Japanese Literature discussion

The general "upcoming group reads" thread has gotten cumbersome, some I'm opening a new one.

Here is the nomination sheet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Let’s say we close the voting in about two weeks? Thursday, April 13 gets us out of range of any major religious holidays?

Didn't want to lose Marcia's comment:

message 638: by Marcia Mar 24, 2023 05:36PM

Thank you to Japanese book of the month members for choosing In The Shade of Spring Leaves: The Life of Higuchi Ichiyo, With Nine of Her Best StoriesRobert Lyons Danly
I am partially through with the biography, and find it stunning. It is evocative of late Edo/early Meiji Japanese society. It is scholarly but very readable.
Included is definitive information about early Japanese literature. It is full of literary allusions that most Japanese writers would know.
And the information about Japanese society is priceless! I really didn't know that a person could buy their way into samurai status.
I look forward to others' comments as I continue to read the biography and then Ichigo's stories.

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I can't ever get those spreadsheets to work as I'm always deleting or adding rows columns etc. do you have a discussion on the page? The print is SO TINY as well, and i don't know how to make it larger as spreading it out like you do on a webpage doesn't work. Thanks!

Sorry you're having trouble! Just let us know what you want to vote for.

Current nominations:
The Boy and the Dog
The Moon Over the Mountain (and other stories)
Death on Gokumon Island
The Thorn Puller
Kappa
The Tatami Galaxy
Once and Forever: The Tales of Miyazawa Kenji
The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories

Thanks, Bill.

Jazzy, that’s why I opened the thread, too. Bill and I are committed to making it work. ☺️

Many thanks Alison and Bill

1. The Boy and the Dog (2020) - Seishū Hase
Looks good but at Waterstones is £12.99

2. not sure of this author, so can't find the link

3. Death on Gokumon Island (1948) - Seishi Yokomizo
Several copies available, looks most promising so far!

4. The Thorn Puller (2007) - Hiromi Itō

5. Kappa (1927) - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
easy to find, added to want to read

6. The Tatami Galaxy (2004) - Tomihiko Morimi

7. Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa - Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933)

8. The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories - Theodore W. Goossen (ed.)

Not sure about the above, but I read The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories and it was a treat!

I'm going for 3 & 5

Jazzy wrote: "I can't ever get those spreadsheets to work as I'm always deleting or adding rows columns etc. do you have a discussion on the page? The print is SO TINY as well, and i don't know how to make it la..."

I also have problems with those spreadsheets Jazzy. I just can’t figure them out and for that reason that’s why I don’t participate in voting.

Thanks for your question! 😊

Jazzy wrote: "Many thanks Alison and Bill

1. The Boy and the Dog (2020) - Seishū Hase
Looks good but at Waterstones is £12.99

2. not sure of this author, so can't find the link..."

Thanks for posting these Jazzy! 😊

My vote is for The Boy and the Dog by Seishū Hase.

Thank you!

Would people prefer some other way of voting?

I'm not sure what that would be, but it would get more people involved, it would be worth the effort.

Bill wrote: "Would people prefer some other way of voting?

I'm not sure what that would be, but it would get more people involved, it would be worth the effort."

Truly there’s no effort if one of the moderators sets up a poll which is probably much easier in the long run and would definitely get more people involved.

Just my opinion.

Okay. Coming back to the discussion.

1. Death on Gokumon Island and The Oxford Book of Short Stories had the most votes. I suggest Death in May and Oxford in June. Thoughts?

2. The reason we are resistant to change is because the Goodreads poll feature only allows people to choose one book and doesn't allow people to add nominations. (Google Sheets works fine on a desktop or tablet and reasonably well on a phone in landscape mode, but I know that it is harder than a Goodreads poll.)

I'm happy to try a monthly poll for a July read. Open a thread for nominations first week of June. Vote second week. Give people two weeks to get copies. We can see if it boosts voting *and* whether the people who vote participate.

Thoughts?

(Or the June nominations could be the FOUR runners up this month: The Boy and the Dog, The Thorn Puller, Kappa, and fairy tales by Miyazawa Kenji.)