Learning English

I'm reading an English text book. I think I'll finish it in two or three days. The book is quite difficult to understand, but it helps me to read English.  

After reading the book, I'll read lots of books again. I have so many books to read in my bookshelf and kindle. 

Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver is an American writer who is famous for short stories. I've read his novels in both Japanese and English. 

Of course, I read his novels in Japanese first. A Japanese famous writer Haruki Murakami translated Carver's novels. His stories are simple but deep. He wrote them with simple English. 

Dazai Osamu

Dazai Osamu is a well known Japanese auther. He wore the dark side of humanity. He seemed to be destroyed himself. He drawn alcohol and women. He sometimes committed suicide, and finally killed himself with his partner. 

He was so popular when I was a middle school student that I was also hooked on his novels. I read all of his books and I even wrote some short stories imitating his way. After graduated high school, I've never read his books again. I feel a little bit scared of reading his books now for some reasons. 

John le Carre

When I was in my twenties, one of my favorite auther was John le Carre. He's famous for spy novels. 

The background of his books are mainly the Cold War era. My first one was The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. He described spy activities between Eastern Block and Western Block and the story went in Berlin. The plot was twisting and twisting. Yon need to read carefully otherwise you'll be getting lost. 

My favorite series of his books are George Smiley's one. He is retired MI6 member but he often works for Britain. You can't find lots of violence or action in his novels, but I bet you would be excited and thrilled by the stories. I think I'll try to read his spy stories in English someday. 

Roald Dhal

Roald Dahl is a famous English auther and I'm a big fan of him. He wrote lots of popular children's books and many excellent short stiries. 

His best short storie for me is Man From the South. The story is strange and weird. I bet you would shiver when you read the last sentence. 

I think his most famous children's novel is  Chrlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was the first children's story for him. The story was filmed twice. Johnny Depp was took part in one of them. 

Allen Say

I picked up and read some picture books from my book shelf the other day. One of the auther was Allen Say. He is a Japanese American and lives in the U.S. 

I have two of his books, Grandfather's Journey and Tea with Milk. The two books are alike that both of them dealt with Japanese American who came back to Japan from the U.S. 

I like both his illustrations and stories. He wrote his first picture book when he was 50 years old. 

8 Hours Studying

I took part in a online monthly English learning event called Eight Hours Studying Club, 8勉部. Only you have to do for it is simply to study English for eight hours in a day or two days and to tweet it with the hashtag #8勉部. But you don't need study hard on that day; Watching videos, listening radio, reading novels and whatever in English can be good for the event. 

Many English learners on Twitter join the invent. You can get lots of energy from othe learners and their tweets. Why don't you join us!