Absolute Beginners Book Club // Now Reading: Granny Girl Hinata chan!

We could stick to a slow schedule. I am also a chronic over-committer :sweat_smile: Both books have about the same number of pages, and one page of manga will probably take less time to read than one page of a book-book (for want of a better word). So if we stick to a similar schedule, it shouldn’t be too burdensome and we’ll be done in time for the next round :smiley:

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Home thread for 10分で読める伝記(2年生)is up!

Click here to find out more and get involved with this book club - starting November.

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Any tips on making a vocab spreadsheet? Making a new sheet and making it editable by anyone seems straightforward, and there is obviously a well established template.

But how do you make it public without sharing personal details (e.g. name, email address) with anyone on the internet who opens it ?

I have an account I use specifically to make WK spreadsheets (I think seanblue does too). I can provide one for your next book if you need one, and don’t want to make a whole new Google account!

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Once you have access to the account, if that’s the plan, I’ll happily help with filling in the vocab sheet!

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But can you actually see the email address?

When I’m not logged in with any of my google accounts, I can’t view the document details. When I’m logged in and open the Wanwan vocab sheet, the document details don’t give much info and I can only see the creator when I put the doc into my drive but I still can’t see the email address?

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Interesting point @Micki, that had never even occurred to me… I have been feeling the heavy weight of responsibility on my shoulders with regard to never accidentally deleting a public vocab list :grimacing:

@Radish8, would you mind copying the Shin Chan vocab sheet and the Dragon Ball SD one and sharing the new links with me so I can update the respective threads?

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Thanks, :pray: :blush:, I might try and figure it out and do it myself this time though. I had also been thinking a new google account just for this purpose was the way forward!

I was having a play with two google accounts that weren’t in each other’s contacts, and I could see the name of the author but not the email address. Wondered if it might still be hidden away somewhere though.

Or maliciously! I’ve tended to save off a back up copy from time to time if I am particularly invested in the vocab sheet, especially if I’ve put a lot of the words in.

By the time you all start the next book on here I will probably be around lesson 9 or 10 on genki (on 7 now), is this enough or should I wait until the one after starts and I should be well into genki 2 by then?

It all depends on your tolerance for struggle :slight_smile: I personally didn’t mind looking up a lot of grammar as I went and I found it very rewarding and motivating to read an actual Japanese book written for actual Japanese people (children, though, granted :sweat_smile:). Starting to read is always going to be a bit of a challenge, but the Absolute Beginners Book Club makes it as easy as possible for you. Give it a shot, I’d say :grin:

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You will get some slightly different views from different people on this one. I read the second book in this club (なぜどうして世界はふしぎ) just after finishing Genki 1 and doing my N5. That felt about right for me. It was tough, it would take me up to half an hour to read a page and I skipped the occasional chapter to catch up.

Looking at those last few Genki 1 chapters there is a lot of core stuff in there. My advice would be hold off for this one and work on finishing Genki 1, growing your vocabulary, and learning some more kanji.

We’ll be reading this book for 24 weeks and each chapter is a separate story. So you could always jump in part way through if you wanted!

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Or you could start with one of the old ABBC books while waiting for a new book club to start. I think the Nyan Nyan books could be a good introduction. Those threads already contain a lot of information; pretty much every conceivable question has been answered. And if not, you can ask your question and plenty of people will be able to help you out.

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That’s perfect then, hopefully I’ll be able to join in before Christmas!

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And we’re off in the Dragon Ball SD book club!

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The 10 minute biographies bookclub has started! Perhaps someone with the right permissions could kindly updated the title of this thread. Thanks!

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Is that title ok?

Great, thank you!

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I’d forgotten it was starting already!

I was hoping to have reached home before it did, as I think I may have a copy at home…maybe I’ll just need to buy the digital version. Home in about a week, anyway.

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People here might be interested to know that we’re starting the next Doggy Detectives book on the 11th of January!

It will be around Absolute Beginner level, and you don’t need to have read the first book in the series to join in now - it’s a bit like reading a Miss Marple or Sherlock Holmes story.

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I would definitely recommend the Doggy Detectives book for anyone reading their first Japanese book. One of the other books in the series was the original absolute beginner book club book. They have a nice mix of story telling and dialogue. The pages are not very dense, and the pictures give a lot of context that help you understand the text.

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