That’s great news! Welcome! I’m looking forward to it, though a little daunted at the prospect of reading without my kindle…
Thank you! Look-ups definitely take more time. I’m also reading a physical copy of the current book
I will skip this one as it’s not available digitally, and I am very very reluctant to spend so much money on shipping, sorry ![]()
With 密やかな結晶 coming to an end this week, I’ve created a thread for 寡黙な死骸みだらな弔い (小川洋子 Book club)
@Magyarapointe are you joining us?
Who else is keen? We can work out when to start once we know who is in
I might. Not sure yet because I’ve trouble keeping up with a schedule at the moment, but I’ll definitely try to read the book at least
The Intermediate book club over on Wanikani is due to read 小川洋子’s novel 人質の朗読会 next.
So I suggest that the Ogawaphiles here jump on over to Wanikani to join them for that. (I’m planning to, and @nikoru is running the club)
They are due to start at the end of April. We won’t have finished 寡黙な死骸 by then, but the WK club will probably start reasonably slowly so people can either read both in parallel or catch up. The link to the WK club is below
The 人質の朗読会 book club has kicked off over on Wanikani
Some of us are still reading 寡黙な死骸 (deliciously unsettling and thoroughly recommended for those who haven’t read it)
(I’m hoping to have finished it in two weeks and will then move on to the new book)
Thanks for the notification! I totally forgot I should ping y’all here… ![]()
Well I’ve reached the end of the wonderful 寡黙な死骸みだらな弔い.
There weren’t many people who joined us for the club, but I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in Ogawa’s writing. I also found it curiously fulfilling to read a hardback novel in Japanese. (I love my kindle, but it was a different physical experience reading this book).
I’m going to dive into the 人質の朗読会 this week (will find out tomorrow if my physical copy has arrived or got lost in the post).
I’ve just discovered that Stephen Snyder (Ogawa’s English translator) is working on a translation of another novel of Ogawa’s that I confess wasn’t even on my radar: 沈黙博物館 | L30??
I can see that @gen-shk has a copy…
I’ve added it to the list above, and will probably propose it for the club at some point. (I might have ordered a couple of other Ogawa books already, so I should probably be good and read them first…)
That’s an interesting choice. It doesn’t seem to be one of her more famous/popular novels, so I’m more curious about it now ![]()
I am participating in the 2026 Bingo Reading Challenge ✅, and one of the prompts is “a book that was published in 2026”. I thought I’d wait for the July Akutagawa Prize to pick a book for the prompt, but then I noticed that Ogawa has already released a book this year, namely 劇場という名の星座 | L30?? - which I herewith propose to the club. ![]()
It has almost 300 pages, so if we stick to the usual 15 pages per week, we would need to start in July/August to make it in time - which would overlap with the WK book club’s 人質の朗読会. If we start in September, that would mean ~30 pages per week. (Assuming that others also participate in the Bingo and want to fill that field
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What is the general opinion?
thanks - that’s an interesting suggestion.
I already have two other unread 小川洋子 books in hard copy (plus I think at least one other on kindle), so I should probably read one of those next.
My other recent suggestion was 沈黙博物館 on the basis that Stephen Snyder’s pick is likely to be a good one.
But I’m happy to go with the majority. It is certainly more enjoyable if there are other people interested in reading along.
Should we have a poll to see how many people are definitely/maybe interested, or alternatively to pick the next book?
I’d probably prefer to wait until the current WK book is finished if we can, whatever we choose next.
I… erm… ahaha… nikoru's books | Natively
Yes, absolutely ![]()
Let’s have a poll a bit before the WK book club ends, what do you think? There we usually have a one-week break but here we might want to have a longer one? That means we could poll early-mid August (or is it nonsensical to have a poll in the middle of the summer holiday season?
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Why don’t we poll early in case people want to order a physical copy? Say poll mid/ end July?
(I’m going to try to pick up a physical copy of whatever we choose when in Japan in mid September)
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That would work for me
Thanks!
Oh, we could have almost met there
I’ll be there basically in August.
Look what I found in Boston…!
(no relation I think, originally from Kyoto)
I strongly recommend it - excellent coffee!
Oh that reminds me
I took this picture last year and totally forgot to post:
This is in Namur, Belgium.
I guess 小川 is just a pretty common name ![]()
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Oh shoot, I thought I would jump back in on the next book after 寡黙な死骸, but it looks like I’ve missed the boat on that. That’s my fault for not checking in more regularly. Maybe I can catch the next book.
No problem!
There are definitely plans for more 小川洋子 reading when the current book is finished!
Dom
Is it worth running a poll for the next 小川 book to read together?
@nikoru and I have both suggested books recently which we could formally nominate. there are plenty of other options to choose from
But do we have people here who would potentially join in for a book starting in early September? If so, reply below or just
the post.

