What are you reading?

Currently reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.

^I almost bought that one. It will be the next book I read.

I'm currently reading:

I just finished '一针见血, original name 警察与流氓' which is a pretty simple book, well actually it just reads like a soap opera, tons of dialogue, so if you want a book that you don't need your dictionary for at all, it wasn't bad.

heehee...

My flower book. I also have a fruit one. They were only 5kuai, how could I resist? I've learned words like cross-section and seeds and stems and mud....

I have a handful of other children's books too, ones I can read in 1-2 sittings. Six months ago they contained a lot of new words but now they make nice pleasant reviews before bed. I was thinking of, in the spring, having an informal gathering in my neighborhood... maybe I could read a story to the little kids every saturday morning or something. Gee THAT wouldn't attract attention. Hmm... I'd probably have all ages coming by just to hear if the white girl's chinese was any good.

I'm also reading a bilingual abridged Great Expectations, probably geared for older elementary students.

Just read Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man. The prologue is heart-breaking, and the book as a whole not nearly as weird as it seems when you read the blurb on the back cover.

Reading 活著, my fifth ever complete Chinese book. Doing well on it. Regularly I come across words in that book that I can effortlessly guess the meaning of, but have no idea how to pronounce. 煩.

Regularly I come across words in that book that I can effortlessly guess the meaning of, but have no idea how to pronounce. 煩.

This happens to me too. And I can't write them either.

Reading John Irving's Until I Find You. Weird, and not in a good way. It seems to consist mostly of people having sex with people who don't really want it.

I am reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera.

While I am waiting for our new book of the month to arrive, I am reading 浮石's 红袖, which I found in Dangdai magazine. It is quite interesting for elaborately describing the types of guanxi Chinese people use to get ahead in life. Nonetheless, the more I read about it, the more I find the whole idea of guanxi repulsive.

That sounds quite interesting, might take a look at it. This seems to be a complete online version. I attempted to read 闲话中国人 by 易中天 but got very bored very quickly - didn't like the guy's style at all. Am also on second chapter of 围城 - which I'm inordinately proud of, I just don't have the levels of commitment for novels these days. I rarely finish magazines and even sentences can som

红袖 is a novel, guess that wasn't clear from my last post. At about 100 magazine-sized pages, it's manageable though. Plus the chapters are very short, usually 1-2 pages, so it's an ideal size for a quick read on the bus or before going to bed/getting up.

Not sure whether you're version is the full version. The last sentence of 第十章(4), which seems to be as far as it goes, is neither the last sentence of my tenth chapter, nor of my last chapter. I do remember reading that passage, though, so you can't be all wrong.

Oh, Joyo guy just dropped by, gotta speed up reading... About halfway through so far.

Is it the current issue of Dangdai? I might just pick that up.

Nah, it's the first of 2008, as it's a bimonthly I guess the second should be out by now. However, it's also been published as a book, so that might be an option.

BTW, the last sentence of what is chapter 10 in your version is in the middle of chapter 5 in my version.

萧红作品精编。 The first book by a Chinese author I read was Xiao Hong's 生死场 (in translation, back then), and I'm looking forward to reading it in the original. As I'm going through her works chronologically, I'm still in her early works, some very short short stories. I like how she can paint a picture without using many words; the stories are only a couple of pages long, but give beautiful and, as far as I can judge, authentic insight into the times she was living in.

I recall having read Xiao Hong years ago. What are her dates? She was back in the thirties, wasn't she? Didn't Howard Goldblatt translate some of her works?

have no idea how to pronounce. 煩.

I realize my reply to this post is a bit belated, but I am just having fun discovering this thread. Great postings.

By now I suppose you know that 煩 is the same 煩 as in 麻煩. That is what is so frustrating about studying Chinese. Even though you know all these spoken expressions, the first time you run across them in writing it's like "What?????"

What are her dates? She was back in the thirties, wasn't she? Didn't Howard Goldblatt translate some of her works?

Yeah, her writing mostly was done in the 30's, she died in 1942 already. I heard that Goldblatt translated some of her works, but didn't read any of them.

By now I suppose you know that 煩 is the same 煩 as in 麻煩.

I think lu wasn't asking for the pronunciation of 烦, but rather saying that it was very 烦 (i.e. annoying) to run into the problem she described.

I love scrolling through this thread. So much to read, so little time.

I am reading Peter Hessler's "Oracle Bones" and loving it. I find him to be a very forthright, honest author. Though much of this thread seems to be devoted to literary works, I think his journalistic style also deserves to be examined for its artistic merit.

I was halfway through "Truman" by David McCulloch when I picked up "Oracle Bones." I imagine I will finish it too, one of these days.

Both books were best sellers a few years ago, but both books are still worth reading. I never knew a thing about Truman, and thought very little about the era surrounding World War II from a non-Chinese perspective.

I'm reading another 程琳 novel: 拘留...however I think I ended up reading these somewhat out of order...hmm.

Anyway, so far I can see that it's has some similarities as his other novel I read a few months ago (一针见血）but it's still entertaining enough for me:mrgreen: