One of the reasons why I love a holiday is that I can read good books during it. Many great works are read in my winter or summer holidays. It is really nice to work in a university and to possess two holidays for nearly 3 months. Today I am happy to find that I have re-find and read a wonderful book published by Peking University Press: A Textbook on Social Research Methodology. Its editor-in-chief is Yuan Fang and its associate editor is Wang Hansheng.  

For quite a long time, I thought the foreign books, especially textbooks, in every  research field, are better than Chinese ones. That is not an arbitrary judgement, but an emperical conclusion for more than a decade of studying career. However, this book surprised me. I bought it on dangdang net with other  similar books a few months ago. I have read all other books except it. I can't remember the  reason. Perhaps I thought it deserves an intensive reading, or I thought it looks more difficult than others that should be read in an integrated time, or, the last possibility, I have read it but I forgot, which took places frequently in recent two years. However, that is not important. Today when I was pondering on a research design I thought of it and read it. You can't imagine how excitedI am! All the problems that puzzled me for quite a long time  which I have looked up a lot of books and have talked about with many professional fellows  and got no satisfing results are explained in this book clearly and even elegantly. It is really a miracle as a  Chinese textbook. I think it has surpassed all the similar books both in English or in Chinese I have read. I have to admit that Peking University Press is really wonderful. Many excellent books I have read are published by it.  

Its first merit is depth. It expounds many difficult knowledges in detail avoided by other books. It is prominent for being above following the common layout of this kind of books. Its second merit is breadth. It has refered to many famous papers and books on social research methodology with deeply understanding. This is the source of its value. Its third merit is meticulousness. Every detial can stand up deliberation. This is distinctive. Its fourth merit is the fluent expression. It is easily to be understood with many wonderful instances. Its fifth merit is its appendixes. A few classical research cases are given at the end. In a word, it is a rare methodology textbook on social research. 

As for its content in detail, perhaps I will introduce next time. Perhaps not.