Smackle Wrote:I suppose we can choose modern texts that are cheap/easy to get. It might take convincing for some users to shell out money for books they do not know much about though. (Worst case scenario: I could *hint* at where to *find* the books *lying* around.)

A lot of Japanese books seem rather cheap to me, if there's paperback. Like 500-600 yen. I think on a site like BK1, you can buy a single book with shipping at around 70yen, to it's not a massive investment.

But as a suggestion, what about one bought (or 'bought') book a month, in addition to online stuff? Obviously no one's being forced to read anything online or otherwise, it would just be an option for those who want to. So in a month, you could have one online text every week or 2 (maybe 1 week to read, one to discuss?), and at the same time a proper book (2/3 weeks to read, 1/2 weeks to discuss?).

Just my personal opinion, but if you want this book club to work I think it would be wise to stick to short stories like this 蜘蛛の糸. It's hard enough to organize people to stick to a book when they're meeting in person, and it'll be all the more difficult online, so you'll want to go with something that people can read in a short period of time.

蜘蛛の糸 is not a story I've seen before, but it's a good exercise in honorifics, as the main character is the founder of Buddhism. I also recommend the stories of 星新一 if you can find any online, as they are quite short and relatively easy.

I agree with JimmiSeal, short stories are best. I've read some, and apart from Akutagawa (which is nice but sometimes gets a little heavy), I liked 筒井康隆（つつい やすたか）'s short stories. There were a bunch of them as short as a page and a half, as well as longer ones.

So, I read 蜘蛛の糸, and didn't feel like I had that much trouble with it. Then I thought I'd go through and look up the words I guessed from context or skipped over, and there were way more of those than I thought: 26 in section 1 alone. (That does include some where I knew the word but not the reading or where I knew the word but not the kanji this author used). I guess there's quite a bit where I got the meaning but missed nuance or literary style or whatever on the first pass...

pm215 Wrote:So, I read 蜘蛛の糸, and didn't feel like I had that much trouble with it. Then I thought I'd go through and look up the words I guessed from context or skipped over, and there were way more of those than I thought: 26 in section 1 alone. (That does include some where I knew the word but not the reading or where I knew the word but not the kanji this author used). I guess there's quite a bit where I got the meaning but missed nuance or literary style or whatever on the first pass...

Maybe we should make a list of potentially difficult words and kanji from the story with some explanations along with them. It would help if you cited what in particular was hard for you.

Oh, it was 98% stuff which was in a dictionary when I went and looked it up, just words I didn't know; it was just interesting (to me) how much of it there was in a story I didn't feel like I'd had huge trouble with reading 'cold'. There were a couple of things I'm still not totally clear on, though:

Section 2, para 1: the meaning of くら暗 is clear enough from context, but what's the reading?

S2p1: その心細さと云ったらございません -- the meaning of this last clause has me a bit stumped.

S2p4: 地獄と極楽の間は、何万里となくございますから -- from context, I think this ought to mean they're a long way apart, but on the face of it it looks like it means they're not that far apart so I'm confused.

S2p4: 一たぐり -- what's this?

くら暗 is actually くらやみ

と言ったらない or in this case と云ったらございません means something along the lines of "There's no saying." or "It's undescribable."

Is となく confusing you? It is actually used to describe the greatness of what comes before it. It is emphasizing how it is so far away.

一たぐり (ひとたぐり)　is like one pull. 手繰る is to pull or reel.

Thanks -- that's cleared those lingering niggles up nicely :-)

Oh, and one more thing: in the last part where it says:

Quote:その玉のような白い花は、御釈迦様の御足（おみあし）のまわりに、ゆらゆら萼（うてな）を動かして、そのまん中にある金色の蕊（ずい）からは、何とも云えない好（よ）い匂が、絶間（たえま）なくあたりへ溢（あふ）れて居ります。

is it really implying that the guy is walking on water? It seems slightly unlikely, but I dunno why the lotuses would be around his feet otherwise...

Not necessarily. If you remember the part 「御釈迦様(おしゃかさま)は極楽の蓮池(はすいけ)のふちに立って」 It could have some of the lotus flowers washing up onto the shore. I had never considered that part of the story like that though.

Also, I am sorry that I did not set a deadline or draw up any elaborate plan for how to approach this. I was really looking to other members who seemed interested to help set this up.