I went ahead and read the first chapter, and there are definitely quite a few words I don’t know. I think what I’m gonna end up doing is read through it at whatever pace just skimming past what I don’t understand, then actually go through more thoroughly along with the book club pace
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Looking forward to it, I haven’t started reading anything yet but I got the book in time.
This is my first Book Club of this kind, I’m curious to see how it works.
Good luck everyone!
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I might suggest using the schedule proposed for the 2020 WaniKani reread of Kiki. It is roughly 10 pages per session (well, 9-13) and can be synced up with multiple versions of the book.
emphasized text
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アマゾンで買ったところです。一緒に読むのを楽しみにしています！
来年の正月の希望は小説を全部日本語で読むことで、早くできたらいいと思います！
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Thats a great idea!!
I got the exact ISBN of learnnatively since there’s so many options as epub and I’m reading it with ttsu reader so I can use yomitan on it. This is the first time I will attempt reading a novel in Japanese. Let’s see how bad this goes.
The ebook doesn’t seem to come with page indicators since they depend on the device settings (font size, etc)
Excited to participate
In case anyone feels like this is useful, my “search on bunpro” extension seems to work properly with ttsu reader (the second version)
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Started reading a bit. There’s a lot of hiragana. So much that some words are even missing from jpdb deck, e.g. 見合わせる. But Bunpro deck seems more robust in detecting them all.
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I started reading a bit as well. I’m not really sure how far I am page wise because I had to increase the font to 200% so I could read it on my phone. I was surprised by how much hiragana there was. A few of the words I learned from the deck were written in kanji there, so I wasn’t sure what it was saying until I sounded it out myself.
Luckily the bookwalker app has a fairly decent dictionary function, so the lack of furigana isn’t as much of an issue as I was afraid it might be.
Comprehension-wise, I think (hope) I’m understanding the gist of things so far, but I don’t think I could say anything specific. But I was expecting that to be honest. I’m not very far along in my studies yet. Mostly I’m just hoping this will give me the chance to see verb conjugation in action because that’s an area I’ve been struggling with.
Reading vertical text is a bit of an adjustment as well. I’m hoping as we continue I’ll adjust.
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I’ve read the first 10 pages. It’s bizarrely more difficult to read novels with fewer kanji. I found it harder to distinguish between words and particles at times, even when I knew the word very well.
It might be useful if someone posts a summary of the first 10 pages (with spoiler tags). That way we can check for comprehension.
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Count me in starting next week!
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Can someone post the end sentence? I have an ebook with no page numbers.
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That’s definitely the issue I’ve had so far. For the first 12-13 pages though it’s not been too painful though
(My copy has a drawing on page 9-10 so I thought I’d continue)
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Hey all!
Sorry for not updating the end sentence. I’ve been stuck overseas due to some flight cancellations without my physical copy of the book yay holiday travel disruptions!
It also looks like some people may be starting a bit late, and to ease us in a bit, I’m going to just say everyone should aim to finish chapter 1 - お話のはじまり, which is 6-10 pages depending on which version you’re using.
For those who have started reading already, feel free to start posting questions if you come across something that just isn’t clicking!
Someone also requested a summary of the first chapter so that people can check comprehension. I’ve listed out some of the key things that happened this chapter below. If people want a more abbreviated or more detailed summary for next week, please let me know!
CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY (SPOILERS)
Chapter 1 starts by setting the scene. We're told that somewhere in a deep forest, sandwiched between some rolling hills, is a small village, that at first glance seems completely normal. However, if you take a closer look, you'll notice things that you wouldn't find in a normal village. For example, bells hanging on tall trees that sometimes ring even when there's no wind.Next, we move to a description of Kiki’s house which is in the east outskirts of town. We are told it is a single-storied house with a sign outside advertising cold medicines, with a large garden growing various strange plants. In the living room, instead of paintings or photos, there are two broomsticks hanging. We hear a short argument between Kiki and her parents. Her mother (a witch) is asking Kiki if she’s decided on when she’s going to depart, and Kiki and her dad (a normal human) avoid answering.
We then learn a little bit more what they’re talking about. Apparently, it’s standard for girls born to a human and a witch to decided when they’re 10 years old whether they want to become a witch or not. If they do, they’re taught magic by their mother until they turn 13 years old. Then, during their 13th year, they must pick a night with a full moon and venture out into the world to practice magic in a town or village without another witch.
In the case of Kiki, when she was 10, she started learning two types of magic from her mother:
- How to grow medicinal herbs and make medicines (which Kiki doesn’t appear suited for and, no matter what, is unable to master).
- How to fly a broomstick.
However, while Kiki is very good at riding a broomstick, she is easily distracted and has had incidents where she’s crashed her broom. To avoid this, her mother placed bells in the trees around town to help Kiki keep her focus while flying.
Somewhat worryingly, we also learn that magic has slowly been disappearing, and more and more witches are unable to do as many types of magic as they could in the past.
Finally, we learn a bit about familiars and how it is tradition for witches to have a black cat as a companion, at least until they get married and go their separate ways. In the case of Kiki, she was raised with a small black cat named Jiji.
Hope everyone is enjoying the book so far!
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Okay I have done my required reading for the week! \o/ (Do I get a free pass out of jail…?)
Like some of the others mentioned, I was a bit thrown off by how much vocab is in hiragana (especially compared to my other read at the moment, which is a lot more difficult and kanji-filled), but after reading the summary I was pleased to find I’d more or less picked everything up. 
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Read the chapter last night and like others, the lack of kanji did slow me down a bit, I read about 1000 characters per hour slower than my average for 告白. I remember there being one part where I wasn’t quite sure what a word or particle or something meant, gonna have to skim back through and find it because I forgot to note it. (I think I might’ve accidentally posted this as a reply to the person above me, so sorry for the ping if so.)
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I am pleasantly surprised so far Because of all the Hiragana the Migaku Reader Comprehension Score was lower than in reality. Although I did translate some sentences and my own comprehension was way off 
it’s my second book tho so it’s okay
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what was your first book?
Done with the first chapter. There was a lot of hiragana but it’s to be expected with a children book.
It looks interesting so far, I like the world building about witches losing their magic over time and the black cats they grow up with.
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クマくま熊ベーア. actually I am only 50% in, but the story is so boring… I also tried Yotsuba before but Manga are difficult with Migaku
wait, do the individual witches lose power or just as a whole? I remember one sentence like that, but did they explain the reasoning?
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