Week 11 of 📚 本好きの下剋上 / 책벌레의 하극상 🪱

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Welcome all to week 11 of our Bookworm bookclub!

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Schedule

Week Start Date Chapter Number Ch. Name :jp: Ch. Name :kr: Ending% / Page# :jp: Ending Page# :kr: # of Pages :jp: # of Pages :kr:
11 Nov 13 22 お料理奮闘中 요리와 씨름 중 72%/267 268 17 16
23 木簡と不思議な熱 목간과 이상한 열 77%/277 278 11 10

Junior JP version

(No page numbers known)

(Home thread) week 10 | week 12

Character Table
English Japanese Korean Notes
Myne マイン 마인 Protagonist (Eng. also written “Main”)
Tuuli トゥーリ 투리 Myne’s older sister
Effa エーファ 에파 Myne’s mother
Günter ギュンター 귄터 Myne’s father
Lutz ルッツ 루츠 Friend; same age as Myne
Ralph ラルフ 랄프 Friend; same age as Tuuli
Carla カルラ 칼라 Lutz and Ralph’s mother
Fey フェイ 페이 Friend; same age as Tuuli
Otto オットー 오토 Subordinate to Günter

Discussion ground rule suggestions

  • Any spoilers, for the current chapters must be behind spoilers or detail curtains. When we get further in you don’t need to hide details that were revealed in previous chapters.
  • Always mention where you are in the book when discussing, ideally by chapter so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
  • Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting! But please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week :slight_smile:
  • If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That can be part of the discussion too and I’m sure some folks would be happy to help.
  • Even if you don’t read the chapter(s) in time, you are still encouraged to post in the thread for that reading once you have finished it. I advise not reading ahead in the threads as you may see spoilers.
Are you joining us for week 11?
  • I’m reading along
  • I’m just following the discussion :popcorn:
  • I’m reading, but not at the same pace as the club
  • I’ve dropped the book
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The cooking chapter was fine, but a bit boring (despite my love for かくりよの宿飯, ironically enough). It also made me hungry, haha. The chapter where Myne had the strange fever was interesting. In some ways, it felt like a return to the beginning of the book, where she was depressed and ill. I was really relieved when she held on and (seemed to) get better thanks to her promise with ルッツ. It showed the strides she’s made in forming relationships and ties to her new world, although I was disappointed that she didn’t think of her family at all. I also felt really bad for her when her mom used her the 木簡 with the story as fuel. I suppose that that was like a burning of their relationship as well, even if it wasn’t on purpose (since in earlier weeks people observed that Myne writing down the story her mom told her was a way of binding herself to her new world/family).

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I love that series too, but that’s more of a “despite the food parts” in my case :stuck_out_tongue:
The cooking part do contain some important (ymmv) hints about the world itself, but I just ignored them the first time around. It really took until it was spelled out for me to understand what I was looking at.

But at the same time going in blind made things that much more enjoyable later, so I won’t say more.

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Every week we have some kind of new handicraft or experiment, and this week was no exception with cooking! I didn’t mind all the cooking descriptions since they were quite easy to read (I guess I know a relatively high amount of cooking related Korean vocab compared to vocab about gathering clay and making tablets) and it felt like a nice breather after a few chapters with more challenging vocabulary. We also got some more world building with vegetables that seem to behave in unexpected ways, fish that doesn’t taste good, and some insight into the cause of Myne’s mysterious illness/physical condition. What could the fever be? I know we probably won’t get many further answers in this volume, but I am still curious!

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I caught back up to book club!!!

Oh cooking/crafting chapters.
The one thing I can say is that I can tell my listening has gotten better through the course of the book and I’m more able to just listen and not have to go back and read along with the text as closely. Or maybe I’m just losing patience for the cooking chapters? Either way it feels like a win.

和食っぽい物で満足できると思ったら、逆に、白米が恋しくなりすぎて泣けた。

Not specifically rice, but for food in general, this is me literally every single time I get back from Japan and then go eat at a Japanese restaurant. :joy: :sweat_smile:

Outside of maybe the chapters when Myne first met Otto, the fever chapter was the first time I think I was excitedly reading to find out what comes next. Especially with the cliffhanger realization/memory that Myne has at the end of the chapter, I’m wondering if she has some sort of duty to do in this body, or made some sort of deal before coming into this body that she’ll have to do. 77% of the way through the book and I’m finally excited to find out what comes next (… in the last 3 chapters… :upside_down_face:)

Also, 母さん, what the actual hell? Between burning the 木簡 and the 竹簡 this woman is going to give me an aneurysm.

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Finished the first chapter but it’s late and I’m falling asleep so the last will have to wait for tomorrow.

I’m giving Myne the benefit of the doubt that she asked Tuuli or Lutz which mushrooms were edible. I guess neither thought to mention they need to be prepped specially. On a side note I didn’t realize for a solid page that 鍋 could also mean stew or hotpot and was super confused. We do the same with ‘hotpot’ so it makes sense. But I was trying to figure out what a pomme pot/ポメ鍋 was for an embarrassingly long time. :rofl: I recommend everyone google it, the image search is cute

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Hahaha, I wasn’t expecting those images. :rofl:

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Spoilers this week

Between this and mom + Tuuli not believing that Myne actually does something useful when she goes to her dad’s work, I have to say… wow, lol. But I don’t know if it’s just me (sometimes I might miss something as I don’t understand 100% of what I read) but I feel like there’s just some… weird type of miscommunication? Like, can’t Myne say “I need this bamboo for my training with Otto, can you not use it?” To her mom? I feel like this drama keeps happening for nothing.

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