Week 1: 雪国 - Snow Country ⛄️❄️

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雪国 - Snow Country :snowman::snowflake: Home Thread

Week 1

yukiguni

Start Date: Oct 31st
Next Part: Week 2

Reading:

Week Start Date End Phrase End Page (角川文庫) End % Page Count
Week 1 Oct 31st 寒いところへ来るものか 19 11% 12

Word lists - Learn the vocabulary for 雪国 - Snow Country :snowman::snowflake:

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle:

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
(Please feel free to update your status whenever you like!)

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m planning to catch up later
  • I’m skipping this book

0 voters

Proper Noun Readings

Name Reading Notes Proof
島村 しまむら Our protagonist
葉子 ようこ The girl on the train Furigana

It feels weird to read anything else than 本好きの下剋上 :thinking: It’s been a while.

5 Likes

My first bookclub :grimacing: Starting the book today!
よろしくね😉

10 Likes

Would you like to set your participation status in the OP’s poll?

(for statistical reasons only, of course :innocent:)

3 Likes

I forgot to comment but, in my version (the one with gray stripes), this week’s content ends at 9%. I kept reading up to 12% before checking the final line and realizing it was long past.

General comment about the book: after all the light novels I’ve been reading recently, the writing style does feel “heavy” indeed. Like someone just turned the gravity back on.

More specific, but I somehow do not have a good impression of the protagonist so far. At all.

2 Likes

Sorry about that! I guess it would be too confusing if I tried to maintain multiple percentages for the various editions, though… I think a better rule of thumb would be to stop at each break and compare the final sentence. This week we’re stopping at the book’s second break only, but I think after that we will stop at each break.

Hmmm… so far I cannot say that I am overwhelmed by him, but I have not had good reason to dislike him yet… Actually I quite liked how he described the reflections in the window and his careful observation of his fellow passengers. That sounded to me like he’s a person who cares for others.

Maybe you got that impression because you read further already? (I’m really curious to know what happened back then that caused such drama…)

2 Likes

I don’t think so.
It’s a lot from his general attitude and specifically from his this:

あんなことがあったのに、手紙も出さず、会いにも来ず、踊の型の本など送るという約束も果さず

Yet he has no hesitation to call her as soon as he got in the region.

2 Likes

Ah, I see. I was wondering whether you thought of that line when you made the comment.

I think I still need to know more about what happened back then (and about her) to be able to form a coherent opinion :woman_shrugging:

2 Likes

Hoo, what an interesting feeling is it to read this. The language does feel ‘heavier’, I quite like that descriptor. There were quite a lot of run on sentences I read multiple times, and fun counters. I feel like it will take a while before 尺 and 丈 mean anything to me. :smiley:

I'll hold off on forming an opinion on the characters quite yet.
3 Likes

I got to the end of this week’s reading, but I’m not sure how much I really understood. I kept reading while sleepy and more than once fell asleep in the middle of a page. Considering that and that I’m finding it difficult, clearly I need to read this one sometime other than right before bed. :sleeping:

8 Likes

I already started to read it and managed to read the first three sentences.
In my opinion it’s easier than some of the books in the Absolute Beginner Book Club. :rofl:

3 Likes

For some reason, the finger stuff just creeped me out. It made me think of a sketchy, womanizing ET trying to be wistfully romantic. I know this is weirdly specific, and certainly not what the author was attempting to portray. That combined with the protagonist’s seemingly casual indifference towards 彼女, like in the quote above, made me feel a general dislike for him, even though we don’t technically know much yet.

5 Likes

Yes, I think it’s weird too, but I’m giving the main character the benefit of the doubt until we know more. I don’t need it to dislike him so far anyway :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

I must confess I totally did not get it the first time around, but towards the end it got pretty obvious, even for me. What really amazes me is how much the author can convey by saying so little… it’s a bit like he bypassed the book and directly transmitted the story into my head.
This is an interesting contrast to Murakami who always seems to say “Here, take all the gory details! Oh, you didn’t want that much? Here, take some more!” :rofl:

4 Likes