What are you reading?

[bhchao]

Currently reading The Lobster Coast by Colin Woodard.

[Lu]

Reading 疫, getting close to actually finishing it. My 6th Chinese book ever, yay!

Also reading a novel about Maria Sybilla, who had a very interesting life from the looks of it, but unfortunately the writing is horrible, absolutely horrible. I'm trying to finish it as soon as I can so I'll be done with it.

[skylee]

I am reading 北京法源寺 by 李敖.

[Sam Addington]

Skylee and Lu:

Could you provide us with a brief summary of the Chinese books you read?

[skylee]

Sam, you can find a lot of info on 北京法源寺 on the internet, like this written by a middle school student -> 我讀北京法源寺

北京法源寺內容涵蓋豐富，形式也不同於其他歷史小說，整部小說圍繞在幾個大人物中，細細闡明戊戌變法的過程與歷史人物們的心情歷練，把當時中國知識份子那不顧己身只為報國的偉大情懷呈現在讀者眼前。

And you can actually read it on-line -> http://www.guoxue.com/wenxian/nowwen/fys/fys.htm

though the one I am reading is borrowed from the library ->

[Sam Addington]

Cheers!

[bhchao]

I finished reading The Lobster Coast. Very interesting to read how the lobster fishery may be the truly sustainable fishery on the Maine coast. While fish have been overfished to depletion, the Maine lobster population keeps growing through a combination of state law, voluntary conservation, and the nature of the lobster itself.

Lobsters have to meet a minimum and maximum size requirement. Juvenile lobsters must be tossed back into the sea to allow them to grow. Oversized lobsters also must be tossed back because their sexual maturity permits them to breed thousands of eggs.

Lobstermen who catch a female lobster with thousands of eggs on her underside voluntarily cut a small V-shape on her tail, and gently toss her back into the sea. If she is caught again by other lobstermen, the V-shape signals to other lobstermen that this fertile female had been caught once and cannot end up on diners' plates. It's a tradition that fellow lobstermen follow to allow the fertile female to reproduce. This V-Notching tradition means she will forever stay in the sea.

Lobsters, unlike fish, are hard to scoop even with the most advanced fishing technologies because they hide under rocks and boulders, and burrow themselves with sand on the ocean bottom.

Sorry if this book turned me into a lobster enthusiast.

[gougou]

It's a tradition that fellow lobstermen follow to allow the fertile female to reproduce.

It's good to hear that some people in that industry still have the morality (and means) to protect animals they're not bound to protect by law.

I'm currently reading Li An's biography, 十年一觉电影梦。 He seems like an interesting guy, but the book hasn't overwhelmed me thus far.

[chenpv]

I was directed to the original novel of Atonement by the movie and finished it during the holidays. I was not quite impressed by the dialogue and most elaborations of characters' mental world, but some well depicted scenes like the one in the library, last minute of Robbie were indeed memorable.

[Lu]

Skylee and Lu:

Could you provide us with a brief summary of the Chinese books you read?

The book is about several middle-aged Taiwanese Americans living in New York. We follow Zhu Li, who is successful in work and love, but starts to regret her decision to not have children, and whose husband just left for Taiwan to take care of his sick mother.

Then there is Zeng Baolin, who got divorced about a year ago, mostly because he just wasn't into his wife anymore: she had turned into mother first, woman some time after.

Zeng Baolin and Zhu Li meet and start an affair.

Then we meet Xie Pinxi, Zeng's ex-wife, and their son Daniel. Her thoughts explain for a large part why the marriage stranded: she's not into him anymore either, she only loves her son. But Daniel is 18 now and not following her around anymore every minute of the day, as he used to when he was little. Her son made her feel loved and useful, but now he doesn't need her anymore and she feels lost.

What I liked a lot about the book was that it put me in a world that I will never ever see for myself, that of middle-aged Taiwanese in New York. The characters are written out quite well, if I would meet someone like Xie Pinxi I'd probably think her stupid and whatnot, but the writer made me understand why she lives her life the way she does.

As far as I can judge it was rather well-written too.

Now reading Vigil of a Nation, by Lin Yutang, who says a lot of nice things about Jiang Jieshi cs and a lot of bad things about the communists, and now I'm quite confused. Perhaps I should start reading new books on WOII instead of contemporary ones, however fun they may be.

[Meng Lelan]

Finished reading 杜鹃啼归 by 陈可雄. I am trying to find 飞向远方 by same author but still can't find it.

[renzhe]

I've been reading 乱马 1/2, a Japanese teenager comic (in Chinese translation) for a while now.

I've recently dared to start reading 射雕英雄传 by 金庸. The last time I tried, I was completely lost, but to my great surprise, I've managed to get through a few pages and understand what's going on. So I'll try my luck for a while and see if I can get through the first book eventually.

This is my first real Chinese book, and not exactly the easiest one to start with, wish me luck!

[skylee]

Good luck, renzhe. I remember when I first read that book, I was a middle school student. The first chapter about 丘處機, 靖康恥 etc seemed quite boring so I just skipped it and jumped to what happened in Mongolia, which seemed more interesting to a young kid. But by doing this I had missed what happended to 包惜弱. But afterwards I've re-read the book many times.

Anyways it is a great story. 加油.

[ajax]

Yeah, good luck! I'm actually reading it right now and am about 100 pages from the end. It's a great read with tons of interesting and well fleshed out side characters. My one complaint is that it has kind of taken over all of my free time (read 1200 pages in around 1 month).

You may already know this, but an English translation of the entire novel is online at: http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=20809. Not sure of the quality, but it might be useful for clearing up confusing passages or whatever.

[Lu]

Good luck renzhe and ajax! I always thought Jin Yong is far beyond my Chinese skills, but maybe I should give it a try for my seventh Chinese book.

Still reading Lin Yutang, and another book named King's Close, that is not really my genre but came in my possession by accident, so I thought I might as well read it.

[renzhe]

Thanks for the support.

skylee, I was told that nothing really happens in the first book, but I have a feeling that I'd be totaly lost if I tried skipping things. Even now, I have to reread some passages just to make sure I'm not missing anything. I'm hoping that, by the time I get to the second book, I will have improved enough to really be able to enjoy the story

(read 1200 pages in around 1 month).

Don't worry, there is absolutely no danger of the same happening to me

I always thought Jin Yong is far beyond my Chinese skills, but maybe I should give it a try for my seventh Chinese book.

I get a feeling that you are ahead of me in Chinese, so you should definitely give it a try.

[skylee]

renzhe and ajax, while you are reading the story, you might also wish to take a look at the second picture of this post -> 比武招親

And this thread -> 穆念慈

[renzhe]

BTW, ajax, that translation is wonderful. Not a literary masterpiece, but it captures the most important information in a concise manner.

It is a great aid. I read a few pages in Chinese, then follow it up by reading the translation, to make sure I don't miss any important information. As expected, the story is full of characters, who tell stories of other characters, so about 5 pages in, you're dealing with about 25 characters. Having an aid like this is great.

[ajax]

Glad it's useful. The dedication of 武侠 fans is pretty impressive. 射雕英雄传 is a long novel and can't be all that easy to translate.

There's a lot of interesting stuff on that site....

[lilongyue]

Just begun slowly working my way through 大唐帝国, a colorful history of the Tang dynasty. Also picked up a book I bought several months ago, which was too difficult for me when I first bought it, but I can mostly understand now, called 虚云老和尚说法. It's a collection of short teachings given by the great Chan master Empty Cloud. I've also been translating teachings by two other Chinese monks, 净慧法事 who is the disciple of 虚云老和尚, and 明海法事 who is the disciple of 净慧法事. I guess that also counts as reading.