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Hi I'm looking for a novel to read. So far nhk news is fairly easy with an online dictionary, but it's not needed so much. As of how much grammar I have, let's say genki 1+2 and some other grammar points I stumbled across elsewhere like in songs. I'm also currently working on core6k.
Also if there are any novels for me to read, where would I buy it. By the way, I'm planning to do intensive reading if that means anything. I don't think I'm ready for extensive reading as my vocabulary is only about 2 thousand.
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hated that story... sooo boring up to the last 20 pages.
I liked Haruki Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase （羊の巡り冒険）
It's not super easy, but honestly reading an easy boring story is more frustrating I think.
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I tried to read stuff way over my skill level when I first started out, and it was incredibly frustrating. I lowered the level, and it was a lot more enjoyable, even if the plots weren't the most riveting.
Some of the novels aimed at Elementary School kids have a lot of furigana, and are pretty easy reads. The plots aren't necessarily the greatest ever, but good enough.
The important part with these is that you won't have to either a) look up every other word or b) skip half the novel without knowing what the heck is going on.
Also, the furigana means if you know a word, but don't know the kanji for it, you'll kill two birds with one stone: you won't have to stop reading to look it up, and you may even pick up on being able to read the kanji w/o furigana. (Maybe not. People will argue over this.)
The only publisher I can think of off-hand is Aoi Tori Bunko （青い鳥文庫 あおいとりぶんこ）, but I know that there are others. Amazon.co.jp is your friend for that bit, if not necessarily for ordering.
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try amazon for a quick peeeeeeeek.
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I don't know about light novels as I just started from novels but..
One trick is to read something you've already read (faaairly recently) in English/<insert native language here>.
I wasn't too far past you as far as language knowledge goes when I read A Wild Sheep Chase. I think I had one more textbook in my brain and a little random vocabulary from here and there (+RTK1). Wild Sheep Chase is a regular novel but Murakami isn't too hard to read. I had also read it in English a little over half a year before I read it in Japanese. It certainly wasn't *easy* but since it's a story I like and I'd read it in English (+high motivation to move forward) it wasn't so bad.
I highly suggest Murakami Haruki if you like sci-fi because he almost always has supernatural elements to his stories (although they often appear quite late) but they aren't hard to read as a sci-fi novel would be. "世界の終わりとハードボイルド・ワンダーランド" may be good for that..
Speaking of Sci-Fi, I read some Neal Stephenson translated into Japanese. That was an adventure.
Also Higashino Keigo writes detective stories that aren't .. "action".. but may be equally entertaining depending on the book. I recently read "プラチナデータ" which is one of his more recent books and it was quite easy to read. As long as you can get used to some police/detective lingo fairly quickly he may be easier to read than Murakami.
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Are you dead-set on light novels? Children's novels are much easier and have complete furigana. Not everything is easy of course, but usually it's a great deal less stressful and boring than trying to read too far above your level.
I recommend the ふたごの魔法つかい series. I've never felt the need to reach for a dictionary to understand what's going on while reading it, and the stories are genuinely enjoyable.
魔法館へようこそ is another series that's really easy to understand.
Otherwise, I always hear people talking about how Kino's Journey is really easy for a light novel. Haven't started on it myself yet though.
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Just a quick question, has anyone ever tried reading Harry Potter in Japanese? I bought a book because it was on sale in my first year of uni, and it was too hard, so put it down, and haven't touched it since. I'd like to use it to gauge my level I guess, so what level do you guys reckon it might be? LN? Children's? Novel? N3? N2? Thoughts?
Edited: 2013-10-21, 11:17 pm
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I recommend 西の魔女が死んだ. It's about a young girl who is afraid of going to school, so she goes to live with her grandmother for a little while. She learns a lot of things living there that give her new confidence in life. Written for young readers, but can totally be appreciated by adults. The themes and concepts are not childish at all.
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I'm still thinking though, should I finish Core6k and then go to reading some literature, or just intensive read all the way?
