Intermediate Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: セーラー服と機関銃

Meanwhile, my nomination doing just about as well as they usually do…

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For our list of proposals, sadly we had to say goodbye to ifの悲劇 :cry:

きらきらひかる, 山と食欲と私, City, and くま クマ 熊 ベアー remain on the list of books with low interest. If they get low interest in the next poll as well, we need to say goodbye to them as well.

TUGUMI, ガイコツ書店員本田さん, 笑顔のたえない職場です。, and Just Because! entered the list of books with low interest, while 天気の子 (which came in second place!) and リング (which came in fourth place) are now back in the game and got removed from the list of low interest books.

Due to the removal of two books from the list of proposals (one due to low interest, one because it got picked) we now have 13 proposals, which means there are a few slots waiting for your proposals! If you happen to come across a book that you think might be interesting for the other book club members as well, please feel free to nominate it in this thread.

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I know that feeling! Was hoping one of them would get at least 20% :person_shrugging:

But 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん looks interesting, so I’m looking forward to giving it a try.

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I really want to read 笑顔のたえない職場です but I feel like this will never get picked… haha

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Sweet! I’m looking forward to something funny. I managed to find a copy for sale in my country on EBay, so if you haven’t gotten yours yet, try that. Saves a ton on shipping and customs!

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Hello! This is my first time making a book proposal! Hopefully everything is okay and this books level fits here! I’ve had this book for a while and keep meaning to get around to reading it haha.
Also, are books translated into Japanese okay?

死にたいけどトッポッキは食べたい (I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki)

Author ペク セヒ【著】
Translator 山口 ミル【訳】

Summary

Japanese

(From Amazonjp)
なんとなく気持ちが沈み、自己嫌悪に陥る。
ぼんやりと、もう死んでしまいたいと思いつつ、
一方でお腹がすいてトッポッキが食べたいなと思う……。
気分障害と不安障害を抱える女性が、精神科医とのカウンセリングを通して、
自分自身を見つめ直した12週間のエッセイ。
韓国で若い世代を中心に40万部を超えるベストセラー!
人間関係や自分自身に対する不安や不満を抱え、繊細な自分自身に苦しんだ経験のある
すべての人に寄り添う1冊です。

English

(From Foyles)
PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you?
ME: I don’t know, I’m - what’s the word - depressed? Do I have to go into detail?
Baek Se-Hee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her - what to call it? - depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can’t be normal.
But if she’s so hopeless, why can she always summon a yen for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?
Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a 12-week period, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.

Availability

Amazon Japan (tankobon and ebook)
BookWalker (ebook)
EBookJapan (ebook)

Personal Opinion

Seems like an interesting read and was recently popular in Japan. This book is almost always in clear view whenever I go to any bookstores. I think it should be okay for this level of book club, but if it is a little on the easier side it might also be good for people who are join the intermediate book club for the first time?

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • Recently rather popular in Japan.
  • English version hasn’t been released yet (will be later this year). So you can read it ahead of others.
  • Not very long (tankobon is only 200 pages including the table of contents and extra pages)
  • There seems to be a second volume for those that enjoy it and want to read more

Cons

  • Not originally Japanese (translated from Korean). Some people may prefer content originally in Japanese.
  • May not be a topic for everyone

Pictures

First Four Pages of Chapter One


Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Moderate effort
  • Significant effort
  • So much effort my head might explode
  • I don’t know

0 voters

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Thank you for your proposal! I noticed that you changed the poll from how it was in the proposal template… is there any reason for this? If not, could you please change it back to how it was in the template, i.e. like this:

[poll type=regular public=true]
  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Moderate effort
  • Significant effort
  • So much effort my head might explode
  • I don’t know
[/> [poll ]

I’m asking this because with your format it is more difficult for me to calculate the average difficulty for the book (which we will indicate in each poll and therefore need to calculate for each poll).

Replacing the poll means that the votes up to now will get discarded, but that shouldn’t be a big problem as only very few people voted until now (only you and I, I guess?)

Thanks anyways!

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Oh! Sorry about that!
It was my first time making a poll, but for some reason when I tried to copy it from the template, it wasn’t showing up correctly.
I’ll try to fix it now.

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Please let me know if it’s correct now.
Hopefully the three who voted before can vote again.

Ah, thank you, that’s much better now!

Sorry if I came across as being nitpicky! I just figured I would potentially be confused by it for quite some time, depending on how quickly the book gets picked, and so I thought a quick repair might be acceptable… :blush:

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No problem at all :smiling_face:

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Can someone tell me how many pages I should expect us to read for books at 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん’s length? It seems a very easy read if you’re N3 level. It’s written so even 3rd graders can understand it, but the lack of furigana make it more suited towards 小学校上級 (according to my husband), so I’m assuming we’ll be going through this pretty quickly.

I just started reading and got through the Prologue and want to have a good start in before we officially start because I still lack a lot of kanji knowledge to read without having to look up a lot of words. (I look up a lot of words anyway for confirmation purposes but also having to look up kanji I can’t read takes additional time.) It’ll be my second book for a book club (first book for Intermediate level) while reading 夜カフェ at the same time for the Beginner book club, so I’m worried about falling behind.

Anyway, just a long-winded way of asking how many pages a week should I expect so I can keep up? :sweat_smile:

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Typically, the pace is at around 15 pages per week. (That would mean 15 to 16 weeks for this book)

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Thanks for the ping! I was unexpectedly busy over the past two weeks (in a good way) so I had forgotten to post the home thread and schedule discussion :roll_eyes:

But here it is:

I’ve started a discussion regarding the schedule - happy to hear all of your opinions!

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Moved to the Beginner Book Club

Hello! Figured I would finally propose another one of the books I own and have been wanting to read!
(Please tell me if you think this would be better suited for another group. I was having a hard time deciding what level this book is (Intermediate or beginner wise.)

5分後に笑えるどんでん返し

Summary

Japanese

(From BookWalker) 5分で脱力、5分で笑える。5分で読める“5分シリーズ”からお届けする、クスッとできるどんでん返し。 小説投稿サイト「エブリスタ」に投稿された20000作超の短編から厳選した、『5分後に笑えるどんでん返し』。 意外すぎるオチに驚く珠玉の掌編15本。

English

(Quick google translate and a little editing)
Weakness in 5 minutes and laughter in 5 minutes. An unexpected twist from the “5-minute series” that can be read in 5 minutes. Carefully selected from over 20,000 short stories posted on the novel posting site "Everystar”. Fifteen short stories that are have a surprising ending.

Availability

Amazon Japan (tankobon and ebook)
BookWalker (ebook)

Personal Opinion

I’ve recently seen these kinds of short story books a lot in Japan. They are very popular with children. Definitely think it would be fun and interesting reading practice. The short stories also makes it easier to consume.
This book’s stories also seem to be selected from a novel publishing site, which is interesting.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • Recently these 5分後 type of books have been very popular in Japan.
  • Many short stories from different authors, so possibly a little variety for everyone and easy to digest.
  • Not very long (about 200 something pages) (may be a con to some)
  • If people enjoy this read, they can continue other 5分後 books.

Cons

  • Not all the kanji have furigana (can be a pro for some)
  • Some may prefer one continuous story instead of many short ones

Pictures

Pictures

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

[poll type=regular public=true]
  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Moderate effort
  • Significant effort
  • So much effort my head might explode
  • I don’t know
[/ [poll ]
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If anybody is interested in this nomination - Its free on Bookwalker for the next few days!

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Just a quick heads up that we will start our next pick on Saturday, so if you want to participate, please proceed to the entrance gate and get ready to buy your ticket! :blush:

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We’re currently deciding on the final schedule for our current pick, and if we decide to stick with the schedule that’s currently in place, then we will have our next poll soon! We already have a good number of nominations, but there are still a few free slots for new ones. So if you have a book that would fit the Intermediate Book Club length requirement (i.e. below 300 pages, ideally below 250 pages) and difficulty, then please feel free to nominate it (using the template in the OP)!

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Spy x Family

image

Summary

Japanese

名門校潜入のために「家族」を作れと命じられた凄腕スパイの〈黄昏〉。だが、彼が出会った“娘”は心を読む超能力者! “妻”は暗殺者で!? 互いに正体を隠した仮初め家族が、受験と世界の危機に立ち向かう痛快ホームコメディ!!

English

In order to maintain the state of peace between the rival nations of Westalis and Ostania, a Westalis agent codenamed “Twilight” is tasked with spying on Donovan Desmond, the leader of an extremist political party within Ostania. However, due to Desmond being notoriously reclusive, the only way Twilight can get close to him is to enroll a child in the same private school as Desmond’s son and pose as their father. To accomplish this, he creates the alias of Lloyd Forger, adopts a young orphan girl named Anya, and marries a woman named Yor Briar, to create the image of a happy family. However, Yor is in fact a professional assassin, with neither her nor Lloyd being aware of each other’s true identities. Both of them are also unaware that Anya can read minds, and knows their true professions. Despite these unknown factors, Lloyd must learn to play the role of the perfect father and husband in order to carry out his mission. (wikipedia)

Availability

Physical: Amazon | CD Japan
Digital: Kindle | Bookwalker

Personal Opinion

This has been blowing up all over the internet because of the anime that is currently airing. It is honestly super hillarious, esepcially the daughter Anya has some of the best reaction faces in any manga I have read.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Popular so hopefully a lot of participants
  • Has an anime so one could read/watch both (to get that sweet listening practice)
  • Furigana
  • Funny & interesting story

Cons

  • Pretty hard according to learn natively it is level 30 so just below Death note
  • Also pretty dense

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One


Additional Pages

Bookwalker preview: https://viewer.bookwalker.jp/03/19/viewer.html?cid=f21b74ef-1857-48d4-90b3-0b9600b92d5d

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


I originally posted this in the beginner book club, but after some discussion I moved it up to here!

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This makes me think maybe I should move 5分後に笑えるどんでん返し down to the beginner book club based on the responses here (5 votes for minimal effort, 1 vote for no effort).

Can I just delete or edit the post? (and edit the main post too?)
Or should I leave it here for one run of voting?
I’m still kinda new to the book clubs (and haven’t participated in the intermediate one yet), so not sure how everything works and definitely not sure on how to properly rank the difficulty levels of some of these books :sweat_smile:

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