Keira's Bookmark

Unless you read my (so far only) substack post about how I learnt 4 languages, or you actually know me IRL, you might not know that I lived in Taiwan from November 2024 to June 2025, studying Chinese at a language school there. Naturally, I also bought a lot of books whilst I was there. This post is essentially my book haul for those months (minus the few English books I bought and the Korean books I bought whilst in Korea – that’ll come later when the books actually arrive because I had to ship them back from Korea when I was on holiday there by actual literal ship so they’re taking awhile).

This might be of interest to you if you already speak fluent Chinese since there are quite a few Chinese literature-type books on here (some traditional Chinese, some simplified, some available in both), but also if you’re learning Chinese at an upper intermediate level or above!

I’ve split this into a couple of sections for easier navigation, so feel free to skip to the sections you’re most interested in.

1. Books for Learning Chinese
2. Novels
3. Graphic Novels and Manhua
4. Poetry and Non-Fiction
5. Children’s Books
6. Question Time
7. More Like This

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Housekeeping: Notes and Disclaimers

Where possible, I have linked to a website that does international shipping in case you want to get any of these books yourselves! I’ve linked to the physical book where possible, but some of them are also available as ebooks. For books that are also available in English, I have linked to the English version if you click on the English titles!

Note: English translations of titles are my own unless there is an official English translation or an English title has been published on the Chinese cover (which happens more than you might think – and they’re not always direct translations).

I am a Bookshop.org (UK) affiliate. Please note that links to the English versions of some of these books are affiliate links. If you purchase through Bookshop UK (support independent bookshops!) following one of my links I receive a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay.

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Books for Learning Chinese

Of course, since I was in Taiwan for the sole purpose of learning Chinese, I couldn’t not buy any Chinese textbooks! Some of these are books I bought in Taiwan, some I bought in Korea, and some I bought in the UK at the end of June when I got back.

First, I bought a couple of reference books. Chinese Synonyms Usage Dictionary is a really useful book if you struggle to figure out when to use similar words, or what the difference is. Likewise, An A to Z Grammar for Chinese Language Learners is a great reference especially for beginner to intermediate grammar. It doesn’t have all the more advanced grammars, but I still think it’s pretty useful!

I also bought The Ultimate Guide to Chinese Vocabulary & TOCFL Band B Level 4 and 華測會不會 (which is also a TOCFL level 4 prep book, but consisting of past papers and explanations of the answers) in preparation for the Taiwanese Chinese language exam TOCFL in May (which I actually somehow managed to get a level 5/6 on, yay!).

Next, I bought some comprehensive Chinese textbooks. I bought two whilst I was in Taiwan that I used in the language school there – A Course in Contemporary Chinese 3 (which is low intermediate/B1) and Multicultural Perspectives on Taiwan (which is high B1-low C1 – so mostly B2). Then when I was in Korea I got a couple of books to continue studying with – 표준어 한국어 6상 [Standard Chinese 6A] and the HSK level 6 textbooks.

I also got a couple of other books to practice with, including Breaking News Chinese and 포커스 중국어 독해 2 [Focus Chinese Reading 2], which are both more news or academic style reading textbooks, Contemporary Chinese Literature, which is (obviously) more literary reading practice, and finally 중국어 통역.번역 [Chinese Interpretation and Translation] which is a textbook for practicing translating Chinese to and from Korean.

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Novels

I didn’t only buy books for learning Chinese, though, I also bought quite a few novels.

One of the best ways to start reading novels in a new language is to read books you already know and love, so you don’t have difficulties following the story. For Chinese, I bought the Chinese versions of Heir of Fire [火心傳人] by Sarah J Maas (I prefer other books in the series, but they only had books 1 and 3 in stock at the time), Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 [82年生的金智英] by Cho Namjoo and Before the Coffee Gets Cold [在咖啡冷掉之前] by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

I also bought another book that was translated into Chinese, but not for any reason except it sounded interesting. That book is 小貓料亭營業中 [The Chibineko Kitchen] by Yuta Takahashi.

Of course, I also bought plenty of novels that were originally written in Chinese! These are a bit too hard for me at the moment because my character recognition is… lacking (and slow) but I’m sure I can get to a point fairly soon where I can start (slowly) reading these. Of these, 億，茶時 is a light novel.

• 為我辦一場西式的喪禮 [Hold Me a Western-style Funeral] by 游善鈞 [You Shanjun]
• 快樂茶行 [Joyful Tea Company] by 李旺台 [Li Wangtai]
• 眾神之島 [Island of a Thousand Deities 1] by 光風 [Guang Feng]
• 我的世界不見了 [My World is Gone] by 橘子 [Orange Tsao]
• 憶，茶時 [Taste the Tea Fragrance] by 絢君 [Xuan Jun]

I also got a couple of Chinese books from a Chinese bookshop in Korea – they sell books from China rather than Taiwan, so some books that aren’t available in Taiwan because there’s no traditional Chinese version are available here. I picked out three books based on shows I enjoyed, and only realised after I bought them that they’re all by the same author – 墨宝非宝 [Mo Bao Fei Bao] !

• 一生一世美人骨 – This is the source material for the C-Drams One and Only and Forever and Ever (Bai Lu, Allen Ren). I’m actually still too scared to watch One and Only (tragic! heartache!) but I’ve watched Forever and Ever multiple times. You can also read it online for free too: (Chinese) (English)
• 归路 – The source material for the C-Drama Road Home (Jing Boran, Tan Songyun). You can also read this online for free as a webnovel. There used to be an English version but all the links to it are broken 🤷‍♀️
• 在暴雪时分 – The source material for Amidst a Snowstorm of Love (Leo Wu, Zhao Jinmai). You can also read this online for free as a webnovel.

I also really love historical Chinese dramas – especially ones that are a bit more serious but still have a bit of romance – so of course I had to buy some books in the same genre. These are definitely too hard at the moment, but I have lots of time to work towards them!

• 白日提燈 （上）by 黎青燃  [Li Qing Ran] – This is book 1 of 3 in the wuxia series that the upcoming C-Drama Love Beyond the Grave (Dilraba Dilmurat, Arthur Chen) is based on.
• 雪中悍刀行 Part 1, Books 1-3 by 烽火戲諸侯 [Feng Huo Xi Zhu Hou] – This is the first part of the … series that the show Sword Snow Stride (Zhang Ruo Yun) is based on. We still don’t have a second season of this show, so I guess I need to quickly learn enough Chinese to read all 20 volumes and find out what happens. I didn’t buy all 20 though, I’m not that crazy [read: not that rich]. I only bought 2 and 3 because they were sold as a set with book 1.
• 星漢燦爛 1 by   關心則亂 [Guan Xin Ze Luan]- This is the first book in the series that Love Like the Galaxy (Zhao Lusi, Leo Wu) is based on. Luckily this one isn’t quite as long as the previous one – only 6 books.

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Graphic Novels and Manhua

This section has books that are much more my current level – I still need to look quite a bit up (my listening skills are so much better than my reading and books never let me forget it), but it’s manageable!

A lot of the manhua and illustrated essay type books you find in Taiwan are actually translations – from Japanese in the case of graphic novel/comic style ones, and from Korean in the case of the sort of essay-meets-illustrated-poem vibe ones. The first there here are originally Japanese and the final two are originally Korean.

• 戀家的人 [People Who Love Home] by 井田千秋 [Ida Chiaki] – I read this one in Spring!
• 麵包狗: 住在麵包屋的小狗狗們 [Bread Dogs: Puppies Living in the Bakery] by Kodama
• 溫柔的白熊 [The Gentle Polar Bear] by Shirosame
• 魔幻時刻 [Magical Moments] by Jedit – I’m reading this one at the moment!
• 喜歡，普通生活 [I Like Ordinary Life] by Ban Jisoo

I didn’t just buy translated ones though! I also bought an entire manhua series about tea! It’s a historical fiction manhua about the establishment of Taiwan as a global exporter of oolong tea. The Chinese title is 異人茶跡 (it goes by Formosa Oolong Tea in English) and it was written by 張季雅 [Kiya].

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Poetry and Non-Fiction

I also bought some non-fiction and poetry books.

I bought three poetry books:

• 病貓集 [Sick Cats Collection] by 趙社工 [Zhao Shegong]
• 還可以活活看 [You Can Still Give Living a Go and See] by 游善鈞 [You Shanjun]
• Thinker’s Invisible Wings by Yiyan Han (a bilingual book).

I also bought two “self-help” type books which I don’t normally particularly like reading but these are both laid out quite cutely and self-help books are relatively easy to read since they’re fairly predictable. The two I bought are:

• 把你的心，放在綿軟軟的地方 [Place Your Heart Somewhere Soft] by Koseko Nobuyuki – I’ve started this one but have put it on pause for a bit to read something else.
• 把自己重養一遍 [Raise Yourself Again] by 梁爽 [Liang Shuang]

I absolutely love tea, so of course I bought some books about tea. I bought two books (圖解茶經 and 茶經解讀) that sort of interpret and explain the Classic of Tea by Lu Yu , which is the classic book about tea, written around 760 CE. I also bought one that is a modern version thereof – not an interpretation of the old text but rather borrowing its structure to write a modern-day version one (現代茶經). Finally, I bought another one that doesn’t base itself on the Classic of Tea at all but similarly gives a range of information about tea and surrounding culture (茶味裡的隱知識).

I also got some other varied non-fiction books – some essays, some about history, some classics etc.

• 你走慢了我的時間 [You Slowed Down My Time: Essays] by 張西 [Zhang Xi]
• 菜市台南 [Stories from Tainan’s Traditional Food Markets] by 陳薔安 [Chen Qiangan]
• 這不是一本畫畫書 [This is Not A Colouring Book] by Hank
• 女人的中國醫療史：漢唐之間的健康照顧與性別 [A Women’s History of Chinese Medical Care: Gender Roles in Health Care, Han to Tang Dynasties] by 李貞德 [Li Zhende]
• 論語新繹 [New Interpretation of The Analects] by Confucius and 吳宏一 [Wu Hongyi]

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Children’s Books

Last but not least, I got a couple of children’s books. These could be a little easier than some of the other books (although not necessarily massively easy because none of them are about daily life). The first is a picture book called 別怕 [Don’t Be Afraid!], that I actually already read – it was my first book in Chinese. The other two – 潘朵拉盒子 [Pandora’s Box] and 消除煩惱的秘密花園 （上）[The Worry-Relieving Secret Garden 1] – are both more 5-8 long chapter book type books.

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Question Time

Do you like reading in a language other than your mother tongue?

If you’re a language learner, do you have a go-to method for starting to read in a new language?

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再見，

Keira x.