Reading books (learning purposes)

[Ar_Yue]

Hi,

I was wondering about people who are slightly ok with their Japanese and thought of testing out your understanding of the language by buying a simple book and try to read it. I was thinking, what books have you started or still reading at the moment?

Right now, I got 日本人の知らない日本語。It's a simple book (that has furigana) and it's an interesting read from what I read so far. But there's alot that I'm trying to get my head round... like

eg.
「冷める」：熱いもの→常温
「冷える」：常温→さらに冷たく

Totally lost in that. LOL! I forgot to mention what the book is about... It's a manga type book that follows a Japanese Teacher teaching Japanese to foreign people. It's basically her mini stories on the students that she comes across learning Japanese. I would actually recommend it to anyone, I'm not sure how long it's been out since that I found it in store while I was in Shibuya about a month ago.

Here's a link to see cover and inside. E-hon site

Oh... just found out there's a second book to come (^u^ ) main site

So yeah.... what's a good book you recommend to practice your reading of Japanese?

[Tirroth]

I'm no where near advanced enough to read most of the snippets you posted. But I do have a couple books that can help those just starting like me. There japanese childrens books with mostly Hiragana and very few Kanji, I believe most Kanji (In these books) have Furigana to make things easier.

Heres the link for the Download: http://nihongo-dekimasu.blogspot.com/20 ... ading.html

[QuackingShoe]

「冷める」：熱いもの→常温 = [sameru]: Something hot → normal temperature
「冷える」：常温→さらに冷たく [hieru]: Normal temperature → even colder
It's describing the different uses of the words. In other words, you don't use hieru to say that coffee is cooling down.

Seems like an interesting book. I don't 'test' my understanding of Japanese by reading so much as I read to learn. Manga, novels, games, etc. As a beginner manga, I highly recommend Yotsubato. It's easy, and a lot of fun, even if you don't understand some of what's going on.

[Yamanchu]

From the childrens' section of a bookshop, I bought Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island and Gullivers Travels. These are probably about the level of a grade 3 student, they all have furigana and some simple kanji but not too much for me.

While they have some unusual vocab, when I feel like doing something different to the usual study, these can be quite interesting and not too difficult to work my way through.