Suggestions for Books to import

[clay]

Hey guys. There may be a post somewhere full of ISBNs and titles, but if not (or even if), please list some suggestions here for Japanese short stories, novels or other texts. This will be the 'reading club' where we can all be on the same page (literally) and discuss things.

If you know the ISBN, that would be ideal, but if not I can look up titles.

[kanadajin]

I don't know if this is what your looking for but I have random house japanese - english english - japanese dictionary.. It is a very helpful book. It uses romaji and japanese characters.. If your looking for study books.. Beginner's Japanese is an OKAY book. Its actually quite good not to long very informational..

[spookychee]

I'm reading a book now called 本当は違うんだ日記　(hontou ha chigaunda nikki) by 穂村 弘 (Homura Hiroshi) which I'm finding very interesting.It's a series of essays each about 4 pages long about his life. He's a single (but not by choice) Japanese man in his early 40's who worries about not being cool and fitting in. He's convinced that everyday he's just practicing life and someday the real life will start. It has a lot of funny moments. But, some of the vocabulary can be a little difficult.

[kanadajin]

Hontou ha chigaunda nikki.. One of my friends has a book simialr to that.. I'll have to ask him if its that book.. He says its really good

[clay]

Sorry Kanadajin, I didn't explain the thread well (posted it late last night (or was it early this morning...)). There was another thread about importing a Japanese short novel for everyone to read at the same time. That way there can be discussion on grammar, vocabulary as well as the storyline.

Here is that book at Amazon Japan:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4087747662

205 pages. I think people were shooting for around 100 pages or fewer but if anyone else thinks this may be a good way to go, please voice your vote.

Another idea (especially since these readers will take some time to come in) is this book:
http://www.thejapanshop.com/product.php?productid=16432&cat=248&page=1
I think it is an excellent collection of short stories that covers various levels of Japanese (including upper beginners). The author also has MP3s of the stories on his website for free. I can offer this for $11 (cover $19.95) for those interested in reading as a group. I would have to offer this for a limited time so people finding this 10 years from now can't say gimmie!

EDIT: I re-read the posts and found InsanityRanch had done much of the work. Any votes for any of these books?

Hi, all.

Don't want to seem bossy, but in an effort to help get this show on the road, I've gone back through the thread and made two lists of who's shown interest and texts have been suggested so far. I hope this will help us make some decisions about a text to start with!

Here's the list of participants:

AJBryant: Can read pretty well. Experienced.
fragulistic: Reading level?? Text preference?
hamsterfreak4ever: requests computer texts. Reads at beginning to intermediate level? Some experience?
Harisenbon: Can read pretty well. Experienced. Willing to buy a book.
Infidel: Can read slowly. (Level?) Prefers internet texts.
Insanity Ranch: can read pretty well, just slowly. Experienced. Will buy a book.
Justin: Can read pretty well. Experienced.
Purple Heart: Reading Level? Text preference?
richvh: Reading Level? Text preference?
Sachi: not ready yet?
Sapphiregirl: "not so new at Japanese" Reading Level? Text preference?
Shibakoen: Can read, level not specified. Experienced.
Shikamarufoo: Can read kana only?
zengargoyle: Reading Level? Text preference?

Here are the suggested texts, VERY roughly sorted.

Online:

aozora archive (many short Japanese texts...I think these are out-of-copyright, so not precisely current Japanese.) At this site, stories by both Natsume Souseki and Akutagawa Ryuunosuke are available.

Entire Densha Otoko original 2chan threads

http://ws.31rsm.ne.jp/~toolware/geograp ... raphy.html and http://ws.31rsm.ne.jp/~toolware/history/history.html
(educational website in Japanese)

http://www.his.atr.jp/~ray/stories/ (beginner's level, kana only? children's stories.)

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/ ... odern.html (another out-of-copyright source?)

Printed texts:
Bocchan, by Natsume Souseki

Murakami Haruiki's 羊男のクリスマス

Essays by Sakura Momoko

アッシュベイビーby 金原 ひとみ

へびにピアス(could not find this one on amazon.co.jp) There is an English translation available btw -- the only reason I've heard of this book is I saw the translation the other day at Border's.

リング (gotta check author.)

模倣犯 series by 宮部みゆき (look like fairly long books though)

I would like to add the following essayist for our consideration:
アイウエオの陰謀 by 東海林 さだお (文春文庫 is I think the publisher.) It's a book of several humorous essays. If you want to get a preview, a "taste" of them is read aloud in a blog at http://www.voiceblog.jp/kotoba/car13.html

I hope this helps us move forward!

Shira

I will also link to these threads from the News.

Sorry for a long post

Clay

[Sachi]

I think the book you mentioned, Clay ("Breaking Into Japanese Literature") would be a good choice for those at that level (like me, I think). I've been looking into buying it, an reading with a group would be 100x more fun

[AJBryant]

Clay, for Amazon links all you need is this:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4087747662/

All that other stuff identifies you and your search. Don't want people buying the book on your account, now....

Tony

[keatonatron]

Plus those long URLs make the window all wonky, and that just drives Tony crazy!

[AJBryant]

Plus those long URLs make the window all wonky, and that just drives Tony crazy!

There is that.


Tony

[clay]

許してください。 I just fixed that...

Clay

[appleraja]

i would like to be a part of this book, maybe we should all start off with japanese for busy people book1?

ahh ic u guys mean novel books not grammar books huh? well i dont know kannji right now

[Mukade]

Murakami Haruki's 夜のくもざる is very cool. It's a collection of 2-page short stories by Murakami, with accompanying illustrations by Anzai Mizumaru. It was originally a series of billboard ads commisioned by a stationary or pen company (I can't remember which), that was later collected into book form.

Murakami's writing style is pretty accessable, even to beginners, and since the stories are so short, it would be easier for people who are still looking up every character to get through a complete story in a reasonable period of time. Murakami's done such a great job on each of these stories, though, that even an advanced reader can get enjoyment out of them.

Just thought I'd make the suggestion.

[Frumious Boojum]

appleraja wrote:
i would like to be a part of this book, maybe we should all start off with japanese for busy people book1?

You should try the JFBP Study Group.

For the reading circle, though... I'm agreeing that Breaking Into Japanese Literature is a GREAT book to start at. And it's not just because I already own the book (but have yet to read it too much).

Bilingual books in general will be a good place to start... maybe adding Hiragana Times or a similar publication to the reading group will be good, too.

[AJBryant]

I like the idea of the mondo-short story -- more "yatta!" for your beginning-reader buck.

TOny

[Harisenbon]

I will second (or third) mukade's suggestion.
Murakami is a well-known name abroad, and so he has some brand recognition, and 2 page stories would be short enough that we could have a discussion once a week or so (even with beginners).

Shall I start a post to set up such a thing?