Job Discussion Forums

[rj]

I spent my early childhood in a very rural area. My grandmother rented out a tiny single wide trailer to the county for $15 a month so there would be a library. The closest city was approximately thirty minutes away and even there, there wasn't much to do. I learned to love reading at a very early age because there wasn't anything else to do with my time. Despite work and school, I manage to average one or two books per week.

One of the things I dread about going to China is the lack of reading materials. I read quick, even now I can't afford to buy books as quickly as I go through them. Thankfully, I'm not picky about what I read. I've been known to read instruction manuals cover to cover for lack of better reading material.

[Roger]

A newspaper a day keeps the TV away.

Then there are the mags, though via the Internet (a SPIEGEL from Germany costs around RMB 50 a copy, or US$ 7 for a magtazine with up to 250 pages). DItto NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR and other European opinion leaders.

But, we are talking books here...
Well, I couldn't be without my best friend, a book,m since I travel by myself a good deal every week. What's the point of cruising on a motorway and having nothing to do but to stare holes into the air?

I devour maybe 3 to 5 books a month, both fiction and non-fiction. The first mainly are novels written over the past 5 to ten years that I get hold of in a second-hand bookstore in Hong Kong or by swapping with fellow TEFLers in the mainland.
My favourite topics are stories set in Asia or Europe, including the Middle East ; I also love those historic novels by J.M. Michener or books in a similar vein.
THen there are China-centred writings, including non-fictional ones. Other non-fictional books include works on linguistic studies, history and travelogues.

Last year, I experienced a dilemma of sorts: I had to buy new bookshelves, and they were terribly difficult to come by as fewer and fewer Chinese these days have books in their homes, resulting in very few furniture makers producing such pieces of furniture!

[Alitas]

I love reading. When we were growing up (I say "we" because my brother is a year older and we did everything together) I'd read a book a day. No TV, rural area, etc. College, then the Real World, cut into my reading a bit but now I am back. Not a book a day (unless it is realllllly good--last book I read in a day was "Hey Whipple, Squeeze This"). One of my greatest achievments is acquiring a library card in any locale that I reside in for more than a week. Pity I haven't kept them though the years, it'd make an interesting collection!

My tendency now is to stash a good book of poetry in my bag and haul it out whenever I must wait. It makes me not mind waiting so much. Pablo Neruda is my poet of the year. I can practically recite lines from Extravagaria now.

[Sara Avalon]

I've visited the local library and various bookstores but have yet to find anything that sparks my interest. In Canada, I was obsessed with medieval fiction and sci-fi.

[Wolf]

I like to read. But where I live now, it's really hard to find anything. I've read lots of the 19th century stuff already, between my major and the Aichi Prefectural Library.

It's not just the censorhip or banned books, there just isn't anything available.

Back in Japan, the book bug would wear at me, and I would often end up buying books in spite of the nasty prices.

I don't read as much as I would like to.

[richard ame]

Hi

As Yaramaz said in her op the people in this country just don't seem to view this skill in the same way we do ,having said that I wish we were given a little more freedom to choose the stuff for our students perhaps we could change that situation one day .