A better reader for mandarin ebook/stories

Hi everyone,
 

I’ve been working on a Chinese reading tool and one issue keeps coming up:
it’s surprisingly hard to find texts at the right difficulty level.

Often things are either:

• too easy (no progress), or

• too hard (too many unknown words → frustrating)

From my experience, reading only works well when you understand most of the text, but still encounter some new words.

Right now I’m trying to figure out how to better match readers with appropriate content (HSK level, vocabulary size, etc.), but it’s not trivial.

I’d be curious to hear:

• How do you personally choose what to read?

• Do you rely on HSK levels, word count, or just trial and error?

• Have you found resources that consistently hit the right level?

I’m still refining the tool, so any insight would help a lot.

It would help to know about what HSK level you are at and what kind of things you usually read. But let me tell you a story that might put things into perspective.

 I lived in China for 7 years. Before I left I was taking advanced level classes. We were studying things such as the Analects. About two years before I was in these classes I took a look at a practice HSK 4 exam (the old one) and felt like I could pass it with just a little study. 

Before I left I went to the Great Wall. While I was there I met a woman from Guizhou who owned a hotel there and was in Beijing to study the hotel business there. We met in the afternoon at the Great Wall and hung out for the rest of the day. We even went to go eat together in the evening. But before we left the Great Wall I noticed a foreigner who was struggling to speak with a worker. Having experienced that situation I went over to help. Turns out she wanted to go to a certain stop around Dongzhimen but wasn't sure if the train she wanted to take was going there. So I asked the worker for her and the worker explained to me which trains to take, where and when to get off to change trains, etc. I relayed this to the foreigner and made sure she understood where she was headed and she was on her way.

Now I had a plane ticket that was for a day after my passport expired. I went to the local police station to ask if that would be a problem and they told me that matter was beyond their purview and gave me a number to call regarding immigration. I called that number and spoke with the woman who answered. She very professionally yet sternly notified me that catching a flight like this was a violation of Chinese law and that if I tried to leave the country I would be detained and not allowed to leave before facing official consequences. Having been there 7 years I knew the on the ground reality. More than a few times I had been to renew my residence permit on a Friday and the worker told me I was missing a document and to get it and bring it back Monday and assured me that it wasn't a big deal and would be fine, and it always was. This is how I knew that woman was just spouting the official line. It was also mid-autumn festival, so I knew the folks at the airport didn't want ant extra work. On top of all that I was absolutely certain that Chinese people wouldn't choose to punish a foreigner who wants to leave China for good by making them stay lol.

So with all that in mind I concocted a story to tell the agents at the airport when the time came. I had missed a flight before so went to the airport like a day early and happened to meet two women from Eswatini who were stranded and had no way to communicate with their family or the Chinese workers. I helped them contact their family and translated between them and the Chinese workers. When it was time for me to leave the first agent called his supervisor over when he saw my passport was expired. I was about 15% into the story I was telling the supervisor when he cut me off and said "that's enough." They had me sign a form acknowledging I broke that law, made me pay like 200 kuai (about $60) and let me be on my way.

I've been back in the US for about a year and a half. I've been studying Chinese since I've been back, and I've just recently begun to be able to watch shows with just Chinese subtitles. I recently ordered a kids book series which is intended for Chinese kids 3-6 years old and I can't get through any of the stories without having to look up words I've never seen before. When I look up some of these word from these kids stories they turn out to be like HSK 5/6 sometimes 7 level! So after those advanced classes, doing all that speaking in Chinese with natives, border agents, etc, I still can't even read a children's book to completion. I'd suggest watching things like Xi Yang Yang (available on Youtube) and read books meant for children to learn. 十万个为什么 is a good series. My gf at the time in China told me if you can read one of those books all the way through you're basically good to go.