So far, no success in finding a downloadable version of the whole book.

But search these terms on google and click the cached version.
"twilight_free01.html"
"twilight_free02.html"
twilight_free03.html
twilight_free04.html
twilight_free05.html

*zips mouth*

Cool, thanks. I've heard some crappy things about the Twilight series, but I was wondering if it would be enjoyable in Japanese(because I can read and enjoy something in Japanese that I'd never read in English). Now I get a free sample...

I don't think it is really crappy.
It is just not written for adults. I bought the first volume for my sister last year and she enjoyed it. Her friends liked too.

It's incredibly popular(mostly among teenage girls, but older people like it too), but that doesn't mean it's good. I haven't read it though, so my opinion is second hand.

I expect that poor old 白 will be thoroughly worn out by the end of that book.

I dunno, I think 白 might be a bit above the reading level... surely the translators used only romaji to better reflect the quality of writing?

Okay, okay, I'll leave the thread before I get too ranty

But, I think that if you're at the level where you can read literature for older children, you're better off reading authentic Japanese literature rather than just translated American novels. It's better to get a feel for the real stuff, and there's lots of Japanese literature written for ten year olds etc.

I'm a 34 year old guy and I really liked that series. Off course, they are not the greatest literature ever and never claimed to be that but if you can get into the right frame of mind they are a lot of fun.

But then again maybe I'm the exception and I also like most 少女漫画 anyway.

As for reading it in Japanese, I looked at the preview on amazon.co.jp a while ago and it was kind of fun to see it translated. But I agree with Aijin, there are so many original Japanese books for all levels that I don't really see the point of focusing too much on translated works.

Starting with a book one has already read in another language can help make the transition but be careful not to underestimate the difficulty of a book just because it's aimed at a younger public. For example, a lot of people seem to be eager to read Harry Potter in Japanese but it's not really such an easy book from the point of view of language learning.

you are scaring me Codexus, hehe... but really, I saw the Twilight movie and it wasn't that bad... it's just the frame of mind when seeing it... like Codexus said

I recently read the Twilight series (in English) and, even though I'm really not into mushy teenage love stories, after the first book, it got really good. It stopped being so much about a girl in love with a vampire that wants to eat her, and more about fun werewolf-vampire feuding and other interesting supernatural stuff. If you can manage to slug through Twilight, the other books are worth it.

Can somebody clarify what the deal is with Twilight in Japan? If I go to the novel section, it's there translated into Japanese, with almost the same cover and everything. But in the front of the bookstore there's this huge table with 12 novels (labeled 1-12) with manga-ish style covers and crazy lightning letters labeling it "twilight" and it's attributed to the English author on the back. Is this an adaptation? But why is it 12 BOOKS LONG?! It's also got a drawing scattered here and there throughout the books, like 3 each. And the real twilight copy is usually nowhere to be found nearby (although one bookstore did have them right next to each other).

Norwegian Wood seems to be the only bilingual native-Japanese novel online. I mean, Mandarin. I love how many Mandarin ebooks there are online. I just found it curious that I managed to find a copy of Murakami's After Dark in Chinese online but nothing of the like in Japanese. Apart from anime and manga, piracy seems to be curiously stunted when it comes to Japan.

Did they split it up into several volumes (下・中・上 style)? I don't know a lot about it, but there's four books altogether, isn't there? 4x3=12, so maybe that?

EDIT: Because I had to look it up :p

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%88%E...C.E6.9C.AC

There's 13 books, apparently. The 単行本 for each are split into three.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%88%E3%83%...4789726029

Is that the kind of cover you mean?

albion Wrote:[...]Is that the kind of cover you mean?

That's it exactly. I guess they just printed it twice for some reason. The "regular" translation with the US cover is all in one novel if I remember, no 上下.