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I have a couple of Japanese novels and textbooks that have the kanji 上 ＆ 下 on
them. Now, intuitively, I would say that the 下 kanji would be the book I start
with. Whereas the 上 would be the one I finish up with. But I'm not sure.

This is an example of what I'm asking about:

[![
](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gOdzq.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gOdzq.jpg)

Where do I begin? I appreciate your help.
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2015-09-13T18:24:37.787
27985
2015-09-14T04:52:49.520
2015-09-14T04:38:19.993
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question
kanji
Japanese novels 上・下
The opposite is true: 上篇{じょうへん} is the first volume and 下篇{げへん} is the second,
corresponding to the traditional writing direction.

If there's a third volume, they will be labelled 上、中、下 in order.
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2015-09-13T18:40:49.087
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2015-09-13T18:40:49.087
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answer
I often find that novels that I'm familiar with here in the US are split up in
to 2 or 3 parts, leading to these 上 and 下 volumes. Patrick Rothfuss has a
great [blog entry](http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/11/fanmail-faq-why-
are-they-breaking-up-your-book) as to why this happens. His example involves
German to English translations, which he says are 30% - 40% longer, and I
believe the same is true for Japanese translations. Once books get to a
certain size, they get really hard to bind durably so that they don't
physically fall apart.
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2015-09-14T04:52:49.520
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2015-09-14T04:52:49.520
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answer