The manga thread got me interested in starting a thread for novel recommendations.

I'm currently reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. To be honest, I find it to be a bit boring.

Could anyone throw me some recommendations by native authors? I'm open to any genre.

十二国記　- The twelve kindoms.

Norweigan Wood isn't very typical of Murakami. Try The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

I don't like Murakami myself, and the bits I tried to read in Japanese weren't particularly easy either.

As for what to recommend... What level can you read at, and what genre do you prefer? I mean, 妖精学園フェアラルカ is an easy light novel, but I'm probably the only one on this forum who would read it

But you could try　涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, that one's popular. I just started reading the Japanese version of ぶギーポップは笑わない, and it's good so far too.

I like 東野　圭吾, though its not light reading at least for me. Norwegian Wood was, but these books are at a higher level.

I just finished reading "Out" by Natsuo Kirino. This is a thriller/crime fiction. Very well written with wonderful plot twists. I must admit, I read it in english translation, my Japanese just isn't up to the level yet to take it on. So can't comment on ease or difficulty of Kanji usage. But if anyone is interested in a good read in either Japanese or English, I highly recommend.

I'm diving into the light novel genre for now because it's, well... lighter than most other genres (though not necessarily 'childish' or 'easy'). So far I've read the first two books from the 涼宮ハルヒシリーズ and they're quite fun, the characters are great. Now I'm reading the first book of バッカーノ! (http://tinyurl.com/6blm6h), and I'm finding it entertaining. Some Japanese people also suggested I read 若草色のポシェット,池袋ウエストゲートパーク and 狼と香辛料, but I haven't bought them yet.

Another option if you want something that's not too heavy but still more "mature" is reading short story collections. Until now I've only read Akutagawa's 蜘蛛の糸 collection (http://tinyurl.com/6dr4gh) and found most of the stories inside to be very clever and interesting. The difficulty level varies a lot from story to story, however.

I actually only just started reading novels, and the one I have finished was really good. It is called "夢をかなえるゾウ". It is a mix between a self-help style success book, but at the same time it is an entertaining and funny story. Ganeesha, the Indian elephant god, shows up in the main character's apartment and teaches him valuable life-lessons, while at the same time, mooching off the food in his refrigerator and taking forever in the bathroom in the morning.

Breaking into Japanese Literature has many short stories with translations and definitions on the bottom of the page. The stories are short and interesting, so you're not likely to get bored. If you do get bored, you can just move on to the next one.

That 夢をかなえるぞう is also a show I'm currently watching.

mentat_kgs Wrote:十二国記　- The twelve kindoms.

I so second this one. I brought the whole series off Amazon a while ago and they were and some still are, my motivation for learning faster.

Just to list some other light novels that my Japanese roommate has recently turned me on to (a lot of them are basis for anime, as he's pretty much an otaku )

1. 灼眼のシャナ (Shakugan no Shana)
２．ゼロの使い魔 (Zero no Tsukaima)
３．とある魔術の禁書目録 (to aru majutsu no index) (index is the reading of the kanji there, though you right them "kinsho mokuroku")
４．キノの旅 (Kino no Tabi)

and one that I'm looking forward to starting sometime when I finally have more time is:

どらドラ！

Also, for the people who have seen Zero no Tsukaima or Shana and didn't like the anime, let me tell you that the books are so much better. To quote my roommate: "The only good thing about the Shana anime was the music." And when we watched the zero no tsukaima anime together, he did nothing but complain the entire time about how much they skipped and did wrong.

Hi Ryujin, I had these recomendations before but I have not paid atention because the animes really suck. Now that you made it much clearer, I'll certainly give them a look.

Thanks guys, lots of great suggestions to get me motivated to go down to Kinokuniya.

mentat_kgs Wrote:Hi Ryujin, I had these recomendations before but I have not paid atention because the animes really suck. Now that you made it much clearer, I'll certainly give them a look.

Haha, I can't tell you how many times I hear my roommate tell me how much the Shana anime sucks. He actually just got the new one (16?) the other day and read through the whole thing straight in about 6 hours (skipping all his classes in the process).

Ryuujin27,

Are those anime novels the ones that look like manga on the outside but have text on the inside? I always wondered what the heck those were, thought maybe they were for children so I never checked em out.

This doesn't fit the "native author" qualification, but I've enjoyed reading Harry Potter in Japanese. It's been nice to read alongside RTK1 because there are a lot of kanji (including plants, minerals, weapons and other odd things) but almost all have furigana. So, I am seeing the kanji in context with the appropriate readings soon after studying them. A lot of the used bookstores here (like Book-off) have the first three Harry Potter books for 105 yen each.

I'm reading "Homeless chuugakusei" by Hiroshi Tanimura, it's an autobiography and it's fairly easy to read. The guy tells how he managed to survive in a park when he was in junior high school.

etpan Wrote:I'm reading "Homeless chuugakusei" by Hiroshi Tanimura, it's an autobiography and it's fairly easy to read. The guy tells how he managed to survive in a park when he was in junior high school.

I'm reading this one as well. Or rather, I was. I decided to stop reading Japanese until I was done with RtK because I didn't like to see kanji I hadn't encountered yet without being able to learn them at the spot.

Homeless chuugakusei is on at the movies in Japan at the moment, so watch for it on video soonish.

suffah Wrote:Are those anime novels the ones that look like manga on the outside but have text on the inside? I always wondered what the heck those were, thought maybe they were for children so I never checked em out.

Yeah those are light novels. If you like anime you'll like those too.

How do you distinguish light novels from manga if you are shopping online (amazon.co.jp or similar)?

Thank you in advance.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%...272&sr=1-1 Scryed - manga

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%...272&sr=1-3 Scryed After - Light novel

Yeah, those URLs are ugly, but they work.

On amazon, manga almost always has コミック in the title. (Or something very similar.) The novels don't.

This has been my experience, but I am far from being able to read Japanese well enough to know that the is foolproof or the best way.

Also, Amazon sometimes lets you peak at pages of the book... That's a big help.

Thank you a lot! You've been really helpful

suffah Wrote:Ryuujin27,

Are those anime novels the ones that look like manga on the outside but have text on the inside? I always wondered what the heck those were, thought maybe they were for children so I never checked em out.

Yep, those are them. They are called "light novels" in English, or in Japanese 小説(shousetsu). Many anime are based off of these light novels. Unfortunately, the anime usually fall way short of the quality of the actual novel.

And just so you know, they are definitely not just for kids. They don't always use furigana, and they do use a lot of kanji. They're definitely quality material. Enjoy!

Ryuujin27 Wrote:Yep, those are them. They are called "light novels" in English, or in Japanese 小説(shousetsu).

Not exactly. I'm quite sure they are called ライトノベル in Japanese, often abbreviated to ラノベ. 小説 is a more generic term for novels.
Just pointing that out to avoid confusion

I recommend Keigo Higashino as well. His novels are very easy to approach, and he's a great writer.