Where can you find that online? I can only find the English version.

Find what?

NickT Wrote:Its a two stage process, you have to convert the txt to epub first and then to a mobi using different programs. penguins42v hinted that there is a way to do it in 1 step but I couldn't personally figure that out, but it is easy enough anyway. Don't be intimidated by the fact the programs are in Japanese, it is basically just drag and drop and very easy to use.

Yeah, OK, so no idea if it works the same on a Mac. But on my PC, there's a dropdown menu to change from .epub to .mobi - http://imgur.com/bv8new7 It first converts to epub and leaves that on your computer and then does the epub to mobi conversion for you, as long as you have kindlegen in the same folder as the program. Otherwise it just yells at you in Japanese. できません is about all you need to know for that.

Hopefully I'm making sense. There's a bizarre fascination to watching 24時間テレビ that has kept me up past my bed time.

Do you guys know how to change the encoding to UTF8? No matter how many times I save it with the UTF8 encoding everything remains nonsense text.

tashippy Wrote:Find what?

きみにしか聞こえない

penguins42v Wrote:Yeah, OK, so no idea if it works the same on a Mac. But on my PC, there's a dropdown menu to change from .epub to .mobi - http://imgur.com/bv8new7 It first converts to epub and leaves that on your computer and then does the epub to mobi conversion for you, as long as you have kindlegen in the same folder as the program. Otherwise it just yells at you in Japanese. できません is about all you need to know for that.

Yep, it works the same way. Thanks :-)

NickT Wrote:Yes, It works on a Mac. I just tried it and it worked perfectly. If you use the software penguins42v linked then it comes out with vertical text, furigana lined up and the dictionary lookup works. If you can find a picture of the front cover of the book you can even use that and it comes out as the front cover when you are browsing through your books on your device.

Oops, it seems I spoke too soon earlier when I said everything worked perfectly. When I convert to mobi, everything looks fine... it has vertical text, furigana looks OK, and text is selectable for dictionary lookup. HOWEVER, when I transfer the file to my Kindle Paperwhite the dictionary has serious problems. Basically, it seems to not know where the word boundaries are, so when you touch a word it usually highlights the entire sentence. As a result, the dictionary lookup normally fails. Although you can manually adjust the area that is highlighted, it is a real hassle and clearly I must have fat fingers because most of the time I mess it up.

For some reason if I transfer the same file to my Kindle Fire HD, it can tell where the word boundaries are and the dictionary works just fine. Unfortunately the Kindle Fire HD is a bit pants generally, and for reasons I explained in another thread (http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...#pid205926) I much prefer reading on my Paperwhite.

Has anyone come across this problem and know what causes it, or how to solve it? If you didn't have the same problem, and are able to read innocent/aozora books on a Paperwhite with proper dictionary lookup, do you mind just quickly saying which method you used to convert it?

learningkanji Wrote:

tashippy Wrote:Find what?

きみにしか聞こえない

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

It's within the first 3/4 batches I think.

きみにしか聞こえない was definitely a good choice! I just read the first chapter in 15 minutes, highlighting any unknown words. Not as many as I thought. Cool

I read the first few chapters of 君にしか聞こえない yesterday & I'm really enjoying the story, though I take back what I said about not having to look up every other word, because there have been enough to justify 71 new cards so far.

I'm gonna read some more today as I just can't wait for the deer to show up.

Okay, all - I updated the Wiki page with the book recommendations from this thread:

http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/Japanese_Fiction

I also created sub-topics in Group Study for each of the books. The WIki page on book recommendations link back to these threads, so that people who want to study these books in the future can see what obstacles we ran into, and perhaps learn from our mistakes. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you post issues here, even if you managed to figure them out on your own. Posting about items such as explanations of tricky grammar, unusual vocabulary with special cultural significance in Japan, etc. will be a boon to your fellow learners, both now and in the future.

Beginner: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=12129
Intermediate: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=12132
Advanced: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=12133

Rina Wrote:

learningkanji Wrote:

tashippy Wrote:Find what?

きみにしか聞こえない

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

It's within the first 3/4 batches I think.

Thanks. Is this the one everyone is reading?

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

QUESTION: What should we do about potential spoilers? My vote would be to instruct individuals to put ***SPOILER ALERT*** at the top of individual posts.

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:QUESTION: What should we do about potential spoilers? My vote would be to instruct individuals to put ***SPOILER ALERT*** at the top of individual posts.

My vote would be to use white text.
Doing this without spaces [ color=white ]Example text[/ color] creates white text which only shows if you highlight it.

Example (hightlight below:
Random spoiler text example.

Bokusenou Wrote:

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:QUESTION: What should we do about potential spoilers? My vote would be to instruct individuals to put ***SPOILER ALERT*** at the top of individual posts.

My vote would be to use white text.
Doing this without spaces [ color=white ]Example text[/ color] creates white text which only shows if you highlight it.

Example (hightlight below:
Random spoiler text example.

That's a really good idea. I'll add these instructions to each thread.

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:

Bokusenou Wrote:

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:QUESTION: What should we do about potential spoilers? My vote would be to instruct individuals to put ***SPOILER ALERT*** at the top of individual posts.

My vote would be to use white text.
Doing this without spaces [ color=white ]Example text[/ color] creates white text which only shows if you highlight it.

Example (hightlight below:
Random spoiler text example.

That's a really good idea. I'll add these instructions to each thread.

Cool, glad it helped! Maybe people should say what chapter a spoiler is from above the spoiler/white text. Something like "Spoiler for chapter 5:".

I downloaded and converted きみにしか聞こえない but for some reason when I add it to my ereader it doesn't show up ;_ ;
I did exactly the same with another book and worked :|

Is anyone still reading any of these books?

I'm currently reading 暗黒童話 by 乙一, the same author as the 'beginners book' above. This one is a bit more difficult and a lot longer, although still a relatively easy read in the big scheme of things. Maybe an 'intermediate book' based on the above categorisations. This is probably the most difficult 乙一 book I have read so far, but then again I still think he is the easiest author I have come across.

It is also very disturbing. Definitely one to avoid if you are squeamish. Overall though I can recommend it.

tbh, I am not at the moment. I had some technological and motivational and comprehensional snafus, but the attempts got me reading some books I've read before. I had been on a reading slump and am slowly picking up the pieces of the rewarding daily commitment of extensive reading.

Sadly, no. :-( After I finished my 赤川次郎 book, I got hooked on the ウィッチクラフトワークス anime, and am now speed-reading the manga (and picking up some cool vocab on the way). Outside of that, I'm reading a lot of op-ed pieces, and working on 読解 and 聴解 for JLPT2 in December. I feel like I need to concentrate on essays and op-eds for a while to prep for the JLPT.

So...maybe I'll get back to it this year? :-| If not, definitely after the test.

I finished reading 君にしか聞こえない weeks ago but didn't want to double post...
Wasn't feeling up to All You Need Is Kill, and Go's blurb didn't really strike me, so I've been reading other stuff instead. Finished my 50th book the other day.

Absolutely I am still reading. Progress has been slow because unfortunately my reading sessions tend to precipitate a blizzard of new Anki cards as simply skipping unknown vocab feels like a wasted opportunity. 180 difficult cards added in one session was ... painful.

A slight demotivator has been the realisation that 君にしか聞こえない is actually quite a bit harder than the other book I'm reading (ねらわれた学園), despite initial impressions. On the plus side, I am now storming through ねらわれた学園 like never before, so which of the two becomes my first complete Japanese (short) novel read could go either way.

In other news, I am now within a whisker of having read all 366 of the 日本昔話 on the 福娘 site.

Quote:Absolutely I am still reading. Progress has been slow because unfortunately my reading sessions tend to precipitate a blizzard of new Anki cards as simply skipping unknown vocab feels like a wasted opportunity. 180 difficult cards added in one session was ... painful.

That sounds really demotivating. It's like punishing yourself for reading, lol.
I've started using putting sticky-notes on words to look up later (suggested by someone here). I think it's a pretty good strategy that balances reading-for-fun with learning-stuff.

The second story of 君にしか聞こえない is definitely more difficult than the first one - much wider vocabulary, I thought.

anotherjohn Wrote:Absolutely I am still reading. Progress has been slow because unfortunately my reading sessions tend to precipitate a blizzard of new Anki cards as simply skipping unknown vocab feels like a wasted opportunity. 180 difficult cards added in one session was ... painful.

I think at some point you have to let go of Anki, or at least be more selective about what you add. It's just not possible to read extensively and to add every unkown bit of vocab to anki. You have to choose one or the other imho.

anotherjohn Wrote:A slight demotivator has been the realisation that 君にしか聞こえない is actually quite a bit harder than the other book I'm reading (ねらわれた学園), despite initial impressions. On the plus side, I am now storming through ねらわれた学園 like never before, so which of the two becomes my first complete Japanese (short) novel read could go either way.

Do you recommend ねらわれた学園? I've never heard of it (or the author) before but it sounds like it could be something I might like.

Aikynaro Wrote:I finished reading 君にしか聞こえない weeks ago but didn't want to double post...
Wasn't feeling up to All You Need Is Kill, and Go's blurb didn't really strike me, so I've been reading other stuff instead. Finished my 50th book the other day.

Nice work. I'm on number 33 at the moment. I find it motivational to keep a log - kinda wish I had done this with English, I wonder how many hundreds of books I have actually read?

I thought GO was a really great book - maybe my favourite out of all the ones I have read - so by all means give it a try sometime. I never read a blurb or had any idea what it was about before picking it up (I often do that, with mixed results...) If you are unsure you can read the first 10-20 pages and then decide.

NickT Wrote:Do you recommend ねらわれた学園?

I'm barely halfway through it atm, but the story is holding up so far and the style is entertaining.

I made the mistake of watching a recent anime movie of the same name which I thought was lousy, but fortunately there seems to be little connection between that and the book storywise.

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

生徒会長に立候補し、あざやかに当選してみせた、高見沢みちる。その魅力的な微小とふしぎな力によって、しだいに学園の自由は奪われていく。。。？！美しい顔にかくされた彼女の正体と、真の狙いはなんなのか？

Quote:Nice work. I'm on number 33 at the moment. I find it motivational to keep a log - kinda wish I had done this with English, I wonder how many hundreds of books I have actually read?

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

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.