Week 1 👁 眼球堂の殺人 ~The Book~! 👁

Japanese Reading Book Clubs
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Welcome to the first week of 眼球堂の殺人 ~The Book~！ :eye: :mirror_ball: :eye:!

Home thread for announcements, wiki, etc

We are following the below schedule (page counts may vary based on your medium):

Week Up to Approximate Pages Approx. Percent Paperback page
Week 1 - Feb 10 Read until :stop_sign: Chapter 1, part 4 33 9%
Week 2 - Feb 17 Read until Chapter 1, part 7 39 18%
Week 3 - Feb 24 Read to end of Chapter 1 28 25%
Week 4 - Mar 03 Read until Chapter 2, part 3 30 32%
Week 5 - Mar 10 Read until Chapter 2, part 5 35 40%
Week 6 - Mar 17 Read until Chapter 2, part 7 29 46%
Week 7 - Mar 24 Read until Chapter 3, part 2 25 52%
Week 8 - Mar 31 Read until Chapter 3, part 5 38 61%
Week 9 - Apr 7 Read until Chapter 3, part 8 28 67%
Week 10 - Apr 14 Read to end of Chapter 4 46 78%
Week 11 - Apr 21 Read until 謎 part 3 40 87%
Week 12 - Apr 28 through end of epilogue 46 100%

I will generally copy this information over thread to thread each week for ease of finding - you can always expect the schedule at the top of any weekly thread :slight_smile:

:policeman: Law and Order :policewoman:

  • Any reveals, for the current chapters must be behind spoilers or detail curtains. When we get further in you don’t need to hide details that were revealed in previous chapters.
  • Questions on vocab, grammar, nuance, and the like are both welcome and encouraged. If you’re not sure if it’s a spoiler, assume it is and use one of the above options to hide the text.
  • You are encouraged to speculate and guess wildly
  • Be kind about other peoples’ wild guesses :sparkling_heart:
  • Even if you don’t read the chapter(s) in time, you are still encouraged to post in the thread for that reading once you have finished it. I advise not reading ahead in the threads as you may see spoilers.

To gauge participation - a poll!

Are you reading week 1 of 眼球堂の殺人?

  • Yes, I’m planning to read along/am reading along this week
  • I’m reading, but not at the same pace as the club
  • I’m just following the discussion :popcorn:
0 voters

Happy sleuthing! :male_detective:

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:eye: Home thread for 眼球堂の殺人 ~The Book~ :eye:
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Finished the first week!

I looked up quite a few words. Mostly math terms (which I don’t know well in Japanese at all) and some things like 大理石 which are common enough in English but just not in the media I’ve consumed thus far.
Less so on the looking up front, but on the topic of vocab, this author seems very fond of both less common kanji (暫く anyone?) and some less common slightly archaic sounding turns of phrase. This is all stuff I love so I’m having a ball, but I suspect will kick up the difficulty rating of this book.
In particular I liked telling 藍子’s age as:

昨年二回目の年女を迎えたばかり

Since I’ve never seen 年女 before and this phrase was a delight. I had to go look it up to make sure I was calculating her age right:

年男・年女（としおとこ・としおんな）は、生まれた年と同じ十二支の年を迎えた男女である。 例えば、巳年生まれの男性の場合、12年毎の巳年に年男となる。 ただし、生まれた年には、年男・年女とはならず、その12年後が最初の年男・年女である。
(wiki link)

So she’s in her mid 20s, which matches her description as a 若手ジャーナリスト and her general personality as well.

So far I’m neutral about our duo. 十和田 seems like he’ll be a bit annoying, but if his character is played right he could be charming. I liked him playing with the paper bag, I was less thrilled with his childish reaction to her asking to see the map. She also isn’t my favorite with a slightly bumbling personality. But! We have many more cast members to meet, and perhaps things will come together when we have all of their dynamics playing off each other.

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Me after this week

つつ
つつ1919×1079 426 KB

Pics of the “Eyeball hall” really helped me imagine it. So far so good. The pacing feels a bit slow for now, but since it’s a 500+ p. book, it’s fine. Can’t wait for murder(murders?) and some action.
As for characters, I liked the “wandering mathematician” label, sounds quite fun, also naming a kid 神 is such a based move lol. Had to look up some words, but overall it felt okay.

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He is also fond of つつ :joy:

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It’s the first time I see つつ being used in books other than the JLPT prep book. :grin:

I’m just at 2% now and I have to resist looking the the spoilers above :joy:

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I finished Chapter 1 Part 1. Lots of new words for me so I have to keep checking the dictionary. Will watch less Korean shows this weekend so that I can reach Chapter 1 Part 4 :grin:

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I finally read till 9%.

Haha I didn’t know there would be pictures so I tried to draw it myself and it was wrong. :face_with_hand_over_mouth: The part where the building touches the bowl — I drew the building touching the outside instead of putting the building inside. I was imagining the building exposed to the side of the hills on one side haha :joy:

And what’s the meaning of this クロリンだぞ in 「中途半端だと？馬鹿を言うな。クロリンだぞ」It’s at around 5% of the book.

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Best I can tell he’s making a reference to chlorine having an atomic number of 17? I remember googling it and being like ‘oh this must have 17 sides’ but on recount that’s wrong :joy: I don’t see any other meanings coming up for the word :person_shrugging:
image
I was honestly having trouble picturing this bridge in my head, too bad it also didn’t get a pic

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Ah thanks! I didn’t even realize it’s related to Chlorine’s atomic number.

I just simply take it that when the bridge opens, it looks weird and unfinished. But now that you mentioned it, it would be nice if there’s a picture of it. :joy:

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When I saw エレガント I thought of principal from Spy x Family, also やれやれ is forever linked with Jojo for me XD

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I finally managed to finish this week yesterday :sweat_smile:

So far not much to report, I agree with everybody about the length of the buildup and the frequency of つつ :grin:

Somehow it reminds me a lot of 森博嗣, especially 笑わない数学者 MATHEMATICAL GOODBYE | L33 which features an interesting building that reminds me a lot of the one we have here, and also a mathematician. :thinking: Let’s hope the cases won’t get too similar though…

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