Extracurricular Chinese Reading

As part of my language learning, I decided awhile ago to find some extracurricular reading. So, I have picked up 3 books which I have been "reading" in the last few weeks. I say "reading" because it's definitely not like I understand everything that I'm reading. I see how many of the characters I can pick up as I go along, guess at the meanings of other characters based on context, and try to draw conclusions about main ideas or points here and there. Once in awhile, if there's a character I keep running into, I'll take the time to look it up and learn it.

This is helpful for me in retaining characters, basic reading comprehension, and in seeing how words ought to be used when in their proper contexts. And best of all... there's no pressure. No assignments to complete, no teachers to answer to. Just... leisure reading.

Of my 3 books, there's really no rhyme or reason as to which book I choose to pick up on any given day. Maybe it's my mood, my current interest, my desired level of difficulty, or how long I think I'll last before I fall asleep.

Currently, here are my 3 extracurricular reading books:



FIVB 排球竞赛规则
(The FIVB Official Rulebook for Competitive Volleyball, 2005-2008 Edition)

This has been a great resource for learning volleyball terminology, like setter, libero, rotation, and referee. Sure, it's a specialized rulebook which, even in English, wouldn't be considered light or fun reading. I'm reading it mostly to learn specialized terminology.



Web 界面设计
("Designing Web Interfaces" - an O'Reilly book translated into Chinese)

Also helpful for learning specialized terminology. Actually, I'm excited because it seems like there's a whole set of translated O'Reilly books which available on the Chinese Amazon site. And these are a lot cheaper than if bought in the States. This book, for example, was about USD $9. If I tried to buy it in the States, it would be USD $32.



纳尼亚传奇：狮子，女巫和摩衣柜
(Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

My Chinese tutor, who is reading this with me, mentioned that the translation from English to Chinese is noticeably unnatural. That is slightly disappointing. But, it still makes for a great story, and I am learning some new vocabulary... and it's a story written for children, which makes it slightly easier to read.