Haha, yeah, you’re right, I was being overly ambitious. Goes to show that I really haven’t been keeping up with my reading practice…apparently I forgot how slowly I actually read! I took a look at the first page today and was reminded…two pages a day is a lot, isn’t it? 3-5 pages a week definitely sounds more manageable.
(For real though I gotta do more flashcards/reviews/reading, because I am steadily forgetting kanji. I keep seeing oh-so-familiar kanji and going, “I should know this…why don’t I know this!!!” )
No, we haven’t. I hope to… soon… ^^; Just finished my semester but I have an outlying paper. No more Greek language though until Jan 22.
Please do!
IDEA: Let’s start on Dec 22 and read until Jan 22 and just see how far we get? (I’m taking a train for 3.5-4 hours that Saturday, and will be on my holiday then.) @Caracal too. Does that sound like a plan? I think I’m going to go off of vacation mode and get back into reviews too… maybe now in preparation for reading.
A few of us had the idea to (re-)visit Autumn Prison during this year’s spooky season. Also, there is currently a hefty Bookwalker discount which might help you decide:
We will start reading the book from Nov 7th, 2022. We’re not planning to have a dedicated schedule, so if you’re interested, please feel free to join us and read at your own pace!
The book consists of three stories of roughly equal length (about 60 pages each):
秋の牢獄 (the titular story)
神家没落
幻は夜に成長する
It’s of course okay if you just want to read one or two of the stories.
For commenting, I would like to stick with this one thread for the whole book. Please make sure to indicate which story you are referring to in your posts! Also please use spoiler tags when necessary.
Are you planning to read 秋の牢獄 with the re-read club?
Ui this cover is ugly… I’ve got a nicer one with an autumn road on the cover.
Anyway: I started a little early since there’s no way I’ll find enough time to finish the story on a weekday either way ^^. Read the first two chapters of the first story.
On one hand, it is good to know that I can read the story much smoother than I did at the end of 2017. Many of the words and grammar points I had problems with then, I know much better by now. On the other hand, the 2 year!!! Japanese learning break in between set me back quite a bit, and there are many words I underlined reading it then and still don’t know .
For the story so far:
I instantly liked it again. The story doesn’t pull any punches. It takes like 2 pages for the first loop to happen. I also fell again for the atmosphere. The writing style somehow really works well for me. I definitely have to look into the night market book, since it’s from the same author.
Also, the same as last time I read it, I also thought I should look into the book Replay she mentions. Has anyone of you read it by any chance and can give their impression?
Kind of want to know what first time readers think of this story. So I’m eagerly awaiting your impressions.
EDIT: forgot to mention I`m really sad the 7th is a Wednesday and not a Monday
@NicoleIsEnough why do you do this to me. I read 夜市 and was like, “wow, this was a fun book. I should read another book by the author sometime.” Picked up 秋の牢獄, put it on the backlog, went on my merry way. Fast forward to now. Have 3 JP book club books, 2 Eng book club books currently on my docket, wondering if I’m stupid enough to add another JP (ユージニア keeps looking at me), then see this thread and think, “wow, I really liked 夜市! I did want to read this.”
We should start an anonymous compulsive readers group
I’m also taking part in three Japanese book clubs (IBC, ABC, Mystery) and this is my 4th one. No English book clubs though…
Do consider joining ユージニア, it’s fantastic so far. And we’ve got Japanese speakers in the club too!
And this one of course. I’ve only just started it, but it feels refreshingly easy to read so far.
Hahaha, thank you. We just need to get @ekg wrapped up ten million book clubs to truly complete the trifecta.
This is music to my ears. Adding an easier book to my pile is easier to justify than a harder book… I might see if I can finish this week’s reading for おばちゃんたち and 体育館 and then see where I’m at time-wise to start this one and ユージニア. Normally weekends would be a ton of extra time to read, but upcoming holidays throw that into complete chaos. I’ve got a wedding I’ll be attending this weekend, so that’s a wash.
Easy: we all talk about how overloaded we are with all the books we’re reading. Other members see those books and go, “wow, that book looks fun to read ” add it to their own reading pile, and the cycle continues.
Edit: Wait! I just remembered I have two days off work this week! Omg, all that extra reading time…
I only had time for the first chapter today, but I thought I’d leave a comment about the book today, as it’s November 7 (even though it’s not a Wednesday).
Nothing much has happened yet (our main character’s days are spectacularly empty so far) but it made me think what I might do with a day on repeat. I guess I’d start pretty much like her, with movies and restaurants, then experiment with changing the day in different locations like she did. After that, I’d probably try more extreme experiences. I mean, since it always resets, it’s safe to do anything, right? Even die?
I’d probably gradually get around to trying out all the things I don’t normally do, either because they’re expensive, or dangerous, or just take me out of my comfort zone. I might even try and get to know everyone in a one-day radius around me, one person per day. I guess with some of them it would be very frustrating that there could be no tomorrow. And with others it would be a relief.
Doesn’t our main character have a family? Friends back home? She’s strangely isolated. But then it’s just one day. We don’t tend to speak with all our family, friends and acquaintances on every random Wednesday.
I don’t think I’d be brave enough to do anything extreme. I’d always be worried that the day I took the time loop for granted was also the day it ended…
You’re probably right. But then again, if it did continue for years, I guess it would start to not matter. Life would start to feel more or less futile and pointless anyway, if none of your actions had any consequences, if there never was any change or progress.
Anyway, looking forward to see what direction the book takes.
This felt too charming and thoughtful to be horror, so my edition calling itself ‘ホラー’ is a bit funny. It was mildly creepy at times, and definitely uncomfortable a few (犬飼 beating his wife to a pulp…10+ times), but it was never really horror to me.
Overall I enjoyed it. The little hints that 隆一 was into 藍 (I hope that’s the right kanji, too lazy to check), 犬飼 starting to say ‘can you just hold my arm a bit longer’ and stopping. Just a general feeling of unfinished business when they had all the time in the world.
I look forward to the other stories, but hope they’re shorter because waiting til I finish a story to discuss kills me but taking too long to read and not being able to catch up is also horrible
side note: whenever I see the name 犬飼 I think of this actor (犬飼貴丈) from 押井刑事
Wouldn’t it translate to “dogkeeper”? Cool name, either way. Does it come in other animals as well? 猫飼？牛飼? 狐飼？ Wait, yomichan tells me 牛飼 exists! Not as a name though…
But surely you can discuss halfway? Just state clearly where you are so only people who’ve read that far click on your spoilers. For example, I’m now reading chapter 3 and I’m dying to ask something, but I’d better wait until I at least finish the chapter, since it may very well be explained in the next couple of sentences. For the curious: How on earth is it possible for everyone to have repeated the same day a different number of times? Surely time was linear for them before the loop started? And since no one seems to be in caveman or medieval clothing, I’m guessing they all entered the loop in the same year? So how come some have relived the day hundreds of times, and some only dozens? Yeah, I’m sure it will be explained…
3-5 pages a week definitely sounds more manageable.
)
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) and I thought that I haven’t had so few vocab lookups in ages!
We just need to get 
Adding an easier book to my pile is easier to justify than a harder book… I might see if I can finish this week’s reading for おばちゃんたち and 体育館 and then see where I’m at time-wise to start this one 
” add it to their own reading pile, and the cycle continues.
Omg, all that extra reading time…