Daily writing prompt
What’s the first book you ever finished and still remember to this day?
I have a vague early remembrance of Robinson Crusoe.
PROMPT: First Book
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Category Archives: Reading
Snail [Limerick]
The snail's friends and family were critics,
claiming -- despite being hermaphroditic:
so, with two ways to coit --
neither did it exploit,
but read books in its shell, strange & cryptic.
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PROMPT: Completely Obsessed
Reading and — I’m sure prior to my ability to do that — being read to.
[Note: I would define the “kid” years as those between infancy and teenage years. So, my obsession with reading was bookended by an obsession with boobies.]
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PROMPT: Lose Yourself
Reading, walking, writing, swimming, thinking, and epic rap battles. You’ve only got one shot…
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PROMPT: Books
I’ve always gotten bogged down in Joyce’s Ulysses. There are some books you need to be in the right headspace to attack.
I should probably read the Bible and the Koran, speaking of literature I’ve never had the mental energy to take up.
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PROMPT: Perfect Space
Daily writing prompt
You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?
Quiet, simple, and in other ways not distracting.
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BOOK: “The Young Monk” [Vol. 4 of the “Journey to the West” Series] ed. by Jeff Pepper / trans. by Xiao Hui Wang
The Young Monk: A Story in Simplified Chinese and Pinyin, 600 Word Vocabulary by Jeff PepperMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site — Imagin8
This book, Volume 4 of the Journey to the West series, takes a turn from the books thus far. While the first three volumes (Ch. 1-7) focus on Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, this volume leaves him under the mountain where the last volume left him, and — instead — focuses on the origin story of Xuanzang — the monk who is sent by the Buddha to India to get scriptures in the original book — based on the real-world monk who did travel to India to complete the selection of Buddhist scriptures available to Chinese Buddhists.
The monk’s story might not sound like it would be as thrilling as that of the superpowered immortal monkey, but it’s a gripping tale. The story begins before Xuanzang is born and ends in his eighteenth year. So, before he is assigned to travel West to get scriptures.
As I’ve said in earlier reviews, I really like the approach of this series. It has Simplified Chinese script, pinyin, an English translation, and a full glossary of terms used, and it’s organized so as to facilitate reading by a language learner.
I continue to recommend this series for language learners who need a linguistically simplified text to be able to read.
View all my reviews
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PROMPT: Topics
I’d like to know more about the capabilities and limitations of AI, a rabbit-hole that I have only recently stumbled upon, but which I am tumbling down hard. Particularly, how to best use it for language acquisition as I am currently learning Chinese and would like to increase my literacy so I can open myself up to a whole new world of books.
I’m also curious about pratfalls and physical comedy all of a sudden.
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PROMPT: Excited
Being able to read Chinese, even if is dumbed-down stories for beginners and I still have to look words up every few sentences. But it feels like I’ve stumbled upon a door to a whole new universe.
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PROMPT: Writing
EPIPHANIES.
But, if you think about it, writing is miraculous. In the scheme of gifts that nature grants, it is way out beyond left field. Encoding ideas and images in simple characters in a way that can evoke emotional or cognitive responses in readers is kind of a superpower. (As is reading.)
Tiger Riding for Beginners 