CRAZY FOR KANJI: PREVIEW OF THE BOOK

People at every level of kanji mastery can get something out of Crazy for Kanji. Newbies can certainly acquire the basics they need, while even native speakers will learn new things and find challenges. Most sample pages featured below require no prior knowledge of kanji, with the exception of the game. 

How Crazy for Kanji Is Organized

Crazy for Kanji is about a complicated topic, so there's a lot going on inside it, but it shouldn't be hard to find just what you need. Here's how the chapters break down:

• • The Preface will ideally whet your appetite for kanji.
• • The Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 look at how single kanji behave.
• • Chapter 3 examines their behavior in groups of two or more.
• • Chapter 4 explores what kanji say about Japan.
• • Chapter 5 conversely looks at what the Japanese say about kanji.
• • Chapter 6 compares Chinese and Japanese kanji, with a section on the use of these characters in Korean.
• • Chapter 7 provides tips on studying kanji in enjoyable, effective ways.

At the beginning of every chapter in Crazy for Kanji, you’ll find a discussion of a particular theme. After that you’ll see several types of “exhibits” relating to the chapter theme. These exhibits (which range from light factoids to in-depth analyses) have names such as “Thematic Explorations,” “Spectacular Shapes,” “Just the Facts,” and “Game.”

Here is a link to the PDF of the very detailed table of contents:

• Table of Contents (4 pp., so be sure to scroll down)

Sample Pages from Crazy for Kanji

The links to these sample pages all go to downloadable PDFs:

• From the Preface: “Thematic Explorations: Place Names of Note” and “Spectacular Shapes: Busy Bodies and Real Lookers”
• From the main text of Chapter One: a section called “Importing a Writing System” (which starts partway down p. 36 and continues onto p. 37, so scroll down)
• From Chapter Two: “Thematic Explorations: Just Add Water”
• From Chapter Five: “Just the Facts: Kanji Sound Effects in Manga”
• From Chapter Five: “Game: Kanji Word Find”
• From Chapter Seven: “Thematic Explorations: Parallel Features”