初心者のライトノベル読書会 📚 Beginner's Light Novel Book Club L20-29

[CatDQ]

Will add after my lesson

[Biblio]

tbf, it was the weakest story of those three and it’s probably included in another collection from that author, I’d assume. So, if you keep reading, you’ll eventually come across it.

[Legato]

@暁のルナ

Btw we’re at 14 nominations so far!! Should we start voting tomorrow, or wait a bit more, in case anyone still wants to nominate?

In any case, I wanna wrap that up before December 1st, to give people as much time as possible to order the book, if needed. So Nov 23 is the latest voting would start.

No answers yet - that’s what you get for not making this a poll

• Let’s vote now
• Let’s wait a bit more

[暁のルナ]

I did consider doing that lol

That begs the question though… How long does your poll stay open for?

[Legato]

@暁のルナ

That begs the question though… How long does your poll stay open for?

Nov 23 of course

It’s just for gathering sentiment, so you can act on it any time you want.

[暁のルナ]

Alright, seems like the overwhelming majority want to vote. Poll will remain open until 11/28 Midnight EST (UTC-05:00), so vote by then! You can vote for up to 5 books. Nominations List link, for easy reference

What will our first novel be?

• ひげを剃る。そして女子高生を拾う。
• 痛いのは嫌なので防御力に極振りしたいと思います。1
• 僕と死神の七日間
• くまクマ熊ベアー 1
• 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった… 1
• 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 レア属性を引き当てたので、気ままな冒険者を目指します
• また、同じ夢を見ていた
• サマーウォーズ
• 明日をくれた君に、光のラブレターを
• おまえをオタクにしてやるから、俺をリア充にしてくれ!
• 泣きたい私は猫をかぶる
• キノの旅 1
• おおかみこどもの雨と雪
• きみにしか聞こえない

[暁のルナ]

Just to make sure everyone sees, since I added the note a bit late: you can choose up to 5 books. Looking forward to seeing what we pick

[Legato]

Haha. I know, but in the end, looking at the line-up, it turns out it’s the only book I really want to read right now

(There are two others I miiiiight join tho if they happen to get picked.)

[enbyboiwonder]

I voted for the two I already own since I’m trying to slow down on buying books for a bit, but there are a couple I might join anyway if they get picked

[暁のルナ]

Well DHL delivered it to the wrong address, so I guess it wasn’t meant to be

Oh well, maybe some future time

[Megumin]

What? And they are not going to recover or give you compensati8on or anything?

[暁のルナ]

I hope/suspect I’ll get one from Amazon… we’ll see. Timing is bad tho, as it’s Thanksgiving, so they’ll be closed for the day

Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky & whoever they wrongly delivered it to will drop it in the mail. Will definitely request a Signature Required on any future orders tho!

[seanblue]

You should be able to get a refund, though it might take some effort. When you opt for no signature, you release DHL from liability assuming they deliver it in accordance with your instructions. And your instructions presumably did not include sending it to the wrong address. That said, can you prove they sent it to the wrong address rather than them leaving it at your place and it getting snatched? That’ll probably determine whether you can get a refund and I don’t know how hard they try to deny screwing up.

Either way that really sucks. I’ve gotten DHL deliveries from Amazon and CD Japan for years and have always gone no signature without issue. Hope you can get it resolved!

[暁のルナ]

Thanks. I didn’t have a choice afaik, it was the Amazon seller who opted for no signature. I did triple check that the address was correct though, including on all the emails from DHL.

It should be pretty easy to prove. DHL has a “proof of delivery” photo that shows an apartment door that doesn’t look anything remotely like the ones in my building (like entirely different hallways, door colors, etc)

I’ve only had a few orders from Japan so far, and this was only time I’ve had an issue with DHL (though I did once order a set of zabuton that mysteriously never showed up - the seller refunded). Human error is always possible though, regardless of the company. Anyway, I don’t wanna take up more space on the thread than I already have, so I’ll update later if, it all turns out well in the end. Thx for the advice

[Legato]

Hmmm, looks like it’s probably gonna be また、同じ夢を見ていた. I’m really torn on that one. After reading this review, I definitely want to read it, but it sounds like it would be much too soon for me, despite it seemingly being only L26:

This book is teeming with irony and wordplay and euphemisms and subtext. If you read this book as a beginner like I did, reread it after you’ve read a few dozen more books, because the book’s best offerings demand that you understand the language it uses well. It really wants you to focus on reading between the lines, which is really hard to do when reading the lines themselves takes several trips to the dictionary. I understand why newer readers feel like it’s boring; it feels easy and lifeless when you’re pushing through it, but every line is filled with nuance, and unless you’re a solid n2/n1 level, you’re likely missing it.

I wonder if reading it with a book club would help with that. The chasm between my level and “solid n2/n1 level” seems a bit big, and even if we have more experienced readers explaining things, almost getting no subtext on my own might be similar in enjoyment to reading a joke book where I need explanations for all the jokes?

[Jintor]

@Legato

The chasm between my level and “solid n2/n1 level” seems a bit big, and even if we have more experienced readers explaining things, it feels like it might similar in enjoyment to a joke being explained

I think that’s fine tbh. It’s already one of the lower-level picks in this batch, and I don’t really think there’s anything wrong with explaining wordplay when the intent here is to learn/understand things. It’s like a Douglas Adams or Pratchett book (or even the Simpsons), you’ll go back years later and be like ‘oh, that was the joke’! but it won’t really detract from the original read probably.

[Legato]

@Jintor

It’s like a Douglas Adams or Pratchett book (or even the Simpsons), you’ll go back years later and be like ‘oh, that was the joke’! but it won’t really detract from the original read probably.

I think that’s actually fine (if you already get at least enough jokes originally to get enjoyment out of them), but getting none of them and then having someone explain pretty much all the jokes to me doesn’t sound too enjoyable.

(Also e.g. a Douglas Adams or a Pratchett would probably be a terrible beginner book for that reason, independently of the language level required to get the basic meanings of the sentences. I feel like wordplay is a much more advanced concept in the journey of language learning.)

But hey, maybe I should just try and see where it goes if it gets picked.

[shitsurei]

If it helps at all, I went into 本好き thinking there was no chance to I’d be able to keep up and read comfortably, but now that I’m on the second to last week I’m really glad that I took the challenge.

If you still have doubts, I’d recommend reading electronically in some form, and having access to the JMDict because it has a lot of set phases and literal + word for word translations for them.

Just some food for thought.

[Biblio]

@Legato

I understand why newer readers feel like it’s boring; it feels easy and lifeless when you’re pushing through it, but every line is filled with nuance, and unless you’re a solid n2/n1 level, you’re likely missing it.

The author writes pop fiction and afai remember the book was pretty much in your face with the themes it wanted to present to you. It really depends on what you want to get out of a book. If you enjoy analyzing every sentence and paragraph and look for possible hidden meanings - then sure, higher level is better. If you just want to read a book for its story, また、同じ夢を見ていた is pretty accessible. It’s 100% character driven, i.e. very little actually happens and it’s all about thoughts, feelings and slice of life. If you don’t like such books, then you’ll hate また、同じ夢を見ていた but I had a good time with it.

[bungakushoujo]

@Biblio

The author writes pop fiction and afai remember the book was pretty much in your face with the themes it wanted to present to you

Just popping in to say I’ve also read the book before and agree with this + everything else @Biblio wrote. It is pretty accessible, so if you’re interested at all it’s worth giving it a try! It’s a fun book!