Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers

excellent

Great! I am almost finished the first story and was so happy with it that I bought the original book that the story was contained in. Love the way an audio CD is present with this. It helps me improve my Japanese pronunciation because I know I am pronouncing it right by listening to the native speaker. The translations are very loose, so it forces you to work through the Japanese. For example the subject may be present in a sentence in the Japanese, but it might be omitted from the translations. If the translations are read on their own, the stories would not make sense. Some people say this is not for beginners, but as a beginner I am learning a lot of new words and phrases from the book. I did have to consult the dictionary at the back many times, but once I kept re-reading the pages, the words stuck in my brain. とても嬉しいです。ありがとうございました

The content is very good and ideal for someone at/approaching intermediate level and looking to kick on. Unfortunately the physical product itself it flawed - specifically, the manner in which the CD wallet is secured to the book. The opening to remove the CD is flush against the page to which it is firmly glued and requires you to either pull away the top part to access it or cut it out. I chose the former and in doing so I unfortunately got some glue on the CD. I managed to clean it sufficiently to make it work but it was touch and go. For its companion book I chose to cut the page out (there is nothing on it) before removing the CD . This is not what I expect for any product that is accompanied by a CD - disappointing.In short: contents = excellent; physical product = sub-optimal.

Well-resourced book for students starting out to read authentic modern Japanese literature. There is a dictionary at the back, notes on points of potential difficulty, a CD with recordings of the stories, and a bit of translation to help readers. This book is useful for readers at a lot of levels.

I can listen to the books when doing menial tasks at work and sit and try to read/translate the books when I am at home. Brilliant!

Couldn't wait for my parcel of Japanese books, but at last they arrived! These books are great!