"Are you looking for a new book?"

Happy New Year everyone! 

A few months in planning and a few days in execution, ALTER EGO - Es' Bookshelf now has an unofficial English translation for download (images are of the physical copy)!

Diligently translated with maximum adherence to the game's original localization by me, with quality checks by CoverCorpBlackOps, this PDF is a compendium of the game's short descriptions for the cited novels, recompiled into a more readable form. 

HOW TO OBTAIN

This unofficial translation, as with the previously released Self-discovery Game Book translation, will be distributed through an online download link, which would be sent out upon my reception of a screenshot from the interested party denoting that they have purchased a copy of the book. Screenshots can be sent via Reddit chat. 

For purchasing, a PDF copy of the Japanese original can be found on BOOTH.

https://booth.pm/en/items/4427759

When restocked, a physical copy can be purchased from Melon Books.

https://www.melonbooks.co.jp/detail/detail.php?product_id=1699976

Upon submission of a purchase confirmation, a download link to the English PDF of the book will be provided in the same chat space, hosted on Google Drive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Es' Bookshelf is a work lacking in original content. Much like the now out of print "What Are You, A Monkey in Heat?", it consists primarily of in-game text arranged into passages for reading. What it lacks in originality, it makes up for in convenience.

While the 10 normal books that generate EGO (No Longer Human - Dogra Magra) are not described with much new text, the brief summaries for the texts available as part of "Contemplative Reading" (Harmony - Side-by-Side Dreamers) are entirely new. The afterwords section is most prominently worth a read if one is interested in the thought process of Maki Ono, as he has included a section that he dubs "Reading and Me." 

Far from the most required or even interactive bit of reading material for Alter Ego, Es' Bookshelf is nonetheless a convenient little pamphlet to keep around in picking your next reading adventure, or to show off to potential new readers. 

FURTHER COMMENTS

As with the Self-discovery Game Book, the translation is locked behind a paywall to try and drive sales towards Caramel Column. I would like the game to be able to hit wider audiences and its associated merchandise to see greater growth overseas, and this is the only way I can think of to foster such a change. 

As per usual, I do not financially benefit from this project. I do have a Ko-fi account for donations, but they are entirely independent of book sales. I hope that this book, alongside the Game Book, would prove interesting and a worthy pickup for those who enjoyed the game. 

At the time of writing this, all of Alter Ego's books now have English editions, minus the aforementioned "What Are you, A Monkey in Heat?" I am attempting to find ways of purchasing a copy. Should I do, I would provide that translation free of charge, as the book is no longer able to be obtained through normal means. Hopefully with some luck, such an event would occur in 2024. 

Thank you for your time, and I hope that these contributions would prove meaningful. 

"Let me know if you want to borrow another book."

ALTER EGO Es' Bookshelf English Version