Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: 気になってる人が男じゃなかった // Next 葬送のフリーレン, then ウスズミの果て

You might want to have a look at this thread:

There is a section “Buying Books” which describes the available options.

Also, there are lots of ideas for which books to read, if you are looking for inspiration!

And don’t forget, you can always use a book club’s existing threads even years after the book has officially been read, and you can even still ask questions - there are probably still some helpful souls around.

Happy Reading :slight_smile:

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Thank you very much! :smiley:

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Happy birthday btw

For your 1 year in WK I mean

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Oh thank you!
It’s too bad that I’ve been so slow with WK. I hope to be faster going forward :slight_smile:

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Don’t worry speed is not the most important thing. As long as you continue studying you will reach it. Constistency is more important than speed.

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にじいろフォトグラフ

Summary

引っ込み思案な残念美人の山吹葵は 青い目がコンプレックスの高校一年生で、小説家の姉・皐と二人で暮らしている。 とあるきっかけで、外国人の少女、 サラ・フローリーと同居することになった葵たち。 そんな山吹家の毎日は…?

Translating is hard, so here’s the short version: It’s about this high school girl who’s self-conscious about her blue eyes, when suddenly this 5 year girl with blonde hair and blue eyes starts living at her home.

Availability

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4832249029
Kindle: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B077QFGG38
Bookwalker: にじいろフォトグラフ 1巻 - マンガ(漫画) 倉崎もろこ(まんがタイムKRコミックス):電子書籍試し読み無料 - BOOK☆WALKER -

Personal Opinion

I just finished the first volume (out of three) and it was super cute. Really light read, which should (hopefully) balance out the challenge of lack of furigana for the beginner book club.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Mostly a lighthearted family story.
  • Some nice comedy thrown in.
  • Entirely everyday language.
  • One of the main characters is young, so her dialogue is in hiragana and easy to understand.

Cons

  • Basically no furigana. Even the names only get furigana once throughout the whole volume.
  • A lot of really tiny, handwritten text.

Pictures

I don’t have an easy way to get pictures for this, so check out the preview in the Amazon or Bookwalker links above, or read the first chapter on pixiv

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • 1 - No effort at all
  • 2 - Minimal effort
  • 3 - Moderate effort
  • 4 - Substantial effort
  • 5 - So much effort my head might explode :exploding_head:
  • I don’t know

0 voters

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For those lazy enough, here are the first three pages (that actually have text)

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When is voting for the next read going to start? It’s taking longer than usual for books to arrive now (just received a book i ordered in May today :upside_down_face:) so the sooner the next book is decided the better.

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We could bring the vote forward a week or two. I’d been planning for the 15th of August, but it’s true that there are still shipping issues.

How do people feel about opening the vote this week, say on the 30th? That would give us ~8 weeks lead time. It’s not very much notice to get any further nominations in (but we have plenty already) or read samples though.

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Just for simplicity for others, you can also read ~the first chapter on pixiv.

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Or you can take screenshots from Bookwalker (my standard approach) :sunglasses:

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Ooh, I might have to check this one out – it looks cute and I like short, completed series.

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Please rate the difficulties of our nominations!

This is very little notice, sorry, but we’re looking at holding our vote for the next book fairly soon. If you have time, please take a look at the nominations listed in the OP - where there are links to their nomination posts - and have a look at the samples to vote on how difficult they seem to you.

It’s most helpful if you can do a reasonable number of them (not just the one you want to read!), so that we get the benefit of the comparison between different picks :slight_smile:

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49nq5s

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僕のヒーローアカデミア (My Hero Akademia)

Summary

Midoriya inherits the superpower of the world’s greatest hero, but greatness won’t come easy.

What would the world be like if 80 percent of the population manifested superpowers called “Quirks”? Heroes and villains would be battling it out everywhere! Being a hero would mean learning to use your power, but where would you go to study? The Hero Academy of course! But what would you do if you were one of the 20 percent who were born Quirkless?

Availability

Both Digital and Physical in this link, pick your preference when buying

Personal Opinion

Gonna be honest, I fell in love after watching one episode of the anime, bought the manga and that’s where I am now. I was just so captivated about the beginning, I want to know where it goes!

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • It is a currently active and popular series. Might help lure in more/new people

Cons

  • I know to little to know

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One

Additional Pages

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • 1 - No effort at all
  • 2 - Minimal effort
  • 3 - Moderate effort
  • 4 - Substantial effort
  • 5 - So much effort my head might explode :exploding_head:
  • I don’t know

0 voters

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Just so you have something to rate! :wink:
Actually planed on nominating it last time I made nominations, but decided to save some for later =P

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Much appreciated :ok_hand:

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I won’t add any further nominations from this point to the upcoming poll, just to be clear :+1:

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デスノート (Death Note)

Summary

When Light Yagami finds a notebook giving him power over death, will he use it for good—or evil?

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects–and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note , a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life?

Availability

Both Digital and Physical in this link, pick your preference when buying

Personal Opinion

This is my absolute favorite Manga (and Anime). The story is very captivating and thought provoking, and art is absolutely beautiful. I can never get enough of it. I did try to read it in Japanese a few years back, and on my own found it a bit hard (a chapter in the beginning has a few text heavy political/police talk pages, but rest is better, and was before I had read anything substantial before)

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • A well known and popular series
  • Uses furigana

Cons

  • Slightly older, so might be less straight forward to buy new copies
  • Could be too dark for some

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One



Additional Pages

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • 1 - No effort at all
  • 2 - Minimal effort
  • 3 - Moderate effort
  • 4 - Substantial effort
  • 5 - So much effort my head might explode :exploding_head:
  • I don’t know

0 voters

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I know, I know… it’s not nominations time. But this book is currently discounted on BookWalker (until August 27th) and probably also elsewhere, and so I thought since I will eventually nominate it anyways, I could as well do so already, for those who might be interested in taking advantage of the sale.

小川未明童話集(1)- Ogawa Mimei’s Collection of Children’s Stories, Vol. 1

Summary

Ogawa (1882 - 1961) is known in Japan as the founder of modern children’s literature. He often chose everyday scenarios for his children’s stories. Also, his stories often incorporate religious and philosophical symbolism and the cycle of life. The death of creatures is not final, but is instead just the opportunity to appear in a different form.

This book is (as the title suggests) a collection of children’s stories and fairy tales. It contains two of Ogawa’s most famous stories, “The Ox Woman” and “The Red Candle and the Mermaid”. The stories are rather short, it seems; the book contains 17 stories while it has only 136 pages (according to Amazon).
(Maybe we can read them in increasing length, to get a nice ramp-up? :upside_down_face:)

Availability

Amazon
Bookwalker

Personal Opinion

I think it would be a nice pick for various reasons:

  • The texts are quite older than what we usually read in the book club (but they are in modern Japanese), so it makes for a nice change.
  • Short stories is also something we don’t see here often.
  • Feels like we might be able to get a glimpse into traditional Japanese life, which might be interesting for some.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Cons

  • Not full furigana (but a lot of them, so I think it should be fine)
  • Maybe some people think that fairy tales are boring?

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One

This is the first short story:



Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • 1 - No effort at all
  • 2 - Minimal effort
  • 3 - Moderate effort
  • 4 - Substantial effort
  • 5 - So much effort my head might explode :exploding_head:
  • I don’t know

0 voters

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