Hi there fellow koohiiers!

So after a healthy break I resumed studying Japanese again, and this time I'd like to start reading novels (not LNs or VNs). As the title says, I'd like novels accessible for around the N3 level. As you guys are the most experienced I know in this field, I'd (naturally) thought of asking you. Ten titles should be enough to get me started.

Thanks very much in advance for your recommendations!

Can one even read novels at N3? I'm N3+ and I've never tried, but it doesn't seem possible to me.

Banana Yoshimoto? Her writing is simple, her stories are not too long... I'd recommend "Kitchen" for starters and see if you like the style or not!

Try giving 窓ぎわのトットちゃん a shot.

like i already wrote, i started reading books when i learned around 500 words. it's always a good time to read a book.

i liked 川上 弘美(hiromi kawakami). simple writing style that often expressess complex or ambiguous ideas. 蛇を踏む is a collection of short stories and 真鶴 is a full lenght novel.
given that french translate a lot of offbeat japanese literature, you might find these books in translation, too.

one book that came highly recommended from my japanese friends i trust is 嘘つきアーニャの真っ赤な真実 by 米原 万里(mari yonehara). it's an autobiography of her growing up in communist prague. i have the book, but still haven't gotten around to reading it, so can't really comment on the difficulty level.

afterglowefx Wrote:Can one even read novels at N3? I'm N3+ and I've never tried, but it doesn't seem possible to me.

What really tripped me on my last N3 attempt was my reading speed. So yes, I think N3s can read novels, and they should.

Thanks already for the first recommendations, I'm looking them up.

The 三毛猫ホームズシリーズ by 赤川次郎 are probably among the easiest novels you will find.

I'd assume I'm around N3? Here's what I've read.
Of those, I'd freely recommend ナディヤと灰色おおかみ and ハンカチの上の花畑.
パセリ伝説, 「うそじゃないよ」と谷川くんはいった, and the ふたごの魔法使い books all do what they set out to do well and I enjoyed them.

きまぐれロボット is cool - it's full of 3-4 page science-related short stories/fables.
二分間の冒険 I'm 50 pages into and it seems like a good fantasy adventure. Not particularly easy reading though.


Curious: is there any reason you excluded light novels? I haven't actually read one, but they just seem like novels to me? With different branding maybe, but no different from how a crime novel is still a novel or a YA novel is a novel.

Aikynaro Wrote:Curious: is there any reason you excluded light novels? I haven't actually read one, but they just seem like novels to me? With different branding maybe, but no different from how a crime novel is still a novel or a YA novel is a novel.

Call me old school, but in my opinion LNs are just a commercial ploy, which explains why (afaik) they haven't appeared in other countries. Even as a kid, I'd read novels, and never cared for the number of pages. I just don't have the money to buy series of 20+ books that would normally be bound in 6 or 7 volumes. Like how in France the Song of Ice and Fire (5 books) is published as something like 15 books. It rubs me the wrong way.

Penguin released an interesting collection of short stories in parallel text. It's currently one of my nightstand book, and I do enjoy it quite a lot. It has the added benefit of having the translation on the opposite page. And if you're in Paris, you can easily pick it up at Gibert Joseph (Boulevard St. Michel).

http://www.amazon.com/Short-Stories-Japa...0143118331

I used to think those parallel readers were great, but you can do this yourself: buy the Japanese version (cool to own anyway) and the translation... Might look a bit silly reading two books at once, but who cares

EratiK Wrote:

Aikynaro Wrote:Curious: is there any reason you excluded light novels? I haven't actually read one, but they just seem like novels to me? With different branding maybe, but no different from how a crime novel is still a novel or a YA novel is a novel.

Call me old school, but in my opinion LNs are just a commercial ploy, which explains why (afaik) they haven't appeared in other countries. Even as a kid, I'd read novels, and never cared for the number of pages. I just don't have the money to buy series of 20+ books that would normally be bound in 6 or 7 volumes. Like how in France the Song of Ice and Fire (5 books) is published as something like 15 books. It rubs me the wrong way.

Hmm, fair enough - although I'm under the impression that the reason most light novels are split up that way is that they're episodic and each volume covers a particular story arc rather than being arbitrarily split up. Like ... I dunno, Animorphs, or something. I understand the sentiment though.

(although it could easily be argued that Animorphs isn't anything more than a commercial ploy so I guess that's not the best example. No other really long running episodic novel series come to mind ... but it doesn't seem like an intrinsically bad idea?)

Since reading speed is such a problem at that level, I found it hard to carry the thread of a story for the whole length of a novel. Maybe short stories -- I like the "Kimi ga mitsukaru monogatari" series, which is a themed anthology series (school stories, love stories, horror stories, etc) aimed at middle schoolers, which features a lot of high-profile writers like Yoshimoto Banana and Otsuichi; and you could also look into the short-short science fiction stories by Hoshi Shin'ichi.

Call me a sucker for efficiency, but it seems to me that instead of spending months struggling through novels one could simply slam vocabulary in Anki (or whatever) instead. You could finish Core6k in that time and greatly expand both the range of available books and the speed at which you could read them.

afterglowefx Wrote:Call me a sucker for efficiency, but it seems to me that instead of spending months struggling through novels one could simply slam vocabulary in Anki (or whatever) instead. You could finish Core6k in that time and greatly expand both the range of available books and the speed at which you could read them.

No one prevents you from doing both. Reading a novel in a foreign language is a pleasure to me, something I do outside of "serious study" time. Anki has its value for vocabulary for sure, but nothing beats seeing and understanding words and phrases in context. It helps develop a better sense of the language, something Anki can't quite provide, unless your cards are REALLY freaking long.

Linval Wrote:No one prevents you from doing both. Reading a novel in a foreign language is a pleasure to me, something I do outside of "serious study" time. Anki has its value for vocabulary for sure, but nothing beats seeing and understanding words and phrases in context. It helps develop a better sense of the language, something Anki can't quite provide, unless your cards are REALLY freaking long.

All very true, for sure, and I'm definitely looking forward to a time when I can start on novels as well. You definitely will never get anywhere in the language unless you start to see how all that vocabulary is put together, and reading is maybe the vest best way of achieving that. But with so few words available to you at N3 I just wonder if it wouldn't be better to invest that time more wholly into preparation. I really don't know the answer to that. I guess I tend to over-prepare, which is why I'm still putting it off!

afterglowefx Wrote:Call me a sucker for efficiency, but it seems to me that instead of spending months struggling through novels one could simply slam vocabulary in Anki (or whatever) instead. You could finish Core6k in that time and greatly expand both the range of available books and the speed at which you could read them.

There is more to reading comprehension (and reading speed) than just vocabulary. I'm halfway through core 6000 (so I'll be finished in 40 days) but it's mostly words I already know since I did a 7500 words premade deck before, and started making my own deck which has about 900 words. And yes I plan to anki sentences while reading novels, but an hour and a half of core will never replace the benefits gained through real reading, even if it's a struggle at first.

afterglowefx Wrote:Call me a sucker for efficiency, but it seems to me that instead of spending months struggling through novels one could simply slam vocabulary in Anki (or whatever) instead. You could finish Core6k in that time and greatly expand both the range of available books and the speed at which you could read them.

I understand your point of view, but I think it's wrong past a certain point. If what you say about your level is correct, you shouldn't have to spend months struggling through novels.
My current goal is one novel/week. I read my last one in four days - it was 256 pages, I enjoyed it, and I didn't pick up a dictionary or consult a grammar guide once.
That's not because I'm super-amazing, but because you're overestimating how difficult novels are.

Unless you're the sort who looks down on 'children's novels' as beneath you, I guess. But I can't say I have any respect for that position.

Anyway, I spend half an hour a day reviewing my 5500 card deck, plus more adding cards. Any more time with Anki would be pain and agony. I read for fun, not just because it's incredibly helpful for language learning.

哀しい予感 by yoshimoto banana was the first novel I read all the way through and I remember it being surprisingly easy so you could give that a try.
告白 by 湊かなえ was also a super easy read, being pretty much just like everyday language. Having read mostly 太宰治, 夏目漱石 etc before that, the colloquial style really surprised me.
I also read 博士の愛した数式 by 小川洋子 recently and there was no difficult language in that. It's a pretty popular/famous book in Japan right now so it could be a talking point with Japanese friends if you read it.
一年半待て by 松本清張 is a short story we had to read for a literature class at Keio and that was a really easy read too. Straightforward story, no difficult language. So you could give that a try too.

Aikynaro Wrote:

afterglowefx Wrote:Call me a sucker for efficiency, but it seems to me that instead of spending months struggling through novels one could simply slam vocabulary in Anki (or whatever) instead. You could finish Core6k in that time and greatly expand both the range of available books and the speed at which you could read them.

I understand your point of view, but I think it's wrong past a certain point. If what you say about your level is correct, you shouldn't have to spend months struggling through novels.
My current goal is one novel/week. I read my last one in four days - it was 256 pages, I enjoyed it, and I didn't pick up a dictionary or consult a grammar guide once.
That's not because I'm super-amazing, but because you're overestimating how difficult novels are.

Unless you're the sort who looks down on 'children's novels' as beneath you, I guess. But I can't say I have any respect for that position.

Anyway, I spend half an hour a day reviewing my 5500 card deck, plus more adding cards. Any more time with Anki would be pain and agony. I read for fun, not just because it's incredibly helpful for language learning.

Do you read with paper or do you download the books?

Paper. There's just something satisfying about filling up bookshelves.

I guess I just hadn't considered children's books as an option, but I bet it'd be really great for solidifying basic vocabulary and picking up the most basic sentence constructions that form the vast majority of the language (especially the spoken language). My schedule is completely different: wake up at 8:30am, get on Anki for 5 hours (not kidding), go to work, spend another 2 hours on Anki at work, come home, wrap up any remaining cards, spend maybe an hour relaxing, go to bed, repeat.

My progress is pretty damned good, but it's by no means an easy schedule to keep!

EratiK Wrote:Call me old school, but in my opinion LNs are just a commercial ploy, which explains why (afaik) they haven't appeared in other countries.

As far as I can tell, series like Erin Hunter's WARRIORS are the equivalent in the US. We have a ton of these damn books at my house.

afterglowefx Wrote:I guess I just hadn't considered children's books as an option, but I bet it'd be really great for solidifying basic vocabulary and picking up the most basic sentence constructions that form the vast majority of the language (especially the spoken language).

As mentioned on this forum before, the Japanese translation of the Magic Tree House books - which seem to be very popular in Japan - are great for exactly this.

I'll also second 赤川次郎 for those looking for reads that are more adult, yet still fairly easy. I finished one of his books of short-shorts (踊る男) last year, and greatly enjoyed it. I have one of his 三毛猫ホームズ books waiting for me after I finish デスノート。

I haven't read 博士の愛した数式 yet, but my Japanese friends rave about it.

Ash_S Wrote:I also read 博士の愛した数式 by 小川洋子 recently and there was no difficult language in that. It's a pretty popular/famous book in Japan right now so it could be a talking point with Japanese friends if you read it.

I tried reading this book after reading through a few other novels for adults, at almost N1 level (I had passed N2, failed N1 and was studying to retake it), and after getting about half way through the book I decided it was too damn hard to read and I stopped. So, I would definitely NOT recommend this book for an N3 learner.

Then again, I liked the book less and less as I read and that might have contributed to it. I really disliked the 'mathematicians in fiction' cliches that came up over and over (and over) again in the professor's character. I didn't think it was very good, nor easy to read for beginners.