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Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Alec_xvi - 2012-04-24

Hey all,

Finished RtK, Core 2k-6k, and nearing the completion of my self-made Somatome N1 grammar deck. After six years of study (three years in Uni, one year at Gaidai in Osaka, and two years living in Hokkaido), I am FINALLY looking to get into reading some quality novels. WHEW~!

Problem is, I have no idea where to start!

Seeing how most of my coworkers can't get their head around the fact that I can speak, read, and write Japanese, and considering the fact that my J-buddies here in the 田舎 are more inclined to drink a poisonous amount of "wine-beer-sake" than open a book, I am coming to you all for some suggested readings~!

I am looking for a book that was originally written in Japanese (no Harry Potter please) that will be enough of a challenge to make me think, but easy enough so that I will not want to give up after the first few pages. I would prefer something labeled as a classic and that is fit for a 中学生（高学年） or　高校生（低学年） level of reading.

If any of you have any suggestions, please list them here!

Thanks!

よろしくね！

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - EratiK - 2012-04-24

You may try some 夏目, a friend of mine with N2 is reading 吾輩は猫である at the moment.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Fillanzea - 2012-04-24

I think Soseki is the right answer here, but maybe こころ or ぼっちゃん.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - yudantaiteki - 2012-04-24

I'll third Soseki; he's fairly easy to read in my opinion. 猫 is really long; ぼっちゃん is probably a better one to start with (although the first chapter of 猫 was originally a self-contained work so you can read just that.)

Akutagawa's short stories are interesting too, although they tend to use more obscure vocabulary since many of them are based off of old setsuwa.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - merlin.codex - 2012-04-24

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Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - howtwosavealif3 - 2012-04-24

I suggest anything written by　森絵都
also I personally love 本多孝好. I really like both of their writing styles. I'm one of those people that hate books where the writing is boring and dragged out and all that kind of stuff in english and in Japanese.

but like irregardless what people recommend here... if you don't like the writing style of the author... then move on and find one where you do like their writing style.

BTw I liked wataya risa too. her books is sorta boring inthe beginning but by the time I finished reading it... I was glad I read it. I enjoyed install and keritai senaka.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - LittleFishChan - 2012-04-24

Dude, find some Haruki Murakami! He's one of the biggest modern authors in Japan!

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - bertoni - 2012-04-24

Kitchin, by Yoshimoto Banana is fun. Smile That's where I started.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - merlin.codex - 2012-04-24

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Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Diana - 2012-04-24

I`ve met loads, but he tends to ramble. I didn`t like his latest.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - erlog - 2012-04-24

I like 桐野夏生 a lot. I've read Out, and I'm currently reading I'm Sorry Mama. The titles of the books are in English or katakana, but they're written in Japanese. These are both kind of suspense and crime novels. The thing I like about her work is that it feels like her characters are honest, and she writes about a lot of aspects of modern Japan that seem glossed over or ignored in the work of other writers. A really good example of this is her depiction of workers at the boxed lunch factory in Out that actually mentioned some of negative things about how Japan treats foreigners and foreign workers.

People seem to like Haruki Murakami, but I think he gets recommended to foreigners because he's really famous and his books are comparatively easy to read. I wouldn't bother asking Japanese people for book recommendations unless you're already friends with them, and they no longer think of you as a token foreigner. Too often I've been recommended stuff by people who haven't read/watched/listened to the things they're recommending.

I've had better luck with investigating on my own the kinds of things my Japanese friends are enjoying. Instead of asking for a recommendation ask them what their favorite Japanese book/manga/movie/TV series is. Then go find out about that thing. My supervisor at work said she was really excited for this year's NHK Taiga drama, and so I decided I'd watch it too. Another friend mentioned she liked Spec, and so I watched the series so we could go see the movie together.

The recommendations thing doesn't work the way you want it to because people, whether they mean to or not, think of you as a foreigner. My supervisor would have never in a million billion years recommended Taiga drama to me because it's filled with useless archaic Japanese that's difficult even for some Japanese people to parse.

I think you have to be proactive in making them understand that your ability to function within Japanese society includes being able to enjoy the same pop culture. Though, you might already be doing this. I don't really know your situation. I just know the kinds of things I've run into in Japan when it comes to this stuff.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Alec_xvi - 2012-04-25

Thanks for all of your suggestions! I will head to Tsutaya during golden week to check out what you guys recommend to find out what sparks my interest/reading level.

On that note, do any of you have reading strategies? Like, do you scrutinize every new word/grammar point, or are you satisfied with getting the gist of it? Do you mark the things you don't know and review them later, or are you satisfied with just plowing through the text despite not being absolutely clear?

Of course, I am aware that everyone has their own reading style, but I have picked up books before, read them, and put them down after a couple of pages because I was too frustrated that I didn't understand EXACTLY what was being expressed.

Any hints, tips, or tricks to get over a hump like that?

Also, anyone know of any resources to guide Japanese language learners on how to begin deciphering Japanese newspaper articles?

God, I feel like I have been too focused on "studying" rather than "doing"... HAHA! Sad

Ah well!

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Tzadeck - 2012-04-25

I read Murakami's ノルウェイの森 and it's great, but I warn that it's depressing. The language is pretty simple, which is nice. However, he likes to use alternative kanji a lot for everyday words.

I haven't liked anything else I read by Murakami.

I started reading 博士の愛した数式 by Ogawa Yoko, and am blown away by how much harder it is than ノルウェイの森, haha.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - bertoni - 2012-04-25

If you want something more challenging, you could try something from Oe Kenzaburo. Natsukashii Toshi e no Tegami or maybe Kojinteki na Taiken.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Alec_xvi - 2012-04-25

On that note, I would just like to mention that I have been Wikipedia(ing) some of your suggestions, and I am really interested in 桐野 夏生's "OUT", and the plots of 芥川 龍之介's novels in general.

夏目, judging from the plot summaries I have read on Wiki, seems a little too bland for me. And, I am trying to avoid 村上 because "Norweigein Wood" was way to depressing and stagnant for my taste.

On that note, I personally enjoyed reading "A Wild Sheep Chase" in English, but I would not consider revisiting it in Japanese.

Perhaps the answer lies with 桐野 or 龍之介.

We will have to see...

WOO~!

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Fillanzea - 2012-04-25

Alec_xvi Wrote:On that note, do any of you have reading strategies? Like, do you scrutinize every new word/grammar point, or are you satisfied with getting the gist of it? Do you mark the things you don't know and review them later, or are you satisfied with just plowing through the text despite not being absolutely clear?
I try to choose books where I can understand almost everything that happens despite encountering a small number of new words per page, let's say less than 5. If it's a book like 鷺と雪, which is set in the early Meiji period and has a lot of yoji jukugo and literary references, and I really want to read it anyway, then I read it intensively, looking up almost everything new that I come across, but I try to do almost all of my reading dictionary-free. (I don't have an electronic dictionary, so sometimes I keep a "computer book" and a "bus book" going at the same time.) If I see a word often enough that it starts to bug me, or if I can't understand what's going on without it, then I look it up.

I think to read in a foreign language you have to develop some comfort with not understanding everything. The sheer amount of text you read counts for a lot when it comes to your ability to read and understand, and you may only be able to read 3 or 4 pages at a time instead of 15 or 20 if you feel like you have to look up everything you don't understand, and it's impossible to make much progress in a novel at that rate. One possible strategy is to read easier stuff. (Especially stuff with furigana, so you don't passively absorb new words that are pronounced "ええと") Another strategy is to read the first 10 or 15 pages with a lot of dictionary lookup until you get acclimated to the text, and then dive in.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Fillanzea - 2012-04-25

Some strategies for reading newspapers:
Choose a single story to follow in depth, so that you can learn all the vocabulary related to that. (I learned SO much nuclear power vocabulary since 2011.)
Use English sources (like Wikipedia and the English versions of Japanese newspapers) to fill in your background knowledge.
Read the monthly news/opinion magazines, like Sekai, which have deeper coverage and a better examination of the surrounding context.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - socrat - 2012-04-25

The strategy that helped me for reading books...

Timeboxing. Tell myself I only have 1 minute to read a page. I can do quick look ups of a few words if needed but I only have a minute to read and understand as much as I can before moving on. So usually only time for 1 or 2 lookups per page max.

Make sure to read the first 20-30 pages before giving up. Usually something interesting starts happening by then to keep me hooked.

In the beginning try to make a short list of main character names. Usually makes the story easier to follow if you know the characters.

Atleast once a week try to get help from a native on 1 of the pages. It's amazing sometimes the nuances you think you understand but turn out are missing a lot.

Don't worry if the first book is very hard, after 2 or 3 books you will improve a lot.
Also, to improve your speaking you can also try summarizing the parts you read when talking with natives.

Currently reading this book. It's good if you like detective books...
容疑者Xの献身 by 東野圭吾. The author also has some popular new releases.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - bluemarigolds - 2012-04-27

If you folks do the LJ thing, there's a semi-active community for Book Recommendations in Japanese (http://japanesebookrec.livejournal.com/). Reviews are in English and the level of difficulty is approximated, which should make it easier for you to find level-appropriate books.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - howtwosavealif3 - 2012-04-27

lol I found about this horrible book... anyways the reviews are really fun to read

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E9%AC%BC%E3%81%94%E3%81%A3%E3%81%93-%E5%B1%B1%E7%94%B0-%E6%82%A0%E4%BB%8B/dp/4835525795/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335569483&sr=1-1

The book won an award (hence it got attention) and apparently the person who wrote is really bad at writing and one of the funny reviews recommended to people learning Japanese. They were like "oh it doesn't come with the answers... But try to spot areas where the grammar is messed up. "

wow the reviews make me lol... like リア鬼重版するくらいなら、レビューを「電車男」みたいに書籍化すればいいのに。本編の千倍…いや、マイナスの評価に掛け算はダメでしたね、ごめんなさい。

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Nuriko - 2012-04-28

socrat Wrote:Don't worry if the first book is very hard, after 2 or 3 books you will improve a lot.
Very, very true. It's really amazing what pushing yourself through a few books will do.

Also, sometimes I find that reading a book by an author whose writing style I'm not familiar with will feel very discouraging and boring at first, and may even cause me to regret buying the book, but after those first 25 to 50 pages... I completely forget even feeling that way.

Starting a book with an unfamiliar writing style can be so difficult, especially for those first few pages. But it's really amazing what the human mind can do to adapt to that after a little while. Of course, it also helps that the subject matter is interesting Smile

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Nuriko - 2012-04-28

bluemarigolds Wrote:If you folks do the LJ thing, there's a semi-active community for Book Recommendations in Japanese (http://japanesebookrec.livejournal.com/). Reviews are in English and the level of difficulty is approximated, which should make it easier for you to find level-appropriate books.
Wow, looks really good. Thanks for this!

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - tnall - 2012-05-29

I don't know if you're a fan of anime but I would definitely recommend NHKにようこそ！if only because it has a manga that is exactly what I think you're looking for. I'm at a point with my Japanese where I feel I can read and enjoy a manga but when it comes to a book, I get frazzled over the chunks of context I lose when I can't follow the plot. So, I prefer manga because it cuts down to the conversation.

That being said, the anime makes for perfect context-building before you read the manga because it is a pretty damn good anime, and I'm super jaded at this point trust me. I won't recap the plot since that's Wikipedia's job (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHK%E3%81%AB%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%93%E3%81%9D!) but let me say, this is the most I've enjoyed an anime in a while. I'll admit that the plot borders on cliche-ish but that aside, it has a ton to think about and relate to. Definitely check it out.

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - Tori-kun - 2012-05-29

@nuriko: Nah, pushing is perhaps not the best thing to do! I have a few Japanese books on my desk and I ordered them by their respective difficulty, as wccrawford (?) once recommended, if I recall correctly -- this is just so awesome! It really worked for me at least and reading only a few pages to check if you improved in Japanese is already enough, I find.

Talking about book recommendations, my favourite one up to now I kind of started and stopped reading many times, is 告白 by 港かなえ. Bokusenou has written a review on her website, if I recall correctly. It has a lot of special words in it (e.g. 骨密度…), but as far as I could tell it becomes an easier read to the middle/end of the book. The story is just awesome Big Grin

Reading Suggestions for Advanced Learners - KMarkP - 2012-05-29

How about 東野圭吾 (Higashino Keigo)?
秘密 had me hooked from beginning to end--and it wasn't all that difficult.

I've read a lot of Murakami Haruki, especially his early stuff. But after slogging through 海辺のカフカ I figured I'd had enough. I tried 1Q84 but it's just WAY too long to sustain interest for me.