Chinese books

[bomaci]

I am currently trying to increase my chinese vocabulary by reading among other things. I have some bilingual books in chinese and english, and for some of the stories I have also the audio book. However the stories I have audio for are by Lu Xun and Yu DaFu. My question is: Is the vocabulary used in these books still useful today or do they contain a lot of archaic expressions that aren't used in todays language. The reason I'm asking is that at the time being I would mainly like to improve my communicative vocabulary in Chinese and if many of the words used in these books are of an archaic nature maybe my time would be better spent reading more modern books.

[HashiriKata]

I would mainly like to improve my communicative vocabulary in Chinese

If you've got a choice, I think there should be better materials for your purpose than stories by Lu Xun and Yu DaFu. If you don't, just use anything that helps maintaining your interest and motivation.

Speaking from experience, my Chinese is acquired with a significant amount of input from Chinese pop songs (I'm self-taught and don't live in a Chinese speaking environment) but I don't think that makes my Chinese sentimental or romantic (I hope not anyway ).

[student]

I am a beginner and would love to have some recommendations of what you think would be better (and if they are accessible on the web).

Thanks!

[HashiriKata]

Hi Student (your name I've come across somewhere ?? )

Try the following link for a start (It's not books but may be useful. It has also audio for the reading materials):

http://faculty.virginia.edu/cll/chinese_reading/

[student]

Thanks very much for the pointer.

As for my name, I guess it is a common one!

Thanks again!