sparkymarky
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yaay finally finished!!!!!!Finally reached the end of Mao yesterday after a marathon 10 months of reading and felt a huge sigh of relief! Have really enjoyed readng it but was bit heavy in places and very epic in nature!
Felt it gave me much more insight into events described in Wild Swans and a bigger view of events in the world around us though it was often very uncomfortable to read and at all times shocking! I have now got the much shorter book, RED DUST, to read which chronicles one mans life in the years after Mao's death as he travels China to escape persecution in Bejiing. From the first few pages it is not as well written as either wild swans or mao but will stick with it for now as my interest in China is not quite yet sated.
would def reccommend mao though provided you have time to spare as was totally fascinating!
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katey
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Well done on finishing teh tome! 
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eightlegs
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10 months, wow! Well done on finishing it. I think that's the kind of book I'll have to save until I retire (or a long, forced convalesence maybe!!)
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wonderlake
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I have Red Dust TBR 
Was Mao incredibly long pages-wise, or really hard going - or a bit of both ?
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sparkymarky
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well it looks longer but worked out at around the 800 pages mark! Reason it looks longer is because it has two sets of photograph pages and a BIG list of appendices that takes up much of the back of the book .
As to is it hard-going? No not really, not any more than Wild Swans though this tends to be more intense and in your face and is often very very uncomfortable reading! Still I REALLY REALLY enjoyed it even if I did keep putting it down for weeks at a time before picking it up again! If I had stayed with it with no distractioons and no other books on go, would've finished it earlier.
As to RED DUST, might give up on it as not enjoying its style much and am a bit disappointed with the few chapters I have read so far! Will wait until he hits the road before I make a decision as to whether to soldier on but is defenitely NOT another Wild Swans as the cover blurb would have u believe.
Have Richard Dawkins' GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH all about evoloution which i got for my birthday and am itching to start that!
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charlottestar
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Well done finishing it Sparky!!! 
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sirg1006
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Well done Sparkles! I've had it for a few years and never got round to it 
D
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sparkymarky
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richard dawkins greatest show on earth is my new mission- gets really complicated when he talks about molecular genetics, protons, neutrons and electrons but very good and verry interesting! 
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