What are you reading?

[BertR]

I started reading 巴金's 《家》.

[imron]

Just finished 《圈子圈套2》, and have now started on 《圈子圈套3》。

[roddy]

Imron, they actually go round in a circle - 圈子圈套3 actually IS 圈子圈套1 in a different cover, and so on, all the way up to infinity. It's a trap!

Last Chinese thing I read was 梁文道's 常识, which was ok. Being compiled from newspaper and magazine columns it's all in handy discrete bite-sized chunks, which might be handy for anyone looking something they can dip in and out of.

"Acquired" a bunch of ebooks on matters Chinese and have read a few of them since getting my Kindle a couple of months back - Modern History of Hong Kong by Steven Tsang, Human Rights in Chinese Thought by Stephen C Angle, China's Long March to Rule of Law by Randall Peerenboom (almost finished) and have more queued up. I quite easily slip out of the habit of reading difficult books like these though. There aren't enough spaceships or exploding helicopters.

[aristotle1990]

Making my way through 墓碑 at the moment.

[Lu]

Reading 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond, but am not particularly impressed by it. The stories he tells are fascinating and spectacular (the decline of Easter Island! the extinction of people on Pitcairn!) and yet he manages to tell them in a way that by the end of the chapter you feel you've only been reading about carbon dating and centuries-old pollen.

[skylee]

I have finished the Southern Vampires Mysteries series (10 books so far). The books were very easy to read, and I like the adventures.

Now I suppose I should start reading something about my next trip.

[imron]

Have finished《圈子圈套3》and am heading back to the world of Wuxia with《射雕英雄传》

[Lu]

Reading 龙应台's 大江大海. Going through it a lot faster than I was expecting, it has lots of pictures :-) Very well written, and very sad, every chapter makes me sigh.

[semantic nuance]

Just got the book <Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates> I ordered online. I hope this one is as hiliarious as <Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar> I read in 2008.

Video Link

Here's the video link of the speech made by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, co-authors of "Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates". I have listened to part of it, and so far it's funny.

[nowhere]

I'm reading 白马啸西风 White Horse Neighing in the West Wind, a wuxia novella by Jin Yong. It's a little bit easier to read than I thought it would be. Jin Yong's long novels are still too intimidating, though.

[amandagmu]

For the person reading Jared Diamond - if it's the big world history thing you're interested in, I highly recommend Timothy Brook's Vermeer's Hat. He's a China historian and a good one at that (I loved Confusions of Pleasure about the Ming dynasty and Collaboration as an academic read), but he also managed to write this newer book for a much broader audience. It's basically told through lots of interesting/fascinating stories about the 17th century, and it's really well-written. I think I paid $10 for it last year (on amazon.com).

I'm reading Peter Hessler's Rivertown right now (never did read it, but I loved Oracle Bones and anyone who lives in Beijing would probably love it) but I also recently read Ma Jian's Beijing Coma (liked it too) and Murakami's Norwegian Wood (great story, although would have liked a longer story with more depth). Leslie Chang's Factory Girls was one of the best books I've read in the last year in terms of pure entertainment (that and Foreign Babes in Beijing). Also recently finished Fat China, but it was kind of dry and full of stats which would probably only surprise people who haven't lived here.

In Chinese I'm reading boring stuff for my research. It would be terrific to find something lively and entertaining in Chinese that didn't put me to sleep quite as fast.

[abcdefg]

Quote

I'm reading Peter Hessler's Rivertown right now (never did read it, but I loved Oracle Bones and anyone who lives in Beijing would probably love it) but I also recently read Ma Jian's Beijing Coma (liked it too) and Murakami's Norwegian Wood (great story, although would have liked a longer story with more depth). Leslie Chang's Factory Girls was one of the best books I've read in the last year in terms of pure entertainment (that and Foreign Babes in Beijing).

 

Rivertown and Factory Girls were both great reads. You probably knew Hessler and Chang were married now, but I found that interesting so I'll mention it.

[Liebkuchen]

In my reading pile (after I've finished chic travel lit Eat Love Pray), I've got Wolf Totem (Jiang Rong), Shifu. You'll Do Anything for a Laugh (Mo Yan) and Red Dust (Ma Jian) as my first foray into modern Chinese lit. Read Wild Swans about 10 years ago. Didn't like the Chinese-English Dictionary for lovers (dumped it in Paris) but adored Dreaming in Chinese.

[Gleaves]

I am reading 秀哉的夏天. About a massive earthquake that destroys Shanghai and elsewhere. I'm enjoying it. It's quite easy, language-wise.

[Lu]

Amandagmu, thanks for the tip about Brook.

I had read some not-too-enthusiastic reviews about Beijing Coma but that was after I read & really liked it. I suppose for some people it only told a bunch of stuff they already knew, but I felt I got a very close-up and real account of what happened at TAM and there was a lot of stuff I didn't know yet.

Gleaves, that sound like the kind of book I might want to read next.

[skylee]

I have just noticed that there is a movie based on Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" (mentioned in my post #507) because it is on the movie list of the flight I am going to take. The story is really depressing IMHO but still I will watch the film, cos it's free. I hope it is not too bad.

PS - and there are two beautiful women in the film - Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan.

[renzhe]

I'm reading through 杜拉拉升职记. Quite easy reading, once you get used to all the business vocabulary. Still, there's lots of colloquial language creeping in, and I found myself reading more slowly than usual.

[imron]

I was contemplating buying that for this year's reading material when I was last in China, but already had too many books and not enough luggage allowance so it just missed the cut. Be interested in hearing your overall thoughts once finished.

[renzhe]

Well, I'm a third of the way through (it's my bedtime reading), so I have a pretty good idea. My girlfriend borrowed it from a friend, finished it in a week, and the book was simply sitting there, taunting me

It's not great literature, but it's a good way to get used to business vocabulary (the vice-manager of the administration department receives an email from the secretary of the head of the human resources regarding this and that...). It's essentially a soap opera set in a multi-national company and all the intrigue that goes along with it.

If you want to get some business-jargon in, it's something you can probably finish in a couple of weeks and is probably worth it. Or if you want to get tips about surviving in a competitive company, how to deal with bosses and annoying colleagues. It's not a must-read, though. I guess it was a hit because it is timely and original, and wrote about a hot topic many people in China are interested in.

Definitely better than the movie.

[amandagmu]

FYI, for anyone who will be around or in Beijing in early-mid-March!

http://bookwormfestival.com/