The psychic god that is Amazon.co.uk threw me an interesting recommendation today: Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text. My beginner's level Japanese wouldn't be up to the task, but I was sorely tempted. What's interesting is all the extra features for learners: vocabulary lists on each page, including all kanji words, and free download of audio files from the net.

This seems like a great resource. I'd like to hear from anyone who's used it.

For me, one of the rewards of learning Japanese is the thrill I get when I come across a word or phrase I recognise, whether it be in a film, in printed text somewhere, or a snippet of conversation. At this early stage in my learning, any new grammar and vocabulary is likely to be something that's in common use, so the rewards are pretty immediate. The idea of being able to read literature in the original language is really exciting, but it seems a long way off.