Books

[manuel]

If you have lots of other stuff to read, then you don't have to bother. 

[nintendodork]

I got an iPad for my birthday on Saturday (which is what I'm currently posting from), and this thread is going to give me some great fodder for iBooks! I'm currently reading Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Foer, as well as going back and forth between a few alt lit eBooks that no one here is probably interested in.

[crade]

Just finished:
Water Margin: The Outlaws of the Marsh
I readh the J.H. Jackson version

It's a really old book, somewhat of a Chinese Robin Hood story, based on history.
It wasn't a bad story, I like how many characters are protrayed as both heroic and realistic criminals..  Unlike Robin Hood which tries to make them seem altruistic, these characters feel a lot more like real outcasts of society.  They don't shy away from stomping the head of an infant or two in the struggle for freedom from oppresion

the ending is a bit dissapointing, despite there being major changes happening in the [hi]story near the end, I didn't feel like the dramatic changes really came across in the book and it just felt like more of the same at the end.

Now I've moved on to reading the Bible..  New International version.  I expect to be on it for quite a while

[P]

Oh I always wanted to read this some time. It's very famous in Asia, just like "Journy to the west", "Dream of the red chamber" and "Romance of the three kingdoms" and it originates from the same tradition of wandering storytellers in China. It's called Suikoden in Japanese.

[crade]

Yes.  I would recommend Three Kingdoms over Water Margin as a starting point into the classic Chinese novels, but I was also a lot more familiar with the characters of Three Kingdoms going in, so my opinion might be a bit biased.  It definately takes some decent effort to keep track of the sheer number of characters (all with unfamiliar sounding names of course) in either book probably moreso in ROTK.  I haven't read Journey to the West yet, but I think it's supposed to be the easiest.  Maybe I'll pick it up next when I get tired of trying to get through the Bible again