愛書家クラブ

Kafka — I read the first three books of the series while Kyoto Animation was airing the first season of its anime that covered the first of those books. They've since released a second season which covers the remaining two books of Kumiko's first year, as well as much of the content of the additional volume of short stories. I didn't realize until recently that a two-volume sequel had come out, and by sheer coincidence started reading the day KyoAni released an animated film which is based on this sequel, titled "リズと青い鳥". From the previews however, the movie seems laser focused on Nozomi and Mizore's relationship, which is far from being resolved and is hardly mentioned thus far, halfway through the book. So right now I'm drowning in foreshadowing, but at least I have very little potential for spoiling the movie, for anyone waiting to see it. One thing about these books that I really like that you might not know about if you're coming from the ...

断片のアリス / The Fragmented ALiS Daniel -  Although I'm a fan of the NEX label of 新潮文庫, it's difficult keeping up with all of their releases, so I've mainly been sticking with the 階段島 series (which is fantastic by the way). However this book grabbed my attention when one of my favourite illustrators ( Ilya Kuvshinov ) unveiled their cover art for it on twitter. Luckily the blurb summarizing the book also sounded pretty interesting so I dashed out to pick it up on day one. 断片のアリス is set in a distant future where the world is blanketed in smog following a nuclear war (referred to as 'The Great Chaos' in the novel), rendering most of the world uninhabitable. Although the current world is at peace, the heavily reduced population live in relative isolation spread out across the globe.  After a period of recovery, in order to facilitate socialization and provide some form of entertainment and escapism, a VR world and headset system named ALiS (Augmented L...

学年ビリのギャルが1年で偏差値を40上げて慶應大学に現役合格した話 (aka ビリギャル) Jennifer - A new word I learned with this book was  ビリ which means "the last" or "at the bottom". This case it's a story about a gyaru (gal) who's at the bottom rank of her school, increases her scores by 40 points in 1 year and gets into Keio University . This is a true story. It's a piece of non-fiction written by the juku teacher who taught Sayaka (our gyaru) and pushed her to get her grades up and get into one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. At the start of the book we meet Sayaka in the moment she meets Tsubota ( 坪田) Sensei. He asks her some simple questions but is amazed by her creative answers. The start of the book looks at the holes in her basic knowledge and understanding of the world.  When I say lack of basic knowledge I mean very basic knowledge. Tsubota Sensei asks her to draw a map of Japan and she draws a circle. She doesn't only realize there are ...

Kafka - As I stated in my earlier review of part 1 of 6, From the New World is presented to us as a memoir, a cautionary tale from the 'new world' to an even newer world and an investigation of a past now lost — all at the same time. Now I would also describe it as a rich metaphorical painting of society, but this author's world is filtered through Saki, a more conservative narrator, so the metaphors don't feel as forced as they would be fed to us directly. The unsettling atmosphere that ties this world and Saki's worldview as she becomes forced to challenge it is this novel's best asset. It's the main reason I wasn't able to put the book down for long. However, I do not mean to say that the plot itself isn't full of suspense and intrigue. The plot goes back and forth between mystery and action, and unlike many stories today, very many people die. There are no guarantees. The only ones you can be sure live to see the end are the narrator, an...

What do we want to read this month? Kafka Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活 14,15,16 Daniel 断片のアリス (Finish by 19th) 優しい死神の飼い方 国語は語彙力 (Not a novel but oh well) Jenn ビリギャル (Finish by 17th) サラバ（上） 鹿の王（上）

Jennifer - March was not a good month for me in terms of reading. Actually in terms of much Japanese besides translating to be honest... I started strong in February with 異世界のんびり農家 but it was so boring it demotivated me completely. I decided to dump it and read a book that was 300 pages long and easy to read, ビリギャル. I could get that done in 3 weeks easy! That is... if I'd actually read anything. So by the start of February I'd managed to read up to page 50 of ビリギャル and in March... I now realize I read about 15 pages. I scratch that to more work, night interpreting class finals, going on holiday for a week and saying "I'll make up for it tomorrow." That was my bad. March was a complete and utter reading fail. Let's hope April will be MUCH better! (Even though it's already the 10th...) Here's a picture of my bookshelf to make up for the flails.