Book aroma in Xiamen
By Vivian Zhang & Shen Yang
Photos by Yao Fan

正在热烈进行中的"2004书香鹭岛活动月"是一场让市民体验和享受读书乐趣的盛会, 双语周刊记者为此作了专访美国"书虫"Tucker Harding也乐于将他的读书经验与中国的读者分享.

Want an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city and indulge in some nice books? Well, here comes good news for local bookworms: sponsored by the Xiamen Municipal Publicity Department and other entities, "2004 Book Aroma in Amoy" Reading Month started on November 29, and will go all the way till Jan. 3, 2005. Recently the Common Talk journalists took a probe into the event and also the general situation of the book industry in Xiamen.

About the reading month

The big occasion consists of 11 categories covering 54 events. The forum is the major part that would invite renowned professors and scholars to give lectures to citizens. The other events include soliciting articles on reading, voting for top 10 favorite books, setting up reading rooms at two poverty-stricken remote villages, aiding 10 impoverished students by holding a charity auction of donated books, establishing moving bookstores at 8 communities on each weekend in December and promulgating(公布) recommended book lists drawn by various bookshops, etc. During the month, there will also be various book exhibitions and promotions at most major bookstores in Xiamen.

Parties involved

Yu Hao, the director of the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Press and Publication told the reporter that the volumes of books sold in Xiamen per year is priced over RMB 200 million. With the city's population taken into account, the figure ranks among the highest of cities in China, which speaks for the relatively high educational background of Xiamen citizens.

"Since the reading month kicked off, the municipal governmental departments, bookstores and local citizens have shown great enthusiasm in promoting it. We are considering that such an activity be held regularly on a yearly basis to encourage people to read books, love books and make good use of books." Yu said.

Sun Chi, the General Manager of O2 Sun Bookstore also commented positively of the event which they are participating in. "The Xiamen people are fond of reading and the fact that in the past 9 years we've grown into a chain store can be proof of that. The target readers of O2 Sun are mainly young people aged 20-40. I believe during the month, the reading heat will be generated to a new height."

Li Bizhu, the deputy director of the SM Book City reported that since the month began, the number of readers in the book city has surged. "Since the book city is the largest comprehensive bookstore in Fujian, many events during the reading month are supposed to take place here. We are very pleased to see our involvement in this public welfare activity because it is very constructive and helpful in promoting the inner level of Xiamen citizens as well as the image of the city."

Book market in Xiamen

The expenditure for reading books coincides with citizens' income in Xiamen, said Zhang Shuyan, general manager of Xiamen International Book Center. According to some big bookstores' statistics, the best-selling books are about literature, art, science, laws, computers, finance and foreign languages.

The downtown of Xiamen is quite small in terms of size and the total population is only about 1.2 million within Xiamen Island. However, there are more than 5 large-scale bookstores, such as Xinhua Bookstore, O2 Sun Bookstore, Xiamen International Book Center, Xiaofeng Bookstore, etc. With the medium and small ones, the number of bookstores is up to 200, from which local citizens will definitely benefit.

Hard work, big payoff
By Tucker Harding



What a great thing to have a "Reading Month". In America, we have all sorts of "weeks": National Reading Week, Writing Week, TV Turn-Off Week, Poetry Week, Library Week and many more; but we seem to have very few month-long events.

There is an aspect of reading that doesn't get much attention and is the reason why many people miss out on the joy of the world within the word. What non-readers often don't realize is that, like many forms of self-improvement, much of our skill in reading comes from practice, not from some sort of genetic predisposition or great parenting. Of the people I know who either don't like reading or don't read much, there is a common cause: they are bad at it. They are "poor" readers and, because of this, they can't read more than a couple of pages at a time before they feel like doing something else, and, having done this "something else" enough times, their desire to read has all but died. "I'm just not a reader", they say.

Some would argue that a person's attention span is closely connected to reading ability because if you can't pay attention to what's going on in the page, you'll never be able to finish a book. But it isn't quite that easy. Non-readers don't necessarily have attention disorders, just like not all readers are adept concentrators. After anyone does enough reading, their reading speed and comprehension(理解) both increase, and, most importantly, once at a certain level, reading becomes enjoyable. A safe analogy for this is physical training or exercise. Someone who's out of shape often hates exercise. Lifting weights is agonizing(令人痛苦的). Running is like hell. Each repetition or footfall invokes fatigue and pain, each gasping breath from poorly trained lungs makes the new athlete want to stop. Once home from such grueling, torturous activity, there is but one thought: never will I do that again. For the failed reader, it becomes a preference for other stimulation, such as movies or games or television.

Human nature is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Most of life's greatest pleasures, however, are only attainable through enduring a certain amount of constructive pain. After surviving a few uncomfortable weeks of running, a 15-minute jog begins to go by quickly. In the weight room, what used to be agonizing on the bench press slowly becomes manageable, and, it actually becomes unsatisfying unless more weight is added. Once over the learning curve, these hard-to-start-but-glad-you-did activities, like playing guitar, drawing, or, yes, reading, become a source of pride and of fulfillment and happiness. Eventually, one can run for an hour straight without even thinking about it and feel great afterwards; one can read for an hour or two or three without skipping a beat, knocking down pages without even realizing it. Before long it's time to start looking for another book or adding more weight or running more miles.

The reasons for becoming an expert reader are many: you can read and enjoy books with almost the same speed and pleasure as others watch movies or documentaries. Yet with books, the impact is always greater, healthier for your mind, and the variety is infinitely greater than films will ever be. A strong reader, while going through a book, experiences the same sensations as a person watching a movie, only with words there is even greater clarity as the mind itself helps create the environment being portrayed. Becoming a good reader also helps you to become a good communicator, especially with written words.

What comes of being a good movie-watcher? Sitting there and having images flash before your eye is more apt to turn your brain off than on. Once good at reading, your brain will tend to stay "on" for hours, with no effort, and the only downside is that it's hard to turn off, leaving you with an insatiable(无法满足的) yearning for more ideas, more knowledge and more stories. In other words... you'll need more books!