What Are You Reading?

My Japanese-English Dictionary.

Gotta learn all I can right?! :D

Plus it helps my Kanji comprehension too!

A quick recommendation.

For those who like Fantasy Novels, Lord of the Rings type Adventure stories, filled with sword fights, and battles, and all that hugga mugga...

I'd like to recommend Raymond E. Feist's work.

He's an American writer, works in the fantasy genre, and he's very clearly fascinated with feudal Japan.

He opens the "Rift War" trilogy in a quasi-European forrest setting, filled with Knights and Barons, and brave woodsmen. Then a "rift" in space opens, and into the forrest marches an army of warriors that resemble, more than a little bit, an army from the warring era of Japan.

The first two books were a lot of fun to read. But for me it really took off in a book called "Daughter of Empire".

In "Daughter", the action shifts to the home world of the faux "Japanese". The main character is the daughter of a once great family of the Military caste. Her male relatives are all killed, and she has to find a way to take over her clan, and survive in the muderous world of power politics. The setting of which read very much like pre Nobunaga Japan to me.

You have to be a fan of the Action Fantasy genre to really enjoy these books. But if you are, and if you're fascinated with feudal Japan... give the books a look.

uncle tom's cabin---
i'm not reading it for any subject, i just wanna read it.

I'm halfway through "The Sword of No-Sword : Life of the Master Warrior Tesshu" by John Stevens. He was the one that Saigo Takamori surrendered to. his style of swordsmanship looks almost impossible to accomplish. defeating 200 opponents in a single day's combat! most people today feel it's too deep and strenuous.

I was cleaning out my spare closet and rediscovered my old comic books. One of the covers: :D

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Currently reading this, again...
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Anyone heard about the movie? The casting worries me a little.

http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/hitchblog/blog.htm
^^^
Movie site.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/
^^^
Cast.

bmwracer wrote:I was cleaning out my spare closet and rediscovered my old comic books. One of the covers: :D

[image]

damn! lucky guy!.. how much is that now?? :rolleyes:

MixxDreamer wrote:damn! lucky guy!.. how much is that now?? :rolleyes:

Not much really. I bought it (and others) at a swap meet. The quality of the comic books isn't that great... It's more for sentimental reasons... :)

MixxDreamer wrote:damn! lucky guy!.. how much is that now?? :rolleyes:

That's one of the good thing being born a lot earlier in this earth... :beaten:

I'm currently reading this :)

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The Man wrote:
If you wanna' go contemporary lit', Laura Joh Rowland's Samurai detective Sano series seems to delight every reader whom I've recommended them; she knows her Jpn. feudal history (she even includes samurai in love w/samurai :naughty: characters). But, when you're done with 'em, you'll respect the series as solid who- and whydunnits.

This sounds interesting think I'll check this out too. Where'd you get it from?

I was just wondering if any of you have read The Dorama Encyclopedia written by Jonathan Clements and Motoko Tamamuro which was published last year. As a relative newcomer to dorama, I found the book to be a valuable introductory resource. That book, along with sites like this one, have enabled me to become more knowledgeable about dorama and have served to pique my interest even more in this genre. The only negative has been that, as I read about more and more series, my disappointment at not having access to many dorama I would like to watch has increased. :(

shin2 wrote:I was just wondering if any of you have read The Dorama Encyclopedia written by Jonathan Clements and Motoko Tamamuro which was published last year. As a relative newcomer to dorama, I found the book to be a valuable introductory resource. That book, along with sites like this one, have enabled me to become more knowledgeable about dorama and have served to pique my interest even more in this genre. The only negative has been that, as I read about more and more series, my disappointment at not having access to many dorama I would like to watch has increased. :(

Oooh, sounds like a cool book to own as a reference... Thanks for the heads up. :applaud:

there's a jdorama encyclopedia now?!?! Wow didn't know that. Anyone have the ISBN? :D

oniichan, i already posted about this, on the first page of "whats everyone reading?" thread :sweat: u didnt notice?? :rolleyes:

MixxDreamer wrote:oniichan, i already posted about this, on the first page of "whats everyone reading?" thread :sweat: u didnt notice?? :rolleyes:

Most likely, but I forgot about it. Gomen. :sweat: My mind's cluttered up with women... :hehe:

bmwracer wrote:
Most likely, but I forgot about it. Gomen. :sweat: My mind's cluttered up with women... :hehe:

same here :hehe: :hehe:

hehe its cool.. it happens all the time :mrgreen:

MixxDreamer wrote:hehe its cool.. it happens all the time :mrgreen:

Yep. Had a dream about an old gf a couple of days ago. Messed me up for the rest of the day.... :(

bmwracer wrote:
Yep. Had a dream about an old gf a couple of days ago. Messed me up for the rest of the day.... :(

Yeah, I know what you mean. :(

The ISBN is 1-880656-81-7. It is published by Stone Bridge Press. I believe I purchased my copy through Amazon.com. The book is over 400 pages long and retails for $24.95. Not only does the book give you extensive information on the history of Japanese drama, but it provides a lot of information about every dorama series from 1953 to 2003. Information includes English title, Japanese title, month and year televised, producer, director, scriptwriter, cast, what Japanese channel carried the drama, title of the theme song and who sang it, plot summary, and, when applicable, what U.S. channel broadcast it and if it had English subtitles when it was broadcast in the U.S. Oh yeah, it also has an appendix which gives the Mandarin title of over 140 of these Japanese dramas. BTW, one of the authors I mentioned in my initial post, Jonathan Clements, is also one of the authors of The Anime Encyclopedia, which was published a couple of years earlier and includes the same kind of extensive information about anime that The Dorama Encyclopedia has about dorama.