Just to clear up one thing, by the way: the なぜ?どうして? book we read previously was なぜ?どうして?せきのふしぎ 二年生. It’s different from, though related to, the book we’re currently reading, which is なぜ?どうして?科学のお話 二年生. Note that they’re both second-year books. The other sorta-active book in the ABBC is another in the same set, 10分で読める物語 二年生 - also second-year.
We elected to skip the first-year books because they almost completely lack kanji, which in some ways makes them even more difficult to read. It’s the first two stages of learning kanji - 1. Why are there so many kanji? 2. Why are there so FEW kanji in this book?
That being said, it could make sense to gather a group of people and read one of the former picks. It sounds pretty optimal, you have all your work cut for you: the schedule and threads are there, the vocab lists are populated, etc. And you would still get the fun of reading with others, too!
Maybe you could turn this thread into a sort of “looking for group” kinda thing? I sure would be up to find people to read No6 or Kiki with me, because the completionist in me really want to tick all the checkboxes of the book clubs
I agree. I think in most cases there’s not too much point, because you’ll get less interest from others, and there’s surely something interesting coming up that you could actively take part in instead.
But particularly for some ‘big name’ picks I’d imagine that maybe once every year or even every two years there would be a decent group of people keen to read it together for the motivational aspect, even if most questions have already been asked and answered and it’s all kind of already laid out.
If you’re willing to wait until I’ve ground through the second volume of Zenitendou (after Kiri), I need to read Kiki at some point and I’d appreciate the accountability! I was planning way back to read it with @Momoiro but as always there are other book clubs and life happens.
I’d like to finish Kiki at some point as well. It was the first book I attempted and I didn’t have enough knowledge/time to finish it, so it’d be interesting to go back now and see if it feels any easier (I sure hope so).
Kiki is one I want to read as well, and actually think I could do a book club for since it’s been ages since I last saw the movie, and with school closures looming for the indefinite future, I’d be more available for forum activity/reading-aloud sessions if we did those.
Just to throw my name in the pile for Kiki support
I was not expecting this level of immediate enthusiasm I’d be very happy to organise it, but I think @Voi was keen to read Zenitendou vol. 2 together, so I might have to bow out of Kiki if people want to get going asap
Though I had a similar feeling when there was a sudden wave of interesting reading the Hyakunin Isshu book. Not… not that we’ve gotten around to doing anything about it…