Aikynaro Wrote:How are you logging it? Do you have a 読書メーター?

Nothing like that, just an excel spreadsheet. I don't log pages such much as just the books and authors. Perhaps I should give 読書メーター a try...

Aikynaro Wrote:I find numbers and graphs to be motivating. According to that, I have read 4 books worth 781 pages this month - better than my 3 books/604 pages from last month. Looking forward to seeing the numbers go up later today when I finish my current book.

How do you find the time! I guess I get through about a book a month in Japanese, weighing in at 2-300 pages on average. I don't sweat it too much whether I read more or less than last month, as long as I keep reading.

anotherjohn Wrote:Here is the blurb on the back (I've ... gasp ... actually got a paper copy yikes)

I might have to do the same, it is not available on Kindle although a number of his other books are.

Quote:How do you find the time! I guess I get through about a book a month in Japanese, weighing in at 2-300 pages on average. I don't sweat it too much whether I read more or less than last month, as long as I keep reading.

A chapter or so before sleeping every day - doesn't take all that much time depending on the book. Plus a bit of time when there's nothing to do at work. Honestly I should be spending more time reading seeing that I've pretty much ditched studying entirely. I thought if I could recreate my childhood of lying around absorbed in books all day things would take care of themselves - haven't quite reached that level of enthusiasm though.
(and, y'know - the books you're reading are probably a great deal more hardcore than the books I'm reading)

NickT, you should get on 読書メーター. It's also a good place to practice writing and to learn about new books.

Folks in this thread should feel free to follow me if you don't already - http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/388077

I'm still reading, but honestly none of the books (except the one I suggested) were really the kind of thing I like to read so I'd be perfectly happy to move on to another round of nominations whenever other people feel like it.

Aikynaro Wrote:I thought if I could recreate my childhood of lying around absorbed in books all day things would take care of themselves - haven't quite reached that level of enthusiasm though.

Same here.

P.s. my 読書メーター:

Manga - http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/117474

Books - http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/205504

Yeah, 読書メーター is a really cool place.
Here's my page: http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/464137
I've followed you Splatted, but can't open gaiaslastlaugh's link.

As for the Book Club, I've tried reading the beginner and the advanced books but I don't like them too much.
I'm waiting for the paper copy of Go, which I hope I will enjoy soon.

Oops - the period was included in my link. Corrected.

Finally bothered to make a 読書メートル account and can already feel the extra motivation: http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/507969

Toying with the idea of making separate accounts for manga/books like Splatted though - seems like a good idea.

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:Oops - the period was included in my link. Corrected.

The link to your blog from 読書メートル needs fixing too (works without the 's')

anotherjohn Wrote:

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:Oops - the period was included in my link. Corrected.

The link to your blog from 読書メートル needs fixing too (works without the 's')

Oh lordie. Thanks for catching that

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:NickT, you should get on 読書メーター. It's also a good place to practice writing and to learn about new books.

Folks in this thread should feel free to follow me if you don't already - http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/388077

I took your advice and created an account, here: http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/510208

I decided to only list the books I read on the Kindle over the last 2 years (15 books), and left off all the old paper books and manga etc. If I decide to list those I'll create a separate account, although I doubt I will bother.

Apparently I've read a little shy of 4000 pages, which is kind of motivational I guess.

Feel free to follow me if you want to see what I'm reading.

Here's mine

http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/254675

My precious books has finally arrived.

"Go" is one of them. It seems pretty readable and funny, for now

My account:

http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/467053

I made one too. I'm not as advanced as you guys, but the site looks cool.

http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/512586

Should we start talking about a second round? First round seems fairly ... unsuccessful. Perhaps we need some different structure to facilitate conversation rather than just throwing a thread out there and hoping for the best. And perhaps some more accountability to prod those who maybe lost their enthusiasm and quietly stopped reading? :p
Some kind of deadline would be good too, so we can declare it officially over rather than have it splutter out. Deadlines are good motivation, too, and after that point we could discuss without having to worry about spoilers.


And unrelated, but seems like the best thread around to ask:
Does anyone know any good easily readable science fiction? Decent furigana coverage is the most important thing.

I just finished 月の上のガラスの町 (why don't we have a city on the moon yet anyway?) and feel like more proper science fiction. Been reading too many books about witches, dragons, and whatnot lately - need spaceships and lasers and stuff.

My 読書メーター: http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/u/339621

Splatted Wrote:I'm not entirely sure how sharing works in Dropbox but I think you can access them if I just post this link.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5pxmwkj6d7hlv...bFx6a?dl=0

Is there a website that has all the books from that link listed? If not, does anyone know if there are any books that have all furigana in them?

Edit:
Nevermind. Found the list.

@aikynaro, maybe we could have deadlines per chapter. I think what we may have discovered is how finicky, wishy-washy and fickle we all can be (by we I mean me and probably other folks not including NickT and other voracious readers). We may have to make this into some kind of intensive page count thing like tadoku but with more of support/reports on how reading goes. Even if it's every day. So I'll agree that perhaps a thread is not the best, and I'm not sure yet if we should do deadlines per chapter, the whole book, daily reading reports even if we haven't accomplished anything...? I think what I am saying is that reading in Japanese is hard and motivation is the most important factor. People feel like they are cheating if they consult a translation, but that's the only way I get through some books (especially names without furigana, too bad there's no Remember the Names book).

I was at a weird place as I've already commented--despite my freaking starting this thread; sorry for dropping the ball--in regards to my reading. I hadn't been reading or doing flashcards for a couple months. I reached out to our beloved Zgarbas for support and she talked me through getting my Anki game back on track. I've been auto-making flashcards with words from the book using Mazec keyboard-->Jsho Anki auto-create, but they're pretty bare (no pictures, sentences, etc. because I'm using a physical book). Currently reading 錦繡 by 宮本輝 a second time, since I think it's a beautiful book, but I'm really crawling through it, looking up almost every word, and I've only made a few multi-page sprints without looking up a word. I look back at my June 2013 Tadoku count and wonder how I read so much and how much I understood. I tend to go for really literary novels and often have trouble with getting through a whole book that's more fantasy or sci-fi. It's odd considering Ray Bradbury's books got me into reading once upon a time. So I guess my personal approach or desire in this thing involves as much 'scaffolding' as possible, be it reading the translation, vocab/sentence decks with words mined from the book, and pressure/motivation.

I think it's worth failing to successfully get this book club going a few times to get at the root of what it takes for us to read. Thanks everyone for your continued participation and ideas!

I think there are a few things that could be done better (or a least different) if there is another round of book club. I have a few ideas, as follows:

1) People should be encouraged to check in, and at the very least say that they have started reading the book. Weekly updates would also be helpful, even if it is just "was too busy this week" or "read up to page 100", at least people would know who was still reading.

2) Time limits isn't a bad idea. My vote would be for 2 months, I think that is long enough for most people to finish a book, or at least have a decent stab at it - assuming you chose a book of an appropriate difficulty level to start with. Its not the end of the world if some people don't finish in time though.

3) I think we need a better way of dealing with spoilers. Being too paranoid about spoilers makes it difficult to have any meaningful discussion about the books, I think. As long as people avoid major spoilers like "omg I can't believe X died at the end" I think most plot details are fairly innocuous.

4) Another thing is that t needs to be organised around the way people access books. This became the "innocent book club", which is fine, but personally I would be more interested in participating in a "Kindle book club" as that is how I read and not all innocent books are available on kindle, and vice versa. Some people also prefer to read paper books, which opens up many more possibilities. Maybe I should just start my own kindle book club thread and see if anyone joins in...

Anyway, if anyone has any recommendations for the next round, feel free to chip in. I probably won't make any new recommendations this time around, although I will vote if there is one.

I think all these ideas are good.

I'm leaning towards daily reading report for accountability and to encourage discussion. Weekly seems too long - I finished 君にしか聞こえない in a week.
Hm, though - how much time would you guess a book like that is 'supposed' to take? If we had a reasonable estimate of how quickly someone 'should' be able to read a book, we might be able to set milestones/deadlines.

For spoilers, perhaps everyone could post what page they're up to at the top of their post. People who are concerned about spoilers can skip over posts that are further ahead.

And yeah - NickT's #4 was bothering me. I have lots of books I could suggest but it feels we're limited to what's free on the internet. Are people willing to pay for books? Of those, how many are willing to import paper books (or don't need to)?

I think one issue is that some people have to wait forever to have a book shipped to their country. I'm lucky there's a Book-Off in NY with Japanese novels, but I do prefer paperback if I can find it. But it seems we have to find something that is Kindle and innocent friendly to ensure maximum accessibility and roughly synchronized starting.

Maybe I will get slack for this, but is reading spoilers that big of concern to some people? The point of reading a book, especially trudging through one in a second language, is more than about discovering the plot in sequence, except in mysteries and crime fiction, but its why people read books they love more than once. Rant over, but I just want to make sure there are some people who are really worried about spoilers. In this case as well, since we're talking about it in English, I think spoilers might even be useful for anticipating plot, but working out how it is written in Japanese.

I'm good with selecting a book that's both on Kindle and physically available. I still haven't managed to figure out how to access JP Kindle books here in the states reliably. OTOH, I'm only a 20-minute drive from a Kinokuniya.

If people in the states need help getting books, maybe those of us in large metro areas can lend a hand.

I don't think spoilers are a big deal. Having to dance around spoilers definitely kills conversation.

I think spoilers are a problem the same as they are in English - but I'm not trudging through the books I read (and am, I dunno - philosophically and strategically opposed to reading books that are so difficult that they need to be trudged through). Discovering the story in sequence can be very enjoyable.

That said, I agree that having to dance around spoilers kills conversation. I was hoping that putting the page number at the top of the post would be a decent compromise. Not having any spoiler warnings at all would cause people to avoid the thread until they've finished reading.

That's good, I like the page number thing, too. Also, perhaps we could generate deliberate discussion questions. Yeah I guess trudging was a bit of a dramatic word, enjoying the book is the best motivation anyway.

does any one here have problems concentrating when reading in japanese? I can read rather fast and without any problems, but what frustrates me is that I read and many times feel like I didn't read anything.

Do you have any advices? It happens to me with reading in general, but specially in Japanese.

Rina Wrote:what frustrates me is that I read and many times feel like I didn't read anything.

I'm not sure what you mean exactly by "feeling like you didn't read anything" but perhaps you're actually reading too fast to fully absorb and remember what you've read, sort of just, sliding over words, so after you're finished you don't feel you've absorbed any of what you've just read?

Or maybe what you're reading isn't interesting enough or relevant enough to you, for you to feel you've read something useful / enjoyed yourself?

chillimuffin Wrote:

Rina Wrote:what frustrates me is that I read and many times feel like I didn't read anything.

I'm not sure what you mean exactly by "feeling like you didn't read anything" but perhaps you're actually reading too fast to fully absorb and remember what you've read, sort of just, sliding over words, so after you're finished you don't feel you've absorbed any of what you've just read?

Or maybe what you're reading isn't interesting enough or relevant enough to you, for you to feel you've read something useful / enjoyed yourself?

Good point. I think that's it! Now that you mention, I always have this thing for doing things fast and reading is no exception. I should change the mindset from fast and superficial to slow and enjoyable.

Thanks a bunch! You just made my day! ^^