The Big Summer Read
When it’s too hot to do anything productive, there’s nothing more relaxing than losing yourself in a summer read.
The August heat is upon us. But rather than staying indoors under the air-con and avoiding it, make the most of it; you’ll miss it when it’s gone.
Talk Magazine this month recommends finding a nice balcony or terrace to sit out on, with an iced drink (see page 30 for ideas), and kicking your feet up with a book and losing yourself on an adventure.
If you’re stuck for ideas on what to read, that’s where we come in. We spoke to some of the experts – established writers themselves, and asked them who their influences are, and who they enjoy reading during the summer.
If you like… Travel
Jeff Fuchs
Fuchs came into the public eye when he became the first Westerner to complete the six thousand kilometre Ancient Tea Horse trek through the Himalayas, the subject of his 2008 book The Ancient Tea Road. Currently based in Shangri-La, Yunnan District, Fuchs attains to doing a lot of his reading “in a billowing tent at 5,000 metres with a headlamp, or tucked into my little loft in Shangri-La while it pours.” And as the co-founder of JalamTeas, which sources directly from small plantations in Xishuangbanna, it’s important to add that his reading is “always accompanied by tea.”
Adventure is no stranger to Fuchs, and he cites one of his biggest influences as early 20th century writer Joseph Conrad, a lot of whose writing, including the acclaimed Victory (1915), focused on the topics of international travel and exile. “I’m a huge fan of his tales of how adventure is something of much of the mind as it is the body,” says Fuchs.
For more contemporary, and in particular summer reads, he says, “One of the most satisfying reads [I’ve had] in a long time has been Wade Davis’ Into the Silence (2011). It’s a stunning read about [early English mountaineer] George Mallory’s ultimately failed (and fatal) attempt to climb Mount Everest.”
“As for what I’m reading at the moment, I’m currently finishing up Orham Pamuk’s Snow (2002), which is based in Turkey, a deep breath of the country’s history. I’m also re-reading (as I do every two or three years) Barry Lopez's [non-fiction novel] Arctic Dreams (1986). It’s a stunning look at the Arctic, its mesmerising force, and its abilities to teach and soothe.”
Jeff Fuchs’ novel The Ancient Tea Horse Road is currently available for e-book release on Amazon.cn
If you like… Science Fiction
Andy Best
Best gained recognition at the beginning of this year after his fictional novel Parkour Girl and Yellow Fish Car (2011) was released in late December. The novel follows a young American expat Zack Smith who accidentally stumbles into a world of superheroes and underground vigilantes after a chance encounter on the streets of Shanghai.
Having lived in Shanghai for the past ten years, a lot of Best’s influence comes from events that have happened to him, and situations he has found himself in as a hapless laowai.
But for finding an interest in the superhero genre, he traces the route back to his readings as a kid. “My first and foremost influence was the UK science fiction comic 2000 A.D. (published by IPC Magazines from 1977 – present). I read it weekly from age eight for the best part of ten years. The flagship story, ‘Judge Dredd’, was about a dystopian future mega-city and all the strange human behaviour there. It was told from the point of view of an authoritarian police captain and was dripping with dark irony.
“That led me to British new wave sci-fi writers like Michael Moorcock and J. G. Ballard, who most people know from his story Empire of the Sun (1984). Actually, I was locked into the George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones) ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ books when the heat first hit this year. But as soon as I was done I picked up the ultimate hot weather book, Ballard’s The Drowned World (1962). Solar flares turn the Earth ninety percent tropical like the Triassic period and a science crew explores a sunken city for possible reclamation. It was inspired in part by the spring floods that used to plague Shanghai when Ballard was young.”
www.parkourgirlandyellowfishcar.com
If you like… Non-fiction
Paul French
French has written and co-written a selection of books on China over the past decade, including his best-seller Midnight in Peking (2011). This book, about the unsolved death of Pamela Werner, daughter of a former British consul, is currently being made into a TV series in the UK.
When it comes to summer reading, French finds himself normally being “a bit continental” in his holiday habits. “I like to take a month off and escape the worst of the Shanghai sauna! – this month I’ll be relaxing in the cool and somewhat rainy but beautiful Necklar Valley in Germany.” And he plans to do so with a selection of books. “Colm Toibin's one of my favourite writers and his collection of short stories The Empty Family (2010) has been sitting on my shelf awaiting the holidays.
“I am also into the [Patrick] Melrose novels of Edward St Aubyn; they're hilarious, snappy and irreverent of the British class system and national silliness - very relaxing.”
Known for his ability to tap into the intrigue genre and explore the controversy and under-publicised aspects of historical events, French finds himself particularly enthusiastic about a series of new up and coming books that are being released this month. “I'm going to be reading Pankaj Mishra's long-awaited and highly anticipated From The Ruins of Empire (2012), which is a very original assessment of the Victorian period, empire and colonialism (both physical and intellectual) from the Chinese and Indian point of view.
I’ll also be reading Hanging Devils (2012) by He Jiahong. It’s a noir style thriller set in northern China and written by a Chinese judge turned mystery writer.”
http://us.midnightinpeking.com/author/
If you like… Business and Finance
Shaun Rein
Founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group Shaun Rein has gained high acclaim in the last few months with his insightful and well researched novel The End of Cheap China (2012), hotly discussed throughout the world for its topics surrounding the luxury sector boom in China, and its particular stress on Chinese attitudes moving away from ‘cheap’ and how we would do better to understand such trends.
As a result, it’s no surprise that one of his summer reads would be a biography providing firsthand insight into some of the social and cultural influences that have helped develop Chinese society; however his particular choice might come as a bit of a surprise. “Operation Yao Ming (2005) tracks Yao's life and assent to stardom but more importantly how the turbulence of the Cultural Revolution continues to influence Chinese society. Few biographies are better than this.”
For other summer reads, US-born Rein, who has lived in China for more than ten years, looks to his long-term interest in China’s vast and diverse history. And it is this that is influential in his choosing the fictional writings of fourth generation China expat Adam Williams, including The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure (2004), a fictional novel which follows a diverse mix of characters who find themselves drawn to a brothel overlooking an execution ground in North China, 1899. “Perhaps my favourite trilogy of all time,” he says, “It is a riveting, sensuous, historical novel that tracks a family through China's tortuous history of the last two centuries. Absolutely amazing body of work along the lines of James Clavell's.”
