Personal Library -- My University

Author: Maxim Gorky (China), translated by Ai Qinglian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features:
As the ancients said, "Travel ten thousand miles and read ten thousand books." For modern people, traveling ten thousand miles is easy, but reading ten thousand books is difficult. The wheels of technology are sweeping across the world at an astonishing speed. Modern people, busy in front of computers and all kinds of machines all day, have turned the Earth into a village with wires, fiber-optic cables, railways, or air routes. With a click of the mouse, we can paste ourselves anywhere in the world. However, in the face of vast civilizations, without the foundation of reading ten thousand books, we not only frequently encounter the awkwardness of "meeting face to face but not recognizing each other," but we also accumulate an ever-growing sense of strangeness from the depths of our hearts. For this reason, we long for a deeper understanding, a connection of the soul; we long for a return to a way of traveling—before traveling ten thousand miles, put a few books in our spiritual backpacks so that our steps and souls can go further.
A spiritual journey does not require "writing poems in youth and studying until the hair turns white," nor does it require hanging a rope to bite one's tongue or chipping away at the wall to steal light. Nor does it require a red sleeve adding fragrance or a book never put down. A spiritual journey only requires reading a few classics in the leisure of life. Novels, essays, and poems can all be made into soup for the soul; buses, subways, and even the palms of our hands can be our desks. Therefore, we have tailor-made a "pocket library" for busy urban dwellers. Classics are the soul of the library; easy to absorb is its essence; reading anytime, anywhere, and in any way is its purpose. The selected works in the library are all true classics that have been refined after exposing themselves to the harsh realities and waves of different civilizations. The illustrations, carefully selected and painstakingly collected from hundreds of rare books and private collections, are a true restoration of the essence of the classics. The small-format design makes it as clever as a wallet, and the special printing process makes every book "filled with the fragrance of hidden incense."
Classics are not afraid of time, but life cannot withstand the erosion of "time flies." The charm of classics is better seen than heard. Why not use them to mend the gaps in our time and add value to the fragments of our days? Why not use on-the-go reading to gather wisdom bit by bit and understand life in the spiritual journey? Reading classics, with the least expense, reach the furthest in life.