Please feel free to use this thread to make polls, ask for recommendations, or get advice on whether a book is appropriate for your level of Japanese.
I’ll go first!
0 voters
I’ve read both. (I think I’m the only one?)
ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂
ゆっくりおやすみ、樹の下で
I really liked ゆっくりおやすみ～. A few months after I finished it, I read it again, because I was sick and wanted something easy and had actually liked this so much that I was happy to revisit it. I like the writing style — the narrator doesn’t just tell the story, they speak to the reader and interject their own opinions sometimes, which I find charming.
I think the main question is whether you’re more interested in reading short stories or a novel. 銭天堂 is really good as children’s short stories but if you prefer a full-length book where you can settle in and get to know the characters and their world, this isn’t it. ゆっくりおやすみ～ is a lovely children’s novel, and the 3-page chapters make it super approachable, but it’s still 280 pages until the end.
Thank you! It was your excellent review of ゆっくりおやすみ、樹の下で that convinced me to buy it a while back. I read a little bit of each book (to make sure they were at the right level), and they both seem quite good, so it’s hard to pick. Also polls are just fun~
I’ve not read either of these but I’ve had a look at a little inside them and the idea of the longer novel sounds more appealing to me so I’ve added it to my list and voted for it. Whatever you decide though, I hope you enjoy it 
can we actually add polls new polls???
You kids and your fancy forum polls, back in my day… we had to ask and tally the votes ourselves… grumble grumble.
Oh I think I see how to do it… maybe I will do one for books that haven’t been graded here yet… I like reading books that no one else has.
You can use the “build poll” option under the cogwheel.
Alternatively, you can use the “quote whole post” option to see how someone achieved the formatting in their message
Because I like polls, here’s one too.
0 voters
Edit: The poll extension isn’t playing nicely with the automatic link conversion 
I enjoy your reviews of garbage quite a bit 
Thank you. I’ll make sure to write more, then.
I think that’s a great idea. The same few popular books tend to get recommended over and over again, so reviews are the only way lesser known books get any attention.
I own all three of these books. They all look interesting, but need some motivation to start them. I just checked and surprising they all have a decent amount of furigana, so I assume they won’t be too hard. I usually write a review at 100-150pgs, once I get a feel for the writing style and overall plot (avoiding spoilers from end).
The first one appeals to women who like Disney (alchemist snow white?)? The second one is maybe a webnovel that is popular (old 40 year old guy Isekai, he doesn’t really have any special skills). The third one has an anime series (isekai, young guy reborn into poor kid’s body faces discrimination as he learns magic at school).
0 voters
Out of these two, I only read ふしぎ駄菓子屋. I’ve wriiten a bit more about it here.
Technically, it’s still sold in the 男性向け category… that being said, that category also includes thing that are for a general public. (Publishers tend to think “default = men”)
I still voted for that one because, well, the title made me curious. I’d love to know if it’s more like a “general public” light novel (like 本好き) or if it’s sadly (for me) a “proper” 男性向け.
That is very interesting. I don’t know much about how books are classified in Japan, but there seems to be a small subset of light novels that seems to be something like “disney-like”. They tend to have young kids as characters, disney-like art, fairies, cute fluffy animals, etc. There don’t seem to be many anime series made from them, not sure why that is the case.
If you look at some of them on Amazon.jp, you can also see some other ones linked as “suggested” or “related” on that same page.
I voted for the first one because it sounded the most interesting (haven’t read any of them). When I went to their Natively pages to take a closer look I saw that you already rated all three of them 4/5 stars. Have you already read them in English or something?
The classification is based on the publisher. ドラゴンノベルズ (the label of those three books) deals with stories that have strong RPG elements and is marketed towards men, so anything published under that label will be considered 男性向け.
I don’t think the cover looks particularly Disney-like, but, in general, I think you might be thinking of moe? That being said, having cute things is just common across the board in Japan 
I read the the previews on Bookwalker for most everything I buy. I usually write my reviews around 100 or so pages once I get a feel for the writing style.
Sometimes I adjust things once I complete it, but I am mostly concerned with how approachable and readable things are for Japanese learners (can it be used to “learn natively”) and would surely review and rate things differently if I read it in English.
These are two books that come to mind… lol.
I bought both, but… hmmm I just got a feeling reading them that “かわいい!!!” “もふもふ！！” are kind of two big themes. I wonder if I would like them… The second one especially is really easy to read and I read like the first 60 pages… but hmmmm. I got that impression from the reviews too. essentially like “if you like fluffy things… this is for you!!!”
They aren’t bad it just kind of seems like a genre I haven’t read before.
100 pages from the preview?? Wow!
Yes, that’s a type of books that I tend to associate with 女性向け light novels (in fact, your second example is one of those). The first of the two you just gave is actually published under a 男性向け label, though, but I just don’t understand why
Yes, it happens quite a lot. They have “extended previews” that usually cover ~50% of the first book of light novel series. That’s how I started reading はめふら 
Edit: by the way, they are put in the “freebie” section of booklive (and bookwalker I guess), which is super annoying. It’s not the same thing as a free book…
