Books to read /books read

Books to read /books read

What are you reading? What have you read that might be fun or interesting for one of your classmates to read?

Freakonomics :  Do you know this book? "The hidden side of everything!"  It's pretty strange.  They also have a blog.  (Recommended by James)

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Book review- about Sherlock

As the time passes, our English class of the first semester comes to an end. In the class we talked a lot, and some video and presentation, it’s very interesting for me because it’s the first time I go out of China and using all English to communicate. And we are all given a book written in English to read, I read some English sentences and paragraphs in English but never a book because I’m a little afraid about the difficulty. But as reading is a homework, it’s a little easier for me to follow. There is <Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes> in my kindle but I never read it… So this time I just try it and I felt it worth a lot!

This book is one of the most famous detective books in the world, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. When I was in high school, I have read all this series in Chinese edition. When I read it, I couldn’t get out! So this time I chose it as a English reading because I believe even if sometimes I couldn’t all understand, it doesn’t matter. This book contains some short stories, I had finish two of them. And I want to comment one, it’s called <The Final Problem>. This story is mainly about the combat between Sherlock and Professor Moriarty. There is a sentence in one film which is about detective said: “If Sherlock is the light of the era, then Moriarty is the shadow”. We know that when there is the light, there is always the shadow. Sherlock and Moriarty is the opposition, so whether the detection of Sherlock or the crime of Moriarty, they should came to an end. So these two genius guys finally finish their mission in the combat beside the Reichenbach Waterfall. Originally, Conan Doyle wanted to finish this story because he though this book took him to much time and energy, but many readers didn’t agree, and then Conan had to continue his writing…… Which impressed me a lot is the scenes created by Conan. As you read the book, you just go into one after another scenes, it’s just like that you are Watson who is accompany with Sherlock, and it’s just like a movie! I think this is why this book is so popular although it’s written a hundred years ago!

And there are a lot of TV series created base on the book, which impresses me most is the <Sherlock> producted BBC. It’s extremely wonderful, I highly recommend you to see it, it worth the time! These days I follow the American TV series which is called <Elementary>, it’s interesting. Also these two series is totally different from the origin, they have their feature which energize the book…

A few cool words maybe ancient I found while reading it:

despatch: an important official message

soothing: producint feelings of comfort

knuckles: a joint of finger

bail: money paid to free a prisoner

antagonist: one who opposes another

strove: to try very hard to do

sunken: curving towards the inside

trodden: to press with one’s feet

snarled: to say in an angry way

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Dune

I had often heard of that book and wanted to read it for a while. The thing is I'm a bit lazy and not really into reading. Yet, I thought that being asked to read a book for this English class was a good opportunity to give it a try – and I definitely don't regret it.

I'm talking about Dune by Frank Herbert, an epic science fiction novel. It is not unlikely you have already heard of it, maybe even read it, as it's actually the world's best-selling sci-fi novel.

The story is set in a distant future and tells us about a feudal interstellar society where noble houses, in control of individual planets, owe allegiance to the emperor. Following the life of Paul Atreides, the main character of the novel, who also happens to have extraordinary abilities – such as control of his metabolism, heightened senses and seeing the future – we slowly discover not only the plot but also the multiple aspects of this world. From politics and religion to technology, ecology, culture or human interaction, we can't help but be struck by the complexity and the details of Herbert's creation.

And this is what might put you off at first. The slow start and abundance of description really take some time and effort to get into the novel. When you finally manage to go past that, however, you will understand why it is considered by many to be such a masterpiece.

A few cool words I found while reading it:

Dubiety – the state or quality of being doubtful; uncertainty

Elated – thrilled, delighted

Defer – submit humbly to (a person or a person's wishes or qualities)

Prescient – having or showing knowledge of events before they take place

Poised – having a composed and self-assured manner