What are some of the best books you've added to your bookshelves in 2023?Which new books keep you glued?Approaching the end of the year, you might as well take stock of your reading in the past year, so that the harvest of reading can be precipitated. From a macro perspective, the publication and sales of books are also known as a barometer of cultural trends. With the release of annual book lists by various cultural institutions and book sales platforms, not only do "bookworms" get a list of books that can be searched according to the map, but also provide a guide for analyzing social psychology. This paper summarizes the reading trend of young people by referring to the annual book sales data and the recommended list of good books, and outlines a silhouette of the cultural consumption and ideological pulse of young people.
Literary Reading: Regional Writing Continues to Be Out of the Circle.
Represented by the "New Northeast Writers Group", regional writing still receives enthusiastic attention. The works of young writers from Northeast China such as Shuangxuetao, Ban Yu, and Zheng Zhi undoubtedly occupy a place in the field of serious literature. The list of "New Northeast Writers Group" is still growing, showing the vigorous creative vitality of this group. This year, Yang Zhihan, a young writer also from Northeast China, won the Blancpain Imaginary Literature Award for his short and medium-length collection "A Ball of Ice".
This generation of young writers does not deliberately emphasize the boundary between traditional literary writing and mass communication, on the contrary, some of them consciously integrate literature and film and television, showing the ability to create across borders. "Snap your fingers," he said. Let's snap our fingers in resonance ......In this year's hit suspense drama "The Long Season", Ban Yu, as a literary planner and author of the same title, contributed a poem that was repeatedly quoted by netizens. It should be noted that the drama version of "The Long Season" is not an adaptation of the original book, but a brand new story, and it is rare for the original author to be deeply involved in the "rewriting" of film and television works. Of course, the changing role of writers in the field of film and television continues to drive society's attention to literature itself.
In the reading of popular literature, the "ancient style" writing, which integrates historical and traditional cultural themes, has won many fans. Young readers' recognition of the excellent traditional Chinese culture and their desire for historical details are the prerequisites for the longevity of this reading theme. These works do not write history for the sake of history, but also invest in the author's cognition and judgment of real life. Douban's 2023 Chinese Literature (** category) list's No. 1 work "Too Platinum Star is a Little Annoying" reflects this distinctive feature, and the author Ma Boyong integrates critical thinking about the workplace ecology on the basis of not changing the ending of "Journey to the West", so that readers can resonate with the moment.
In 2023, the public's reading of foreign literature will become more diverse, reflecting the growing international perspective of the new generation of readers. Voted by Time magazine as one of the "World's 100 Best English-language Novels since 1923", the Chinese Simplified Chinese version of "Endless Jokes" is long overdue, and this monumental work is often compared to James Joyce's "Ulysses", William Cadiz's "Recognition" and Thomas Pynchon's "Gravitational Rainbow". In addition, "The Magician" by Irish writer Colm Tobin, "Hard Times" by Peruvian writer Vargas Llosa, and "Abandoned Days" by Italian writer and author of the "Neapolitan Tetralogy" Hélène Ferrante are also frequent on the bestseller list.
Non-fiction reading: Return to the simple and plain earth.
As representatives of practitioners in emerging industries, takeaways and couriers often appear on the "hot search" of online platforms. Their identities and situations are also explained in depth, and they enter the field of vision of the public's non-fiction reading. "I Deliver Express in Beijing" has entered the reading lists of many institutions, and even ranked first in Douban's "Book of the Year", becoming a phenomenal non-fiction work of the year. The author, Hu Anyan, has worked as a security guard, bakery apprentice, convenience store clerk, bicycle shop sales, ** staff and other different occupations, and he wrote this book about his experience of delivering couriers in Beijing, which is recognized by readers as "a plain and simple style like personal oral history".
Courtesy of Visual China.
In the past year, many cultural elders have left us. In the last days of Wuthering Heights translator Yang Yi, her oral autobiography "One Hundred Years, Many People, Many Things" was published, allowing readers to experience the "elegance of the past" between the lines. Many people remember that in the documentary "Post-90s", Yang Yi was interviewed** with the English song "One Day When We Were Young" ("When We Were Young"). The death of Mr. Huang Yongyu has made "The Wanderer of the River of No Sorrow" an unfinished regret in the history of literature, but the publication of the essay collection "Who Else" has made Mr. "finally able to sleep well", and also led readers to witness the liver and gall of a generation of cultural people and their passionate youth.
With the improvement of the scientific literacy of the whole people, popular science books have become an important part of the public's reading list. In 2023, the "Infinitesimal" series of "Sea Mistake Notes" will come to an end, and the author will show the identification and species introduction of fish, shellfish, mammals and marine plants through 20 notes. After the huge impact of the new coronavirus infection on public health, the public's demand for medical information has also reached new heights, and Dr. Wen Linyan, a Chinese-American professor of medicine, presents the shortcomings of the American public health system, as well as the conflict between the scientific and political positions of professionals. By reading these popular science non-fiction works, young readers can understand the world around us more rationally and objectively.
Social Science Reading: How Academic Writing Can Serve Public Life.
At the end of this year, the relocation of Wansheng Bookstore, a well-known private bookstore, has become a major event of concern for many readers. On the occasion of the move, Halloween Book Park released a small list of annual books in the 30 years since its opening. Over the years, the bookstore's monthly book ranking has been recognized as a bellwether for social science reading trends. Since the beginning of this year, the social science works that have always been at the forefront of Halloween Month include "Jian Shang: The Changes of Yin Zhou and the Rebirth of China", "Being in the Matter: China's ** and Economic Development", "The Long Rest of My Life: A Northern Wei Dynasty Palace Lady and Her Times", "County and Township China: Modernization of County Governance", etc.
Although the authors of these social science books have a solid academic background in the ivory tower, they all express their willingness to serve public life through their works. Li Shuo, the author of "Jianshang" and a young historian, has long been concerned about the study of historical geography and border ethnic issues, and he also uses practical actions to "measure the scale of history with his feet". Similarly, Professor Yang Hua of Wuhan University wrote "County and Township China", which analyzes "county governance" in easy-to-understand language, showing the perseverance and responsibility of the new generation of scholars to take root in the countryside and do knowledge.
Among the "academic stars" well-known to young readers, Luo Xin, a professor of history at Peking University, is a name that cannot be bypassed. "The Long Rest of My Life" tells the story of neglect by writing the micro-history of ordinary people, and presents the true color of history by "seeing the subtleties". His recently published essay, The Moon Shines on the Amu Darya, represents a scholarly perspective on travel writing, and Luo Xin's work effectively fills the gap in traveler's knowledge at a time when Central Asia is becoming a popular destination for Chinese tourists. In a conversation with historian Wang Di, Luo Xin said: "If you look at history, you will see a very different scenery from a different perspective. ”
In an economic situation where social expectations are weak and there are still many hidden risks, young people are more frequently concerned about the general trend of the country's economy and the economy around them. Lan Xiaohuan, a teacher at Fudan University, has frequently appeared in many reading selections in the past two years, showing readers' concern about the internal operation of China's economy. It is not surprising that this social science book, which analyzes and interprets China's fiscal system, organically integrates the principles of economics with the practice of China's economic development to help readers "understand what they think should be done".
The reader's choice is the indicator of the times, and the analysis of the public's reading trend is to present the social trend of a period. However, it is inevitable that only one article summarizing the "youth reading trend" will be omitted. Unlike the rankings with more prominent public attributes such as movies and TV dramas, if you compare the annual reading lists of various institutions together, you can only find that the duplicate titles are a minority, and the non-duplicate titles are the majority. Having said that, opening the book is beneficial, and a person's reading choice never necessarily deliberately pursues the trend, but only seeks to gain from reading and be worthy of his heart.
*: China Youth Daily client.