I really would like to challenge myself to read a novel in Chinese but all my online searches have only lead me to ‘iffy’ torrent websites. Which I would rather not get reliant on.
the next best thing In my quest that I have found is a few ancient books in Chinese (Tao de ching) etc, but I would rather take a stab at something contemporary that has been translated so i can dual read them to get a good jist of the story as i go along.
I know Cormac Mccarthy, David Mitchell and J.K Rowling have had books translated into simplified Chinese.If anyone could take a pour sinners hand and lead me to the light, please let me know.
P’s Has anyone read a whole novel whilst at just below intermediate level, do please share your tales.
It is often easiest to find ebooks online that are a little older, and out of copyright.
I recommend 骆驼祥子 by 老舍, the first book I read in Chinese, from cover to cover. A delight for many reasons. I googled to see what I could fine.
You can find some background on the book and the writer in the first link below, and can download the book from the second link.
There may well be an audio book out there. You can google for it, or I can help if you want. Maybe we can get permission for the test and the audio book at LingQ if there is interest here.
“Has anyone read a whole novel whilst at just below intermediate level, do please share your tales”
I tried reading Hán Hán’s (韩寒) “Sān chóng mén” (三重门) a long time ago, when I was pretty bad at Chinese, gave it away after the first chapter, then came back to it when my level was better. I suspect many go through a similar process.
“Cormac Mccarthy, David Mitchell and J.K Rowling” - If you want lingq’able text you’ll probably be breaking copyright on these. There are a lot of good Chinese novels getting translated these days. Hang out at paper republic, or pathlight - http://paper-republic.org/
I’m currently reading the Sherlock Holmes series in Chinese, because I happen to have them all on the bookshelf at home.
I’ve found alternate translations online that differ from the printed versions I have. I like the printed translation better, but it’s good to have both. Plus, there are audiobooks that follow the translations I’ve found online, which is immensely helpful if you want to listen to what you have read, or read what you have listened to.
哈哈. There is a trick here. It’s very useful when I was trying to look for English novel…You can type “site:pan.baidu.com + sth.” on google. Please take place sth. with the name of the book which you are looking for or whatever you want to . For instance, "site:pan.baidu.com + 哈利波特 pdf ". You will find tons of resources online. Simply download it:)
Thanks Steve. I can see its nicely broken into chapters which will ideal for importing into lingq. I think you mentioned these pre PRC books in a video once. I will let you know how it goes in a few weeks. Its nice to know it was your first book too.
BTW, I really enjoyed your conversation on youtube about Canada and multiculturalism.
p.s I have been using BBC China for content recently 主页 - BBC News 中文 which might suite your taste.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I will most likely struggle to. But from what i read you had the physical book, so may i might have a slightly better first run with it being in lingq. If it weren’t for lingq I would probably not even try.
I will have a look at the http://paper-republic.org/ website when i get home later.
T