我這十年學中文，同時要上班而養孩子。每次下決心，這次肯定要認真的勤奮的刻苦的學中文，結果都是再次三天打魚兩天曬網。因爲一直住在台灣，要幫女兒看她們的作業所以我的閱讀能力有提高。我不要誇張，除了國小課本之外我所讀的都是菜單，路牌，工作的電子郵件，和讀本。

So reading is mediocre, listening is a bit worse, and productive ability is flat out garbage.

This book is something of a thrill though; I can feel the style of the writing- so much of what I read in Chinese is didactic in nature (either for Taiwanese school kids, or foreigners); this is the first full, not-comic-book, that I've read in Chinese and it's difficult (each 5 page chapter makes me look up 25 words or more- though many I can guess from context)

But it's genuinely well written with effective choices in the order of information and the use of imagery. And that's the first time I've felt that in this language. I may have to read a chapter three times to get there, but it's nice to know there's a there there.

那，我舉一個例子：第二章是關於作者的父親，父親的生活末年還在礦坑工作，被一個落石打了重傷,，右腿打斷了。父親住院幾個禮拜後，他兒子（作者）跑到台北去醫院探病，然後他們倆一起去戲院看電影。

So they go to see a movie, the author and his now crippled father- and he ends the chapter like this:

...... 卻也是最後一次和父親一起看電影。 那是一家比九份昇平戲院大很多的電影院，叫遠東戲院。那天上演的是一部日本紀錄片，導演是市川崑，片名叫「東京世運會」。片子很長，長到父親過世二十年後的現在，還不時在我腦袋裡播放著。

Translated: ... it was also the last time I'd see a movie with my father. The theater was much bigger than the ShengPing Theater in Jiufen; it was called the Far East Theater. The movie that was playing was a Japanese documentary. The director's name: Kon Ichikawa. The Film: Tokyo Olympiad. The movie was a long one, so long in fact that even now, twenty years after my father's passing, it still often plays on in my head.

so far every chapter has a gut-punch of a line like that. so it's hard reading, but I'm going to finish the whole book.