I was seriously worried about making the jump from reading manga to reading novels. In order to get used to reading narrative prose, I read over twenty of the short stories that are available for free on Aozora, starting at level 20 and working my way up to level 26. When I finally read 雨の日も、晴れ男, it turned out to be much easier than most of the short stories I'd read up to that point. It's easy to follow and uses pretty simple prose. It's very short, too—took less than ten days to finish. The story is funny and charming, I actually laughed out loud once while reading. (It was at the line 「アレックスは目が４個、足が10本になる」)
If you want to start reading novels, you can't go wrong with this one.
Great first novel for learners!
I was seriously worried about making the jump from reading manga to reading novels. In order to get used to reading narrative prose, I read over twenty of the short stories that are available for free on Aozora, starting at level 20 and working my way up to level 26. When I finally read 雨の日も、晴れ男, it turned out to be much easier than most of the short stories I'd read up to that point. It's easy to follow and uses pretty simple prose. It's very short, too—took less than ten days to finish. The story is funny and charming, I actually laughed out loud once while reading. (It was at the line 「アレックスは目が４個、足が10本になる」)
If you want to start reading novels, you can't go wrong with this one.