It’s nice to get some confirmation on this. I feel like books that end up being considered ‘literature’ (nice link @nikoru ) in English aren’t that much harder to read than Stephen King. But in German (caveat I’m not native) it feels noticeably more difficult. I’ll ask my German SO questions and he’ll just raise an eyebrow 
Have you seen Zenitendo, I love these, audiobooks are great, too.
Not sure if L25 still qualifies as “lower 20” and not sure if it’s on Audible, but また、同じ夢を見ていた | L25 has a fantastic audiobook which is well worth buying elsewhere.
I think most by 新美 南吉 is on Audible. Two big collections (combined 31 hours) cover probably almost every story he has ever written, and then lots of stories have multiple renditions if you search for them.
List of children’s books, novels, and light novels L20-26 with Audible JP:
https://learnnatively.com/search/jpn/books/?type=childrens_book,light_novel,novel&bookproviders=amazon-audible-jp&min=20&max=26&leveltag=n3&sort=level_asc&series=all_volumes
Just go for what looks interesting, I guess
Not really about Natively. Some books may only be available on say Audible JP or Audible US (or ES, UK), regardless of the fact that they’re in Japanese
The 四つ子ぐらし | L23 books have a ton of audiobooks, and are surprisingly readable as an adult. I made it to #5 but really only stopped because I was able to read higher level audiobooks, not because I wasn’t enjoying them.
I haven’t read the 華麗なる探偵アリス&ペンギン | L22 books, but I know quite a few people enjoyed them.
I also quite liked the 放課後ミステリクラブ 1金魚の泳ぐプール事件 | L21 books as well.
I guess it depends on the book at hand, no matter the language.
In English, for example, I remember that I struggled a lot with Joseph Conrad (but I was only a teenager and not a native so maybe that adds to it). Then just recently somebody recommended me the book “Infinite Jest” and boy that’s a fine piece of work! I think it’s much more difficult to read than Stephen King.
I also remember reading Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (I know that’s not considered “literature”, but just to make a point regarding difficulty) and he uses many words that I could not even find in the dictionary 
- and I was using dict.leo.org which I think has a huge set of words, plus a forum where one can often find more stuff.
Also in German, not each piece of literature is as difficult as Thomas Mann, I’m sure. E.g. recently a friend pointed me to Dürrenmatt’s “Das Versprechen” and I found it quite easy to read, albeit a bit old-fashioned. When I was a teenager, I liked Hermann Hesse, and at some point I also came across “Die Schachnovelle”. Maybe it’s just the case that the contents is more accessible and that’s why I think it’s easier to read, while the language itself is still difficult? That’s really hard for me to judge, sadly. But if you like, we could read a book together, even here in the forums as a German book club? (We had one with criminal books but it did not get too far… so why not have one on literature?)
Maybe something like Cormac McCarthy? His books are heavy in many dimensions in a manner I feel warrants the use of “literature”, even though it has only been a couple of years since he passed.
I’ve long had the urge to try to sample his writing in Japanese, if only it wasn’t so much work and such an undertaking — but maybe that’s a prerequisite when talking about literature.
How has the translator captured the breathless, biblical, almost prophetic style? Japanese probably won’t mind the lack of punctuation so much, and of course they have the tools like archaic words and elevated register, but will it capture the original? Will it all “work” in a language without King James?
ブラッド・メリディアン あるいは西部の夕陽の赤 - 文芸・小説 コーマック・マッカーシー/黒原敏行（ハヤカワepi文庫）：電子書籍試し読み無料 - BOOK☆WALKER - and ザ・ロード - 文芸・小説 コーマック・マッカーシー/黒原敏行（ハヤカワepi文庫）：電子書籍試し読み無料 - BOOK☆WALKER - for the two I have on my check list.
That is true, you’re right, and it is possible I’m noticing a difference that would feel small to a native! Probably what I’m noticing is a slightly more formal style in German depending on what the author sets out to do (that would be unnoticeable to a native) and then another step up in difficulty for older classics in German.
And you’re right, it’s not possible to make a blanket statement, there are so many exceptions
That would be fun! Since we happen to be in the seeking recommendations thread, do you have a suggestion of something you would like to read anyway? I haven’t read many in German. Die Verwandlung was pretty easy actually. I started the Blechtrommel but the copy from the library had something gross in it and that actually put me off continuing exploring there but I would like to find the list that motivated me to get that, probably a rather generic list of German classics.
In the last several years I’ve mostly only read in Japanese, or just very light books at bedtime in German. I was reading a translation of a book about Schubert’s Winterreise (Lieder). I didn’t know when I bought it that the original is English and hoo boy is the German killing me. That’s been on ice, partly from the German but the contents weren’t as interesting as I hoped,
It would be nice to read something of that difficulty with someone else!
I’ll have to try Terry Pratchet now…
I clearly need to read more. I haven’t read any of his books
You didn’t ask me for a recommendation but I have one anyway 
If you ever want something “easy” that packs a punch and is written by a literature nobel prize winner, try “Liebhaberinnen” by Elfriede Jelinek. We also read that very early on in school and I don’t remember it being particularly hard. I also recommended it to my non native speaker husband and he also thought it wasn’t too difficult (BUT he reads a lot of very difficult/complex books in German all the time, so he is probably not a good source of truth in that regard) Btw she writes almost everything with small letters and is not using correct Groß-/Kleinschreibung.
So what’s funny is that I just bought the Switch game for this series, though I haven’t read any of the books. I should probably get on that.
I see there’s a link for the audiobook, but it looks like that’s a subscription. Do you happen to know a place you can just buy it outright? I already have audible so I don’t really want to add another subscription for that one book. (though I do already own the book and definitely want the audiobook)
Ooh I didn’t realize we had an audible tag specifically. Thanks!
@shitsurei Those all seem like great suggestions. Thanks!
For また、同じ夢を見ていた you can purchase it from audiobook.jp (the one linked on the natively page) without having to subscribe. I bought it through there and don’t subscribe. I also have additional books through there that I got free without a subscription as well (though those are JLPT text book audio files).
Ah I didn’t see where I didn’t have to subscribe for it. But oh my gosh. 1,500 yen? Talk about highway robbery. I didn’t even pay that much for the book. 
How do you go about listening to audio books from there? Do they have their own player, can you download them, etc?
I think this might only be available for new buyers, but I got it for 980 yen:
また、同じ夢を見ていた | 日本最大級のオーディオブック配信サービス audiobook.jp, on the right:
When you buy it, you get a download with the mp3 files split by chapter (and sub-chapter to a certain length).
I think you have to have one of their subscriber tickets for that, right?
Yeah, apparently I did buy a “ticket subscription” and then immediately cancelled it. Here I am describing my process:
I got it cheaper when it was on sale but it’s about the same as what I pay for audiobooks from Audible so I didn’t mind paying that for it.
They have their own free app available on iOS and Google play. Just search for オーディオブック
Ah, ok now I get it! That’s what I notice as well, no worries 
But I did not necessarily associate formality with difficulty. For me, difficulty comes from long-winding sentences and such. But probably more formal language comes with less known words as well, and that’s what increases the difficulty as well. Good point!
Currently I am not where my books are, so I cannot draw from my shelves, but I grabbed the opportunity and went to the friendly neighbourhood bookstore to ask for a recommendation for a must-read literature book. The clerk did not jump onto the “must-read” as much, I guess he was mainly focusing on “can-read” 
which I think is a good attitude as well. (E.g. he tried to focus on modern books that are not too thick.) In the end he recommended Nachmittage | L30?? (short stories, sounds pretty deep) and Der Pfau: Roman (insel taschenbuch) | L30?? which is a very well-written and funny story. As I couldn’t make up my mind, I bought them both in the end I then walked past the neighbourhood’s public bookshelf, which often is a source of literary books as well (and for free!). I searched for a bit and actually found Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter: Erzählung (suhrkamp taschenbuch, Band 27) | L30?? by Peter Handke who received the literature nobel prize in 2019 „for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience“, so if this is not literature, then I don’t know what is 
Which means, there you have it, these are your recommendations! Would you like to read one of them with me, and if so, which one? (And would others be interested as well?)
So this took me a while to write
Thank you! Added to Natively and my wishlist
Actually I’d quite like to have some good challenging works to read as well, I didn’t mean that I didn’t want to or couldn’t read them. I just notice I actually have to look up words now and then and that is noticeable because a normal novel I can read without any lookups.
I would like to get better at reading that kind of book. It’s tricky because SO is burned out on the heavy emphasis on post war classics when he was in school and understandably doesn’t want to dwell on them while I read them in depth the first time. And the modern topics I find for this style, are not necessarily his interests
I think ‘less conversational’ may be the most accurate descriptor. Not sure if formal or literary is the right word, but it doesn’t seem to be obvious judging by the discussion.
Great! I’m going to go on the funnier side and pick up Der Pfau. Did you see the author studied in Tokyo?
Wow I didn’t know about that! Let us know on the 🍭 ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 👵 이상한 과자 가게 전천당 🍬 Home Thread club page if its fun!
Great! Here we go:
Oh, nice trivia! 
So we can at least tell ourselves that there is a connection to studying Japanese
Thank you amazing!
see you there 
