Occasional Book Reviews

[Gharial]

I thought it would be good to start putting the reviews I've written, or will be writing, all into a single thread, and hope that (i.e. certainly won't mind if) other CF members start contributing reviews of their own here.

My two previous reviews are of:

1) the ABC English-Chinese, Chinese-English Dictionary (ECCE)

http://www.chinese-f...post__p__237924

2) the Collins Chinese Dictionary, Third edition

http://www.chinese-f...post__p__240942

Review number 3) (to follow shortly) will be of the quite recent Macmillan-FLTRP Chinese Character Dictionary, which comes with a Character Practice CD-ROM.

[jbradfor]

My impressions (wouldn't go so far as to call it a review ) of Business Chinese by Jiaying Howard And Tsengtseng Chang.

Aimed at upper intermediate to advanced students, this book and CD aims to teach the vocabulary and concepts needed to discuss business topics in modern China.

[jbradfor]

The Chinese Breeze (汉语风）Graded Readers.

A popular book series for beginning students. Each book is a single story using very limited vocabulary. 300, 500, and 700 character series are available.

[NOTE: I'm not sure exactly what you want from this thread. What I recommend is that each book (or book series) gets its own thread, and we use this thread to post links to those threads, and a very short summary of the book. This would allow people to easily look for books that might interest them.]

[Gharial]

Thanks for posting, Jbradfor!

I was having a think today and actually came to the same conclusion that you did: that it would be better to still create separate threads for each book or series, and post links to 'em in this thread. (Great minds and all that! ).

I'll get round to reading your links once I've finished and posted my review (which is a bit late as a few other things came up yesterday!) of the Macmillan-FLTRP CCD.

[Gharial]

3) the Macmillan-FLTRP Chinese Character Dictionary (+ Character Practice CD-ROM)

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/35884-review-macmillan-fltrp-chinese-character-dictionary-cd-rom/

[jasoninchina]

May I also suggest that if you write a review, please link back to this page. In the event someone happens upon a review, they can more easily find their way to this wonderful bounty of reviews. I love the reviews by the way!

[Gharial]

That's not a bad idea, Jason, and one that I was already considering doing (but was a bit wary of, as continually linking between one's own threads or posts might've risked appearing a bit too "me me me"). Now however you've called this thread a 'wonderful bounty of reviews', I'll start adding links (in the form of a simple closing line like 'More reviews here: ') from each individual review thread to the collection here. Thanks by the way for the compliments!

[Gharial]

4) Mastering Chinese - The Complete Course for Beginners

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/42795-review-mastering-chinese-the-complete-course-for-beginners/

[Gharial]

5) Adrian van Amstel's Chinese Character Dictionary

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/58141-review-of-adrian-van-amstels-chinese-character-dictionary/

[Gharial]

And in the same thread as 5) above there is now also 6) a shortish review of McGraw-Hill's "Broken Marks" Chinese Dictionary & Guide to 20,000 Essential Words

(link to exact post: https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/58141-review-of-adrian-van-amstels-chinese-character-dictionary/?do=findComment&comment=453708 )