How many "normal" Japanese books have you read?

[Spakko]

I've read about five of them.

Battle Royale being a personal favorite of mine. Then I've read The Audition since it got an English translation, and then Taiko by Yoshikawa Eiji. Tales of Genji being the last one I've read, and that was by a Japanese court concubine. Super interesting.

Hmmm... if translations do count then, well, one. "Musashi" from Yoshikawa Eiji. It was a very enjoyable read.

That's the other one I've read and I really enjoyed it. There's a manga adaptation that doesn't do the book justice, but it's still good.

I'm usually not really into mangas but an adaptation of Musashi sounds very interesting. Colour me intrigued! Gotta track it down as soo a possible. Thanks for the info!

Hmmm... if translations do count then, well, one. "Musashi" from Yoshikawa Eiji. It was a very enjoyable read.

Count me as well. I read it the first time when I was like 11. I got it from an old books festival in my summer home town, and its sheer size caught my attention. I think it was the thickest book I'd ever seen or read up until that point in my life. When I held a presentation about it in middle school, my classmates were joking that I'd brought in the Bible.

Oh yes, the book is massive enough to beat goats to death with. Were your classmates interested by the book?

 

[Queen Michael]

I'm usually not really into mangas but an adaptation of Musashi sounds very interesting. Colour me intrigued! Gotta track it down as soo a possible. Thanks for the info!

It's called Vagabond, and it's pretty good. Check it out.

And yeah, that book's so long that the Swedish translation was published in two volumes with teensy print.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Count me as well. I read it the first time when I was like 11. I got it from an old books festival in my summer home town, and its sheer size caught my attention. I think it was the thickest book I'd ever seen or read up until that point in my life. When I held a presentation about it in middle school, my classmates were joking that I'd brought in the Bible.

Oh yes, the book is massive enough to beat goats to death with. Were your classmates interested by the book?

Likely not. I was the nerd in my class, whereas my peers were sports focused and mostly dumb as a bag of rocks. I don't think a 1000+ pages long historical biography was up their alley.

 

[Roguebubble]

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami is the only one so far.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

One. I don't remember the author or the title. Pretty sure the book was about a girl reading a book, or writing a book, something along those lines. Sometimes it felt like reading someone else's dream. Other than that I can't even remember what the book was about. Around 2009, 2010 I was watching asian movies all the time. Pretty sure one of the movies I saw was based on another book by the same guy, and that's how I found him and read this one book.

 

[Queen Michael]

Count me as well. I read it the first time when I was like 11. I got it from an old books festival in my summer home town, and its sheer size caught my attention. I think it was the thickest book I'd ever seen or read up until that point in my life. When I held a presentation about it in middle school, my classmates were joking that I'd brought in the Bible.

Oh yes, the book is massive enough to beat goats to death with. Were your classmates interested by the book?

Likely not. I was the nerd in my class, whereas my peers were sports focused and mostly dumb as a bag of rocks. I don't think a 1000+ pages long historical biography was up their alley.

Nitpick alert: It's not a biography, it's a novel. Though interestingly enough, many things that Yoshikawa made up for the novel are mistakenly believed to be fact by surprisingly many Japanese people.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Count me as well. I read it the first time when I was like 11. I got it from an old books festival in my summer home town, and its sheer size caught my attention. I think it was the thickest book I'd ever seen or read up until that point in my life. When I held a presentation about it in middle school, my classmates were joking that I'd brought in the Bible.

Oh yes, the book is massive enough to beat goats to death with. Were your classmates interested by the book?

Likely not. I was the nerd in my class, whereas my peers were sports focused and mostly dumb as a bag of rocks. I don't think a 1000+ pages long historical biography was up their alley.

Nitpick alert: It's not a biography, it's a novel. Though interestingly enough, many things that Yoshikawa made up for the novel are mistakenly believed to be fact by surprisingly many Japanese people.

I tried to think of better terms to characterize the book, but I was tired. It is based on a real people and centers around historical events, so calling it a novel would've IMO implied it to be all fiction. What are you supposed to call books like it? Quasi-historical? History fiction?

 

[Queen Michael]

Count me as well. I read it the first time when I was like 11. I got it from an old books festival in my summer home town, and its sheer size caught my attention. I think it was the thickest book I'd ever seen or read up until that point in my life. When I held a presentation about it in middle school, my classmates were joking that I'd brought in the Bible.

Oh yes, the book is massive enough to beat goats to death with. Were your classmates interested by the book?

Likely not. I was the nerd in my class, whereas my peers were sports focused and mostly dumb as a bag of rocks. I don't think a 1000+ pages long historical biography was up their alley.

Nitpick alert: It's not a biography, it's a novel. Though interestingly enough, many things that Yoshikawa made up for the novel are mistakenly believed to be fact by surprisingly many Japanese people.

I tried to think of better terms to characterize the book, but I was tired. It is based on a real people and centers around historical events, so calling it a novel would've IMO implied it to be all fiction. What are you supposed to call books like it? Quasi-historical? History fiction?

Historical novels are what I call them.

 

[Spakko]

Likely not. I was the nerd in my class, whereas my peers were sports focused and mostly dumb as a bag of rocks. I don't think a 1000+ pages long historical biography was up their alley.

That's a real shame. Those jocks should have read at least the first chapter (book earth, i think) to broaden their horizon a bit. But it's their loss.

It's called Vagabond, and it's pretty good. Check it out.

And yeah, that book's so long that the Swedish translation was published in two volumes with teensy print.

Soooo, back from the local little bookshop and bought the first three issues of Vagabond (couldn't find any big Vagabond volumes). I'm actually a bit surprised to find so many of them in that small shop. More than twenty of them. How many of them are there in total?

And after a Little sneak peek at the art style i'm really looking forward to it! Thanks a lot Queen Michael and Fiz_The_Toaster for recommending me this!

 

[GothmogII]

Norweigan Wood is about the only one, it's bleakly depressing and uplifting all in one.
I loved every bit of it though, really need to pick up more of Haruki Murakami. Though I've read that his other work is quite a bit different to NW and that he was a bit baffled by its sucess.

 

[Queen Michael]

How many of them are there in total?

And after a Little sneak peek at the art style i'm really looking forward to it! Thanks a lot Queen Michael and Fiz_The_Toaster for recommending me this!

You're welcome! Also, there are 37 books so far, but it's still being made as far as I know.

Norweigan Wood is about the only one, it's bleakly depressing and uplifting all in one.
I loved every bit of it though, really need to pick up more of Haruki Murakami. Though I've read that his other work is quite a bit different to NW and that he was a bit baffled by its sucess.

Yeah. Think of it as his The Casual Vacancy--not bad, but not indicative of his usual style of writing.

 

[Ogoid]

Norweigan Wood is about the only one, it's bleakly depressing and uplifting all in one.
I loved every bit of it though, really need to pick up more of Haruki Murakami. Though I've read that his other work is quite a bit different to NW and that he was a bit baffled by its sucess.

As I understand it, Norwegian Wood was a deliberate attempt of his at writing a "realistic" novel, as opposed to the sheer surreal weirdness he usually indulges in and which some, myself included, know and love him for.

If you like or at least don't mind those kinds of stories, though, I heartily recommend Kafka on the Shore. It was my first Murakami novel, and it remains, to this day, my favorite.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Likely not. I was the nerd in my class, whereas my peers were sports focused and mostly dumb as a bag of rocks. I don't think a 1000+ pages long historical biography was up their alley.

That's a real shame. Those jocks should have read at least the first chapter (book earth, i think) to broaden their horizon a bit. But it's their loss.

We were actually required to read a part of the book aloud to the class, and I chose the first few paragraphs of the first chapter for that very reason. It's a very evocative and swift start to such a ponderous tome. If I remember correctly, it did make an impression, but that was hardly enough.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Exactly one: All you need is kill. Good book.

I was about to just leave the thread because my answer is 0 and adds nothing to the discussion but then I read your post and learned All you need is kill is a Japanese book, so I guess it's one. Maybe even more since I generally don't pay attention to who the author is and there are many books that I've read while not knowing who the author is. I'm really bad at remembering names so even when I read it, I forget it.

 

[Saint of M]

Not many. I've read the first 3 Vampire Hunter D and the first Overlord novels, but those all count as Light Novels.

 

[CanadianBaconPlayz]

Too be honest, I have only read 1 or 2 "real" Japanese books. I have read multiple Mangas and light reading books but otherwise very little. I have read all of the SAO books. Does anyone know any good series?

 

[darkcalling]

I read Parasite Eve by Hideaki Sena a while back. Wasn't aware that the game was based on a book before. My roommate had a copy so I borrowed it from him.

 

[Queen Michael]

I don't see how light novels are abnormal books simply because of being anime-like.


Anyways, love me some egg at the end of the world.

Well, in the most technical sense, most books aren't anime-like. Therefore, the fact that light novels are makes them abnormal.

But in case you're wondering why I didn't ask about them, well, the answer is that they're still part of anime/manga culture. I want to see how interested people are in things that aren't part of nerd culture.