Wild Swans

When I read Wild Swans written by Jung Chang, I was a college student who was not interested in reading any kind of books at all.  I was almost graduating college but had no future plan and even no motivation for doing anything.  One day, my friend recommended me to read Wild Swans.  She didn’t tell me any detail but said, “Just read it because it would change your life.”  Although I was not a book reader, I knew I needed to change my life and went to a bookstore.  It had been already several years since Wild Swans was published first time, but it was still one of bestsellers and books were in a pile in the bookstore.  I bought one, started reading before going to bed, and ended up reading it overnight.  For two days, I just read the book and slept in between without going college because I got so into it.  I never knew I could keep reading like this for days. 

I do not want to write the detail in case you might want to read it in the future, but I can give some general information.  Wild Swans is the story of Jung Chang her self, her mother, and her ground mother.   These women went through China’s big historical changes including Japanese Invasion, World War II, and Cultural Revolution.  You can imagine people had to be very strong to go through these rough times.  I was shocked by the story but also impressed with these tough women.  I felt like I can do anything I want to do if I try, but nothing will change if I do not try.  This book not only made me become a book reader but also made me a positive person. 

This is one of books I always recommend to anybody, especially to women.  If you need some encouragement or want to study about Chinese modern history, this is the book you should read.  Hope you enjoy it too!

What Reading Gives Me

Hi, I am Keiko, and this is my first post of my blog.  I like reading somebody's blogs because I love reading but have never thought I would create my own blog account until today.  Well, I hope it will be as fun as reading.

When I was deciding a title of my blog, I wondered what reading gives me and googled it.  Surprisingly, I found that some links say "reading gives me a headache", and this is exactly how I felt when I was a teenager.  Reading was the last thing I wanted to do in my spare time at that time; however, now I read whenever I have a chance to do.  So, what made me change?  It was a book my friend recommended to me.  "Wild Swan" by Jung Chang was a very popular book when I was about 20 years old, when I was moving into a little bigger society after high school and also feeling a little weak about myself compared with many other matured people.  After I read "Wild Swans", I was so encouraged like I could do anything.  I do not want to write the detail of the story because I've already decided to write about "Wild Swan" on my next post.  But what I want to say here is that I was so surprised that in the book people's lives were described in such an amazing and powerful way.

A book does not have any sound or visualized pictures like a movie.  In a book, an author describes a whole situation, emotion, background, and everything only by words.  I was instantly intrigued by the power of expression that books have and the joy of my imagination when reading.  What I can imagine from reading is all up to me such as the background scenery, voice of a character, and even smell and taste of the meal.  I even can experience the emotion I hardly have in my real life and feel like expanding my inner world.  It is sometimes like escaping from my real life, reflecting to myself, peeping at somebody's life, and traveling in a quite different unbelievable world.  Reading brings me such joy.

I hope I can share my feeling as a book reader and introduce some books I like to you.  You might be a type of person who tends to get a headache from reading, but if I could share the joy of reading like my friend did to me long time ago, I would be very happy.