the German book I allowed to be added in the book list =) (a parallel text book Japanese - German)
I see =^_^=

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I’ll need to take a look at the graded readers thread later and think about it. Unless you guys actually pick specific graded readers to discuss, it probably shouldn’t be included here.

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We don’t pick specific ones, but the main focus is a specific set of stories which many seem to have, but never talk about cause there is no place for it. So it would be like coming to one of the finished books and ask questions that hadn’t been asked previously.

It is still in a start faze, so haven’t done much yet. But when I have some time I will pick a book and make a poll to see who have read it, and what they though about it and such, hoping to spur some more conversation and questions about particular stories. Sort of like a book club that doesn’t vote or wait for people to receive their books, since the list is short and many have them on their shelves already (and anyone can ask about a story of their choice at any given time). So it’s a bit differently structured, but if we are to make a master list it at least belong in the Miscellaneous (or as a Spin Off in the Absolute Beginner possibly, as the idea was triggered by it, but the books go up to Advanced in difficulty though…)

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This is fantastic, @seanblue. Thanks for putting it together all in one place!

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Does anyone here have any interest in setting up a book club for N2/N1, or for more literary texts in general? I’m about to make a stab at Kawabata’s ‘Meijin’ and thought it might be nice to have some company as I charge headfirst into a brick wall.

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