Master List of Book Clubs

[seanblue]

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.

Editing Note

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

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.

Book Clubs

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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:

• N/A

Finished books:

• にゃんにゃん探偵団 (Let’s just call it “Kitty Detectives” because the officially translated title is stupid)
• なぜ？どうして？
• しろくまカフェ (Shirokuma Cafe)
• チーズスイートホーム (Chi’s Sweet Home)

Current book(s):

• 結婚しても恋してる
• 10分で読める物語 二年生

Upcoming books:
TBD

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Beginner Book Club

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

Beginner Book Club Home Page

Offshoot book clubs:

• よつばと！ (Yotsubato!)
• Aria 完全版 (Aria the Masterpiece)
• 少女終末旅行 (Girls’ Last Tour)

Finished books:

• 魔女の宅急便 (Kiki’s Delivery Service)
• のんのんびより (Non Non Biyori)
• 夏目友人帳 (Natsume’s Book of Friends)
• 時をかける少女 (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time)
• ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 (Zenitendou, The Mysterious Sweet Shop - see Misc Book Clubs below for General Discussion thread for sequels)

Current book:

• 一週間フレンズ (One Week Friends)

Upcoming books:
TBD

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Intermediate Book Club

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

Intermediate Book Club Home Page

Offshoot book clubs:

• N/A

Finished books:

• No. 6
• 秋の牢獄 (Autumn Prison)
• 赤い悪夢 (5分後に意外な結末) (An Unexpected Conclusion in 5 Minutes: Red Nightmares)
• はたらく魔王さま！ (The Devil is a Part-Timer!)
• キノの旅 (Kino’s Journey)

Current book(s):

• 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
• コンビニ人間 (Convenience Store Woman)

Upcoming books:

• キッチン (Kitchen)

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Miscellaneous Book Clubs/Discussions

This section contains miscellaneous book discussions that are not part of recurring or week-to-week book clubs.

• 掌の小説 (Kawabata reading group)
• ご注文はうさぎですか (Is the Order a Rabbit)
• Sword Art Online
• 放浪息子 (Wandering Son)
• 君の膵臓をたべたい (I Want to Eat Your Pancreas)
• 世界から猫が消えたなら (If Cats Disappeared from the World)
• Re-Zero
• 銭天堂 (Zenitendou - further volumes - see Beginner Book Club)
• Graded Readers and Parallel Texts
• 青春ブタ野郎はバニーガール先輩の夢を見ない (Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai)

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[seanblue]

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”?

[MissMisc]

This is great! お疲れ様(^^)

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

Hmmm… “spin-off”? “Continued”?

[Belerith]

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!

[Radish8]

I love it! organisation

I’m also on team spin-off

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

[cybershark]

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

[NathaLire]

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

[cybershark]

Graded Readers "Book Club"

This will be a bit less like a book club, but is here for all the same reasons; Questions about vocab, grammar and story points, discussions about the story and so on. But I want this to be a “Free for all” and open to all types of Graded Reader books. We are many who have them, but not necessarily the same ones. And this is where this differs from the Book Clubs; I want everyone to be able to ask about any and all Graded readers, we don’t necessarily pick one to read together. I do hope it w…

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

[Toyger]

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 )

多読/extensive reading challenge

Goal: the purpose of this thread is to offer a place to post and keep track of your extensive reading. Give yourself a long term target (number of books you want to read this year), a daily target (how many pages a day or how long do you plan to read per day) and then come back regularly to log your progress. This isn’t a race, just a way to challenge oneself while adding some accountability. Feel free to celebrate your successes, complain about bad days and everything in between. You can also …

[seanblue]

@Toyger 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.

[Radish8]

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.

[seanblue]

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

[Radish8]

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)_/¯

[Toyger]

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.

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

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)

[Radish8]

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)

[Toyger]

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 =^_^=

[seanblue]

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.

[Toyger]

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…)

[ninjaflautist90]

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

[ulurujamman]

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.