吾輩は猫である

Interesting stories, if you can wade through them.

First off, the language is quite difficult and dense, it may not be worth it to use this to learn Japanese. Much of what is written in this book will not be spoken in any conversation; and a lot of difficulty comes from the kango and by extension kanji usage which for me is incredibly interesting, but for the regular learner might not be. for example, grammar, which in modern Japanese is rendered almost fully in kana is in its full glory in kanji; an example from the first chapter would be 加之 which is read しかのみならず; an already advanced grammar point. or an easier one being やはり which in some versions is rendered as 矢張. Most versions have furigana though, so if you know the base word in those cases it will be fine.

The story, (or stories i should say as each part was publicised in a magazine monthly before being compiled, and can be seen as seperate stories) from the first 3 parts I have read is quite intriguing, especially taking into account the narrator is a cat. For the average reader it may not be much interesting, being the daily lives of teachers and middle class Japanese people, but it is swathed in contemporary references which give me an idea of how life was back then. The paper book which I own has these cultural references in the back with page numbers for reference but I've found it easier to just use sosekiproject.com which has the references in an easy format along with a vocabulary bar and audiobook readings for free.

Since im only a few chapters in I'll leave comments on the story/plot as a whole to the side.