Hi all,

First post and excuse me if a thread of this topic already exists. I've been studying Japanese for quite some time now and just recently got into reading Japanese novels. Currently I'm reading 「吉本キッチン」 which was recommended to me by a Japanese friend. She was right in telling me that this novel is a good introduction to Japanese novels as it's not very difficult.

I was wondering if any of you guys know of other Japanese novels (I'm not really into reading manga, though I like 「若おかみは小学生」 that are nice to read and not too difficult. Also kindly list your favorite novels and why

Hi there!
I'm in a similar situation; just finished reading Kitchen, and it was my first Japanese novel. Loved it, though I liked  the additonal Moonlight Shadow even more than the novel itself.
Right now I'm reading "Michi wo hiraku" by Konosuke Matsushita; it's not a novel, it's a compilation of essays.
Like, life affirming, reassuring ones, with many anegdotes and stuff. It might seem a bit cliche at first, but I do recommend it anyway. It's very different from Banana's works - formal style, some more advanced grammar, but it's just written in a way that teaches you instead of making you confused, so to speak
After I finish it I think I'm gonna read Tsugumi, another book by Banana Yoshimoto.
From what I've seen on amazon reviews, it's really good too.
Have a nice day!

If you're going to start on novels, you should get a bookmeter account. This is mine: http://bookmeter.com/u/339621

If I had to recommend one book, it would be 雨の日のアイリス. It's intense. 'Emotional rollercoaster' is such a cliche, but I think it works for this one - it's quite upsetting/life-affirming. It's not difficult but I wouldn't say it's something you should go in for as a first novel (there's a kindle version though, so you could check the preview to see if you can read it or not).

Otherwise - what kind of books are you interested in? I've read a lot of 'easy' books that I enjoyed but wouldn't necessarily recommend to just anyone.

If you're just getting into reading novels, I'd recommend children's books with furigana. If you reading something targeted at grades 4-6, you'll get a novel that is both easier to read (fewer fancy words, you know) and there will be no ambiguity over how kanji words are to be read. Recently I found out I was reading 頭を振る (to shake one's head) wrong. I assumed 頭 was read あたま, but I'm reading a novel with furigana now and I saw 頭 is actually read かぶり in this phrase. I wish I had started off with reading novels with furigana, it would have saved me much frustration ^^;

I don't know what genres you like, but you can browse Bunko sites to find titles you might like (and buy them from amazon or your favorite Japanese book store). Or just browse the children's section in the online book store.

These are the publisher's I know
http://www.tsubasabunko.jp/menu/
http://aoitori.kodansha.co.jp/

If anyone else has recommendations, I'd be glad to hear them ^^

Well, if we're going to specifically talk about children's books, I guess I can drop recommendations.

In rough order of difficulty:
ふたごの魔法使い - a series of 13 books. Taught me that I can read even at a sub-N3ish level. If you only read one, read 風と火の国, which is about apocalyptic war and genocide. Aimed at kids in grade 3-4 or so.

ハンカチの上の花畑 - It's about a magic sake bottle and mini-people. It's also creepy as ***** and pretty much a horror novel disguised as a book for nine year olds.

青き戦記 - a series of three books about a fantasy war. It's quite grounded - there's still fantasy animals and a little magic, but it still feels like a proper war story. The author seems to mostly write samurai stuff, so I guess it rubs off.

--significant step up in difficulty - the following books don't have full furigana, though still have significant amounts of it--

アサギを呼ぶ声 - set in a hunter-gatherer village, about a girl trying to overcome gender discrimination to become a hunter. She has to make her own bow and arrows and such - it's interesting.

竜が呼んだ娘 - about a girl who is sent to serve a witch in a world where the only mode of transport is flying and as such dragons and witches hold all the power.
- also, anything else by this author (柏葉幸子)

選ばなかった冒険 - messed-up videogame style world, with guns.
and also, 二分間の冒険 by the same author, though warning that I don't think this is an easy book (though that might just be because I read it before I was ready to - have been meaning to reread it). Both of these are fairly dark/real feeling - you can't count on everyone living happily ever after. It's quite a nice change of pace from a lot of children's books where questions about life and death aren't usually on the table.

If science fiction is more your thing, the 21世紀空想科学小説 series is mostly interesting. 何かが来た is probably the easiest to get into.
There's not a whole lot of children's science fiction though, unfortunately - but 空中都市008 and 月の上のガラスの町 both had interesting ideas.

I've liked most of the books I've read, so I could go on and on, but those are the ones that stuck out at me while browsing through my list.

(2016-05-13, 1:58 pm)Kwiateczek Wrote: Hi there!
I'm in a similar situation; just finished reading Kitchen, and it was my first Japanese novel. Loved it, though I liked  the additonal Moonlight Shadow even more than the novel itself.
Right now I'm reading "Michi wo hiraku" by Konosuke Matsushita; it's not a novel, it's a compilation of essays.
Like, life affirming, reassuring ones, with many anegdotes and stuff. It might seem a bit cliche at first, but I do recommend it anyway. It's very different from Banana's works - formal style, some more advanced grammar, but it's just written in a way that teaches you instead of making you confused, so to speak
After I finish it I think I'm gonna read Tsugumi, another book by Banana Yoshimoto.
From what I've seen on amazon reviews, it's really good too.
Have a nice day!

Hi there and sorry for the late reply! Thanks for the recommendations. Much appreciated. I haven't even thought about it but essays are perfectly fine too so I will definitely will look into it!

The reviews on Tsugumi are really positive so once I finish キッチン I will look into that one as well.

---

(2016-05-14, 9:13 pm)Aikynaro Wrote: Well, if we're going to specifically talk about children's books, I guess I can drop recommendations.

In rough order of difficulty:
ふたごの魔法使い - a series of 13 books. Taught me that I can read even at a sub-N3ish level. If you only read one, read 風と火の国, which is about apocalyptic war and genocide. Aimed at kids in grade 3-4 or so.

ハンカチの上の花畑 - It's about a magic sake bottle and mini-people. It's also creepy as ***** and pretty much a horror novel disguised as a book for nine year olds.

青き戦記 - a series of three books about a fantasy war. It's quite grounded - there's still fantasy animals and a little magic, but it still feels like a proper war story. The author seems to mostly write samurai stuff, so I guess it rubs off.

--significant step up in difficulty - the following books don't have full furigana, though still have significant amounts of it--

アサギを呼ぶ声 - set in a hunter-gatherer village, about a girl trying to overcome gender discrimination to become a hunter. She has to make her own bow and arrows and such - it's interesting.

竜が呼んだ娘 - about a girl who is sent to serve a witch in a world where the only mode of transport is flying and as such dragons and witches hold all the power.
- also, anything else by this author (柏葉幸子)

選ばなかった冒険 - messed-up videogame style world, with guns.
and also, 二分間の冒険 by the same author, though warning that I don't think this is an easy book (though that might just be because I read it before I was ready to - have been meaning to reread it). Both of these are fairly dark/real feeling - you can't count on everyone living happily ever after. It's quite a nice change of pace from a lot of children's books where questions about life and death aren't usually on the table.

If science fiction is more your thing, the 21世紀空想科学小説 series is mostly interesting. 何かが来た is probably the easiest to get into.
There's not a whole lot of children's science fiction though, unfortunately - but 空中都市008 and 月の上のガラスの町 both had interesting ideas.

I've liked most of the books I've read, so I could go on and on, but those are the ones that stuck out at me while browsing through my list.

ふたごの魔法使い and 風と火の国 both seem very interesting to me and it's definitely reading material that I'd like to check out. I will see if I can find them on amazon and put it to my wish list.

The other recommendation seem great as well, but not having lots of furigana always frustrated the heck out of me, so it's something I'll look into once my reading comprehension goes up. Thanks for these recommendations, much appreciated.

(2016-05-13, 9:10 pm)Aikynaro Wrote: If you're going to start on novels, you should get a bookmeter account. This is mine: http://bookmeter.com/u/339621

If I had to recommend one book, it would be 雨の日のアイリス. It's intense. 'Emotional rollercoaster' is such a cliche, but I think it works for this one - it's quite upsetting/life-affirming. It's not difficult but I wouldn't say it's something you should go in for as a first novel (there's a kindle version though, so you could check the preview to see if you can read it or not).

Otherwise - what kind of books are you interested in? I've read a lot of 'easy' books that I enjoyed but wouldn't necessarily recommend to just anyone.

Great information! I've signed up for a bookmeter account and will definitely be using it as it's seems very handy.
I found 雨の日のアイリス on amazon and it's added to my wish list. Looks very promising and the reviews are pretty good.

Well I'm really into the spiritual/mystical type of books. Also anything ranging from philosophy to science-fiction is of great interest to me.

(2016-05-16, 6:07 am)Shenhua Wrote: ふたごの魔法使い  and 風と火の国 both seem very interesting to me and it's definitely reading material that I'd like to check out. I will see if I can find them on amazon and put it to my wish list.

The other recommendation seem great as well, but not having lots of furigana always frustrated the heck out of me, so it's something I'll look into once my reading comprehension goes up. Thanks for these recommendations, much appreciated.

Well, note that they do have significant amounts of furigana, but it's not 100% in the same way that, say, series published by 青い鳥文庫, 角川つばさ文庫, or similar publishers are. Pretty much any hardcover book isn't going to have complete furigana regardless of the age group it's aimed at - even ハンカチの上の花畑 doesn't have 100% furigana but the words it doesn't cover are ones that you should mostly recognise if you're at a level where reading books is feasible.

Anyway, if you can't find them through searching Amazon, just go through my bookmeter list and click through to Amazon.

Science fiction is about all I can help you with, but as I mentioned, there's not that much out there that you can probably read (there's not that much out there that I can comfortably read...). Try stuff by 星新一, such as きまぐれロボット (which I wasn't a huge fan of, but it's highly regarded, super-simple, and has complete furigana).
インナーネットの香保理 could count as science fiction if you squinted and has full furigana. I remember it being not-too-difficult, though it's aimed at upper-elementary+ school kids so no promises. 空中都市008 has full furigana.

Ok, so just as an update: Tsugumi is a great book, I'm about halfway through and I'm loving it much more than Kitchen. It's so engaging! My kindle's battery died when I was reading at the airport, and it wasn't until 6 hours later that I could recharge it... I thought I was gonna die, lol.

This thread seems to have went to sleep already, but it still seems like a good place to ask, so here it goes:
if there are any kindle users on board, does anyone know what's up with Murakami's books on Amazon JP?
I thought he was pretty popular, maybe even more so than Bananasan, and I can't even find his Norwegian Wood??
There's only an English version, I don't get it...

I wonder the same thing about Murakami. Why are his novels available as kindle books in english but not in his mother tongue?

Not long ago there were no Murakami Haruki ebooks at all on the Japanese amazon, but they started adding some recently and it seems like every time I check there is a new one up, so maybe it's just a matter of time.

I have 色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 and 走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること on my Kindle.

(2016-06-02, 6:22 am)justusperthes Wrote: Not long ago there were no Murakami Haruki ebooks at all on the Japanese amazon, but they started adding some recently and it seems like every time I check there is a new one up, so maybe it's just a matter of time.

I have 色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 and 走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること on my Kindle.

How do you consider them in terms of difficulty? What's the easiest of the three? Thank you in advance!

(2016-06-02, 9:32 am)cophnia61 Wrote:

(2016-06-02, 6:22 am)justusperthes Wrote: Not long ago there were no Murakami Haruki ebooks at all on the Japanese amazon, but they started adding some recently and it seems like every time I check there is a new one up, so maybe it's just a matter of time.

I have 色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 and 走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること on my Kindle.

How do you consider them in terms of difficulty? What's the easiest of the three? Thank you in advance!

I'm about 30% into both of them and I want to say that 「色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年」
somehow feels harder than other books I have read by Murakami. For example I remember all the books in the Nezumi series as easier (incidentally, 風の歌を聴け, １９７３年のピンボール and 羊をめぐる冒険 are all for sale in the Kindle store, but not ダンスダンスダンス for some reason). This could be due to me not having previously read the translated version of 色彩... which I have for some of his other books. Not knowing the story beforehand naturally makes it more difficult. So honestly it's probably not that different from some of his other fiction in terms of difficulty.

I think 走る... is pretty straightforward. It's non-fiction and autobiographical. So far it has mostly been about how he started running describing his habits and some different events in his life.

Yeah, I don't feel like there was wild difficulty variation in the Murakami I've read (more complex than Yoshimoto Banana but still manageable). I suggest picking one of the short ones :-)

(Currently wading through ねじまき鳥クロニクル which is a three-volume affair. スプートニクの恋人 which I read years back is much shorter and only one volume.)

(2016-06-02, 3:32 am)Kwiateczek Wrote: Ok, so just as an update: Tsugumi is a great book, I'm about halfway through and I'm loving it much more than Kitchen. It's so engaging! My kindle's battery died when I was reading at the airport, and it wasn't until 6 hours later that I could recharge it... I thought I was gonna die, lol.

This thread seems to have went to sleep already, but it still seems like a good place to ask, so here it goes:
if there are any kindle users on board, does anyone know what's up with Murakami's books on Amazon JP?
I thought he was pretty popular, maybe even more so than Bananasan, and I can't even find his Norwegian Wood??
There's only an English version, I don't get it...

Unfortunately I can't answer that but it's great to read that you are enjoying tsugumi so much. I'll order it! I've also been away from home which is why I wasn't able to reply. I also hope someone can answer the question regarding Murakami

(2016-06-03, 2:52 am)Shenhua Wrote: Unfortunately I can't answer that but it's great to read that you are enjoying tsugumi so much. I'll order it! I've also been away from home which is why I wasn't able to reply. I also hope someone can answer the question regarding Murakami

There is a very long story behind the scene......

(2010-08-20) 映画『ノルウェイの森』と電子書籍　- 情報通信総合研究所
https://www.icr.co.jp/newsletter/view/20...10013.html

(2010 Nov - 2011 Dec) [平成22年11月以降]
電子書籍の流通と利用の円滑化に関する検討会議｜文化庁
http://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkashin...hishoseki/

(2013-10-28) 「電子書籍化されない作家」　
http://cairn42.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2013-10-28-1

(2013-11-26) 自炊代行に反対の作家さんたち | Suck my book!!
以下、自炊反対派作家リスト......
(long list of author names, nope, Haruki is not in the list)
https://jisuiheaven.wordpress.com/2013/1...%E3%81%A1/

(2015-01-17) 年末の大掃除で漫画を大量に自炊代行業者に出したときのメモ
http://dounokouno.com/2015/01/17/%E6%BC%...%E3%83%A2/

Quote:自炊代行業者に対し著作権侵害行為の差し止めを求めた訴訟問題について

そういえば、自炊代行業者に対する訴訟問題、ありましたね。すっかり忘れていました。

結果、どうなっていたのかを調べてみたら、 2014年10月22日に知的財産高等裁判所の控訴審があったみたいで、「作家側の言い分を認めた一審判決を支持し、公訴棄却の判決を言い渡した。」 とのことでした。

(2015-07-25) 村上春樹、初の電子書籍！　「村上さんのところ」
http://re-cyberrat.info/murakamisannotokoro

(2016-05-19) 意外にも電子書籍化されていた！こんな本たち
http://www.soumushou.com/entry/2016/05/19/064653

Quote:村上春樹さんは、電子書籍が嫌いで、日本語版の作品は電子書籍化しないと聞いていたのですが、いつの間にか電子書籍化されていました。時代には逆らえないのでしょうか。

「ノルウェイの森」や「世界の終わりとハードボイルドワンダーランド」とかもKindle化されることを望みます。

Bookmeter: http://bookmeter.com/u/388077

I will reiterate my broken record recommendation: Anything by 赤川次郎. He was a favorite read of a lot of Japanese people of my generation during their middle school years. His stuff is fast, light, and written in very direct language. And it seems like he produced a new novel every 37.4 seconds.

I finally broke down and started reading 東野圭吾、 and was glad I did. The 加賀刑事 series is my favorite, particularly 新参者 and 眠りの森. Both have been made into TV movies/series as well.

The 八雲 series by 神永学 is also fast and fun. I originally stumbled across one at a used book store in Seattle, but you can get the entire series via Kindle from amazon.co.jp.

LN that became anime are always a good choice if that's your thing. I downloaded the first volume of デゥラララ！ and it seems pretty easy. 新世界より is still on my To Do pile.

新世界より is a really great book, probably the book I've read in Japanese that I enjoyed the most, and definitely one of the highlights from when I was picking books by looking through the lists of winners of the Nihon SF Taishō Award. I wrote a review back when I read it (gosh, five years ago already?)

Has any of you read these in Kindle? I am thinking about getting one (used recent gen kindles runs around $37) but I don't know if furigana would show up?

I regularly read Japanese light novels on my Kindle Paperwhite, and it has no problems with furigana.  Note however that if you want to buy ebooks from amazon.co.jp you have to jump through a few hoops - this thread is one of a few on this forum that talks about how to do it.

It's also possible to convert Aozora-formatted books into Kindle format and put those on your Kindle.  This blog post covers how to do it on OSX or Linux.

Yes, I read most of my material on the Kindle app for iPad. It works great. Furigana works fine. Also, it's really easy to copy a word from the app and add it to a Midori list for later study/Anki import.

pm215, thanks for the recommend of 新世界より. I'm about to finish オレたち花のバブル組, so I might bump that to the top of my "read next" list! (It IS Tadoku, after all...)

I have been reading 赤川次郎.

While most people may not be as がっかり as I was that 三毛猫ホームズ doesn't actually expound the solutions to mysteries but just acts like a regular cat, I would warn that 赤川先生 is a little prone to springing previously unknown facts at the denouement of a mystery, which I consider to be slightly dirty pool.

However, the stories are great fun so it is very forgivable!