ライトノベル読書会 📚 Light Novel Book Club | Next Book Apr 1

I would probably read this if it won :joy:

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For some reason this cover never really did it for me, but the summary looks really interesting. :eyes:

Also, I’ve got a version 1.0 of the nomination list up; please let me know what I can add/change that would be helpful!

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That cover shouts Murata-sensei. He has a very identifiable style.

I think having on the list the size of the book in pages, number of volumes, completed/ongoing and level would be useful, but it might be too much information to fit in the table?

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Let me see what I can fit in; these tables are usually pretty good about squishing themselves, so I should be able to fit in a bit more, hopefully.

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Thinking about it some more, would it be helpful to have # of volumes and completed/ongoing? Especially since we’d probably only be reading the first volume.

Level I definitely agree; unfortunately Discourse’s auto-link title generator thingy is broken still, else I would’ve linked that. :\ I guess I’ll manually type in the level for now, and hopefully once it gets itself sorted I can replace stuff…

I’ve been looking through my own lists of books to nominate, and I have a feeling we might run into the “is this a light novel or a novel” question sooner rather than later (i.e. once I put up the nomination). Unless you guys want to hack out a formal system, we’ll have to have a certain degree of flexibility, I suppose.

There was one series I wanted to nominate because, based on my reading of other books in that series, it’s probably going to sit on the easier side, and I would love to see lower-level learners join in. But there’s no digital version. :\ Not a huge dealbreaker in the grand scheme of things, but it’s real hard to beat that convenience factor…

Book:

Is there an ebook available?: yes
Is there an audiobook available?: no
Is there an all-furigana version available?: no (took a peek at the preview, and there does seem to be quite a bit of furigana in the first chapter at least.)

Summary - Japanese

村を襲うも人は殺さない飛竜の真意とは。老人の巻きこまれた妖精猫の裁判の行方は。鋭い吠え声が響く村で娘達を食らう獣の正体とは――。独自の生態と超自然の力を持つ生き物、幻獣。謎多き存在である彼らと人の衝突が増えたため、国家は幻獣を調査し、時には駆除をする専門家を定めた。そのひとりである調査員のフェリは「人と幻獣の共存」を胸に、世界で唯一の幻獣書を完成させるため旅を続けている。これは、人と幻獣の関わりが生む、残酷で優しい幻想幻獣譚。

Summary - English

(DeepL)
What is the true intention of the flying dragon that attacks the village but does not kill people? What is the course of the trial of the fairy cat that the old man is involved in? What is the true nature of the beast that devours the daughters in the village with its sharp bark? Mythical beasts, creatures with unique ecology and supernatural powers. Because of the increasing number of conflicts between these mysterious beings and people, the state has appointed specialists to investigate and sometimes exterminate them. One of these experts, researcher Feri, is on a journey to complete the world’s only book on mythical beasts, with “the coexistence of humans and mythical beasts” in mind. This is a cruel and tender fantasy tale of the relationship between man and mythical beasts.

Content warnings if known

None known

Why are you nominating this book: I read the manga version (in English) way back and enjoyed it. I love fantasy, and the heroine has a cool rabbit monster sidekick.

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What kind of pace is this book club going for? I think that could drastically change who is interested in joining.

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Book:

Is there an ebook available?: yes
Is there an audiobook available?: no (there is a physical-only drama CD)
Is there an all-furigana version available?: no

Summary - Japanese

売れっ子モデルの坂巻敬太(さかまきけいた)は、CM撮りの優雅な船旅の真っ最中。でも唯一の不満は、客室担当のクルー・福地義喬(ふくちよしたか)。接客マナーも完璧なイイ男だけど、なぜかその慇懃無礼な笑顔が気に食わなくて、事あるごとに反発してしまうのだ。そんな時、ロケで出かけた小島でボートが難破!! 投げ出された敬太は、義喬と二人きりで無人島に取り残されて…!? 南の島のサバイバル・ラブv ※電子版には、紙版に収録されている挿絵は収録されていません。

Summary - English

(DeepL)
Keita Sakamaki, a successful model, is in the middle of an elegant cruise for a commercial shoot. His only complaint is the crew member in charge of his cabin, Yoshitaka Fukuchi. He is a nice guy with perfect customer service manners, but for some reason, he has a condescending smile that he doesn’t like, and he rebuffs him at every opportunity. Then, while out on location on a small island, his boat is wrecked! Keita is thrown off the boat and is left alone with Gikyo on the deserted island…? Survival love on a southern island *The illustrations in the paper version are not included in the electronic version.

Content warnings if known

None known

Why are you nominating this book: I’m a big fan of one of the author’s other series, so I’ve been wanting to try out one of their other works for a while. This one isn’t historical, so we can remove that difficulty hurdle, and I’ve generally felt the author’s writing style was pretty clear-cut otherwise.

While this one is marked as a novel on Natively, that was due more to me just not really having a good LN vs. novel guiding principle when I submitted it. I can definitely rescind this nomination if others feel it may not be light novel-y enough.

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Depends, I suppose. We could vote for a pace per book, depending on the level of users interested in reading the pick.

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I do think it has some influence. If there’s not going to be a continuation, it’s an indicator of “how much on your own” are you left with, in case you want to continue. Thus why I think if it’s ongoing/completed and number of volumes are relevant.

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Makes sense to me. Is there any good way to check if a series is completed or not if you aren’t familiar with the series, do you know?

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I check different sources, if I’m not wrong:

Title Status
本好きの下剋上 ongoing
やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている finished
異世界のんびり農家 ongoing
この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! finished
ソードアート・オンライン プログレッシブ ongoing
コップクラフト ongoing (hiatus)*
幻獣調査員 finished
旅行鞄をしまえる日 finished

* Off-topic status コップクラフト rant

It will probably be ongoing forever because this author has trouble finishing what he starts.
Part of the reason why I didn’t suggest 甘城ブリリアントパーク

Also for ease of further nominations, you might want to add these data inputs to the nomination layout

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Okay, series status/volume numbers added, with finished series bolded. We’ll have to see if this is worth keeping up; the chart will be out-of-date whenever a new book (本好き) gets added. Hopefully it should work as a basic gloss.

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I think it gives the scope of the series for voting, so even if it’s off by a volume or two is not a big deal.

Also you are worrying about the wrong title, 異世界のんびり農家 has a Vol. 15 :rofl:.

I’ve requested already on natively to be added so @brandon will get around that eventually.

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There we go, fears justified, haha. And thanks!

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Should we establish a nomination deadline?

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We can for sure; any particular date you have in mind? I was thinking maybe June 9? Or June 14/16? Not sure how long would be best to leave nominations open.

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Not sure how long the nominations usually last, this is my first book club I have plans on participating.

We could go for a dynamic date, like 48h after the last nomination, with an absolute fixed deadline, and go for whatever happens first? I assume after the initial burst of nominations, it will eventually dry out.

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I don’t normally pay attention to book club timing myself, haha. :sweat_smile: We probably want as many initial nominations as we can get at first, I would think, so I’m inclined to lean towards just having a fixed date for this first round of voting.

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I guess I’m a bit biased on wanting to start rather soon than later, as some of the nominations I have are stuff that I currently read, and has made me put a pause on them.

But yeah, fair point, also it’s clearer for everyone a fixed deadline.
If that’s the case, what about going for the earliest of the two you proposed?
Since after that, there’s still a week of voting, we are looking at starting 19th the earliest, with that, otherwise we almost reach July.

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