I love reading. Good stories with good characters and good writing can take me away from my everyday life and bring me into a different and more colourful world.
Reading is also the best way of finding out about other people: how they live and the reasons they do the things (not always good things) that they do. Jane Austen wrote her novels in 18th-century England, but the problems she described are true even today. Her books are still popular and several of them have recently been made into movies.
Before I came to China I re-read several of Austen??s novels and enjoyed them more than when I had read them the first time. I especially enjoyed Emma. I got the book from my local library and, from the looks of the copy, dozens of other people had read Emma before me. I don??t know if it??s true in China, but in Canada many people can??t seem to read without eating. The library??s copy of Emma had food and drink stains on almost every page.
If you are interested in reading ??classic?? English literature and finding out about Western culture, I would suggest you first go to www.sparknotes.com. This website is designed to help students with all their school subjects, but it is especially good with literature. It lists books by either title or author and tells you all about the book: the story, the characters and the themes.
As it??s all on the computer screen, you can eat and not worry about leaving stains on the pages!
Mar 01, 2009 @ 03:32:04
