lesshwa.blogg.se - Zaregoto, Book 1 by NisiOisiN

Also, I’m pretty sure 玖渚友 (くなぎさとも)'s name was mentioned about 30 times in chapter 1 and it took about 20 times for it to stick (I don’t know why but I found the reading of this name to be particularly unintuitive). It would be embarrassing to say how far into 殺人出産 I got before I could stop flipping back to the early pages to search for character name furigana. I love the inclusion of a character list! I think every Japanese book should have one by law.

I might go back and reread the preface again to try to understand it a bit better. The first 5 or so pages were still a bit slow due to points 1 and 3, but by the end of the week’s reading it felt like decently smooth sailing. (Like who the heck is talking in all those quote blocks in the preface, or what they’re even “philosophizing” in relation to, if that makes sense)

You haven’t built up any mental context yet for anything that’s going on.

(This was definitely the case for Your Name as well)

Intros seems to be written in a more dense, “literary” style.

You have to get used to a new author’s style (or even just a new book’s style like in 殺人出産).

I think book beginnings in general tend to be difficult for three reasons: It will operate like a normal bookclub except with lower participation and thus only a single thread and a potentially more fluid schedule. It’s not much more than an invitation for others to join in reading a book I was planning to read personally! The book clubs have been great for discussion, support and accountability so I figured I’d write a schedule and put the word out in case anyone else is interested.

Having watched some of the Monogatari series with English subtitles I feel like I missed out on so much from the original Japanese, but even with the losses of translation it was some of the most entertaining dialogue I’ve encountered. Nisio’s writing is characterized by fast-paced, often humorous dialogues littered with clever wordplay and references to popular fiction. (I have no idea how this guy writes so fast–according to Wikipedia he wrote the second entry in the Zaregoto series, a nearly 400 page book, in only three days!) In addition to Monogatari (which itself is 26 novels long!), he’s written at least 8 other series along with multiple spin-off series’, one-offs, and manga. However, he’s one of the most prolific authors I’ve ever heard of. For those who don’t know who Nisio Isin is, he is probably best known as the author of the Monogatari series.