Book of the Month Club

[nipponman]

Online books would definitely be the best kind. Which one though, is up to you guys.

[gougou]

I like Roddy's idea of watching a soap. Not sure how much I could contribute, but I certainly would like to follow.

To stay flexible, I would suggest watching one available on DVD. Any suggestions?

PS: Also interested in the short readings kind of group. Especially the idea of reading weblogs I find quite appealing.

[wushijiao]

Well, I think we'll go with 我本英雄 by 周梅森 for this month. I've read the first 5 chapters, and so far it is fairly fast-paced, and not too unnecessarily complex. It also deals with areas such as protests by farmers, economic growth strategies, personal political rivalries, car wrecks...etc. So, if nothing else, hopefully this novel would be good to consolidate vocab related to politics and current events.

Anyway, I realize that the decision was made to read it fairly quickly. So, for that same reason, everybody who has expresed interest in this idea should take the next week to try to find a book that would be:

A) fairly popular

B) somewhat short (150-300 pages?)

C) have a fairly simple narrative style

D) is available on the Internet

In any case, once again, you can read 我本英雄 on the web at:

http://book.sina.com.cn/nzt/lit/wobenyingxiong/

I'll post a thing tomorrow that will include the basic plot and character profiles of 我本英雄.

[in_lab]

I checked at online bookstores in Taiwan, and none of them had this book. Ordering books from the mainland takes quite a while. I'm probably in the minority in not wanting to read books (for free) on the computer, so I'll just watch how this first book goes.

[gato]

True. Taiwan's bookstores almost never have the latest books from the mainland, and mainland stores, of course, never have the latest from Taiwan. Try HK stores maybe. They usually source from both places.

Carry on, wushijiao.

[artichoke]

Hi

I'm a beginner ... I arrive on Saturday in BJ. I won't be a very good participant because

a) I have almost nil Mandarin

B) I don't know when I'll have a TV/video

c) I don't know when I'll have internet (access to this site)

But I'd like to at least try.

I think watching soaps would be good for me - for listening comprehension. I try watching the Chinese news sometimes. I don't understand much, but it gets my ears used to the sounds. Plus they have subtitles in characters which is a nice bonus.

[trevelyan]

great -- thx wushijiao. looking forward to reading this.

[nipponman]

Thanks wushijiao. Are we gonna start a seperate thread for this now that we are decided?

[Manchu]

This all sounds well and good, but I'm still not clear on what the plan is. You pick a book, and start vocab lists, etc. Is that it? It sounds a bit too easy, and not very communal.

Perhaps a better idea would be to have someone volunteer for each chapter (or few pages if a chapter's too long), who would not only create the word list, but also write a few questions for everyone to think about or discuss.

This would mean that the volunteers would need to work a bit harder, to get ahead in the book, and think of good questions. Everyone else can go along at a normal pace, and continue discussions from previous chapters.

I'm not sure that a one-thread per book format would be very good for this, though. Make one forum per book, and perhaps make each volunteer the moderator of the thread for his chapter?

In any case, I would like much more interactivity in this exercise, if I'm going to make any effort in it. Otherwise, we can keep studying on our own, and make wordlists just for ourselves, rather than the entire spectrum of learners.

[nipponman]

Well...if you don't like it then, join the group and give us your tips!

[chenpv]

Never been in a western study group before. Just curious what is like?

Anyway, I still recommend the text books for chinese children available in PEP whose link has been posted in the other post and i think you might be interested in the following as well:

1. <郎咸平关于上市公司风险的讲话>

2. 《南方周末》the Sep 1st Issue

3. the history of chinese movies on

[gato]

Link to <郎咸平关于上市公司风险的讲话> is at

http://www.cnobel.com/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=1759

Chenpv, so what do you think of 周梅森?

[chenpv]

Chenpv, so what do you think of 周梅森?

gato, i am sorry but i havent read any works written by 周梅森. To tell you the truth, i dont have a feeling for some contemporary novelists who focus on the plot rather than the fitnesse of writing. Maybe I am outdated or stubborn, what ever you call me. I have read 张洁's 《沉重的翅膀》, which is about the reform of state-owned firms.Just so so i think.

[chris2005]

Roddy wrote:

>I also think the soap opera watching idea is actually a very good one - anyone interested?

I really like the idea of soap opera watching (or any film watching - needn't be a soap). I was in Singapore over the summer, and really got into the Chinese dramas (some locally produced, others from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China). It also helped that most of these were subtitled in English! The exposure to the spoken language was good, and I even found myself thinking in (albeit limited) Chinese after a while.

What about the logistics though as we're spread out all over the world. Someone suggested using DVDs. That's an idea. Do we all get the selected choice off the internet or something? This means means I will have to get a DVD player though!!

chris2005

[roddy]

Soap Opera Watching

Check in there if you are interested.

Roddy

[tamora]

Hi everyone,

I'm fairly new here and just happened to stumble onto this "Book of the Month" forum. Sounds really really interesting to me... I'd really like to practice my Chinese, especially in reading, so joining you guys in this Book-Club would be the ideal way, I think.

Unluckily, there doesn't seem to be much activity on this board right now. So, are you even interested in keeping this going? And are there already suggestions for March? I'm not going to make any suggestions, since I have absolutely no knowledge about contemporary Chinese literature.

If in any way possible, I would really love to join...

Tamora

[wushijiao]

Well, I was kind of responsible for the book of the month club. I chose three different novels for three months, but no one else ever seemed to read them.

Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions for something to read? Perhaps for March?

[tamora]

Hmm... I really have no idea what to suggest.

The only thing I have ever read in Chinese are the Harry Potter books and The Hobbit - which my uncle sent from Taiwan. You see, Chinese books aren't easily available here in Austria. Of course, there is always the possibility to read texts online, but then there is such a vast variety to be found that I have real trouble finding out what is worth reading or not.

Tamora, hoping that someone comes up with a good recommendation for our March-book.

[roddy]

Would there be interest in reading something shorter, more frequently. Say a weekly thing - a short story one week, then a blog post, then a fairly in-depth newspaper article, then maybe . . .er . . something else. Would require less commitment than a book, and easier to dip in and out of.

[tamora]

Yeah, I could imagine that reading shorter articles/blogs/etc. are a good way to practice as well... but I would still prefer reading books, since it is precisely that kind of "commitment" that I'm looking for. I mean, I just think that the fact that there is this reading group and that I will discuss the story with someone would motivate me to actually stick to reading the books instead of just "dipping in and out"...

Anyways, why not try the shorter texts option and see if it attracts more people. What do you think?

Tamora