Tips on what to read (roughly N3 level)?📚

Japanese Language Reading
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Hi all!

So first of all I’d estimate my Japanese level to be roughly around N3. Reading social media posts and such is usually not an issue, but I’d like to try and read something else as well. Something, that would expose me to different writing styles with longer chapters etc.

Are there any websites or books you would recommend for someone with about the same proficiency?

Thank you in advance, all tips are welcome!

-Nini

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You could pick something out from the Beginner or Intermediate Book Clubs. It’ll be a challenge at first, but at N3 you should be ready to give real books a shot. The beginner clubs usually have a vocab list, and the discussion threads can help answer any questions you have about tricky sentences/passages.

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You might also want to try Natively which learners use to rank books against each other for difficulty. The ‘N3’ on there is of course, just a very rough guideline, and you may find books above or below the listed levels to be to your liking. :slight_smile:

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Thanks so much! Hadn’t ran into this part of the community yet, definitely going to check it out! :grin:

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Thanks a lot, I had never heard of the site! I’ll definitely check it out :slightly_smiling_face: :+1:

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Mata, Onaji Yume wo Miteita
This one is a nice light read

Yomei Ichinen to Senkoku Sareta Boku ga Yomei Hantoshi no Kimi to Deatta Hanashi
I liked this one too

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Thanks for these recommendations! :grin:

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If you’re interested in manga, I recommend やがて君になる. It has full furigana, so high level knowledge of kanji isn’t necessary. Aria the Masterpiece is also a good one, and also has full furigana. It even had a book club on the forums in the past, so you can reference the chapter threads if you have questions.

If your kanji knowledge is higher than your WK level indicates (or even if it’s not) and you’re willing to read a series without much furigana, I recommend ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活. It’s fairly light on text, so even without much furigana it’s not too difficult.

Finally, there’s シャドーハウス, which is kind of in between in terms of furigana. It uses furigana a bit more than normal, but it’s far from full furigana. It also has a gorgeous full color digital version, which I highly recommend. This series also has a book club here on the forums, which is actually partway through volume 4 right now. So if you give this one a shot and enjoy it, you could even catch up and read along with everyone else!

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Thanks for your recommendations and detailed explanation! I’m one of the (probably) rare language learners who hasn’t read nearly any manga in the past, but it seems like a good place to start :smile:

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I recently got a Japanese Kindle Unlimited account, and you will have no shortage of access to fun things to read with it. I randomly checked out an issue of Weekly Comic Alive which was available for free, and it had over 750 pages, dozens of manga chapters from ongoing series. Kindle also has a built-in JP>JP and JP>EN dictionary, so you won’t struggle too badly with most of it.

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Go to Natively and anything level 20-25 should be a good match for you. If you are ready for a little more challenge (planning to do N2), go to level 26-34 books.

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Sorry for my delayed reply! Thanks for the tip - digital books definitely seem handy, as I wouldn’t need to worry about having an access to the physical books in my country.

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Thanks for the tip and sorry for my delayed reply!