Edit:  ADD version - do you strip out furigana when making flashcards from Japanese novels, even if it's included in the original text?

I recently came across 青空文庫（あおぞらぶんこ） again, and decided to try read-studying my way through a few classic pieces of literature - things like 夢十夜（夏目漱石） and 注文の多い料理店（宮沢賢治）. 

What I'd like to do is digest the chunks that I don't understand well into SRS flashcards and work them into the rest of my deck, like a good AJATTer.  Being a practical guy, though, I am questioning whether I should retain the furigana that's attached to the original text, or strip it all off and choke down even the very uncommon compounds.  As I understand it, it's fairly common to attach furigana to relatively difficult kanji in Japanese novels, so for the purposes of acclimatizing myself to pleasure reading it may not be important to learn them furigana-free - learning the meanings is probably enough.  On the other hand, to be able to apply those readings when reading, say, a newspaper, it might be important to be able to come up with the readings myself.

Which way is better will obviously depend on my own tolerances and ambition, but I'm wondering if any of you guys have been studying Japanese novels this way, and how you're approaching it.  Also, for curiosity's sake, which ones are you reading, and how are you liking them?

Finally, has anyone else read 注文の多い料理店 and can explain to me what the hell it's supposed to be about?

Last edited by shaydwyrm (2008 May 28, 3:04 am)