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My girlfriend's favorite novel is Botchan by Soseki. If you read his Nights in Exploring Japanese Literature (which it seems so) and enjoyed them, it might be good to pick up. It's not supposed to be too abstract, and the main character is supposed to be pretty compelling.

Although I've only read one of his books, I plan on having a go at more stuff by 山田・悠介。

"I was hoping that someone could refer me to the more mainstream novels out there -- you know, the Japanese equivalents of Michael Crichton, John Grisham, Neil Gaiman, etc."

I can't say that we share the same tastes, but you seemed to enjoy Soseki's "10 nights of Dreams", so I would recommend looking at the short stories of Edogawa Rampo (whose nom de guerre derives from the Japanese pronunciation of Edgar Allan Poe). The stories are a bit longer than Soseki's Dreams, but not novel length, so they would be a good step up from "Breaking into Japanese Literature". An English translation of some of his stories is available if needed.

You also mentioned Mishima and Tanizaki. I was introduced to these writers by "Exploring Japanese Literature", and I have to say they are both brilliant. I highly recommend Mishima's "Kinkakuji", although the Japanese is quite challenging. Tanizaki's "The Key" is a shortish novel, not too difficult and filled with a copious helping of sex. What more could you ask for?

I would love to read Soseki, Mishima or Tanizaki in japanese and I'm jealous of you guys. At what level do you think I could start reading them? I guess that the difficulty must be above that of JLPT 1. I looked a bit at Breaking into Japanese literature and while I could try to understand it, I think it's just too far above my level for now.

I'm not even remotely near being able to read him in Japanese, but the novels of Haruki Murakami are amazingly good in English translation. I dream of the day I might be able to go back and read them in the original, and if you're anywhere near ready, I'd encourage you to try.

Just read "Kafka on the Shore" a few months ago, and can recommend it very highly. My favorite is probably "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World". But I've loved everything I've read by him.

I would recommend the novels of Murakami Haruki. The sentence structure is fairly simple, the language is modern and up to date, the stories are interesting, and the vocabulary is immediately useful. I've read several of his books and hardly broke a sweat. Probably the one to begin with would be "Norwegian Wood" ノルウエーの森. Good Japanese light reading.

Good Luck.

Mark

山の音

wzafran Wrote:I am enticed by your suggestion of 'Kinkakuji'. I like a bit of challenge. I think I will get that.

Mishima's writings are difficult even for Japanese natives. Hell, even the English translation was hard to get through. I'd avoid it for now unless you are a very advanced reader.

wzafran Wrote:(They say that man fears most that which he does not know. Therefore, Heisig's book had granted me the best gift of all: the removal of any and all fear towards new and unknown kanji.)

Sorry, I just HAD to quote that.

I tried reading "Hard boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" by Murakami, but it was a bit much for me... The English version which I'm reading now seems kinda complex at times, I wonder how much that reflects the original writing.

I've heard Kokoro by Natsume Soseki is relatively easy(compared to other things he's written, I guess). It's on my list of things to tackle in the future, once I clear some other stuff off my to-read list.

I don't know if you're into fantasy at all, but I am waiting, just waiting for the day I can read 十二国記(じゅうにこくき） by 小野 不由美（おうの　ふゆみ）。 Before I even started learning Japanese, I brought these books and placed them on my shelf. Every month or so I take them down and see how much progress I am making.