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whatthefunk · Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 130 Location: Japan

My Japanese is okay....probably know about 300 or so kanji, got grammar down pretty good. So I want to start reading more, but i cant find any books that are at my level. I was reading kids books and Doraemon comics, but im getting sick of them. The main problem is the kanji...need the kana next to the ones that i dont know so that i dont spend my whole time looking them up in the dictionary. Can anyone here recommend anything good?

Temujin · Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 90 Location: Osaka

I don't know if this is quite what you're looking for but I was quite impressed.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/4770028997/ref=ord_cart_shr/202-5862464-0353467?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

seanmcginty · Joined: 27 Sep 2005 Posts: 203

I used that "Breaking into Japanese Literature" and found it was pretty good.

It might be a bit of a jump from Doraemon (its got over 1000 kanji in the text) but it has a good Kanji dictionary that runs along the bottom of the pages.

One problem with it though is that the works included are about 90 years old so there are quite a few kanji that you don't see in everday life today in it. They are complete short stories though, so you get a good feeling of accomplishment after you finish them.

Albright · Joined: 01 Nov 2004 Posts: 39

Check to see if your bookstore has Hiragana Times. It's a monthly magazine with each article written in both English and Japanese (with furigana). Japanese people studying English use it too, so your bookstore might have it even if it doesn't have other English magazines.

whatthefunk · Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 130 Location: Japan

cool, thanks everyone. if anyone else is interested, i found that the Mainichi Shinbun has articles written for elementary school kids on the web here - http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/shakai/edu/maishou/ all the kanji have furigana and the articles are a bit more interesting than doraemo.

pnksweater · Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 173 Location: Tokyo, Japan

If you haven't given up on manga all together, you could give galaxy express 999 a try. Aside from being a classic, all the books come with furigana. One of my friends taught himself to read using these puppies and I'd choose them over doraemon any day.

6810 · Joined: 16 Nov 2003 Posts: 309

yeah,

also, many of the popular manga available in English (mainly kids stuff like Naruto, Bleach, Shaman King, One Piece) have furgana in their Japanese versions.

Dengeki Comics (DC) have many titles aimed at younger female readers with furigana.

Go down to any bookstore and just open up a few books being careful not to tear the plastic in order to check if there is furigana. You will be surprised at how many there are...

what you won't be surprised at is how dreary many of the stories are once you get past the artwork and into the meaning...

But that's half the fun. Funding one that for you is excellent.

(now if only Initial D had furigana...)