When I last checked a few months ago, the state of the situation was:
Yeah, that’s what I do too. But if I had a Kindle, I’d probably read anything with selectable text (i.e. anything non-manga) on that.
Unless it’s something I know I won’t need to make many lookups for, I keep my phone at hand with the dictionary open (I use Shirabe Jisho, since it’s got handwriting, plus unlike imiwa? the different modes of search aren’t all fully separate. Also doesn’t distinguish between hiragana and katakana, which is nice). As I come across words/phrases I don’t know or ain’t sure about, I make a decision about whether to look it up or not. Some days I’m lazier and will only look up stuff I absolutely need to for comprehension, some days I’m more proactive and will look up almost everything that I don’t know.
I also tend to delete searches afterward, but if it’s something that comes up frequently in a book but I keep forgetting it, I’ll leave it there until I don’t need it anymore to make re-looking it up easier. I’ll also frequently use a “?” in place of a kanji I can’t type by reading and don’t feel like drawing (Shirabe’s handwriting recognition actually isn’t that good, but it’s better than not having it at all, and radical search’s too much of a pain for me to bother with most of the time).
It’s definitely gotten easier lately as I’ve learned more readings and gotten better at guessing 音読み, too.
This is more streamlined now, but this is pretty much the same system I’ve used since I started. (Biggest differences I think are 1. I used to not delete searches; I started out saving items in a bookmark folder specific to a book but then I’d never use them lmao; and 2. if there was a single kanji I didn’t know how to type, I’d draw the whole thing into Google Translate and then copy-paste. Having the different search/input modes attached to the keyboard is sooo much more convenient, I wish I’d found Shirabe sooner)
I have a 電子辞書 (Casio XD-GP9700) which I bought a decade ago and which is still going strong (though I might at some point buy a new one if there’s a version with more JJ dictionaries in it). It does both keyboard input if you know the kana and stylus input if you need to handwrite the kanji. It does encourage not bothering to look up every unknown word, though, compared to an ebook.
I prefer physical books due to issues with my eyes if using screens for too long. I guess mostly I don’t mind look ups as I tend to use an app for that which allows me to draw the kanji then select from the ones that best suit or there is an alternative app that lets me look stuff up using the furigana. 本好き was just too much in the way of look ups even with a digital copy for me so I just listened and tried to understand what I could.
I tend to re-read books, even in English so it’s not that I feel I have to understand everything the first time round. I use re-reading as a way to gauge my progress and understanding to see how much improvement I’ve made since the last reading. My process is very slow however and it isn’t suitable for everyone. It does give me sufficient practice to internalise grammar and vocabulary though.
Right now, if you know where to look, the floodgates are open even on the latest kindle app for windows. Not sure how long they will remain open though
Is there an ebook available? yes
Is there an audiobook available? Only a 30-minute abridged version. Read by Enoki Junya! But still, abridged. (Also, Amazon pretends it’s Audible-only, but there is a CD of it, just gotta find it elsewhere)
Is there a full-furigana version available? no
Is this book available in Korean? no clue, sorry
高２の藍原美月は親友の彼氏に片想いし、悩む日々を送っていた。ある日、美月は図書室で「こころ」に挟まった自分宛てのラブレターを見つける。差出人の名前は「佐藤」、でも心当たりはゼロ。不審に思いながらも返事を本に挟むと、翌日また手紙！ 不思議な文通を繰り返すうち、「佐藤くん」は美月にとって大切な存在になるがーー。「藍原さんに、会いたい。」手紙にこめられた想いがわかるとき、涙が零れる。切なさに包まれる感動作！
High school second-year Aihara Midzuki spends her days troubled, one-sidedly in love with her best friend’s boyfriend. One day, she finds a love letter addressed to her sandwiched between the pages of the school library’s copy of Kokoro. The sender calls himself “Satou,” but Midzuki has zero clue who he is. Though suspicious, she leaves a reply in the book, and the next day she finds another letter! Over the course of this mysterious correspondence, “Satou-kun” becomes a person important to Midzuki. “I want to meet you, Aihara-san.” Tears overflow when the feelings behind the letters are understood. A moving, heart-wrenching work.
Aihara Midzuki-san,
I’ve always been interested in you, and just once, I wanted to talk to you.
ー Satou
After finding a love letter addressed to her sandwiched between the pages of the school library’s copy of Natsume Souseki’s Kokoro, high school second-year Midzuki sets out to find out just who this mysterious boy who only lets himself be known as “Satou” is, and discovers to her surprise just how many guys named Satou there are in her life. No longer merely drifting through high school, Midzuki’s life and her relationships to the people in it slowly but surely begin to change.
There’s one Satou who gets stalkery, but that doesn’t progress very far.
Major spoiler: character death
I don’t remember there being anything else.
Why are you nominating this book?
I enjoyed it a lot (I dunno if anyone here participated in the Read Every Day challenges over on WaniKani last year, but if you did, you may have seen me talk about it there—at length sometimes, lol). I thought it well-written, and I don’t remember anything that came up that didn’t eventually have a payoff, although I read this in spurts over the course of several months and don’t have the best memory besides, so that may not be 100% true.
I usually don’t like love triangles at all (or quadrangles in this case, I guess), but this one isn’t the annoying “Ooh, who will A choose~?” kind. I hesitate to say that it’s not a big part of the story, since Midzuki’s feelings do influence her, but it’s not really part of the romance aspect, I guess. A character might like another character, but it’s not always treated as a possibility. Anyway, I was fine with it. Thankfully, because I read it specifically because Enoki Junya lol
(And if you’re looking for a book to fill the “won an award” spot in next year’s reading bingo, this won a youth novel award in 2020! - 魔法のｉらんど大賞２０２０小説大賞〈青春小説部門賞〉)
This is technically not a light novel I’m pretty sure, but it’s still a YA/shoujo romance, and in my head YA equals LN (even if LN doesn’t always equal YA), though I’m happy to remove this nomination if there are objections. It’s also somewhat on the shorter side at about 270 pages, but since the margins for the letters are about half the margins for the rest of the text, they artificially inflate the page count a bit, making it closer to 250 pages.
I looked at a vid or two on YouTube, and I’m kinda curious to try one… But wow most of them are expensive!! If anyone has recs for cheaper ones, lmk.
I prefer looking up every word, unless it’s something where I really know the content (like SAO manga), or have consciously decided to read extensively. That said, I’ve had to push myself to pause before looking up words, and make sure it’s not actually a known word. In that way, it might be helpful.
The difficulty for Japanese learners is that really the market for these devices is native Japanese speakers, so the dictionary selection is aimed at their requirements. The effect is that if you want the better J-E dictionary you end up having to pick one of the higher end models which comes with a pile of dictionaries you didn’t really need, like the Oxford Advanced Learner’s E-E dictionary or a load of “basic English conversation” tutorials. They are a bit difficult to recommend compared to using a phone app for most people these days – to some extent the product category is a holdover from when people didn’t have phones, and I’m guessing still kept alive by the need for school kids to have a device which they can use in class. (The “graphic calculator” is in the same boat.)
Gotcha. I’m trying looking up by writing, and it’s really hard (tho a good way to actually practice writing!!). Also hard not to lose my place repeatedly. Looking up by radical works well enough, but is still pretty disruptive.
I think the only way I could practically do this, without being overwhelmed for now, would be via Google Lens. Anyway, thx for sharing!
I’ve been thinking about an e-ink tablet for that but they all still lean pretty expensive, alas
Obviously I don’t know your budget, but the cheapest model is around $100 and can get as low as $75-80 on sale (e.g. Black Friday).
Shamelessly reposting my nomination from the LN club 
(if it’s not cool lmk and I’m fine to keep this out of the running)
It’s cool, but could you fill it out manually so it looks like the normal template, instead of being in quote blocks?
no prob!
Book: おまえをオタクにしてやるから、俺をリア充にしてくれ! | L26
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Is there an audiobook available?: no
Is there an all-furigana version available?: no
(Optional) Is this book available in Korean?: yes
高校からは隠れオタクになることを決めた俺だが、入学早々、学校一の美少女でギャルの恋ヶ崎桃にオタクだということがバレる！ 戸惑う俺に彼女は驚愕の相談をしてきた。「あたしをオタクにしなさいよ！」と。
Traumatized by events from his past, Naoki Kashiwada intends to make his high school debut by hiding the fact that he is an otaku, transitioning into a regular student. Naoki quickly develops feelings for the quiet and popular Midori Hasegawa, which helps motivate him to reach his goal. At the same time, Momo Koigasaki, a cute but seemingly promiscuous girl, secretly wants to learn about anime and visual novels to find common ground with her crush, Souta Suzuki. However, things don’t go as expected when a mix-up reveals Naoki’s and Momo’s secrets to each other!
Forming an unlikely alliance, the two reach an agreement: Momo will help Naoki socialize normally if he helps her understand otaku culture in return. Two people with clashing lifestyles must now work together to alter their identities, while somehow keeping their secrets hidden from the rest of the world.
None that I know of.
It feels like the genre is pretty ripe for misogynist tropes, but I have no actual knowledge of anything.
Why are you nominating this book: Another one that’s been on my to read list for a while. Being a big ole otaku myself, I think the premise sounds amusing, and I’ve seen it recommended a few times so it’s probably decent?
Thx - any chance you can add the cover? Sry to be nitpicky, it just makes it easier for everyone to tell what they’re looking they’re at.
Easiest way to do it is to get it to auto-display the card:
**Book:**
https://raw_natively_link here/
**Is there an eBook available:**
etc
But you could also manually copy/paste the image, or download and upload it too.
One note on the Kindle because I was just reminded of that fact while contemplating getting one during the current Black Friday sale: You can’t sign into the accounts from two different Amazon countries (e.g. amazon.co.jp and amazon.com) on one Kindle device. So it wouldn’t just be expensive, it would also only be for Japanese books. (You can of course sign out with one account, have your Kindle reset itself, and then sign in with the other, but how annoying would that be?)
I might be okay with that, because I also have another ebook reader that I can use for non-Japanese books (but sadly not for Japanese ones; I never figured out how to get it to display text with the Japanese layout), but I just wanted to make sure you know that before buying one and then finding out too late.
You can buy second hand pretty cheap, I have one that I bought for like 20EUR on amazon, Casio one before upgrading to a fancy one.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/product/B00S0NR31S
Just be sure to buy the appropiate level, you don’t want to get a University level one being Middle Schooler level.
I think it’s more useful to check the dictionaries that are included; the requirements of a Japanese middle schooler or university student don’t really map well into the different levels of development of a foreign language learner. For that particular model the J-J dictionaries are good (Meikyou has good simple explanations a lot of the time, and Koujien will help with words that are more obscure and not in Meikyou), and the collocation dictionary is probably handy. The J-E selection is the usual “cheaper model” ones, though; no Kenkyusha JE, in particular. On the other hand the price is right so especially if you’re mostly transitioning towards monolingual dictionaries it could be ideal.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/product/B08MW29HND/
This is the fancy one I have.
AS @pm215 mentioned, I bought it after looking at the dictionaries.
This one has beginner, and more advanced in the same device.
