[Seeking Nominations!] Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: この美術部には問題がある!

[seanblue]

That I do remember

[snowwater]

Now, this is what I call a close competition. The funny thing is, since Kiyo in Kyoto is a short one, if it won in theory the Behind the Supermarket, Smoking with You would be automatically picked as the next book.

[marciska]

I suddenly feel that urge to vote for Kiyo

[Shadowlauch]

That concludes the vote. The winner is スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり (Behind the Supermarket, Smoking With You) with a narrow lead. We will start reading this manga on the 15th of July.

@snowwater would you be willing to host the club?

This time none of the nominations will be removed (outside of アオのハコ that I forgot about), though there are 2 or 3 that are in danger.

Would a regular be so kind to change the title back to Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: ロジカとラッカセイ

[snowwater]

Yes, I will create the book club thread later today and post it here and hopefully also start the poll for the schedule soon.

[snowwater]

スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり・Behind the Supermarket, Smoking With You (Beginner Book Club) - Week 10!

Welcome to the スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり・Behind the Supermarket, Smoking With You Book Club! This is the main thread for reading the manga スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり・Behind the Supermarket, Smoking With You together with the Beginner Book Club (BBC). It’s suggested that you have a solid understanding of N5 grammar and at least some of N4. If you have finished Genki 2, or have finished an Absolute Beginner Book Club and thought it went rather well, this might be at a good next step for you! Note: This book h…

[MrGeneric]

If you’re in the mood for something a little easier, come give your thoughts on what we should read next in the ABBC!

Absolute Beginners Book Club // Now reading: Horimiya // Reading Next: Miss Shikimori is not just cute!

Edit: This poll has been re-opened because data was restored. It’s Time To Vote For The Next Book! If you are interested in reading along with the Absolute Beginner Book Club, then please feel free to vote in this poll! The list of options is below. The titles are hyperlinked to their respective nomination posts, which contains more information about the book as well as some sample pages. The difficulty rating is based on feedback from folks looking at those sample pages, and so is very approx…

[Akashelia]

Nomination post
Originally posted in the ABBC because it is quite short, but probaly a better fit for the BBC because of the Natively level (25)

雪女 Yuki-onna

Summary

Copying this review from LearnNatively:
Nice little horror-y folktale, only a few pages long. It reminds me of a few other Japanese folktales I’ve read involving mysterious magical women.

Being an Aozora book, some of the usual difficulty caveats apply (e.g. some older kanji usage). Being a folktale set in the countryside, it also has some rustic vocabulary that may be unfamiliar if, like me, you mostly read more contemporary works. However, the grammar is not very complicated, and the longer sentences are broken up with punctuation.

Availability

• Digital:
  ** Free: Amazon JP
  ** Free: Aozora (Free - Public Domain)
  ** Not free: Bookwalker
  ** Vertical version:

@MaraVos

Here’s a link directly to the vertical reader … If one is like me and can’t stand reading on a screen it would be easy peasy to print out five pages and have the whole story, plus extra room on the page for making notes.

• Physical:
  ** Print the free version

• Audio:
  ** On youtube

• Caution, those versions are different than the one in Aozora:
  ** Not free: AmazonJP, several stories + furigana
  ** Not free: AmazonUS (The physical copy comes with an audio CD, but the files can also be listened to and/or downloaded for free on their website (which of course is different from the Aozora version, but they can be used for audio practice regardless))

@polv

Aozora’s reader view and Google Search for read-aloud, can be found here – 図書カード：雪女

Personal Opinion

I want to read this book because I have never yet read a book in Japanese, only manga.
I went on Natively to try and find a short story and found this one as the most popular one that wasn’t yet read on WK (unless I missed it), level 25.
Reading a whole book and pages of text sounds very scary. But this book is only fifteen pages, so I think we can do it And there is even an audio video of someone reading it!

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

• A book and not a manga
• Free
• Audio video
• Selectable text, if you read in a browser, you can use Yomichan and / or easily copy paste sentences

Cons

• A book and not a manga
• It seems that the version in Japanese Stories for Language Learners is not the same as the one in Aozora
• No furigana in the Aozora free version
• Short length, will be read in only one / two weeks by the club according to @Shadowlauch

Pictures

Sample

The first paragraph:

武蔵の国のある村に茂作、巳之吉と云う二人の木こりがいた。この話のあった時分には、茂作は老人であった。そして、彼の年季奉公人であった巳之吉は、十八の少年であった。毎日、彼等は村から約二里離れた森へ一緒に出かけた。その森へ行く道に、越さねばならない大きな河がある。そして、渡し船がある。渡しのある処にたびたび、橋が架けられたが、その橋は洪水のあるたびごとに流された。河の溢れる時には、普通の橋では、その急流を防ぐ事はできない。

Additional Pages

There you go, the whole book:

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
• I don’t know

[DIO-Berry]

I feel like my brain is short circuiting trying to figure out if some of these words are people’s names, place names, or archaicisms. I’m mostly scanning but is the rest of it like the first few sentences?

[DIO-Berry]

I looked through the books I already have and here’s a copy that includes 雪女(ゆきおんな) with furigana. I no longer feel like my brain is short circuiting, it’s much easier to tell what are places/people/things with the furigana

Japanese Stories for Language Learners | 佐藤恵理子, Eriko Sato, アン・マクナルティ, Anne...

[Akashelia]

Well the story is in the public domain now so there are free versions of it, not sure readers will want to buy a book (though it looks like a nice book).

[Shadowlauch]

I know this is annoying but could you please use the exact poll format as in the template for this book club, both to keep consistency between books and because I have a script that relies on the polls to always be the same to work properly

[enbyboiwonder]

I have Japanese Stories for Language Learners too (got it a couple years ago but never read any of it, whoops), but the 雪女 in it is a different version than the Aozora one. Aside from not using older forms of kanji, it’s also all worded differently. I don’t know if that would be a problem or not, people having different versions. Although I guess with the Aozora being free, it would be a simple matter to check that even if you read a different version

[Akashelia]

Sorry about that, I didn’t notice the difference! I changed it out now, sorry for the users that had already voted

@enbyboiwonder

I have Japanese Stories for Language Learners too (got it a couple years ago but never read any of it, whoops), but the 雪女 in it is a different version than the Aozora one. Aside from not using older forms of kanji, it’s also all worded differently. I don’t know if that would be a problem or not, people having different versions. Although I guess with the Aozora being free, it would be a simple matter to check that even if you read a different version

Damn I wasn’t aware that there are different versions. I will write it in the Cons in the post.

[MaraVos]

Can I suggest that you put that audio video link under the availability section? I think it makes a huge difference to be able to listen to the parts that you’re having a hard time getting without furigana.

[Akashelia]

Thanks, added that also added as a plus that you can select the text if you read in a browser, and as a cons that there is no furigana in the free version
In the ABBC-poll we were 9 persons interested in reading the book, so let’s see if there is some interest here, if it’s not the winner we could just read it in an offshot book club

[enbyboiwonder]

You have the book version under digital, but it’s got both physical and digital. Also, here’s the Amazon US listing for US users who are interested, as it’ll be cheaper, and that’s the only one that actually has the Kindle version; the JP store only has the physical. The physical copy comes with an audio CD, but the files can also be listened to and/or downloaded for free on their website (which of course is different from the Aozora version, but they can be used for audio practice regardless)

[Akashelia]

Thanks! I think I’ve added everything where it should be but if I messed it up again or if there are more resources feel free to let me know. Too bad I can’t make the post a wiki

[araigoshi]

Planning on joining in the next BBC after finishing one ABBC and the second will be nearly finished by the time the current BBC finishes.

I’m hoping it goes ok, I think it should since it’s level 24 on natively which is less than the level 26 the bookworm manga has, and I’m (admittedly slowly) working my way through that one on my own.

I probably won’t be attempting to share full translations in the threads like I’ve been doing with the current ABBC since I’ll be doing the next ABBC (Horimiya) and BBC (and Bookworm) simultaneously.

[J0skin]

I am also planning on joining the next BBC after completing two ABBC book clubs (once the current one ends). I will do this at the same time as the ABBC with the goal of exposing myself to some more difficult material. I expect I will struggle but only through struggling can we improve! Best of luck!