What are you reading?

[Lu]

Has any other people like 林语堂？

I read his book about the civil war, My Country and My People I think it was. A rather confusing book, as it told stuff pretty much exactly the other way around from what I knew: according to that book, the communists were cowardly and attacking the KMT instead of the Japanese, while the KMT were busy fighting the Japanese. Lin Yutang is a good writer in that he knows how to use his words and I enjoyed this book, but he is a bit short-sighted sometimes.

Now reading the 三国演义, mostly in English. It's a 对照 edition though, which is cool. I read it only a few pages at the time and still it seems too fast, the story is very dense, lots of stuff happening in only one or two paragraphs.

[gato]

according to that book, the communists were cowardly and attacking the KMT instead of the Japanese, while the KMT were busy fighting the Japanese.

That could be accurate depending on the time period. During the 8-year 1937-1945 抗日战争, the Yan'an-based Communists did sometimes try to take over KMT-administered cities.

[imron]

Finished 《夜谭十记》and have started on 《人生》which is by the same author as 《平凡的世界》。

《夜谭十记》was ok, but sometimes the stories where a bit hit and miss. In general I found the earlier ones to be more enjoyable than some of the latter ones. There are a couple of really good stories in there however, so overall quite worth the read.

[michaelS]

I'm reading "I Love Dollars" by Zhu Wen (朱文), a collection of his short stories. It is fantastically good

[imron]

Finished 《人生》 and am starting 《雪山飞狐》。

《人生》has a very similar setting to 《平凡的世界》in that it's describing the life of a young man from rural China during the early 80's, trying to make his way in the world. Unlike 《平凡的世界》however, I found the main character to be not a very likeable person, who in the end gets what he deserves. It's a good book though, and has a story that keeps humming along the whole time. It's also quite an easy read (and not too long either), so for anyone looking to put all that rural and farming vocab they learnt from 《活着》to good use, this might be the novel for you.

[muirm]

Finished with 碧血剑 today. The ending was weak as Imron predicted, but still better than 书剑恩仇录. Maybe I was raised on too much Disney, but I hope 金庸 has some happier endings in store! Despite the flaccid finale, I enjoyed this book very much. The kung fu action was great, and 袁承志 was just my kind of hero.

Looking back on the two books, I don't think the enemies lived up to my kung fu expectations. Both books' main opponent is political in nature, but the stories also have a powerful kung fu opponent added on almost as an afterthought (especially 玉真子 in 碧血剑).

In both books when the kung fu opponent is defeated, it pretty much doesn't affect the plot at all. You're happy that they defeated the bad guy, but it's not like the hero has achieved his goal by killing the bad guy. More like he got a minor inconvenience out of the way and now he has to continue with his mission. I guess I expect a kung fu novel to have an evil kung fu master as the final enemy rather than as an intermediate road block.

Anyway, maybe now onto 平凡世界, but I haven't decided yet.

[skylee]

The really political one is 笑傲江湖. And there you can find a relatively happier ending ... that is called happy, right, as far as 令狐沖 is concerned ...? Still he didn't get what he wants most, but he gets the second best, which is not bad, I suppose.

Imron is going to read 雪山飛狐. That's great, 苗人鳳, 胡一刀 and 田歸農.

I still like 天龍八部 and 倚天 best.

[imron]

and 袁承志 was just my kind of hero.

He was just my kind of hero until he decided to ditch 青青 for 阿九. Everything else about his character I liked. I agree however that the whole story arc with 玉真子 did seem unrelated to basically the rest of the entire story

I'm liking 雪山飞狐 so far. It jumps right in to the action.

[muirm]

Well to be fair 袁承志 never really decided between 阿九 and 青青. He knew he would always be tempted by 阿九 because of their chemistry, but he wasn't willing to 忘恩负义 and ditch 青青. I guess it wasn't too appropriate in the first place to start flirting with 阿九, but it wasn't his fault! He had no choice but to hide under the sheets with her! Plus 青青 really annoyed me with her over the top paranoid jealousy, culminating in her 以跳崖来一了百了 (don't tell me that isn't 神经病).

[imron]

Don't get me wrong, 青青's antics annoyed me as well (and not just her paranoid jealousy) and it's not that 袁承志 upset 青青 that bothered me, just that to be my kind of hero he wouldn't just dump his current girlfriend for the next pretty girl who comes along (I mean what's going to happen when he meets someone more attractive than 阿九 - after all, foreign lands always seem more exotic and you never know who he'll meet in the islands off Borneo).

I guess as well it's partly because he himself knows it's not quite right to do that, but he does it anyway. I still really liked his character, but just that one thing bothered me. Still, no-one can be perfect, and maybe that makes him a more realistic character.

[Meng Lelan]

Ok, well, it's not really a story, more of a textbook, but thanks to OneEye, I am now actually reading a book, which is a Big Deal because I normally hate to read, namely the Mini Radio Plays textbook. The mini radio plays are like short stories in themselves, appropriate for my attention span that is no greater than that of a solitary gnat.

[chanming]

TO THE GATES OF STALINGRAD Volume 1 by David M. Glantz. Good reading for military strategists and tacticians.

[imron]

Finished 《雪山飞狐》 and am starting 《杜拉拉升职记》。

[Lu]

Wow imron, you read fast!

I finished Sanmao. She's not great, I think. And some things about her (at least as she comes across in her stories) grate on me. She has some huge blind spots.

In one story, she goes to a local bathhouse, and after bathing the laobanniang tells her that now she's clean on the outside, she should also get clean on the inside. There is a spot at the beach for that. So Sanmao and her husband Hexi go to the beach where they see that this is where the local women get enemas with sea water (painful). Sanmao and Hexi hide behind a rock and take pictures. When they are spotted by the women, they run off. A few days later, a neighbour tells Sanmao he heard an Asian woman had been spying on the women at the beach. Sanmao tells him it was probably a Japanese tourist, and later has a good laugh about it with Hexi.

I read this and thought, what the hell?!? In what world is any of this acceptable behaviour?

Then a few stories where she is witness to serious cruelty (a nine-year-old girl is married off and raped repeatedly by her new husband; a mute slave is sold off) and her attitude to that (in addition to her doing absolutely nothing about it) doesn't sit well with me.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't think I'll read her again. Now reading a book titled 民国女子, which turns out to be very easy.

[imron]

Wow imron, you read fast!

Practice, practice, practice

[Gleaves]

It's been all pulp fiction for me as of late.

I recently finished book one of a fantasy series called 九州·缥缈录. It's about a sickly heir to the throne, a power struggle within his family, and also a power struggle amongst a few nations. It's no Game of Thrones, but I did rather enjoy it. I am hoping book 2 delivers a bit more punch, as book 1 feels a bit like setup.

I'm working on 盗墓笔记 at the moment, an adventure/horror novel in the tomb-robbing sub genre. Great, pulpy fun, thus far. It feels like almost every chapter (and the chapters are only 4 pages) could end with a cue to the

. I am listening to the audiobook as well, so I'll update the audiobook thread when I've finished.

[imron]

FInished 《杜拉拉升职记》and am now starting the sequel 《杜拉拉华年似水》。

The 杜拉拉 books are very much in the same vein as 《圈子圈套》- white collar workers working in foreign-owned enterprises in moden China, although I think I prefer 《圈子圈套》slightly more. Mostly because I think《圈子圈套》has a stronger plot with a reasonably well defined beginning, middle and end, whereas《杜拉拉》seems more just like "these are the things happening in someone's life".

[WangYuHong]

I'm currently reading 《裸婚》, which has been an interesting read so far... (although it's from the girl's perspective, which doesn't resonate with me as much as the guy's perspective in 《和空姐同居的日子》)

One question I have for people... is it common to find censored words in Chinese books? There's parts in 《裸婚》 which talk about the main character breastfeeding (totally natural and non-sexual activity), only some of the words are replaced with ** and **** (referring to nipples and breasts, I'm guessing... 乳头 and I can't figure out the second one). It's kinda sporadic, as 奶子 isn't censored in the book. I can't figure out if it's just this author's self-censorship, or the website I grabbed the text from is doing some censorship, or is it more of a government-controlled thing?

[imron]

That's on my reading list for this year. I have the physical book, so if you let me know the chapter and approximate location within the chapter and some surrounding text I can have a look to see if the book also does this.

[WangYuHong]

The first example I could find is in 第四话, in the first paragraph, end of second sentence: 露出了****.

And then in the second paragraph, first sentence: 锦锦吐出我的**。