Bestsellers
I go to a bookstore whenever I visit a new place.
Bookstores have always been my sanctuary. There is something enigmatic and mythical about a bookstore, or a library, or the internet, as an entity filled with information and permutations and combinations of how the information has been assembled. It’s a game of possibility that can aggregate to a more significant effect. For example, I could be reading about some new business strategy, and I can tell my father about it at dinner later that day, after which he’d shared with his friend who happened to encounter a similar scenario for his company.
The minute act of information acquisition, transference, and reception could have a significant impact, as human behaviors and interactions with each other are all captured with words and languages. One of the few places you get to see these dynamics is through a bookstore.
I usually go to the “best-seller” section first; it’s the most direct glimpse into the people of that community. What I saw today in the Chinese bookstore were an overwhelming sense of optimism and intellectual curiosity. They are books on business, productivity, philosophy, literature, and emotional intelligence. There isn’t much self-help and page-turners as I remembered; what I saw was substance and deep inquiry both into oneself and the environment around. One title that caught my attention was the novel “The Moon and Sixpence” by Maugham; it’s a first-person narrative of a middle-aged English stockbroker who abandons his wife and children to pursue his desire to become an artist. I read the book a few years ago, I remember its most memorable quote:
“If you look on the ground in search of a sixpence, you don’t look up, and so miss the moon.”
Curious about what people think of this book, I went on Amazon China to see the reviews. People generally admire the man’s courage to leave his old life behind and pursue something that seems like madness, something primal, and something outside of “the system”. A society is intellectually vibrant when people start asking difficult questions. People in China start to look at the moon, while diligently learning how to think and what to see.
In the States, on the other hand, bookstores exhibit an interesting dichotomy between some breakthrough tech or self-help and political restlessness. I don’t recall where I exactly I read about it, but “rage” seems to be the word of the year in the U.S — rage from the underdogs, rage from the neglected, rage from the irrelevant. Rage can certainly be the impetus for movements, but rage can also hinder the optimism needed for effective actions.
Just now, I took a look at Japan’s best-seller list on Amazon; the majority of is fiction and mangas. Mangas are great, but they also reflect the disease of alienation and escapism haunting the Japanese society. I’m visiting Japan in a few weeks, and I would definitely visit a physical bookstore.
I recommend checking out the bestseller section the next time you visit a new city.
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