So far I’ve only read manga and light novels, and have never tried to read a full Japanese novel before, so I really want to try the new medium for fun and to challenge myself. I’m interested in a novel called 人間失格 at the moment, but when I asked some friends about it, most of them said that it used old Japanese and was a very slow read, so it kind of put me off of it a bit.
Anyways, I would love to hear any interesting novel recommendations that you enjoyed reading 🙂
(Also sorry if this is the wrong flair, I’m not really sure whether to flair this as resources or discussion)
3 comments
Try something from 松本清張, maybe 点と線. He’s not a particularly hard author to read. A Japanese acquaintance called him 形容詞の少ない松本清張.
Probably available in an e-reader format somewhere.
I’ve never read any book by Dazai Osamu, but yea, I can imagine it will not be an easy one lol
The last book I finished was 告白 by 湊かなえ. I enjoyed it even more than the movie. It’s a relatively easy read, though I had to look up some crime-related vocab in the beginning.
I’m currently plowing through 風が強く吹いている. I bought the book like 15 years ago – total overestimation of my reading ability tbh.. Even now I don’t find it easy, but I really love the writing style. It really evokes vivid imagery, something I haven’t encountered in a book in a while.
You can also try 青空文庫 – maybe start by looking at the short stories? I loved some of the shorts, like 蜘蛛の糸、and the mushroom story I could never remember the title of. Some of the titles also come with audio book version.
Japanese used in 人間失格 is not old at all, especially with 現代仮名遣い. You may find some expressions which you don’t see in daily conversations, but that’s common to all the novels.
[https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000035/files/301_14912.html](https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000035/files/301_14912.html)