Here are my usual methods of finding interesting (to me!) stuff to read.
To explain this a little, I generally neither read Manga nor Light Novels. I am especially looking for material that doesn’t feature schoolchildren / adolescence etc. So far I have been quite successful. Here is where I go to find such books:
Blogs
- tsundokureader.com - Reviews of Japanese books
Newspaper Articles etc.
These are mainly reading lists that contain books in English that are translations of Japanese authors. They serve as good starting points to explore the authors, and often it is not hard to discover the Japanese original. Just bear in mind that for some of these books there is no Japanese original (because e.g. it’s a short story compilation only edited with the English translations). Some of the newspapers may have a reading limit.
- 10 Japanese books you need to read (The Culture Trip)
- 9 Japanese authors you should know (The Culture Trip)
- The best Japan-related books of the 2010’s (Japan Times)
- The best books to get you through lockdown (Japan Times)
Awards
- The Akutagawa Prize Reading Challenge
- The Naoki Prize Reading Challenge
- The Honya Taishou 本屋大賞 Reading Challenge
Personal Recommendations
-
I ask basically every Japanese person I meet whether they have favorite authors or books. This of course covers a broad range of stuff so I need to filter this out a little bit by reading the book’s synopsis or something.
-
Book Club proposals (although many of the nominations fall in the undesired bracket of [Manga / Light Novel / Schoolchildren] - but sometimes there is an interesting book among them.)