Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 558 Location: Malaysia Country:
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2003 4:47 pm Post subject:
My fave novel is Travels of Robinson. ( forgot the title, some sort like that )
i like adventure type of novel.
Last novel i read.......The lord of the rings- the two towers, in chinese sub.
fave author - chinese too ( read too much chinese books, that's why my english not good ) Jin Yong, the one who wrote The legend of arching heros.
Next novel i will read is crouching tiger hidden dragon, harry potter, and the last book of lord of the rings.
do u read chinese novel? i love those kung fu type one, especially Jin Yong's.
There's a lot of good books written by japanese authors that i consider
a good read. These, however are mainly biographies which the author have wrote about their lives (eg. life during WWII), but if that's not your thing, you can still go for fiction books by such authors as Yukio Mishima.
Once novel of his that is considered a good read the the novel titled: The Sound of Waves. He has written other books but this one stands out
among the rest.
Joined: 24 Jun 2002 Posts: 4009 Location: East Coast, US Country:
Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2003 8:46 pm Post subject:
A friend of mine is such a fan of Yoshimoto Banana (yes, that's her pen name) who extensive work are mostly based on female/male relationship. Here is a little bio of her. _________________
I used to like Banana Yoshimoto's books alot too when I was younger, but grew out of it because the themes of her stories seem too young(?). I find Haruki Murakami somewhat similar to Yoshimoto, cos their stories are kinda 'offbeat'. But Murakami takes it a step further.
Yukio Mishima's books are depressing ... and scary (this after reading 'The sailor who fell from grace..'). Yes, it scared me, but I still like it.
May I recommend one of my fave - Shusaku Endo, I like 'The sea and the poison' and 'Wonderful fool.' Kenzaburo Oe is another well-know writer, a nobel laureate. He's really subtle with the messages in his book. Great prose, a sense of quiet elegance.
Shintaro Ishihara - controversial, when he's younger. Wrote the famous 'Season of the Sun' which was adapted for TV starring Hideaki Takizawa.
I find fewer English-translated Japanese novels compared to Chinese-translated ones. [I am Chinese, so am glad to get my hands on other Japanese novels not translated into English.] Seems to me that the english ones tend to go for respected or more well-know Japanese writers. On the flip side, there's quite a number of Chinese-translated Japanese "bestsellers".... for instance, Kishi Yusuke, a popular writer in the horror genre (not necessarily supernatural themes, he writes about breakdown of the human character, schizophrenia/ split personality, murders/ thrillers...etc, along those lines.) Reading his 4th novel now, about a 17 year old lad who's bent on killing his 'nasty' step-father, how he thought up this perfect plan to kill him and more importantly, get away with it... an extremely moving tale. Been made into a Japanese movie, with breakout performance by Ninomiya Kazunari, also stars Matsuura Aya. I haven't seen the movie yet, hope to see it someday.
Joined: 04 Sep 2003 Posts: 72 Location: Malaysia Country:
Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 9:29 am Post subject: japanese authors
arigato guys.. gonna really look out for all these authors.. I think in M'sia, kinokuniya is probably the best place to search for english novels by japanese authors.. really appreciate all the suggestions and insights..
Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 718 Location: Singapore Country:
Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 1:59 pm Post subject:
like most of them suggested, 'Norwegian Wood' byHaruki Murakami is GOOD! 'The Wind-up Bird Chronicles' by him is not bad too... but it's really quite a wierd book.
i like Banana Yoshimoto too and Ryu Murakami.
I just received this book from the author's publishing agent:
I was one of the beta readers of this book, spending part of last year reading copy after copy after copy... I'm reviewing the first print right now and should be filing my write-up next week. Apple Computer history is another of my interests.
I just received this book from the author's publishing agent:
I was one of the beta readers of this book, spending part of last year reading copy after copy after copy... I'm reviewing the first print right now and should be filing my write-up next week. Apple Computer history is another of my interests.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum