Hello There,

I'm going to leave China soon and want to take some Chinese books with me so as to continue learning Chinese.

My question would be if you know any blogs that have good book reviews (in Chinese) or if you can recommend some books with an interesting/fascinating story.

At the moment I'm reading Harry Potter, so you know my level is still pretty basic...

I would be very thankful for some recommendations!

Have you heared of the Four Chinese masterpieces?
红楼梦,水浒传,西游记,三国演义。
Dreams of the Red Mansion, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin& Journey to the West.

if you are interest in more details,feel free to contact me.
email& MSN:eleven2066@sina.com

Dear Sarah,

of course I know those books! I only think it'll be hard for me to read them in Chinese, because surely the language used in these books is pretty sophisticated.

I'm rather looking for some simple, modern Chinese novels. Of course, I like to learn new words, but if the number amounts to more than 20 per page, I'm afraid I wouldn't keep going.

Try 兄弟 by 余华著, it's a pretty good book if you ask me.

You could also try anything by 鲁迅, language is a bit hard but he is really an interesting author.

hi!can anybody recommend a Chinese novel that is not too hard to read in Chinese?? thanks!

You could try the novels of 余华 Yú Huá. He's a modern author with a clear, fairly direct style so you don't have to read torturous sentences or too much obscure vocabulary. I was looking at his famous novel 或者 huózhe 'to live' for class yesterday and it seems gripping and not too difficult. There's also a film version by 张艺谋 Zhāng Yìmóu. You can read chapter two here:

www-personal.umich.edu/%7edporter/sampler/tolive.html

余华 has also written a great memoir/reflection on China called 十个词汇里中国 or 'China in Ten Words'. I've only read it in English but it's fascinating. Not officially published in PRC though.