Book club suggestions

If there is a Japanese translation of a Korean book that fits the Profoundly Weird BC themes I’d be 100% in regardless of level :eyes:

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소리를 삼킨 소년 | L25 might be a good fit, but I can’t tell whether it’s been translated or not. Probably 殺人者の記憶法 (新しい韓国の文学 17) | L30?? (살인자의 기억법 | L29??) as well, although that’s veering into some pretty dark themes again.

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So long as there is no animal cruelty I’m pretty chill with most dark themes. Drawn to them even :joy:

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Maybe https://learnnatively.com/book/97aa75fedf/ (Japanese title 誰にでも親切な教会のお兄さんカン・ミノ)?? I haven’t read it yet but I think it’s either profoundly weird or horrible people doing terrible cringe things (also love that genre). Don’t know the Korean level though. :frowning:

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I have a German edition that is really beautiful. It has illustrations in between.
It was a very quick read. I liked it.

Some pics of the German edition


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I’d ideally want to read such novels in the original, when (if ever) my Korean reaches that stage. This is not happening any time soon though, and being exposed to good Korean literature would work as an incentive to learn faster, so this sounds like a good idea to me. :smiley:

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Oh, wow. I wouldn’t have made the connection on my own, but I am also currently in possession of a German translation. My family lent it to me… End of last year I think? I’d be down to read that soon. :joy:

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I should have probably made clearer in the post, I have no knowledge of Korean, just my intermediate Japanese, so I have limited sense what to recommend.

A bit of looking, another couple of possibles might be
https://learnnatively.com/book/0731794c6b/ / アーモンド | L30??

And エディ、あるいはアシュリー
/ 에디 혹은 애슐리 - 예스24
(assuming they contain the same stories, and also no idea the level, but I love the Japanese cover)

At lot of the blurbs for the books in となりの国のものがたり sound interesting to me.

I will make a post of the Korean side of Natively, and see if there is anyone who can give recommendations, or anyone who would be interested in reading alongside in Korean.

Wow, this is the coolest book design I’ve seen in a while!

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I read Diary of a Murderer in Korean already, so I probably wouldn’t join. I think it’s a book you need to read twice to appreciate it fully, but rereading it would be a completely different experience knowing what you know by the end. So I’d be afraid to accidentally spoil something hahaha. It’s a little dark, but it’s not graphic. Though, I’ll say for comprehension wise it’s somewhat unclear at times as the narrator himself falls into his Alzheimer’s. So while it wasn’t hard to understand necessarily language wise, it was sometimes hard to tell what was really happening.

I’d like to recommend maybe a book by Han Kang? I’ve read her books in English but not Korean yet. For example, 소년이 온다 / 少年が来る / Human Acts
(I’m not sure if that’s the Japanese title or if it’s on Japanese natively yet?) is level 25. I think it may be more like level 27 from my memory of reading it in English. It’s a pretty dark book though as it tells about a national tragedy. But I think Han Kang books are very accessible.

As for other books, something like 엄마를 부탁해 / Please Look after Mom /母をお願い or 82년생 김지영 / Kim Jiyeong, Born 1982 / 82年生まれ、キム・ジヨン could be good options though a little more difficult, maybe level 30. I started to read both years ago and didn’t get far, but I am now at the level to read them lol. If you want to read Korean literature, these are both pretty quintessential works. Also I just copy and pasted what I think the Japanese titles are but they could be wrong lolol.

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It feels like there’s enough of an interest to try this out!

I created Korean In Translation Book Club .

If there’s any more recommendations, please add them in today.
Then maybe tomorrow I’ll put out a poll and we can vote on them.

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I’ve added a poll into the korean book club.

I’ve set it to allow people to pick their top 3 picks, hope that works out!

Happy voting :ballot_box: :ballot_box: :ballot_box:

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I have an idea
If some are interested I feel like this has potential
It might sound weird at first but please take a second to consider

A book club for web novels

Not necessarily from syosetsu, but can also be from pixiv or some blog

  • yes
  • yes but only if it’s with very strict filter rules
  • :thinking:
  • no
0 voters
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I mean if this gets more people to read Freezer Husband I’m for it

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I feel like I need details because the name is intriguing.

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You may find this list of interest:

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The description sounds interesting and It happens to be 50% points back on Amazon right now, so I’ll give it a try. Thanks for the rec!

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I have a physical copy of this in my book pile!

@catbus or anyone else,
I’d happily do an informal book club on it at some point.

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if you want to save money, the webnovel is perfectly fine. It doesn’t include a specific plot arc, but I didn’t miss that arc. :sweat_smile:

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It sounds potentially interesting, but my 2 problems (besides that I’m usually reading too many things, and very inconsistent with book clubs) are:

  1. There’s usually not enough info for me to determine whether I’d be interested in a web novel. The only ones I’ve considered reading are for pre-existing series (SAO, Log Horizon, クラスで2番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった, ぼうふり, etc)
  2. There’s often not a clear indicator of where they end (like クラスで2番目 is 6 published volumes, but 285 web novel chapters, with no clear delineation)

Anyway if ppl are rec’ing and can say something about why, that solves problem 1… but problem 2 might need some thought (unless the answer is just “read the whole thing”)

Anyway, I’d probly try to join if you do start it.

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I’d be cool with that!

I like reading on my kindle, and with the exchange rate what it is right now, it’s only a little over $2 USD if I account for the points back, but I appreciate the heads up! :black_cat:

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