Unfortunately, the answer is no. The current content here on TextFugu won’t even be enough to pass N5 of the JLPT. A novel is going to be considerably harder. Once you’ve learnt all the grammar on say Tae Kim’s site or one of the mainstream textbooks, etc, then you might be ready to begin to tackle native material. Even then, it might not be enough. Having to constantly look up unfamiliar vocab and grammar will defeat the purpose.

An easy manga like Yotsubato would be more suitable to begin with once you start to tackle native material.

Yes, more exposure you have the better. Also try http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/

There’s a Harry Potter group study thread over on the koohii forums that might interest you both.
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=9469

I started Japanese some time in September 2010, I think. I’m nowhere near the level I should be, though; if I’d studied more consistently and in a smarter way, I’m sure I could be far better by now. I’d say I was maybe “lower-intermediate” in reading, “lower-beginner” in listening and writing, and “total noob” in speaking, but it really depends on how you want to define terms like that (plus I could be under-/over-estimating myself).

Just as a run down of stuff I’ve done though, which is probably more helpful: completed TextFugu (not that TF is complete itself); completed James Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji Vol. 1; completed Japanese for Busy People Books 1-3; read everything up to section 6 on Tae Kim (plus a small bit of section 6); half-way through Tobira: Gateway to Intermediate Japanese; 4300 words from Core6k added to Anki; read a few of the stories in “Short Stories in Japanese: New Penguin Parallel Text” (stories with each left page Japanese and each right page its English translation); read a few of the stories in “Breaking into Japanese Literature” (same deal as previous but with “classic” authors and more complex, old-fashioned Japanese); a handful of articles on LingQ; half an episode of “Densha Otoko” plus lots of variety shows; countless articles on NHK News Easy; 100 trillion plays of every Perfume song ever made.

That was a little more comprehensive than I meant it to be…

There are a few things to note about that list, though. Where I say I’ve “completed” something, it doesn’t mean I have absolute mastery of everything in it – I forget stuff all the time and have to look back (especially at Tae Kim) to remind myself of what I’ve already read so often. There’s no way I could have read those short stories without the English translation to fall back on. RTK was a great foundation in kanji, making me somewhat comfortable with reading and dealing with it in general, but I forget proper stroke order frequently and am so bad at remembering how words are written.

Edit: Oh, also, I’ve done pretty well at the practice reading questions for N3 on the JLPT website (not as well for the listening ones); haven’t actually taken the exam.

@Joel:

“Honestly, I find it incredibly demoralising. We’re not quite ready to be Pokemon masters just yet.”

I’m feel exactly the same :/
What would the equivalent of the Elite 4 be in terms of Japanese? Passing N1? Passing KanKen 1? *Not* breaking down and crying any time a Japanese person tries to speak to you?

That “What level are you?” list is just reminding me I need to add more sentences to Anki. I started a deck but couldn’t be bothered doing any more at the time, so I’ve got about 10-15 sentences so far :P

The first sentence is “Keeping track of your Japanese level is of great importance”. I’m not sure if he just means in the context of following the website, but in general it’s really *not* important to know what “level” you are. No one is really at a single level anyway: someone could be “Business” in one area but “Intermediate” in another and “Elementary” in another. I’m working on an intermediate textbook but no way in hell can I understand 15% of Japanese TV haha.

I’ll definitely have a perusal of the site later when I have time though, even if I think the level guidelines page isn’t very helpful; I’m interested to see what their system is. I could have sworn I’d seen the site before, maybe linked from AJATT?