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

It’s a missed opportunity to be sure. But best to make mistakes like that up front so that the rest of it can be great.

Based on the first chapter, it looks like it definitely fits the title of Absolute Beginner. I see the Amazon listing puts it at 148 pages.

Best part for me, the book is available digitally.

I found the table of contents for it which reveals all the chapter lengths:

Chapter lengths
  • Chapter 1 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 2 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 3 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 4 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 5 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 6 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 7 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 8 has 10 pages.
  • Chapter 9 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 10 has 6 pages.
  • Chapter 11 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 12 has 8 pages.
  • Chapter 13 has 6 pages.
  • Chapter 14 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 15 has 10 pages.
  • Chapter 16 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 17 has 6 pages.
  • Chapter 18 has 4 pages.
  • Chapter 19 has 10 pages.
  • Chapter 20 has 12 pages.
  • Chapter 21 has 10 pages.
  • Chapter 22 has ?? pages. (last chapter, so can’t tell)

I can understand if the book club skips this one for now to avoid too many animal books in a row, or too many cat books in a row (say what?), but I’m definitely gonna pick it up and read through it!

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Can you ever have too many cats? :laughing:

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I mean, one time, I was told I had too many cats in my dresser:

ezgif-4-3f13e8b4bdef

I don’t know what they meant by it.

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I can check the last chapter length for you when I get home from work in ~10 hours. A lot of the longer chapters are actually side stories that seem to be only in the printed version.

Edit: “Chapter 22” is 16 pages (incl. title page) and then there’s an Author’s Corner page afterward.

I’ve got a nomination as well.

にゃんにゃん探偵団おひるね―赤いとびらの家事件の巻

Summary

A series of three mystery stories with a children’s bookstore owner named Hanae who decided to become a detective. Based on the first book, all the cases involve cats in someway, though they’re not mostly about the cats. The mysteries are all pretty simple (it’s meant for elementary schoolers, after all) and not too serious.

The description from Bookwalker, for anyone interested:
子どもの本の店をしているはなえさんは、へんな事件が大好き。今回もかわいげのない猫カポネと難事件にいどみます。完ぺきなアリバイにいどむ「赤いとびらの家」、ケーキどろぼうの疑いは晴らせるのか「犯人はカポネ?」、そして怪盗ミミッチーマウスが再びあらわれる「にゃんにゃん大行進」。三つの事件は、それぞれ事件編と解決編に分かれています。解決編をみる前に、事件の謎を考えてみましょう。好評の「にゃんにゃん探偵団」シリーズ第2弾。

Availability

amazon.co.jp
amazon.com - bonus hilariously terrible, obviously machine-assisted translation of the title
cdjapan
Bookwalker ebook

Personal Opinion

The first book was great. I haven’t read this book yet, but presumably it’s of similar quality. Hanae is cute as heck and all the mysteries were nice. It’s a really good difficulty for the Absolute Beginner club and is a book (with pictures) rather than a manga.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • As mentioned, a book rather than a manga, so it has a good amount of writing that’s not just dialogue. We’ll also have had a couple of manga in a row, so changing it up would be nice.
  • The characters are all humans, rather than animals. Cats are involved, but are not the main focus of any stories. (This is probably more up to taste, but it is a change from the last couple of books, so I thought that might make it a pro.)
  • Of course, all the language is pretty simple (it’s intended for 3rd-4th graders, from what I’ve seen.)
  • I’ve seen people ask about doing a follow up for the first book club several times, so there’s definitely interest in the book already.
  • Hanae is cute as heck (her cat… maybe not so much?)

Cons

  • It’s a sequel, so some people might be put off by that. However, the stories in the first volume were all pretty independent, and the book has a page with introductions for all the characters, included those returning from the last book.
  • It’s a bit longer than the first book–135 pages vs 155, based on the Bookwalker listing. I don’t really think the extra 20 pages will be a big deal, but I figured I’d mention it.
  • The stories are fairly long–the first and third are around 60 pages each, while the second is around 20, based on the table of contents. So it’s a bit harder to break up into different weeks (can’t just do “one chapter per week” or something like that.) The group for the first book did around 15 pages a week, by the look of it, though it’s hard for me to figure out exactly.

Pictures

The Bookwalker ebook preview - can also get to it from the Bookwalker link above

First Three Pages of Chapter One

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Just right
  • Challenging
  • Impossible, even with everyone’s help
  • I don’t know (please click this if you’re not voting seriously)

0 voters

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Those sample pages are much less intimidating than I was bracing myself for.

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But we already read this book!!

Edit: I see you already put in on the post :wink:

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For the next book, I’m fine with my nomination for Wanted

Am I allowed to nominate more than one book, by the way?

As many as you want

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(Well… within reason. :stuck_out_tongue: )

I made a home thread for チーズスイートホーム \o/ :33

We will finish Shirokuma in 4-5 weeks, depending on the vote regarding the long chapter, and Chii is gonna take from 5-7 weeks /o/
Also, have we decided if we want a break after Shirokuma, btw? :thinking: I wonder where to post that poll if not

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Hey guys! IDK what to do, but i would like to join in. what should i do? can anyone direct me around a little? thanks

There’s a poll up on the top of this thread where you can say that you’ll be joining us. Then all you have to do is get yourself the book, and interact with us on the forums along the way!

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Easier said than done…

Is it? .-.

What’s that even supposed to mean? :joy:

Easier said than done = Saying “grab a copy” is easy. Actually grabbing a copy is hard.

I mean, yes. Then, isn’t everything easier said than done?
You usually say that when things are especially hard, and I don’t think buying an ebook or book online is something easier said than done. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Well, if you live in Namibia it is…

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It might be, I’m not familiar.

I still don’t quite understand the intent behind that statement, though.

Do you want advice as to how to do it, or is it supposed to be a negative comment about the way things were phrased? I might be looking too much into it, and if you didn’t mean anything by it, (which I doubt going by your next comment), I apologize.

Otherwise, of course I don’t know how things are in Namibia, but you seem to have an internet connection and a WaniKani membership. Buying an ebook shouldn’t be that different, and it’s only around $4. If you don’t want to, or can’t for other reasons, then that’s fair, but I still think saying, “Easier said than done.” is a little reductive.

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