Hello, I really would like to start a book club. I don’t plan for it to be very formal, but rather a way for people to get a better understanding of a book that we read. So, I have a few recommendations of books I am interested in reading.
Reccs:
黒死館殺人事件
虚無への供物
ドグラ・マグラ
吾輩は猫である
I am interested in more classic novels, but I don’t have a specific genre in general. These novels are somewhat long, but with a book club it can make it harder to get lost in the context. If you have any suggestions, please share I am open to many ideas.
yes, I saw the video last week! I they inspired because I found that I liked classic novels and found 日本三大寄書 which intrigued me because they all are not the same author or written about the same topics, but they are recognized as a group, which in English I don’t think they is an equivalent. So not only reading one of these allows for a cultural aspect but also has aspect of if you like one the others are similar.
That makes sense! I might be interested in reading along with 虚無への供物 or 黒死館殺人, depending on timing and pacing, but I think I’d pass on the others because 夢野 (author of ドクラ・マグラ) I’ve no interest in ever reading again* and 吾輩は猫である feels like it’d be more of an academic exercise than anything else for me.
Since you said the book club wouldn’t be very formal, but it also seems like you’re still getting a bit of a feel for how book clubs are run, this is generally how I’ve run or see others run informal clubs.
Make a new thread just for that specific book
Announce a start date - with informal clubs it’s very normal to have people show up whenever, but an official start is helpful for getting things off the ground
Announce a reading schedule that you will be following. Some informal clubs strictly follow a schedule, others it’s more just a way to easily refer to what section you’re in (“I’m reading week 3 and have a question about X”)
Put a public poll in to see who is interested in joining
The one short story I read of his was needlessly grotesque and had graphic animal cruelty. Not my taste at all.
Thank you very much for the help. I actually already own the ドグラマグラ 上 version and was told it is the best out of the 三大寄書, why did you like it or dislike it? I think I might start to read ドグラマグラ then 虚無への供物 but they are both pretty long novels.
I haven’t read any of ドクラ・マグラ, I just don’t like the author having read another one of his works and found it too gory for my taste, and containing quite a bit of animal cruelty. I’ve since heard 夢野 (the author) is famous for disturbing writing. I’m sure not all his books are like that, but it soured me on reading more.
I see, I think I will probably start to read ドグラマグラ to see how it is seeing that there is only one review on natively. But I kind of feel like mostly everything I have read in Japanese has something a little off to it including abuse and or weird sexual relations but that could just be me. But I read 探偵ガリレオ a little bit ago and I feel like 虚無への供物 and 黒死館殺人事件 are just like every other mystery. But if it turns out I dislike ドグラマグラ I see about starting to read the others. Again, thank you for your help.
It’s definitely common in Japanese literature, I think in general there’s more of an interest in exploring taboos compared to Western lit (or what I read of Western lit anyways). I had a phase earlier this year where I complained every new Japanese book I picked up had some form of incest in it
Did you start it? If so, how was it, or is it so far? I wanted to read it, but I’m a bit wary of it given the level and what cat said about the author.
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