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

The first week’s thread for 耳をすませば is now up, for reading the first half of chapter 1.

Subsequent week postings will be mentioned in the 耳をすませば home thread, so be sure to enable notifications there if you’re reading along!

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神さまがまちがえる
finished this Manga recently (bought it because of the book club nomination)…

I think this would make a good BBC book as the story is interesting and generally fun…the chapters sort of go from interesting to funny to interesting (sometimes thought provoking if not confusing Ch4)…and finish with a fun final chapter. I feel like the artwork is drawn specifically to go straight to animation… some of the panels feel alive!

The only thing I would mention but it shouldn’t scare anyone off…is sometimes there some text heavy areas…nothing impossible but sometimes with the bugs there is potentially a lot of new vocab…(which is really not a problem within a bookclub as that’s what the vocab sheets are for)

Hope this gets picked at some point it’s interesting and fun…and there will probably be a 2nd vol somewhere in the near future… it appears Ch6 through 9.5 are already written just not in a manga vol yet…so maybe soon :wink:

My only recommendation would be (what we often do for this club)…split Chap1 over 2 weeks (not necessary)…however as for Chap4 I think really should be split… sort of text heavy …and w/o spoilers can sometimes be a little confusing :rofl:

This would make it a 7 week read with 1 week buffer/catchup if it was ever needed…

If this ever gets selected I’ll re-read this one…with the club. Really enjoyed it…Looking forward to Vol2!

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It tied for second place and just lost the tie break last time, so there’s a decent chance!

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I totally lost track of time. If anyone wants to nominate anything, now is your time. The poll will start monday morning (or maybe sunday evening)!

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Oh, speaking of polling :grin:

The Intermediate Book Club is currently polling for their next pick, so if you would like to test the waters of reading books at a somewhat faster pace, now is a good opportunity to participate!

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Ooo, ooo, yes, yes, I have a nomination!

Hopefully not gonna continue the trend of giving books the touch of death by nominating them…

Slow Loop

Slow_Loop_volume_1_cover

Natively: スローループ 1 | L20??

Summary

Japanese

「なんか、最近、釣りが楽しい…」

海辺でひとり、亡き父に教えてもらった
フライフィッシングを嗜む少女・ひより。
そんな時に出会ったのは、母親の再婚相手の娘・小春で…?

ひょんな出会いから「姉妹」になった小春とひよりと一緒に、
「釣り」をしながらスローに過ごしてみませんか?

English

Since childhood, Hiyori Yamakawa has witnessed her father’s various eccentricities, but one activity she has always loved doing with him is fly fishing—a complicated yet rewarding method of catching fish. Even after his sudden death, Hiyori still visits the seaside in her spare time, savoring the joy that her father’s memento brings her.

Three years later, Hiyori’s mother decides to remarry and arranges a dinner with her fiancé, his daughter, and Hiyori to celebrate. Anxious and wanting to pass the time, Hiyori goes to her usual fishing spot when a rather energetic girl named Koharu Minagi suddenly appears before her. The two soon become acquainted, with Koharu taking an interest in fly fishing herself. However, their meeting is more than just a coincidence: Koharu turns out to be Hiyori’s future stepsibling, which is only the beginning of treasured memories the both of them will reel in as they foster their sisterhood.

Availability

Physical:
Amazon
CD Japan

E-Book:
Amazon
Bookwalker

Personal Opinion

This is the manga that is for fly fishing what Yuru Camp is for camping - cute girls doing cute things, and in this case the thing is fly fishing. Yuru Camp meets Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater. So I figured I’d nominate it at this book club tier because this is where Yuru Camp was. Amusing, informative, unexpectedly hard-hitting at times, but iyashikei throughout.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • It’s cute and fun.
  • It’s intended to introduce the reader to fly fishing, so any complicated terminology gets explained to the reader-avatar character.
  • There’s an anime, which covers the entirety of the first volume, so if people want to hear the dialogue aloud, it’s there.

Cons

  • No furigana.

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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Is there a list of current nominees? :thinking:

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The Current Proposals section of the first post keeps a fairly up-to-date list of current nominations.

Edit: Items currently missing from the proposals list:

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Ohh right I see thanks!

Also, アオノハコ is on there as blue box, so it’s just スローループ that’s missing.

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It is now up to date

At the very least you got me interested in reading this

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Vote for the next book - now!

Can I vote?

If you are interested in joining the next book club we run, you can - and should - vote!

Please look under “Current Proposals” in the first post for more details on each option, including links to sample pages which will help you gauge the difficulty.

Please take difficulty into account

Some people do find that reading a work they love or know already is inherently motivating, but please be realistic. Look at the samples and compare to others. Remember that both language and density contribute to difficulty.

Difficulty Scores

For most items we list two different difficulty scores. They are displayed in [] in front of the name of the book/manga. The first score is determined by the polls within the nomination posts. These polls only take previews into account and are very tightly bound to the people that give feedback in the polls and are therefore not objective measures of difficulty. The second score is the Natively level (if available), because of the rating system the ratings without ?? should be more accurate, but the levels with ?? are just an initial guess that must be taken with a pinch of salt.

When will we start and how many will we pick?

We will likely begin reading on the 5th of November, right after we finish reading 耳をすませば. If a short manga (expected less than 8 weeks) wins we will also read the second place option following that without holding another vote. (The short manga determination is not final since it is based on limited information and might change)

How does the vote work?

The poll will be closed on Sunday, September 25th at the latest.

You can vote for up to 5 options.

You can change your vote at any time by clicking ‘Show vote’ at the bottom.

  • [2.17/L20??] Slow Loop [short Manga]
  • [1.75/L25] Blue Box [Manga]
  • [2.36/L25] God Bless the Mistaken [short Manga]
  • [2.91] 妖怪ギガ [Manga]
  • [3.13/L22] ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 [Manga]
  • [2.85/L25??] Deep Sea Aquarium MagMell [short Manga]
  • [2.86/L25??] 5分後に笑えるどんでん返し [Book]
  • [2.00/L24??] Full Moon [short Manga]
  • [2.80/L24] Mashle: Magic and Muscles [Manga]
  • [2.58/L25] Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun [short Manga]
  • [2.70/L25] Ranking of Kings [Manga]
  • [2.00/L25] ひらめきはつめちゃん [short Manga]
  • [2.45/L27] The Promised Neverland [Manga]
  • [2.69/L20] Rainbow-Coloured Photograph [short Manga]
  • [2.71/L24] This Art Club has a Problem! [short Manga]

0 voters

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If one of the regulars could change the title to the following, that would be great! Thank you!

[Now Voting!] Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: 耳をすませば

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I see that Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun might get picked this time … I thought I should let you all know that I don’t think I can run the club this time around (and especially not in December) … Sorry if this causes any problems. :frowning:

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No problem! You have no obligation to run the club and I’m sure we will find someone that will!

As for the poll for those of you who haven’t voted yet, you have about 32 hours left!

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Come on you remaining- (does math) 22 people who are all too busy to vote at the moment! Blue Box can still win!

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With 22 more votes, anything can win. :stuck_out_tongue:

But vote for Slow Loop.

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That was a tough vote… :flushed:
Fifth pick was a real toss up between Blue Box, Rainbow-Coloured Photograph and Full Moon
I was very happy to see that all the books I thought interesting seem to be quite popular - so I’ll probably be happy with the outcome any way :smiley:

albeit a little surprised that Full Moon is so far below :o

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It would be less behind if you had voted for it. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Thank you, I really appreciate that! Now I can just look forward to it … Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is one of my favorite anime comedies. :slight_smile:

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Yeah, mine too! It’s just sooo good. I wonder if the manga lives up to that.

Also I’m really glad God Bless the Mistaken won this time! I thought it sounded really, really interesting and I was getting excited about it, and then it lost so narrowly last time, haha.

I’ll probably be on a trip in Japan when the club starts, and I think I won’t get much reading done then, but on the plus side that means I can (try to) pick it up as an actual physical manga!

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