Of course the three great classical novels of China had great influence on me. I just didn’t understand Dream of the Red Chamber then and thought it was totally nonsense. In the book, there’re eating, drinking and talking all the time , I just did those things every day, why should I need to read a book talking about those things? However, I understand the life in the Dream of the Red Chamber can be called real life now.

  I just talked about the influence of them before, so I don’t need to repeat them here. My neighbor was also my Chinese teacher of elementary school. He had a lot of books and I felt very lucky and honored to be his neighbor. There will be all kinds of birds if the forest is big enough. In the same way, there will be all kinds of books if the collection is big. I once read a Wuxia novel The valley of Peachblossom and Women. I didn’t know what it was talking about. Just a valley, a group of women, also peachblossom, I can’t remember other things, but I remember a person in it clearly. The guy was with upper part of body female and lower part of body male. The man loving the guy was painful about his lower part and the woman loving the guy was painful about his upper part. I was really confused then and wondered there was really this kind of guy existed in the world. Now I find the answer, this kind of guy is called shemale or ladyboy, and Thailand is the most famous country for producing them.

  I also found a book with name Fountain and finished reading it, I can’t remember anything about it now. When I was in junior high school, I had the chance to borrow Jin Yong Corpora from my classmate and could keep it for a weekend. I just did nothing except reading during those two days, but I couldn’t remember anything but one in flying fox. It’s ended with a question, should cut or not with knife? Really in a quandary. Though I remembered most of plot of Jin’s novels, I just got them from TV dramas.

    Another Wuxia Novel with author Green Cloud, the name of which was Ruthless Killer, though it was inglorious author, I thought it was a real Wuxia novel. It was a pity I only had a half of it and didn’t find the missing half of it until today, at least, it’s lucky I read the end. Just like most of other novels, it was about a perfect knight-errant with a couple of beautiful girls loving him.

    I could only read the common sense of literature then, reading the list of classical novels, I really wanted to read them, but had no chance. Now I have the chance, but have no desire to read them. Really a irony! Just read a few of them such as Midnight, I think it’s just so-so. Among the six great literary masters, I only read all works of Lu Xun and part of Lao She’s. I never found Lu Xun’s novels were boring and all of which could make me thinking after I closed the book. I only liked Rickshaw Boy of Lao She.

    When I visited the home of my cousin, I found two love story books. For the first time, I read love story books. One book had two novels, Girlfriend and Love Pea, both of which were written by Qiong Yao. I couldn’t remember Love Pea, but I could remember Girlfriend. The No.1 male was sensitive and loved the No.1 female, but she got married with No.2 male, who wasn’t so romantic as No.1, but won his way. The No.1 male said to the No.1 female, “how could you allow yourself to spend the rest of life with the senseless guy?” Unlike most people, I hated the No.1 male a little, he achieved nothing and talked of only love all day, flattering himself to be romantic. The No.2 male struggled hard to make himself successful to get married with his beloved woman, of which I think was the most romantic thing. The name of the other book was Glass Dream. The No.1 female was a perfect girl, outstanding on everything. She was loved by everyone except the No.1 male, but she made the No.1 male love her easily and then continue to play all kinds of tricks to torture him. By the way, the girl’s name was Wu Xinhe. I wasn’t able to read the end because the last half of the book was used by people wiping asses. During that time, people weren’t as rich as now and couldn’t even afford white toilet paper. It was a suspense in my heart, for so many years, I tried to find the last half of the book by Internet, anyhow, I failed. It will become a pity in my heart forever.

  When I was in high school, there was a bookstore Beijing Bookstore selling secondhand books. I often visited it and bought books because they were really cheap. Most of books I bought were about historical giants and I wanted to use them to inspire myself, but without success. Everyone has its own way, you can’t imitate. I think there is no need to talk about the books I bought too much because nearly all of them were about history.

    There was also erotica, I didn’t even buy it once, not because I wasn’t willing to read, I just had a thin skin to buy it. I also read Lu Yao’s Common World and didn’t remember it clearly but several names. Probably there wasn’t so much for me to remember something in a Common World.

  Actually I read more on history than on literature. I read People’s Literature a lot and found it was really a great magazine. What’s more, Family Story Time was a great magazine I liked a lot. I guess I’ll stop now. Maybe I’ll continue to write if I can remember any good books I read before. Let’s call it a day!

  People have to find things to do to make themselves busy and I’m just one of them.