星の王子さま | L26 The classic. There are many translations into Japanese, I think I read the one that’s linked here, and I liked it a lot. 霧のむこうのふしぎな町 | L26 Children’s book. Features a bit of dialect at the start, but this stops after the first chapter iirc. 世界から猫が消えたなら | L27 夏と花火と私の死体 | L28 Funny little “horror” story, written by a 17-year-old but it did not feel like that. 水たまりで息をする | L29 (author won the Akutagawa Prize for another book) コンビニ人間 | L29 Won the Akutagawa Prize. (other works by the author are also very accessible)
Once you get to level 30-31, there is also a great number of accessible and well-written books.
I’m not fully though this level (L27 is about my sweet spot right now), but I would have definitely liked to have had some suggestions of novels on the easier side that weren’t all Aoitori/Tsubasa Bunko kids books. Hopefully this list helps others who are also working on their reading journeys
Oh, that is interesting! I read both あとがき in my kindle edition (one for the tankobon, one for the bunkobon release) but I don’t remember that. Do you have a third one or did I just read past that? I guess I’ll have to check when I start the next book
Speaking of which, I couldn’t resist and read it right after the second volume. I just finished yesterday. Also very good! A lot of set up, but I love the moments we get to see inside no.6. Also some happenings between 紫苑 and ネズミ which hopefully leads to positive changes… (minor spoilers maybe. I kept it vague but still)
Ah! I just can’t remember. Most of the names sound super weird to me. Makes me really appreciate the ones that are just jobs and animals.
Too true! But that makes the moments he allows us to see past that all the more previous!
@nikoru, I’m all free! I’ll take today to keep up with 香君 and then I’m ready to get into 博多豚骨ラーメンズ when you are!
I’m busy during the weekends, and next week I run a training course and thus am busy as well, but I hope I can sneak in an hour or so a day… so I’d say just start reading as you’ll probably read faster than me anyway I’ll try to start today so maybe I can already get somewhere before the weekend hehe
I read NO.6 vol 1+2 recently too and when I saw the name 沙布/さふ, my first thought was “I wonder what kanji it would be if it was for Nafu instead”. @Naphthalene さんにあだ名を勝手に付けました haha.
@Belerith So I jumped back into 博多豚骨ラーメンズ | L33 straight away or rather, started over again as it has been three years and I hadn’t gotten too far in back then. Also captured my reading time again, and it’s nice to see that I’m now at about twice the speed (finally )
初球式
This nicely sets the tone for what is to come
I must say, I’m always sooo shocked when I come across these mass job interviews. I cannot really imagine this being an option in Europe / Germany (but maybe I’m just mistaken). Also this whole education system that doesn’t assume any knowledge when you enter the company and instead teaches you everything once you’re in seems so weird, as in the job interview you can probably only test for quick-wittedness or creativity or somesuch, and then what if you end up in a job that does not require any of these? … (in Germany we have standard education for basically each and every job, and then people get hired for a position based on which education they picked). No wonder people have a hard time switching companies…
１回表
Another setup, in a different scene. But the main topic remains the same
Killing people sounds a bit similar to the job interview
Protecting the boss and fending off scandals are new variations to the topic.
I had a good chuckle at everybody eating the local food, モツ鍋 and the like. Was surprised that バッテラ did not get a mention… Maybe later.
Nice! Congrats! Always nice to see such visible progress. Do you still remember anything from 3 years ago?
reply. Spoilers for 博多豚骨ラーメンズ including 一回表
I’ve also always wondered about that! Especially since they usually want to see a university degree of some kind at the same time. Having different skill and knowledge sets is a good thing, but starting from zero each time is wild to me.
So far it’s an interesting set up. Much more in your face with the 殺し屋 than I expected, very refreshing. for a second I thought the freshling was 斉藤 from the interview there haha. So they also picked up a new ‘active’ employee. Might make for a good dynamic/offset.
Really looking forward to seeing what the chapter 表裏 are all about. I’ll get right back to the book.
It was… not for me. I tended to disagree with the POV of the author in a lot of ways. Example: There’s a scene pretty early on where MC’s friend visits from the Magic World uses a magic spell to force a human girl to laugh uncontrollably. MC gets mad at her friend, and I was like “Get her! Tell her off forcing someone to do something they don’t want to do!” but then … no, it was fine. And in fact, the human girl was HAPPY to be forced to laugh uncontrollably and MC was in the wrong for getting mad about it.
I can’t even think of a person I’d recommend this book for.
Well, next on my list is 夜カフェ | L22 and I’m excited to read about someone who is old enough to be in junior high.
I kept on seeing your activity of that come up in the feed and I liked the cover and I was worried I’d have to read another Aoitori Bunko if it was even remotely good. Glad I dodged that bullet
I enjoyed that one well enough. Besides probably the novelization of Sailor Moon, 夜カフェ was probably my favorite from that impression.
Today I read 尾守つみきと奇日常。 6 | L23, which came out recently.
As expected, I am getting tired of the plot (well, the romance I guess) not going anywhere. I hope something happens soon, but considering the next volume preview, I guess not
I have an unreasonable fear of hurting the author’s feelings. My ratings tend to be:
5* loved it
4* liked it
3* anything else
If something annoys me or makes me angry enough to give 2*, its pretty rare.
I’m trying to read/grade some of the lesser read aoitori/mirai/tsubasa books while they’re still at my reading level. I hope I’ll find some gems in the process, but…
fwiw, the Tsubasa tend to have the best stories, imo, but I do remember them being harder than the Aoitori on average.
I’ve also enjoyed a few stories by ポプラキミノベル, but I think they’re for older kids (they don’t have full furigana), which would also explain why they were generally better stories
please help yourself:
I guess I’ll have to check when I start the next book
Makes me really appreciate the ones that are just jobs and animals.
so I’d say just start reading as you’ll probably read faster than me anyway 
for a second I thought the freshling was 斉藤 from the interview there haha. So they also picked up a new ‘active’ employee. Might make for a good dynamic/offset.
