Welcome to Section 1 of Almond / 아몬드 / アーモンド
Home Thread - 🌰 Almond / 아몬드 / アーモンド / Almendra
Rough guideline for reading:
| Week | Start Date | Chapters | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1st June | 1 - 4 | 18 |
| 2 | 8th June | 5 - 12 | 19 |
| 3 | 15th June | 13 - 18 | 20 |
Feel free to read at any pace!
But when commenting, please add spoiler tags by week, to allow for people reading at different paces.
Week 1 / Chapters 1-4
What a very dark start! With the murderer and the shopkeeper’s son, it feels a bit like we could be in a Quentin Tarantino style universe, where everything is more violent.
I was a bit put off by him calling himself a 怪物 (monster) at the start, so I was gladdened by background that his grandma nicknamed him かわいい怪物 (cute monster).
So far the vocab feels fairly adult, but the narrative is a lot of short sentences, so I’ve found it quite readable so far.
I did find the start of chapter 2 a little confusing though. I understood that his mum was at his dad’s grave talking about moving on from his dad. But it did take me a while to parse.
I’m still waiting for mine to be delivered, but hopefully I’ll get it soon, so I don’t start too late. I’m really happy to see this book club start though!
No problem! Happy for anyone to join late (even at a later date, if anyone reads after the book club and wants to join in).
Week 2 / Chapters 5-12 thoughts
Some tricky vocab in the medical bit, especially some of the disease names.
I feel bad for Japanese (and I presume Korean too) medical students.
They must have to memorise so many katakana-ised words for conditions/body parts.
I most enjoyed chapter 12 - the Grandma being pretty stoic, but actually ending up pretty kind to Almond (and possibly through that showing her affection for her daughter too - in her own proud way).
I also enjoyed the ‘how to eat Almonds’ paragraph, but I didn’t have any almonds at hand to try it 
Also enjoyed the Korean phrase/proverb 針泥棒が牛泥棒になる , something like ‘a needle thief becomes a cattle thief’.
Looks like it’s not common knowledge in Japanese, but is a common phrase in Korean.
So, I am in chapter 23 and the teacher just made the whole class clap for MC, telling him to cheer up after he lost his family. 
I wonder if that happens IRL. 
Ahh excited for spoilers. I will reply once I’m up to chapter 23.
I’ve created all the rest of the sections too.
Please do post your thoughts as an when they come to you!
I’ve fallen behind a bit due to summer busyness, but will be catching up now.
Week 3 / Chapters 13-18 thoughts
Found very heartwarming: the section on his comfort for old books and them transporting him all over.
It shifts quite drastically later on as we learn more about the mass murder scene and it’s immediate aftermath.
I do find reading about such terrorism makes me a bit uneasy. While I would be interested, I’m not sure I could handle Haruki Murakami’s アンダーグラウンド for similar reasons.
