For those of you who’ve read light novels, what would you recommend for a beginner? I’ve never read any but I want to start reading for an hour a day. I know it’ll be hard at first and I’m okay with that, but I want to start with some easy ones that are interesting as well.
I should also mention that they need to be available online so that I can link with anki. I don’t mind paying for them if they’re cheap, but I’d love to know where I can find some free ones online, or if there’s a specific website/service that I can subscribe to in order to gain access to a bigger library.
Thanks!
5 comments
Everything will be hard at first so pick one that interests you.
You can look at how difficult a novel could be on jpdb and learnnatively. Reading an ln after enjoying its adaptation is a decent strat too. Also, most popular lns will be on cat noise.
I usually get my light novels for kindle from amazon.co.jp (I think you would have to put in a Japanese address to make an account though). Individual light novels are pretty cheap, but if you get Kindle Unlimited you can read a bunch without buying them. Anki is a bit harder with this method but I sometimes highlight words that I lookup, then export the highlights and put them all into Anki at once after finishing the book.
The easiest light novel that I’ve found was Kuma Kuma Kuma bear. It’s strangely a lot easier than any other light novel that I have tried to read, so I’d recommend that as a good first light novel.
Any Disney or Ghibli book adaptations.
They usually have furigana and are meant for elementary school kids.
Or any book adaptations of children’s animations, shows or movies. I think Doraemon had a light novel. Same with dragon ball and sailor moon.
As someone else has said, pick one that is interesting to you. Motivation will be the thing that pushes you the farthest in your first few books
You don’t need an online version for anki, no need to limit yourself that way. Just configure Yomichan to read from your clipboard, and you can use any ebook reader on your PC.
I use this website to look for easier books to try. This book in particular is quite doable for me, I’m roughly N4/N3 level.
[https://learnnatively.com/book/5b9046476c/](https://learnnatively.com/book/5b9046476c/)