Adam’s Japanese Book Recommendations – Part 2
1. 反応しない練習 (Practice Not Reacting)
Japanese Level: ☆☆☆☆
Learn to deal with stress and worries in your life through the major Buddhist principals. Author stories and fun examples included.
2. 人生がときめく片付けの魔法 (Gain An Exciting Life Through The Magic Of Decluttering)
Japanese Level: ☆☆☆
Living in a messy place and are trying to clean up and simplify your lifestyle? Powerful advice on how to declutter your home and your life and the major difference it can make.
3. 人生はニャンとかなる (You’ll Somehow Meownage To Get By In Life)
Japanese Level: ☆☆☆
Famous motivational quotes and success stories by inventors, writers, politicians, entrepreneurs, and other great thinkers all put to cute pictures of cats. Each quote is explained with a backstory about the speaker, as well as other similar quotes, and it gives you endless positive boosts of energy…and cats.
4. ウケる日記 (The Funny Diaries)
Japanese Level: ☆☆☆☆
The personal blog of the popular author 水野敬也 (夢をかなえるぞ series) in book compilation form. Full of humorous and fun stories and anecdotes that show his unique wit and insight.
5. D町怪奇物語 (Mysterious Stories Of D City)
Japanese Level: ☆☆
Presented as “semi-fiction,” the author’s humorous ghost stories he experienced while working as a bar owner.
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
How are you able to read these many books xD?
I think number 3 and 5 should be easy enough for me to read. よし!
I like reading? Haha. Lately I’ve been reading 2-3 books a week, so I hope to continually expand this list.
And I had a feeling you’d go for the cute cat one.
Thanks. I really appreciate these posts. Good inspiration for my shopping list on Amazon :)
Expect a lot more book shopping inspiration to come!
I wonder if there’s a way to buy Kindle books from Japanese Amazon if you’re outside Japan? I’d love to stock up on some books, and as much as I love the traditional paper ones, the lack of shipping fees and the built-in dictionary seem amazing.
Lunar:
It’s a little tricky to set the kindle up, but it’s definitely possible:
https://nihonjon.com/how-to-download-japanese-books-for-kindle/
Yup, and it’s easy. I just bought a Kindle Paperwhite about two weeks ago (highly recommended) from U.S. Amazon. It doesn’t matter what country you buy your Kindle from, so you can save a bundle in shipping fees through buying it in your current country or using your existing Kindle/App if you have one. If you do buy a new one, mark it as a gift, that way, they won’t auto-load it with your U.S. account info. before they ship it (just a nice little shortcut, but you can always change that info. if you already have a Kindle registered to a non-J Amazon account). Set the language on the Kindle to Japanese, and make sure you use a different username and password combination for your J Amazon account than you use with your U.S. Amazon account—just log in to your J Amazon account with your Kindle, and you’re good to go. You can use a U.S. credit card to buy from J Amazon. I don’t know if this makes a difference (probably not), but I use a J shipping address for my J Amazon account. You can get one for free here: http://www.tenso.com/en/
A word of caution: you will loose any non-J Amazon Kindle books that are stored on your device, but who cares about books written in English, anyway?! :D
I find myself reading a lot more now that I use a Kindle, so get to it and start your J reading frenzy!
I’ve read Mari Kondo’s the magic of tidying up in English and I love it. Her method is of decluttering is the best I’ve ever come across. I’ve already applied it to my wardrobe and it’s so much better now. <3
Wow I didn’t know it was translated in English.
I’ve also been implementing a lot of her techniques and they really do change your life for the better. A lot of them can also be applied to Japanese studying. Especially the stockpiling of study materials that people never use.
Marie Kondo was in your hood recently, did you go to the book signing?
ガーン！
Wasn’t aware of that. It would have been fun to go. もっと早く教えてよ！