I will choose books over bread everyday

The temperature has dropped sharply this week, time to curl down with a good book in a warm house with the aroma of coffee in the air. I went to the Bookworm readers’ club launch party yesterday evening. It was at the newly relocated bookworm (a library/bookstore/café). Compared with the old one, this new bookworm is more spacious, brighter, and more comfortable seats and much better laid out overall. The launch party is sponsored by Penguin publishing house and Cityweekend. When I filled out the survey, I pondered on the question “how many books do you read every month?”, well, honestly, I haven’t been reading many books in the past three years, maybe 3 books a year, but too shamed to tell the truth, I wrote down “1” on the answer line. They have a good selection of books, not as in most bookstores at the airport, where you only find those best sellers, which in most cases are only entertaining but not inspiring. I bought a few books, including Ha Jin’s “War Trash”, the story about a Chinese who got caught by Americans during Korean War in the 50s, and this books got him the award the second time in the USA.

I sat down on a sofa in the back of the room, quite touched by the quote on the survey paper “A lonely booklover once said I will choose books over bread everyday.” We were supposed to carry this on by writing limerick, which I have no clue how to go about in English. Again, I realized the limitations of not being the native speaker. Then I started chatting with a few people sitting around me. It turned out they are all in music industry, two guys, one French and one Dutch, are both DJs playing in some clubs here in Beijing. We talked about the clubs around town and the music they play. We all agreed there are not many good clubs in town really, and there was this club called “Cloud Nine” seemed to be all our favorite, but sadly it was closed two years ago. Yes, I remember that was such a swanky bar, with lounge downstairs and dance room upstairs. Stylish seats and nice deco, there was a Jazz band playing downstairs and some good guest DJs playing upstairs in the dance room. Well, good music, just like good books, are universal…

Then it was the lucky draw, I didn’t expect to win anything as I almost never won anything from lucky draw in my life, but guess what I got lucky yesterday! I won the book “Not quite the diplomat”by Chris Patton and it is hardcover copy as well. That was a really nice surprise, or the climax of the night for me.

At the door when leaving the bookworm, I saw the dark haired French DJ guy, “Nice meeting you”, I said, He turned to me and said “You are leaving”, as if it was too early to leave a party, “Yes, going home”, I said. “So I will see you around?!” he said with a smile, “I guess so.” I said, smiled back. Yes, he is indeed French.

Walking on the street, the cold air suddenly caught me, but with a few books on my hands, somehow I felt the wind is not as chilly as before and I am coming back to the old days in my life where I was this little girl always indulged herself in books, very shy and sensitive, but I guess I have grown up, becoming a more sociable and open minded person. What's not changed inside me though is that I still have an artist heart.