All About Books discussion

1. Have you always loved books? Who, if anyone, in your life has most inspired you to read?

I remember that as a primary school kid, my most favorite past-time during school summer vacation was hiding in a corner and reading Chinese martial arts and chivalry novels written by Jin Yong (Louis Cha, the best-selling Chinese author alive). I even got to read Journey to the West, which is one of the four great Chinese classical novels. At school, I loved reading and reciting Chinese poetry by Tang and Song Dynasty poets (the smooth rhymes appealed to me more than anything else, and it was much later in life that I learned to appreciate the profound beauty of Chinese poetry of those two Dynasties). I absolutely adore Tang poet Du Mu and Song poet Su Shi.

Cantonese is my mother tongue and I didn’t begin to learn basic English until I reached my third year (of 6) in primary school, where the medium of teaching was Chinese. It was only when I entered Form 1 (first year of 5) in secondary school that I had advanced English reading to do. I guess I was lucky that I was admitted into a Catholic convent school (run by Irish and French nuns) where the medium of teaching was English, and after the first year of hard struggling, I began to love the language as well as English Literature. When I reached Form 4, my English teacher gave me a further nudge towards English reading by commending me for a piece of my English composition, which she read aloud to the whole class (it was a rare thing for her to do!). Besides English and English Literature, my other favorite subjects were Chinese History and Chinese Literature (which focused on Confucian Analects and other classical writings by Mencius, Laozi and Mozi). But I wished they had taught more of Lu Xun’s and Hu Shih’s writings in Chinese Literature lessons.

During my first job as a secretary with a British conglomerate (in the early 70s – I started working at the age of 18 as my family needed my financial support, I took French in evening classes after work for four years at L’Alliance Francaise and that was the time when I began falling in love with French literature. One of our French teachers introduced us to Jacques Prévert’s poems ("Les Feuilles Mortes” and “Barbara”) and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince, which I read in French and loved. For my A-Level exams (as a private student), I also read translations of Honoré de Balzac’s Père Goriot (which I re-read recently and loved), Molière’s L'Avare, Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes and other novels that I can’t remember the titles of. I was thus initiated into the world of French literature.

Unfortunately, literary reading took a long hiatus during my hectic work life (which included three-time relocation to Canada) in my prime and did not resume until I retired from the corporate world several years ago. Since my retirement my passion for reading has been rekindled. Most of the books I’ve marked read on my GR bookshelves were read in the last four or five years. More recently, I’ve developed a keen interest in 19th century French classics (translations) and a curiosity for Russian classics (translations) too. So far, French authors whose works I’ve touched upon include Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac, Moliere, Voltaire, Alexis de Tocqueville, George Sand, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir. Others that I am eager to read include Stendhal, Marcel Proust, Alexandre Dumas, Pere and Andre Malraux. British authors whose works I’ve liked include D. H. Lawrence, George Eliot, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham. I plan to read Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins soon. Russian authors who interest me are Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and my next target to explore would probably be Italian authors, about whom I’m quite ignorant.

I hope I have not bored you with my rambling :)

2. What was your favourite childhood book?

As mentioned above, the childhood books accessible to me (other than school text books) were mostly Chinese martial arts novels, which could be borrowed from a second-hand book hawker for a few cents. I did enjoy reading these very much (although as I matured I would think that the author might be a male chauvinist because his typical hero is always madly loved by three or more girls at the same time!). My summer vacation then was mostly spent living with my cousins at my maternal uncle’s home in a run-down neighborhood, not dissimilar to where I used to live, and the book hawker was just across the street amongst vegetable hawkers and other peddlers. My cousins, siblings and I used to act out the roles from those novels (with my direction) and pretended to be the heroes and heroines that we fancied most. We kids never had any toys to play with, and role playing was our best fun game.

3. Which books do you remember studying at school? Did you enjoy them?

I remember having studied a number of literary works in secondary school (Form 1 to Form 5) and later as a private student sitting for A-Level exams (as my mother couldn’t afford to pay my tuition for Form 6 and Form 7). I can only loosely recall some books that I studied then: Little Women, Treasure Island, Silas Marner, Macbeth, The Heart of the Matter, A Passage to India, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Lady Chatterley's Lover (the latter two of which I re-read several years ago with much better appreciation). Of these, Little Women and Silas Marner (studied in the lower Forms) made the deepest impression on me as these opened my eyes for the first time to a culture quite different from mine. For extra-curricular reading in my adolescence, there was no novel I loved more than Gone with the Wind, and I saw the movie adaptation at least three times in cinemas. I also enjoyed reading Agatha Christie’s novels for leisure.

4. Where do you most enjoy reading? Do you need silence to read, can you read almost anywhere?

I most enjoy reading curled up in my armchair or sofa. Yes, I do need a relatively peaceful surrounding to read.

5. Choose five of your favourite books and tell us why you loved them so much?

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo – I adore this epic novel because I think Victor Hugo was at the same time a mesmerizing storyteller and a respectable character with a steady mission to stand up against social injustices. (Hugo’s Ninety-Three also fascinates me, which is set in the Reign of Terror about the bloody clash between royalists and supporters of republicanism) but thought I should give other authors’ works a chance!)
La Curée (The Kill) by Émile Zola – I’ve always felt spellbound by France’s Second Empire époque (in terms of social, literary and political development) and this story seems to represent an epitome of the epoque’s short history, juxtaposing prosperity and decadence in poetic prose.
The Plague ("La Peste") by Albert Camus – This is one of the most moving stories I’ve ever read. It’s about courage and solidarity within a community in the face of a horrifying pestilence. I like the existentialist theme that urges people to discover for themselves individually what gives meaning to life while accepting that life is absurd (full of fatalistic changes that one cannot control).
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence – I like the way in which the author melds a story of forbidden love with a depiction of the social class conflict in England, which helps one get some perspective on the prevalent social consciousness in the early 20th century.
1984 by George Orwell – This novel is fiction that screams out the utmost truth!

6. Do you prefer reading fiction or non fiction?

I like fiction better. But I’ve also been reading quite a lot of non-fiction whose subject interests me, including biographies. Some of the best non-fiction books I’ve read include Progress and Poverty by Henry George (which inspired me to write my first non-fiction book), Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, The Story of My Experiments With Truth, and Chinese History Revisited (in Chinese) by Xiao Jiansheng.

7. Are you fond of a particular author and what attracts you to their books? (You can pick a few if you can’t choose!)

I love Victor Hugo and Emile Zola. I love their works because they write with compassion and an acute sense of fairness on social issues. Also, I admire their altruistic deeds in real life. Another author I adore is Albert Camus. His absurdist theory (as expounded in The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays) intrigued me and inspired me to include it as a main theme in my debut novel.

8. Is there an author you haven't yet tried but you'd really like to?

There are lots (apart from those I’ve already mentioned above). I think I must be a less well-read member relative to most of this group and I know I have lots of catching up to do!

9. Do you rely on goodreads to keep track of your reading or do you have your own method?

I only joined Goodreads about 3 months ago and I’ve found the site helpful in letting me keep track of my reading.

10. What's the best book you've read so far this year? What are you reading at the moment? What will you be reading next?

The best book I’ve read so far this year is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (although I’m only mid-way through it). At the moment I am reading Victor Hugo’s The Last Day of a Condemned Man. Next will be Shakespearean play A Midsummer Night's Dream as a group read.

I so love r3ading these stories. What an interesting and varied life. I too loved GWTW, saw the movie more than once. Have had The Plague on my nook for a long time. Maybe now I will move it up. Thanks for sharing your story.

Alice, this is one of the bonuses of not being able to get to sleep tonight. I get to read your reading journey! One of the things I love about AAB is that the members come from so many different backgrounds and countries and cultures.

Thanks so much for sharing this with us all, Alice!

Diane and Gill, thanks for your interest!

Gill wrote: "Alice, this is one of the bonuses of not being able to get to sleep tonight. I get to read your reading journey! One of the things I love about AAB is that the members come from so many different b..."

I was thinking the same thing: it is so interesting to read about the "book-history" of members with different cultural backgrounds.

I have never read a Chinese author and I should pick them up. I already have some books at home (they belong to my son, he is totally fond of China) but I never start them perhaps because I know so little about Chinese history and culture.

I must absolutely read "Les Miserables", I'm sure I will like it.

If you need some recommendations for Italian literature the group has a few Italian members and we will be very glad to help you!

Such an interesting Journey Alice! From a so far away place rispect from where I live!!!
Funnt that 2 of your preferite books I've read - and appreciated - so recently: La Curée and The Plague. Do you read in french as well? Lucky you!

Fascinating Alice. I have to admit, I am not well read in French or Chinese authors. Chinese poetry does interest me

good morning Alice and thank you for sharing your journey. I am currently reading 1984 and it will be going on my favorite list :) I have Lady Chatterley on my tbr shelf and I have added The Plague by Camus.

Good morning Alice! I really enjoyed reading your journey. As for most of us, my knowledge of Chinese authors is rather limited, most of the authors I've read have a Chinese background but are now writing in English, living in either the UK, Germany or the States like Yiyun Li, who's Kinder Than Solitude I read and loved this year.
Checking my TBR I find Yan Lianke with Dream of Ding Village and Gao Xingjian with One Man's Bible. Have you read either of them? Are there authors you'd recommend, both for poetry and general fiction apart from the names you gave (which I eagerly scribbled down ;)) Especially when it comes to poetry, my Asian horizon stops and circles very much around Japan so I'd love to discover something new.

I too love the Plague, in general I enjoy reading Camus, be it fiction or essays. And (as you know) together with Gill and Laura I am slowly making my way through Zola's massive Rougon/Marquart cycle. Will you join us for another one maybe?

Will probably come back to this during the week, as my eye can be a bit selective on a Monday morning and I end up missing things ;)

Alice, your reading journey is so interesting! Thank you for sharing.

Alice, I don't think you are a less well-read person; you have read many books that I haven't: Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac, Moliere, Voltaire, Camus. I love it that you love Lady Chatterley's Lover; D H Lawrence is a excellent commentator on social conflict.

I think you are talented; three languages, I am awed. I loved hearing about your schooling; I think our reading often reflects our learning. It sounds like you have lead an interesting life. Thanks for sharing your journey.

Alice ,
Thanks so much fei sharing your reading and life journey . I agree with Bette - you are very well read !

I was writing all my replies, then clicked on one of the links in the comments, and (big sigh) everything's gone :(

@Dely, if you're interested in reading Chinese novels, I would recommend Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, which is one of the Four Great Classical Chinese Novels, and Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain, which is a blend of fiction and memoir. Thank you for your offer of advice on Italian authors - be sure that I will take you up on it :)

@Laura, How I wish I could read all the French classics in French! It would take me forever to finish one book if I were to read in French :) No, I only read English translations. Very long time ago though I did read "Le Petit Prince" and some other short stories in French while studying the language.

@Heather, in my humble opinion, I really really think that Chinese poetry is worth reading by foreigners, although my own knowledge of it is not deep. But I do plan on delving into it :)

@Tracey, I hope you'll like all of them as much as I did :)

@Jenny, I've never read Yan Lianke before, but I've read Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain, which I've just recommended to Dely. For Chinese poetry, my favorite poets are Tang poets Du Mu and Bai Juyi; and Song poets Su Shi and Lu You (the latter was known for his poignant love affair with his cousin, also a poet). I have a collection of about a dozen English translations (my own) of poems by these poets and I plan on posting these on my personal blog.

@Terri, thank you for your interest!

@Jenny, about Rougon-Macquart series, I will be selective :)

Alice wrote: "@Dely, if you're interested in reading Chinese novels, I would recommend..."

My son has Dream of the Red Chamber and other books I don't remember now. I know only he liked a lot Monkey: A Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en so I will surely read it someday.
Have added Soul Mountain to my wishlist, thanks ;)

Bette & Angela, thanks for your kind comments!

Bette, I would say that self-education has figured prominently in my life. Come to think of it, I don't really know why I was so drawn to the French language. Maybe I had very good French teachers! (I even had a short fling with one of them :))

Alice wrote: "Bette & Angela, thanks for your kind comments!

Bette, I would say that self-education has figured prominently in my life. Come to think of it, I don't really know why I was so drawn to the French ..."

Alice, we definitely want a Your Fling With A French Tutor journey written now:)

:) :/

Alice, we have recently become friends and I want to thank you for sharing your story. It is nice to know what lies behind our book choices.

Chrissie wrote: "Alice, we have recently become friends and I want to thank you for sharing your story. It is nice to know what lies behind our book choices."

Thank you, Chrissie. I do treasure the opportunity to make friends with people who come from different backgrounds and cultures. I can learn so much from members of this group!

We ALL learn from each other. Let's hope so at least.

Chrissie wrote: "We ALL learn from each other. Let's hope so at least."

How right you are Chrissie

What a wonderful story Alice, so different than my life and yet much I can relate to! When I was younger, I and my siblings were blessed with toys, but I can certainly relate to role playing! I remember taking turns with my brother and sister at playing the priest in play acting communion if you can believe it.

I really like your value of "compassion and a sense of fairness." Compassion and empathy are I think some of the most important qualities for an author to have!

I have read and enjoy some of the writers you mention: Zola, George Sand, Simone de Beauviour, Camus, Hugo, Voltaire, and Moliere. Others like Balzac have been on my to-read list for ages. I have read very few of the Chinese authors you mention, but I would love to read more!

Thank you for sharing your journey Alice and for helping me to get to know you better (as well as for the tips on lots of new authors and books)!

Thank you so much for your kind comment, Greg! I like this thread as it gives us the chance to tell our own stories, through which we get to know each other better :-)

I agree Alice! :)

Camus was one of my favourite authors. He frightens me. So I avoid reading him. Lest I may fall into depression. But I may have to try his The Plague.

Dhanaraj, there's for sure sadness mixed with a doomsday feeling in large part, but the ending is still uplifting, which reflects Camus' notion of "revolt" in his philosophical theory - the human spirit prevails.

Greg your role playing communion memory took me right back - my brother and sister and I used to also do that!

My house had toys when I was growing up, but role-play was by far my favorite. I imagine that's the case for a lot of readers, and people who go on to create their own stories - they love getting absorbed in their imaginations. :)

It's very interesting to me that you grew up in Hong Kong but studied some western literature in school. Is that very common there? My American schooling did not include much world lit at all, which I think is a huge shame. I admit that I am ignorant on much of the world's writings outside of America and Europe.

Shannon, thanks for reading my "reading journey"! Well, Hong Kong, having been a British colony before the 1997 sovereignty handover to China, has always had two official languages, which are Chinese and English. The Hong Kong society is very cosmopolitan and most citizens are bilingual and Western educated. Before 1997 there used to be a lot of British expatriates working for British firms which were large employers. My first job was with a British trading conglomerate. My generation grew up listening to Western pop music and watching Hollywood movies. The high school that I went to is a Catholic convent school which was run by Irish and French nuns and hired many British and some Portuguese natives as teachers. I was lucky to have been admitted to that school. But after 1997, Hong Kongers' standard of English generally went downhill as more emphasis has been placed on Chinese language.

Ah, very interesting. Thanks for educating me a bit about it! I know that western music and movies are globally popular, but I didn't realize that extended to literature, especially in the school systems. But having been a British colony for a long time, that makes sense now.