Breaking into Japanese Literature

Rating:
Summary: Splendid literature for any reader
Review: The presentation of these stories makes it possible for a Japanese student at almost any level to read and enjoy a piece of lovely literature. The only absolute necessity is to master your hiragana. There is almost no katagana and about every single kanji is translated once at the bottom of each page, where it appears. This means that you can start reading any story, and a complete translation will be there for you. Even someone who already reads Japanese without difficulty will be charmed by the stories and the corresponding well acted mp3-files, which can be downloaded on the internet.

This is easily the most interesting and well structured bilingual Japanese book I have found so far.

Rating:
Summary: An extremely helpful and very enjoyable book
Review: There comes a time when any student of Japanese must dare to read his first book of Japanese literature in the original. "Breaking into Japanese Literature" was the perfect book to prepare me for this step. I have read many translations of modern and contemporary Japanese literature in the past few years and for every English book I read I made sure to buy the Japanese original as well (I live in Tokyo where second hand Japanese books can be found at about the 20th of the price of their translations so this is a very small investment).
Now, after spending a few weeks with Mr Murray's book I have finally broken into that unused part of my library.
I have been particularly pleased with the selection of authors and stories as I have always hoped to read Soseki and Akutagawa in Japanese. The stories are captivating, the translation is very careful and elegant and the narration provided online is a wonderful bonus. My Japanese teacher always advised me to read aloud in Japanese, the narrations provided here are not only very entertaining but also very useful.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Learning Tool
Review: This book will not only introduce you to classics of Japanese literature, it helps you build up your vocabulary. I've tried reading books searching for the words I don't understand in a dictionary which is a good way of studying although it is quite tedious. This book has a definition and reading for all words written in kanji as well as difficult words and frases written in kana on the same page as the text. I think Akutagawa Ryunosuke and Natsume Soseki's work does not need to be reviewed- these classics are to Japanese readers what Shakespeare is to English-speakers.

Rating:
Summary: Good learning tool
Review: This is a great way to break into reading real Japanese books. It is rather complex though, so do not start this until you have a firm grasp on grammar. Each page will tell you all of the kanji and vocab, but too little to help explain quirks of grammar.

All of the stories have their readings posted on the books website. This is great! As you can work on your listening and reading. I recommend this book for all students, but if you are just starting, you can wait. However, eventually you will want this book. The sooner you start trying to read real Japanese, the sooner you will be able to.


Rating:
Summary: Brilliant! Best thing I've bought for Japanese learning!
Review: This is absolutely brilliant. The stories are interesting and captivating, and never too long to overtly intimidate or tire the reader. You start with really short stories, and as your confidence with reading literary Japanese increases, the stories get longer and more complicated. I have learned and cemented more from reading this novel than by any other method but emersion experiences in Japan. I have a huge collection of modern Japanese literature and, though it was inaccessible before, this novel has made reading, guessing, and understanding Japanese fiction a blast. Note: it won't stop being difficult, even after this. But the satisfaction of reading and comprehending a story in it's original language, and being able to find fault in translations and such, is a really remarkable experience.

Highly recommended, and I hope to see a volume 2! I would buy it in a heartbeat!