My former colleague Mr. Li Mingda actually published a book! I have seen his travelogue articles in factory newspapers before. They are very readable and I prefer to read them. Later, I vaguely learned that he had published a book, and I always wanted to read it, but I didn’t take it too seriously. A few days ago, unexpectedly, he added my WeChat account through someone else's recommendation, told me about his book publishing, and said he could send me the book, which was exactly what I wanted! So we made an appointment with another colleague, Zhang Yanmei, to have lunch together, and he brought the book to us. During the dinner, we chatted all over the world, and the meal lasted for four hours. It was really a great conversation. When we broke up, Yanmei and I made sure that he signed the book, but neither of us brought a pen. We asked the waiter for a pen, but the one he was given was a ballpoint pen, which was not suitable for signing. The persistent Yanmei went to the supermarket next door to buy a pen and asked Mr. Mingda to solemnly sign the title page.
Li Mingda has published three books so far. This time he gave me "Travel Notes on China" and "Impressions of China". There is also one that is still being printed and proofread.
Starting today, I will stop reading the book and start reading his "Travel Notes on China". And write a reading note in it every day.
By the way, the first time I received a book signed by an author was during the 2001 Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference. It was the second year that I had just entered the CPPCC. I was in a state of ignorance and followed the old committee members who were in the same dormitory everywhere. After dinner, a beautiful committee member came to the room. They talked about things, and I sat and listened. Only then did I learn that the visiting committee member was Ma Qiufen, a famous writer from Shenyang. She had just published a collection of essays, "Wen Xin Wandering," and she had come to deliver the book to my roommate, Li Xiushan, the editor-in-chief of Shenyang's "Poetry Trend" magazine. Writer Ma Qiufen saw that I looked up to a little girl with piety, so he gave me a copy by the way.