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
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.
I was sad to hear about Minami-san’s parents. I’m worried about her too because self harm and feelings of emptiness aren’t really great signs, but I did think it was a big deal that she told Nanoka.
And the conversation afterwards with Obaa-san was really sweet. I thought it was a perfect end to the chapter.
And speaking of the end, who is this suspicious adult?
And boy am I glad for it after that super long part last week.
By the way, to anyone not listening to the audiobook yet: It’s a really nice companion to reading! Even if you feel like an audio version might be too hard for you because you’re like me and your reading ability is much better than your listening comprehension, at least for me listening while reading at the same time improves both my reading speed and my abilitity to focus for longer stretches of time by a lot. (Now I just need some backgrounds and moving character images, and I got myself a VN )
Also it’s really well done, with multiple voice actors and all!
I’ve been prioritizing reading books that I can read along to an audiobook since the end of last year. At first I struggled with keeping up with the narration, but after a few books I’m really improving my listening a lot. I’m especially noticing that I’m processing speech a lot faster when I’m watching TV now too, which is an added bonus!
Also, like @Legato said, this is a great production with music, sound effects, and multiple voice actors. Highly recommend!
I’m only discovering this now with books + audiobooks, but on the other hand I don’t think many of the things I read so far actually have an audiobook. I’ll definitely be on the look out for that more.
By the way, if you like this way of reading, you might like VNs if you’re not doing them yet! I’ve never been into VNs in English, but it’s such a nice way of learning Japanese for the same reasons you are listing there
If not for the audiobook, I wouldn’t have been able to read through the 本好きの下剋上 books as early as I did. My listening comprehension was much higher than my reading comprehension.
I remember putting the audiobook at 0.5 speed for some segments, because my reading speed was simply that slow and I wouldn’t have been able to read along otherwise Boy did that narrator sound cursed at times.
Being able to increase the speed of the audiobook was very rewarding in itself.
For everyone using the audiobook - what speed are you listening at?
I listen in 100%, but am switching to 0.9 if I need to “reread” some parts. (I listend to the grandma in previous chapters multiple times, because I found her so hard to understand )
I have a private list of things with an audiobook [that I’m at least sorta interested in reading]… I’d be happy to make it public. Mostly I don’t keep anything on it organized and have no idea if any of it is good. I just browse it when I’m getting ready to start a new book.
I started Marco with the bookclub last year, but it was right when we were moving and I didn’t finish it. I kinda forgot about VN (and I’m also kinda waiting for them to come to Natively because I know seeing them in the feed is going to make me want to do them anyway). But you’re right, I probably should finish Marco and maybe join the book club for the next one.
I listen at 100%, but I also use an app that’s designed for reading audiobooks in a foreign language called Work Audiobook. It’s only available for Windows and older versions of Android (although I have it working just fine on my up to date version by downloading it from an APK mirror). It’s amazing because it parses the audio into phrases using silence and allows you to play chunks individually or repeat them easily. When I started would play each individual chunk, but now I mostly let the audio play and only stop if I’m missing too many words in a sentence.
She talks the slowest but is 10x harder to understand than everyone else
I’m far behind everyone, but I listen at 1x unless I’m bored/impatient then I might put it btwn 1.1 - 1.25 at most (it’s hard at that speed tho). When I first started 本好きの下剋上 with the bookclub, it was btwn .75-1x (and still a struggle). At this point I’ve already read a decent number of audiobooks and watched a ton of anime with subtitles, so it’s not bad
I’m listening at 0.8 speed so I can follow along with the reading at the same time though tbh, there’s a lot I don’t fully understand but that’s just because of my vocabulary/ grammar level.
I can read and listen at that speed though, just can’t look anything up.
I think I’m going to just listen along and see what I can glean from this. I’ve not been able to keep up with the vocabulary and grammar so I’m not really understanding much even though I can pick out all the words
Have you considered reading the English version before the Japanese? Or even just the chapter summaries? It might be easier to work out the vocab and grammar if you know what the story is ahead of time.
I have considered it but I have found that if I do that, it actually stops me for trying to understand the Japanese at all and I lose interest in trying to read it.
I tried it previously with 風の影 and even with the short story books I’ve got for language learners, once I read it in English, I’m no longer interested in trying to read the Japanese because all the mystery has been removed from it. There’s no reward because I already know the story It’s weird, I know.
Nothing weird about that… I also lose interest like that. Used to make anime selection tricky, cuz new things were too hard, but a lot of familiar things weren’t drawing me enough to rewatch them.
Otoh there’s still mystery in seeing “what does the original actually say”… Sometimes the differences are kind of but even the little ones can still be pretty interesting.
Yeah, that can still work for me but I’d need to leave it a while before going back over it in Japanese. With the previous books that I’ve read more than once, I’ve left at least a few months before getting to know the story and re-reading it so maybe once I come back to it I could look at that if I’m still struggling.
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Boy did that narrator sound cursed at times.
but even the little ones can still be pretty interesting.