Last December I did an Aozora Bunko short story Advent challenge. That was over on the WK forums, but Iām happy to do one again this year on this forum if thereās interest.
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Iād be interested 
EDIT: Iād also be interested in short essays, if thatās a thing ā¦
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I didnāt look much into which stories I was grabbing aside from length (and avoiding an author or two I wasnāt keen on) so a decent chunk actually ended up being essays.
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Oh even better 
Alright, Iām down!
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Iām down too
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Do you mean reading stuff in classical japanese, or just classic lit? 
Iām not so interested in Genji since (a) Iāve read it in English and (b) Iām not super-interested in reading it in a translation into modern Japanese. But classics in the āmodern Japanese literatureā sense might be interesting (Iāve read a little Soseki and Tanizaki, for instance).
Speaking of Tanizaki, weāre about to start reading ē“äŗŗć®ę in an informal book club in a few weeks.
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There are two more weeks, donāt scare me like that.
I am late on literally everything and reading something completely unrelated to those clubs/books I have to read.
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Iād never considered reading kotenbu, now you made me want to read it 
This looks cool, reading short stories might be a better choice when it comes to classics (and language difficulty) 
Iām not that much arrogant
I had āclassics in the āmodern Japanese literatureā senseā in my mind when I wrote my suggestion, but while typing I also remembered Genji and the fact that Iāve been waiting for a good opportunity to read it for a long time.
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Oops, sorry 
I think of it as āvery soonā because I havenāt got round to putting in the book order for it yetā¦
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ā¦and now I have ā cdjapan shipping does indeed seem to be cheaper than amazon these days, which is nice given how bad amazon Japan are at packing books.
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Would people be interested in a sports book club? I was thinking both manga and novels (though I personally was leaning more toward novels since sports manga series all seem to be so long while one-shots donāt seem uncommon with novels, but like I said, both would be welcome)
- Yes
- Maybe
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voters
Not that I exactly know how to run one, but Iāll try
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@shablul, could you make the home post a wiki so we can add links to existing polls for new voters and future reference?
Another poll, since I know @cat and @Biblio might be interested:
Would you be interested in a nonfiction book club?
- Yes
- No
- Maybe
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voters
If thereās enough interest I wouldnāt mind setting everything up, but this absolutely wouldnāt happen before the new year.
Also curious (this is more an open, general question for anyone whoād be interested in setting it up themselves; I just like polls):
Would you be interested in a manga-only club?
- Yes
- No
- Maybe
0
voters
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done 
and added the new polls anyways lol
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I think the issue with this is that manga can be a HUGE span of genres and intended age ranges. I think generally manga series would have more success as informal clubs where a specific series is announced and people can opt to read along if they choose.
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agreed, pretty much the reason I said a āmaybeā
I honestly read mainly manga but I will think about joining a manga only club only if it has some catch or rule of thumb that catches my interest
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What kind of narrowing criteria comes to mind? Specific examples as well as general ones. The suggestion was a pretty broad one for sure; I figure this is a good use of the thread, though: narrowing down what the people really want to see.
Potential specific criteria I can think of off the top of my head:
- Manga in a specific genre
- Manga within a certain level range
- Manga running in specific magazines
- Manga published during a specific time period
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Non fiction is a pretty broad range, so I can imagine there being a lot of ādepends on the bookā there. I have ęÆä»®åć®ę“å² | L30?? in the cdjapan order I just placed yesterdayā¦
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What would be a good way to narrow down a nonfiction club? Honestly I feel like the biggest potential issue with narrowing down the accepted books is getting a decent number of nominations; nonfiction is already a pretty niche reading genre for Japanese learners, and I feel like it would be constricting potential nominations/joiners if we limit to a certain nonfiction topic.
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Just reading along, but some potential ideas to narrow down non-fiction selections:
- ć«ć/reportage books about social issues in Japan (there are tons of these)
- By topic, such as history, science, social studies, etc
- Essays, memoirs, biographies
- Travel reports
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I think manga from certain levels, specific time periods or even made by specific mangaka for example is a good way to narrow it down
The first one especially could be good for beginner learners though not sure if itās us who should be nominating this or of itās something that should come from a beginner strating a beginner group
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