I don't know if there is a thread like this already or not. I'm wondering if anyone could recommend some easy to read stories (without outdated grammar from the 1800s) on aozora. You could also recommend more advanced stuff if you want, just be sure to post what reading level you think it is so other people can know what to expect.

Everything from Aozora is from the 1920s or earlier, so I think it's going to be hard to find anything that's genuinely easy to read.

That said, how about Miyazawa Kenji? He was a famous children's writer in the early 20th century and he has a lot of good short stories. We read some of his works in my 3rd year college Japanese class.

http://www.aozora.gr.jp/index_pages/person81.html

(Some of the stories are available with old kana usage, some with modernized kana usage, some with both.)

The short story 注文の多い料理店 and the short novel 銀河鉄道の夜 and the poem 雨ニモマケズ are some of his most famous works.

太宰治 has some good stories. Probably his easiest and most famous work is the short story 走れメロス. I think lots of Japanese people read it in school.

http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000035/fil...14913.html

I've also read 女生徒 and 人間失格 by him and they were good though probably harder to read.