This is so cool – a market in Kunming is using my book as an ad. Yunnanese using an Englishman’s book to sell local cheese to other Yunnanese. I couldn’t be more proud!
Also … A bookshop in Kunming (大象) is asking various authors to list their favourite books. I’m working on mine, but here’s my sister’s (a botanist) and my dad’s (a computer programmer):
The botanist:
The most important book(s) in your life?
The Secret Life of Trees by Colin Tudge
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
A book for a beginner and another for an expert in your professional field?
Beginner – Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology by Mauseth
Professional – Wild Flower Key by Francis Rose
If an alien visited earth, what one book would you give them?
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
What book changed your life/changed how you view the world?
Imagined Worlds by Freeman Dyson
What book would you give to your (romantic) partner?
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
What books are a refuge (make you happy and calm)?
Asterix and Obelix
Any Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett
Shadow and Bone series by Leigh Bardugo
Anne of Green Gables by l. M. Montgomery
Books on health and personal finance?
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Pilates by Anna Selby and Alan Herman
Treat Your Own Back by Robin Mckenzie
Three books by your favourite author?
An Ember in the Ashes, A Torch Against the Night, Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir
A book for each season (spring, summer)?
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Overstory by Richard Powers
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Your favourite three films and albums?
Prince of Persia, Zootopia, Gladiator
Rockland by Katzenjammer, Made of Bricks by Kate Nash, Ten by Pearl jam
Recommend books that came out in the last year?
A Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
And my dad’s:
The Computer Programmer (and hiker, and gardener)
A book for a beginner and another for an expert in your professional field?
Beginner – The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick Phillips Brooks (2013)
Expert – Writing Interactive Compilers and Interpreters by Peter J. Brown (Chichester: Wiley, 1985)
If an alien visited earth, what one book would you give them?
Moby Dick or The Whale by Herman Melville (1851)
What book changed your life/changed how you view the world?
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, Gia-fu Geng (translation), Jane English (translation, photographs) (1974)
What book would you give to your (romantic) partner?
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope (1857)
What books are a refuge (make you happy and calm)?
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (1926)
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)
The White Seal by Rudyard Kipling (1893)
Books on health and personal finance?
The Angry Chef: Bad Science and the Truth About Healthy Eating by Anthony Warner (2017)
Three books by your favourite author?
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974), and Malafrena (1979) by Ursula K. Le Guin
A book for each season (spring, summer)?
The Dragon in the Sea by Frank Herbert (1956)
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (1972)
Little, Big by John Crowley (1981)
South!: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition 1914 – 1917 by Ernest Shackleton
Your favourite three films and albums?
The Bourne Identity (2002), The Fifth Element (1997), Doctor Zhivago (1965)
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