Dragonwings
4 journalers for this copy...
RABCK on its way to harmaja in Finland! Enjoy!!
I received Dragonwings today, along with a really nice postcard showing views from Michigan's shorelines. Thank you, wizardsheart! The book's cover art is really pretty, the colours are actually a lot nicer than in the little picture shown here. Can't wait to get to read this!
Nowadays I start almost all my journal entries with "sorry for taking so long to read this book". And that's how I shall start this one, too. Sorry for taking so long! I'm a literature student, and I always have a bunch of study books at hand, but that's not a very good excuse. Why do I collect so many bookcrossing books at my house, if I'm not going to be able to read them in a reasonable span of time? People keep reminding me I'm not the only one, but still, I wish I was doing better. I'll try to do better...
As for Dragonwings, I've thought for a long time that it probably makes a good travel read, and I've had it with me on two or three different journeys. The trouble is, I haven't then had time to read during those trips! But this weekend I was over at my grandma's, where I brought Dragonwings as well, and finally I had time to read it. (It was a bit boring at my grandma's house.) I kept reading the book on the way home, in the poor light at the car's back seat, until I had to give up and finish the story at home. I was really hooked by the story towards the end of the book!
I enjoyed the plot of Dragonwings a lot, but I did struggle a bit with the style. I thought Laurence Yep's prose was somewhat stiff, it never flowed quite freely. I was also a bit irritated by his way of writing many of the English words in italic letters. Of course this whole book was in English, which is why the trick was a bit silly, in my opinion. Yep just wanted to stress for the reader which English words or American concepts were new to Moon Shadow, coming to a strange land and an unfamiliar culture, but I thought Yep's way of doing it was a bit too didactic.
I also found it difficult to recognize some Chinese names and concepts in their Americanized form. It took me a while to figure out Lee the White meand Li Po, The Classic of Changes meand I Ching, and so on. I would have preferred a more Chinese way to express many of the Chinese concepts. But I'm no expert myself, and maybe now I'm the one being too pedagogic. I would be interested to know, however, how authentic this book really is. I have no reason to suspect it's not authentic - and then again, it need not be authentic, since it's fiction. Anyhow, the era it describes is so interesting that the reader keeps wondering if this could really be a faithful description. I am glad that Windrider at least had a model in real life!
I really thought Windrider was a bit loopy, putting his family life and his son's education on hold like that, just to chase his crazy dragon dream. On the other hand, I found him a cool guy. Not a great father, perhaps, but otherwise a great character. I did sympathize with his wife a lot, though!
After browsing the net I found out Dragonwings is a part of a whole series of books, called Golden Mountain Chronicles. I will certainly keep my eyes open for the other parts of the series!
ETA: By leave of wizardsheart, I am adding Dragonwings to my permanent collection, at least for the time being.
As for Dragonwings, I've thought for a long time that it probably makes a good travel read, and I've had it with me on two or three different journeys. The trouble is, I haven't then had time to read during those trips! But this weekend I was over at my grandma's, where I brought Dragonwings as well, and finally I had time to read it. (It was a bit boring at my grandma's house.) I kept reading the book on the way home, in the poor light at the car's back seat, until I had to give up and finish the story at home. I was really hooked by the story towards the end of the book!
I enjoyed the plot of Dragonwings a lot, but I did struggle a bit with the style. I thought Laurence Yep's prose was somewhat stiff, it never flowed quite freely. I was also a bit irritated by his way of writing many of the English words in italic letters. Of course this whole book was in English, which is why the trick was a bit silly, in my opinion. Yep just wanted to stress for the reader which English words or American concepts were new to Moon Shadow, coming to a strange land and an unfamiliar culture, but I thought Yep's way of doing it was a bit too didactic.
I also found it difficult to recognize some Chinese names and concepts in their Americanized form. It took me a while to figure out Lee the White meand Li Po, The Classic of Changes meand I Ching, and so on. I would have preferred a more Chinese way to express many of the Chinese concepts. But I'm no expert myself, and maybe now I'm the one being too pedagogic. I would be interested to know, however, how authentic this book really is. I have no reason to suspect it's not authentic - and then again, it need not be authentic, since it's fiction. Anyhow, the era it describes is so interesting that the reader keeps wondering if this could really be a faithful description. I am glad that Windrider at least had a model in real life!
I really thought Windrider was a bit loopy, putting his family life and his son's education on hold like that, just to chase his crazy dragon dream. On the other hand, I found him a cool guy. Not a great father, perhaps, but otherwise a great character. I did sympathize with his wife a lot, though!
After browsing the net I found out Dragonwings is a part of a whole series of books, called Golden Mountain Chronicles. I will certainly keep my eyes open for the other parts of the series!
ETA: By leave of wizardsheart, I am adding Dragonwings to my permanent collection, at least for the time being.
I realized it's too selfish to let Dragonwings just sit on my shelf, and I decided to take it with me to the first-ever Finnish bookcrossing convention next weekend. I'll pass it on to someone there. May Dragonwings have good travels! And may I add once again that the cover art is lovely. I liked to look at it. Now it's someone else's turn!
This is book #13 in my 2006 Keep Them Moving Release Challenge! The challenge was started by guinaveve.
I found this wonderfull looking book yesterday in our 1st National BC-meet up, so I just couldn't resist...thank you for sharing it!
I started reading this book many times but then always something happened, I got some bookrings coming or other really interesting books that I wanted to read right away so that this was always put back in the shelf. Well, now I finally got to read it and it was an enjoyable story, a good friend for rainy autumn nights. I don't know why, maybe it was the era the book was telling about, but somehow the story reminded me of Robin Hobb's books that I love. Strange, because they're quite different after all.
But thank you for sharing this treasure, we'll start looking for new readers for it!
But thank you for sharing this treasure, we'll start looking for new readers for it!
RELEASE NOTES:
I will release this book somewhere at the Örebro University while visiting there this week.
Merry Christmas!
I will pass this book forward as a part of my Advent Calendar 2007 - Joulukalenteri 2007 !!!!!
I will release this book somewhere at the Örebro University while visiting there this week.
Merry Christmas!
I will pass this book forward as a part of my Advent Calendar 2007 - Joulukalenteri 2007 !!!!!
I found it in the University of Örebro in December. Have kept it during the holidays to read it, but haven't actually read it yet. This is my first encounter with bookcrossing, and I find it very interesting and fun! I plan to release a few books myself very soon.
