What are you reading?

[imron]

It's not great literature, but it's a good way to get used to business vocabulary

Heh, sounds similar to 《圈子圈套》

[abcdefg]

杜拉拉升职记.

I quite enjoyed that movie last year.

Currently am reading Peter Hessler's "Oracle Bones." As before in "River Town," the back story is as interesting as the main narrative thread.

[BeijingDaniel2011]

There's another good ma jian book called 'Beijing coma', which covers the cultural revolution, to the incident in Tian an men square to falun gong. Quite an absorbing book.'

One that I'm reading now (but which has nothing to do with China is 'middlesex' by Eugenides. Really incisive, clever and filled with black humour.

[bande]

The 杜拉拉 book is a much better experience than the movie. Anyway, for more a business read I read 创新者的解答 by 克莱顿，克里斯但坦森 or the chinese translation of the Innovator's Solution by Clayton Christensen. It's a good read, and an interesting way of reinforcing business vocabulary. Christensen has some interesting theories, and it was interesting to see the chinese translation of them.

[imron]

Finished reading 《射雕英雄传》. It was not bad, but I guess not as good as what I had been expecting. For me, I thought that things really only started to get interesting in the second two books, and the events of the first two books seemed not so much part of a single story, but more separate smaller stories involving the same characters, which is not necessarily a bad thing but it just left me wondering where the overall story was going beyond just another "must avenge the death of my father/master" book. It didn't help also that in the beginning there were many similarities between this and 《碧血剑》 and so a lot of it felt like a rehash of the same story but in a different location and with different names for the characters. I still enjoyed reading it though

Next up is 《狼图腾》, which wasn't initially on my reading list for this year, but a friend recently lent me a copy and so I figure I might as well read it.

[skylee]

For me, I thought that things really only started to get interesting in the second two books, and the events of the first two books seemed not so much part of a single story, but more separate smaller stories involving the same characters, which is not necessarily a bad thing but it just left me wondering where the overall story was going beyond just another "must avenge the death of my father/master" book.

But don’t you think those subplots are exactly where the depth of the story and the development of individual characters come from? When we talk about this novel, we can talk about the relationship/story between Guo Jing and Huang Rong, or Yang Kang and Mu Nianci, or Bao Xiruo and Wanyan Honglie, or Guo Jing and Yang Kang, or Yang Kang and Wanyan Honglie .... And each story contributes to the main story. I think this is great story-telling. But of course I understand that people have different tastes.

And is 射鵰 about avenging father/master? I am not sure about this.

射鵰 is not my favourite Jin Yong book. If you read Tian Long Ba Bu, which is my favourite, you will find three main stories with three protagonists in it.

I am not reading anything good currently.

[imron]

The subplots do provide depth but especially in the beginning I found some of them to be quite repetitive and sometimes a little forced (some of course were better than others). I also found the initial meeting and relationship between Guo Jing and Huang Rong to be very similar to the one between Yuan Chengzhi and Wen Qingqing from 碧血剑 and initially I was concerned it was basically just going to be a repeat of that novel.

And is 射鵰 about avenging father/master?

It's not about this, but avenging one's father/master/brother/husband/son/friend is a commonly repeated theme that drives the motivations of several of the characters in the story - which is fair enough I suppose given the genre, but it just got tiring to see character after character driven by minor variations of the same theme.

Anyway, I still liked the story, but probably would have liked it better if I hadn't read any of his others books previously. As it was, I thought the story didn't get going proper until the leadup and aftermath of the beggars meetup.

I do plan to read 天龙八部 eventually, but I also plan to read the novels in the order they were written so it'll be a while yet before I get to it

[skylee]

Anyway, I still liked the story, but probably would have liked it better if I hadn't read any of his others books previously.

Then it might be more difficult for you to like his works as there are over 14 novels and you have already read your first and second ones. Alas 碧血劍 is not even a major work.

[imron]

you have already read your first and second ones

first, second and third

Alas 碧血劍 is not even a major work.

I think that was part of the disappointment with 射雕, in that I guess it's considered as one of his major works but I didn't like it as much as one of his minor works.

I'm sure I'll like the others to varying degrees.

[daofeishi]

I've just finished The Left Bank Gang and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. I'm currently reading (in parallel) 撑起生命的蓝天, Higher Superstition: The Academic Left And Its Quarrels With Science and Elementary Differential Geometry. I try to feed all my interests at once

[Gleaves]

I'm reading book one of the 鬼吹灯 series. I'm only 40 pages in, but I think it is about grave robbers or something. It is super weird in a fun way. I'd go so far as to say that it is whack.

[biotechguy]

I just started the Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Has anyone else read it? It's about the American Chinese food industry.

[bande]

I read a translation of Mark Twain Tom Sawyer aka 汤姆，索亚历险记。I suppose I'll have to look up a copy of Huck Finn. I wonder if I can find it in epub format. Otherwise, I'm in the process of reading the the third 杜拉拉 novel, which is surprisingly better than the second one.

[bande]

I finished the third 杜拉拉 book. It seems like it has the best writing and editing of the series. I also author's introduction to be interesting. It almost seems worthy of a discussion. Also, I had some fun going through the second middle school geography book. It's definitely worth going through. Oh, and How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer in English was particularly interesting, especially in the learning style of the backgammon champion.

[xiaocai]

Just started the Chinese translation of ダイイング・アイ by 東野圭吾, bought for 5 RMB from my friend. She said she did not like it very much and thought it is much more inferior to 容疑者Xの献身 (the only other book of his I have read before). Well I think the beginning and the cover of the Chinese version are quite, disturbing, so I paid; plus, what exactly can you do with 5 RMB otherwise now in China anyway? Just my friend said that there are quite a bit of sex scenes and I highly doubt that many of them have been censored. I'm hoping the deletion will not be to much as to make the story more confusing as it is supposed to be a detective fiction. May read 容疑者Xの献身 again and maybe his 悪意 and 白夜行 after I finish this, if my friend can lend me hers.

[skylee]

I guess you can have a bowl of soup noodles for 5 RMB, no? I remember not too long ago someone mentioned about being able to get a meal in Shanghai for just a few RMB.

[xiaocai]

Yes. Actually here at my hometown you can get not just one, but two bowls of soup noodles for 5 RMB. But when it comes to books and other forms of entertainment like cinema, music, 5 RMB can't really do to much. And the book will always be there, even if I find that I don't like it and want to get rid it, I can probably sell it for a price not to much less that what I have paid.

[Gleaves]

I finished up 鬼吹灯. I was expecting a horror story about grave robbers, but it was more so an adventure story about tomb raiders. I liked it in a fantasy pulp fiction way, but the ending was pretty dull. I suppose that is the danger of reading book one of a long series. I found it surprisingly difficult.

I'm reading the translation of Outliers (异类) at the moment. It is a pain because there are so many foreign names, but I am enjoying it. I'm at the part where he claims you need 10,000 hours of practice to master something. Makes me wish I had started this Chinese thing earlier.

I've also cracked open my first 金庸. I'm reading 雪山飞狐, which is a very manageable 350 pages in length.

[xiaocai]

Bought the traditional translation of 陰摩羅鬼の瑕, will start next week.

[skylee]

I mentioned in #569 that I had read "The Princess De Montpensier" because I was interested in the film. I watched the film on my flight from HK to Bangkok last night, and I think it was not bad. IMO it was better than the original story, giving it plenty of background, details and character. It is not very often that I like a film based on a novel when I had read the book before watching it.