What are you reading?

[skylee]

i am still reading "Time Traveller's Wife", and finding it hard to finish it. i wonder why ...

[skylee]

I have just started reading ”大江大海 一九四九“ by 龍應台. I bought the book mainly because chapter 23 is called "山巖巖，海深深“. The words are from the anthem of New Asia College in Hong Kong. I like the song very much, especially the verse "艱險我奮進，困乏我多情". I've blogged the song (lyrics and sheet music) here and here.

[Daan]

I read Sudhir Venkatesh's Gang Leader For A Day yesterday. Fascinating to read how such communities function, especially since your ideas about ghettos and poverty are generally based on newspaper reports whose authors have certainly never spent anywhere near as much time with those gangs as the author of this book. I also read Ian McEwan's Amsterdam earlier this week, as well as James Dickey's Deliverance. With all the time spent studying Chinese recently, I'd almost forgotten how much fun being able to read good books at a decent speed can be.

[Lu]

I'm now (still) reading Jia, and at the same time North and South, English novel from the 19th century. The resemblances are interesting: the highly formal style of living of the higher classes, children having little room to make their own life... I switched books on a long train trip and didn't really feel I was reading a different book.

[isela]

Welcome back, Lu!

And nobody else finds him/herself stuck reading about integration and differentiation on abstract spaces in New Year's time?

别打我，我自己回火星！！！

[Meng Lelan]

And nobody else finds him/herself stuck reading about integration and differentiation on abstract spaces in New Year's time?

You think you're crazy? I was reading "New Programmed Instruction in Braille" - in braille - over New Year's time.

[isela]

@ LeLan:

I'd bow to Braille!

Your work is meaningful and will be appreciated by those who get your help.

Here, the only people I can think of that would appreciated my reading will be those mathematicians who actually did all this weird work, and they are mostly dead.

Edited January 7, 2010 at 03:35 AM by isela

[Meng Lelan]

No use bowing to Braille, he's been dead for ages! in fact the bicentennial of Braille's birth was last year.

[isela]

Then I'd bow another two times, and the two of us should do a firm hand-shake!!!

[zhen_shuai]

《哈利波特和魔法石》

A little less than a third of the way through it, surprised by how much I can follow. Reading a novel (esp one you already know the plot of) is a lot more forgiving than newspaper articles.

[renzhe]

And nobody else finds him/herself stuck reading about integration and differentiation on abstract spaces in New Year's time?

How about "Learning the Compositional Nature of Visual Object Categories for Recognition"?

[Meng Lelan]

How about "Learning the Compositional Nature of Visual Object Categories for Recognition"?

You read the whole thing already?

[renzhe]

About 50 times.

I'll need another 50 before I understand it, though

[Daan]

I felt brave enough to look up that article and read its abstract. Good luck with that...

[sukitc]

Tried reading 怨女 by 張愛玲, but gave up after may be 15 pages. It's just too difficult for me. Now back to 陸小鳳 (劍神一笑) by 古龍. Enjoying it so far.

[Gleaves]

I'm about 20 pages into the first book of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series (冰与火之歌 卷一) called A Game of Thrones (权力的游戏). By George RR Martin. I think these books are going to be made into an HBO television series, so I figured I'd get started in them before that happens. This one might take me a while.

[skylee]

I've finished reading the Chinese translation of Paolo Giordano's "The solitude of prime numbers". The Chinese name is 質數的孤獨. Good book, sad story.

And I am going back to 龍應台's ”大江大海 一九四九“. The problem with this book is that it makes me cry ...

[chrix]

I've heard a lot about 大江大海 一九四九. So I take it it's a great book?

[skylee]

Not sure if it is a "great" book. But Long is a famous writer and her works are not bad, though I don't always agree with her views. I have read a few chapters so far and almost everyone made me cry. So I had to stop and read Giordano's book instead.

And I feel very comfortable reading these vertically printed Taiwan books.

[semantic nuance]

Having felt hollow and shallow for a while, I decided to go to the bookstore. While reading 林夕's preface about happiness in his work-- 原來我非不快樂, I was kind of drawn by the way he writes. So, I bought it home and started reading a few pages tonight and found it relaxing. I also bought Edward W.Said's Chinese version of Music at The Limits <<音樂的極境>>, and two books related to Keynes, one is<<在收銀台碰到凱因斯>>, and the other is <<在號子遇到凱因斯>>. I hope I can finish them soon so as to cure my emptiness.

I am going back to 龍應台's ”大江大海 一九四九“. The problem with this book is that it makes me cry ...

I read it but I had to quit in the middle. I have the same problem like you, skylee. When I read 目送, I couldn't help but cry, especially when she relates her father. That's why I temporarily quit the reading of 大江大海一九四九.