yo so I want to start trying to read some very simple stuff soon. I am almost finished with N5 grammar (at about 96 points done) and level 7 going on 8 this week on WaniKani. Would this be a good time to start reading some simple stuff? I go on NHK news as well as Japanese.io and try to read and it is a lot of fun. Most of the time I cannot understand most of what I am reading but other times I can :). If anyone has any other easy resources for reading i could use that would be much appreciated!
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For paid resources, satori and grader readers are brilliant. There are also some free graded readers. Besides those there are certain books and manga that are relatively easy to jump into, though it will still take a lot of perseverance. For those recommendations it can be worth it to take a look at this WaniKani thread : Master List of Book Clubs - Reading - WaniKani Community
There are also some JLPT specific articles here on BunPro, but you can go through them relatively quickly : Readin passages
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Do you know the browser extension Yomichan? It’s a pop up dictionary and it can even generate Anki cards. I used that when I first broke into reading. When you read something online like NHK you could use that to help you with the unknown vocab, and generate flssh cards to study those words later (complete with the sentences from the article). This has been my main method of learning new vocabulary, although I do it with a variety of source materials including news, blogs, light novels, visual novels, and even Nintendo Switch games like Shin Megami Tensei V and Famicom Detective Club (although, you will have to make use of other tools to do that, like a capture card and OCR tools for Switch games, textraction tools for visual novels, or DRM removal tools for light novels)
My recommendation would be to do that and continue with NHK articles. You could also try breaking into manga. Start with something easy like しろくまカフェ. Once you get through N4 it will start to get a lot easier and you will be at a pretty good place to start studying with visual novels or light novels, so keep on grinding.
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One more thing I forgot to mention is children’s novels. Personally I have a small collection of children’s novels that I used to help break into reading also. The ones I have are adaptations of popular anime movies like 天気の子 and 夜は短し歩けよ乙女. They have full furigana so it’s a breeze to read even when you don’t know all of the vocabulary. You could try one or two before you move up to light novels, but it’s a little above your current level so I wouldn’t recommend doing it right away.
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Thank you for letting me know we have that. I had no idea!
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I got a couple of 小学中級から adaptations of classical Chinese novels (Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West) and literally on the very first pages of each there were multiple vocabulary words that don’t even appear on JLPT word lists. Unless you already have an extensive vocabulary, you might have to go younger than even the middle of elementary school. Either that, or realize and accept right away there’s going to be a lot you don’t understand.
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alr cool! ill start doing these things. thank you so much!
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What kind of things would you be interested in reading? Anime? VNs? News articles? Tbh based on your post, it’s going to be a struggle to comprehend a ton of stuff but that shouldn’t put you off! A ton of learners, including myself!, put reading off for awhile just because the concept of not understanding most and the frustrations does not make for enjoyable times but you just gotta push through it.
I would use jpdb.io to get a gist for which anime/manga/VN/etc. is easy for beginners. Keep in mind it’s still going to be tough regardless, but this way you won’t jump into deep end of a pool before you know how to swim. If you’re looking for suggestions of particular titles feel free to ask! Myself or others here would be happy to guide you in the right direction.
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I highly recommend Natively for finding things to read. It’s a database / reading tracker for anything from graded readers to manga to novels. I’ve been finding this site really useful for gauging whether or not something will be too difficult for me to read.
So for example, you can use it to find N5 reading material. Or, since Tadoku graded readers have been recommended, here’s a list of those in order of difficulty.
And here’s an overview of what Natively’s levels mean b/c they don’t align with WK or Bunpro levels. Based on what you’ve mentioned in your post I’d suggest you start with content marked levels 0-12, but don’t be afraid to try something more difficult!
I also recommend Satori Reader and/or the WK Beginner Book Club
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yeah i guess my reading goal currently is just to read manga and stuff.
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sounds good ill check it out
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+1 for the learn natively site, it’s how I also broke into reading. I started with all the free graded readers and have worked my way up to… well more graded readers 
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One more thing I forgot to mention is children’s novels.
From Tsubasa Bunko collection I really really recommend 世にも奇妙な商品カタログ.
Bought it to practice reading, but in the end I’m just hooked to it.
Note it’s light horror, so I’m not sure how they are even in a children collection, but nevertheless. Also the structure of being short stories makes it easier as it reduces the chance of getting lost in the plot.
I wrote a review of the first book here:
I recommend jumping to easy light novels as soon as you are able to. It makes you pick up speed.
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I used to use Manabi reader which had a reasonable range of content: blogs, news, forums and folk tales. Also has audio recordings of some of its content. Might only be IOS though.
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Do you have a link to/author’s name for those? I’m a big fan of Journey to the West and reading it is a goal of mine; I’ll gladly use a children’s version as a stepping-stone.
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Sure, it’s part of the 青い鳥文庫 series published by Kodansha. As you’re probably already aware, the Japanese title of Journey to the West is 西遊記 (さいゆうき). The frontpiece says 小沢章友／文 (Ozawa Akitomo?, writer) and 山田章博／絵 (Yamada Akihiro?, illustrator). The ISBN is 978-4-06-285347-7.
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Reading is cool, stay in school!
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They have an app as well for phones and I love it. It’s one of the most useful learning applications I’ve used by far.