Those are good questions, which is why I addressed them in the free sample. Perhaps you have not seen that yet or my answers were unclear or didn't answer your questions. Let me know. I quote some relevant extracts below and expand here a bit first.
Yes. Definitely read RUJ1 before RUJ2.
You sound like the target reader I had in mind when writing the JEJ series. RUJ2 was aimed primarily at me. It was about my studies at the time, but I hope it will be of value to other people with similar aims and a similar level. I think that is you in future after reading RUJ1. I knew of one person who had not bought JEJ3 as he was above that level but still studying. He did buy RUJ2. This book RUJ1 is written primarily for other people as groundwork for venturing beyond 'Just Enough' (the basics). Readers who bought RUJ2 are recommended to read RUJ1. People that didn't buy RUJ2, should consider RUJ1 as the natural start of this series.
Volume 3 will again be my ongoing studies. The theme is expanding the scope. I am thinking of covering a wider range of go books, maybe game commentaries and discussion books, ordinary Japanese on the topic of go, spoken Japanese about go, and an interesting book about go players that I am currently working my way through. I have no release date in mind. Don't expect RUJ3 next year. Maybe, probably not. I think it will take longer. However, RUJ2 (as stated in the book) is an ongoing project that I intend to add content to (and already have since the initial release).
When I broached the initial idea with Anders Kierulf, I wondered if pricing would be a problem if the book grew in size. He suggested writing a series, which was not my original intention at all. We agreed that I could start with RUJ2.
You can also thank Anders for the ePub. The only thing I did was agree to release all my books in that format. He wrote conversion software to produce ePubs from the standard gobook file that I and others submit to him. I think all of the publishers agreed with one exception, Hinoki Press, whose founder died, so the problem is probably getting permission. There is a page on Sensei's Library (see
https://senseis.xmp.net/?HinokiPress).
Extract from RUJ1 sampleThis book is aimed at readers who have worked through Just Enough Japanese volume 3 (JEJ3) or have otherwise achieved a good grasp of basic Japanese grammar. It bridges the gap between JEJ3 and volume 2 of this series (RUJ2), which was published in 2021.
If you bought RUJ2 without reading JEJ3, then I recommend that you get RUJ1 as the starting point of this series. I may add content to RUJ2 in the future and I will assume that readers have read RUJ1.
Why did RUJ2 come out first? At that time, I chose to write about my ongoing studies because writing the text and being able to see the diagrams helps me to learn the Japanese. It is useful to have RUJ2 on my iPad so that I can revisit it if I encounter familiar-looking words that I have not fully learned.
This book consists of three sections. Section One reviews and demystifies the basics via a highly recommended course on YouTube. Section Two discusses freely accessible go problems focusing on the text. Section Three discusses the different texts in different books presenting the same problem.