Bookshelf: Bob Blunt, Novelist

The book that has most sentimental value to me is A Little Book of Language by David Crystal. It was a great gift sent here from my old man. After years of receiving socks and underwear, he finally nailed it. Expect intricate and quirky tales in what is an insightful and often witty read.

I'd most like to sneak a peek at Zhang Lijia's bookshelf. Anyone who can write a coming of age book, like Socialism is Great in troubled times, in such a readable and determined fashion does it for me. I can only wonder what kind of tomes I would find on her bookshelves.

If you only ever read one book about China, make it River Town by Peter Hessler. It was the first book I read when I arrived in Beijing in early 2008. Sure, I may not have arrived at a rural backwater on the Yangtze River, but I could empathize with some of the familiar conundrums and revelations a newbie can experience.

A book I pretend to have read but haven't is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This big mother of a book was excessively hip in the '80s with inner Sydney hipsters, but because of its size I knew I’d never read it. I pretended I had at dinner parties, launches, and art exhibitions, yet all along I was lying through my teeth and loving it.

A book I'm saving for old age is War and Peace, because I should have an abundance of time, plus Tolstoy is an absolute god in Russia, I hear, and I want to go there again.

A character in a book that I'd really like to meet is the anti-hero Henry Chinaski in Post Office by Charles Bukowski. A guy who works a shitty, thankless job, brilliantly depicting the sad environment for what it is, menial and unforgiving. Not sure if I could keep up with his hedonism though.

The best beginning to a book I ever read was in Neuromancer by William Gibson. For a self-confessed slow reader this hauled me off my ass and before I knew it I was on a Red Bull book high. I was hooked by the first line "The sky above the port was the color of television, turned to a dead channel."

Bob Blunt's new book, The Year My Hair Fell Out, is available at The Bookworm.

This article first appeared in the September issue of the Beijinger.

Photos: Ken