I'm looking for books and novels with furigana. Manga with furigana is easy to find, but I'm having a little more trouble searching for books. Any tips?

Thanks

EDIT:
please no "I think you should actively look for novels WITHOUT furigana" comments
Any cards I have in anki are kanji anyways.

Aoi Tori Bunko http://www.bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/aoitori/ books have furigana on all kanji and are a nice way of easing into reading novels. They also have some cute illustrations.

Just keep in mind that the books are aimed at late elementary/early middle school students, so they're not going to have the same kind of content found in a book meant for older readers. However, they span a lot of different genres, and there are a lot of translations of classic English language novels.

I'm not sure if Tsubasa Bunko http://www.tsubasabunko.jp/menu/ books all have furigana (I only have one in my collection, and it does have all furigana) but they're worth taking a look at. They also have copies of light novels like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, or Kino no Tabi, so if they come with furigana, these might be worth looking into.

I think your choices are going to be children's novels or finding a book in .txt format and using Rikaichan to read it that way.

For children's novels, I think that the 魔女の宅急便 series (aka Kiki's Delivery Service) and 獣の奏者 series are excellent. 魔女の宅急便　is about at a 2nd-3rd grade level, and 獣の奏者 is maybe around 4th-5th grade.

I can second Aoi Tori Bunko. I think they were the ones who published テレパシー少女蘭. It's about 3 kids who solve mysteries with their various psychic powers. It's aimed at late elementary school kids, I guess, but it shouldn't be too difficult if you're at the N3 level. If you're at N4, it might be a little tricky, but it's full of furigana.

I like 魔女の診療所 and 　若おかみは小学生 ( 青い鳥文庫 )
you can read some pages for free here
http://www.bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/aoito...ading.html
try to find what you would like to read.
There are also 中学生向け　books with furigana
http://www.bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/aoito...index.html

I read the Japanese translations of the Magic Tree House. Has furigana for everything.

TheVinster Wrote:I read the Japanese translations of the Magic Tree House. Has furigana for everything.

recommended!
It's very easy.. much easier than 青い鳥文庫
upper-beginner or lower-intermediate can read it.
it is for around 二年生

nooaia Wrote:

TheVinster Wrote:I read the Japanese translations of the Magic Tree House. Has furigana for everything.

recommended!
It's very easy.. much easier than 青い鳥文庫
upper-beginner or lower-intermediate can read it.
it is for around 二年生

I'll third that! It's mostly kana with some kanji. Lots of short sentences that will drill the basic structure of Japanese into your head. Also, you'll pick up a ton of vocabulary.

Working through the first one now, and plan to buy at least one or two others. This plus an easy trashy ライトノベル like ゼロの使い魔 for flexing your 漢字 muscles will keep you busy for a while.

FWIW, some brilliant bastards made an アニメ映画 of the first book, 恐竜の谷の大冒険:

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:FWIW, some brilliant bastards made an アニメ映画 of the first book, 恐竜の谷の大冒険:

I saw they made a movie but haven't found a place to download it yet. Have you?

And if you want to take a cheaper route we could always trade brooks to each other. I bought/read #24 「ダ･ビンチ空を飛ぶ」. Last week I bought and am almost halfway into #9 「タイタニック号の悲劇」. Just letting you know I'm willing to trade because these things are somewhat pricey. I paid $15.34 including tax for the previous purchase.

TheVinster Wrote:

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:FWIW, some brilliant bastards made an アニメ映画 of the first book, 恐竜の谷の大冒険:

I saw they made a movie but haven't found a place to download it yet. Have you?

Possibly. Will email you later.

TheVinster Wrote:And if you want to take a cheaper route we could always trade brooks to each other. I bought/read #24 「ダ･ビンチ空を飛ぶ」. Last week I bought and am almost halfway into #9 「タイタニック号の悲劇」. Just letting you know I'm willing to trade because these things are somewhat pricey. I paid $15.34 including tax for the previous purchase.

Let's do it! I have #1 and am going to pick up #2 tomorrow from 紀伊国屋. Will trade you #1 shortly. I'll knuckle down on it and finish in the next few days.

Edit: I paid $15.25 plus tax. You got robbed!! ;-)

Ok just include all the details of the movie and the book trading in your email. I assume we could just send them back to each other once we finish. Makes me mad that these books are so expensive because I'd be just fine with the pocket-size of the typical Japanese novel because those are always so cheap.

Can you buy the Magic Tree House books in the US?

captal Wrote:Can you buy the Magic Tree House books in the US?

Depends. I live near a 紀伊国屋書店 in Seattle, so yes.

I wonder if there is a 紀伊国屋書店 in the bay area... one would think so given the large Japanese population. I think I saw one in SF- but that's quite a trek just for a book.

Boom: http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/ohb/02/c...einfo.html

There's one in San Jose (where I am)! Yay

captal Wrote:I wonder if there is a 紀伊国屋書店 in the bay area... one would think so given the large Japanese population. I think I saw one in SF- but that's quite a trek just for a book.

Boom: http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/ohb/02/c...einfo.html

There's one in San Jose (where I am)! Yay

Yup, just saw that. Enjoy!! I love having a 紀伊国屋 within spitting distance.

Yeah that's only 15 minutes from me. I never really looked around for stores because I didn't have a car until recently. Great to know I have a source of material, even if it's insanely expensive

Are you close to a Half Price Books, perchance? The local HPBs often contain anywhere from a smattering to a healthy portion of native language novels and manga at bargain prices. I picked up several issues of 犬夜叉 for $2 apiece. Really, just keep an eye on any used book store that has a decent foreign language section.