chinese books

[Jinxxy]

Hello, I am new here, just registered, for I have a little problem that I'd like some help with...

So, I will soon be getting a little bit of spare cash to waste (that is really rare, and I'd like to waste it wisely). I have been thinking of buying a chinese language book, but I have this problem, sometimes when I go shopping for books, I look at the book that I am about to buy, and find in impressive at the shop, but after I've bought it and went home, I find it very disappointing if not entirely useless. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen every once in a while and enough for me to get very critical and frustrated when buying new books. It seems to me that there are so many people out there who are willing to write any kind of crap in fifteen minutes between the lunch break of their real job, in hopes to get it out and sold to suckers like me...

And so, i would like to hear some comments about the following books, if anyone has used any of them before, just to at least make it less probable for me to get disappointed again:

These are the books that I've found at my local bookstore, and they all seem quite promising at the first glance:

1. Probably the most interesting at first glance of the books available was this:

Xiaoyuan Hanyu

Speaking Chinese on Campus: A Textbook for Intermediate Chinese Courses

2. Chinese Language Reader (Yu Lien Wu)

3. Guide to Proper Usage Spoken Chinese (Shou He, Tian)

4. Learn to Write Chinese Characters (Yale Language S.)

Those were the ones I was thinking of selecting from, so I would appriciate your opinion of any of the books mentioned above. The first book looked like the most promising, but I don't consider myself and intermediate chinese student yet, so I will probably have to wait for that one for a little while, or can a somewhat-beginner use it as a learning source?

Thank you for your time and patience, and of course, if you know of a great chinese language book, I would be glad if you could mention it, and I will look it up if I can find it somewhere near me.

Thank you once again

[Xiao Kui]

I highly recommend the series "Chinese Made Easier" - I'm a Chinese textbook junkie and this is the best and most practical series I've seen so far. Quite inexpensive as well. You can get all 5 books for just $69.95 US and each book is pretty thick textbook. More than enough to get you going with your Chinese study. Available here:

http://www.chinesemall.com/noname188.html

[oulaian]

DEFINITELY!

[kudra]

...I've bought it and went home, I find it very disappointing if not entirely useless.

Presumably if you knew what was used at major US universities with Chinese Programs you could avoid a lot of the garbage. Luckily this bit of research has been done.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/8091-texts-used-in-us-university-programs

download the file which breaks it out by university and year of study.

You might want to consider if the text comes with audio, or if the audio is available online somewhere.

edit: just now realized we haven't heard from the OP since June, oh well, hope her purchase was a good one.

[dittonamed]

I've got to throw my vote out there for "A Key to Chinese Speech and Writing." its concise and perfect for self-learners. After the second book you'll be reading and writing 90% of all characters you see in print. Im on the second book now and lovin it

[Hugh]

I've got a copy of "A Guide to Proper Usage of Spoken Chinese" myself and I love it. I find that Googling for grammar advice isn't very helpful, so it's useful to have a good summary of grammar points. I always check up on material covered in class in this book, even if I think I've understood it - coming at things from different angles is beneficial, I think. Definitely a useful book to have. It's also far cheaper than a comprehensive grammar.