by: Mumu

Around two weeks ago, ruxubooks (@facebook, @meetup) held one book exchange meetup event in Singapore. As the first step to my “book dream”, it was far away from perfect. Even so, I am still proud of myself and full of gratitude for him and her who gave me inspiration and encouragement along the way.

I have been asking myself: “what exactly is my ‘book dream’”? To be honest, I don’t know the answer yet. The original motivation came from my ultimate life goal: if I could do only one thing in my life, I would want to be a mother which is the biggest impact I could bring to this world. Intentionally or not, parental influence to each of us can hardly be avoided.

However, every parent have their own limitations: they may have strong bias towards a group of people due to their personal growth experience, they may not be able to bring their kids around the world to see how varied and wonderful it is, their philosophy of life may be out of date and don’t apply to the new era any more etc. Reading turns out to be one of the easiest way to overcome parents’ limitations and awaken kids’ potential. As one of the disappearing species, I do believe that the experience of reading physical books, feeling its weight, texture and smell while writing notes on the margins cannot be replaced by ebooks. (Historically were there anyone fighting for oracle books compared to paper ones???)

At this point, my “book dream” could be described as “spreading the beauty and wisdom in physical books across generations”. Well…that still doesn’t draw a clear picture how would it look like. And I have so many other excuses not to move forward: I am already busy with daily stuff, I need to work a full-time job to pay the bill, I don’t have any publishing connections nor experiences in the industry…as a result, it has been there for many years but I have rarely made any progress.

Two years ago Sun showed me the little pad he used to jot down all the flashes of ideas of his own startup. “I have written over two notebooks already.” He said to me on the Seattle waterfront. The same day on the way back to Bellevue, I thought about my “book dream” seriously and came out the name[1]. Several months later, I registered the domain name, ruxubooks.com, and set up the wechat public account. Last year, after moving to Singapore, I activated the website ruxubooks.com and was about to build it as a book review site but ended up using it as a personal blog with only one article posted during last year.

In early June this year, ZhangMiao introduced me to the owner of “Book Island” in Beijing. He is an idealist who founded “Book Island” to connect people through books. He claimed “there is no book on the island. Islanders brought their own books, exchanged with each other and passed by…it’s like a journey of the book, no matter how quirky your reading tastes might be there must be someone else same as you, hope you could meet each other on the book island…” I felt so excited and encouraged that there is someone doing something so similar to what I have dreamed of. Although I had no experience I wanted to give it a try.

When facing new challenges I usually feel more worried than excited. Adelina and I talked about this and she observed that it’s quite common for females, girls have always been educated to be “polite”, “organized” and “perfect”… However, we should be encouraged to make more mistakes and be non-perfect, to keep trying and practicing to become better and stronger. Early May she invited me to join the SAAS PM meetup she held, which was my chance to learn how to organize such a meetup event in Singapore.

During the preparation for the first ruxubooks(@facebook, @meetup) event, I received lots of support and surprises. Jinyu, Liubo and Shicheng went bookstore-hopping with me to identity the location, and the kind-hearted clerk in woods the books told me which bookstore provides room rent service. ShiZhang shown up as the MC plus photographer and took a bunch of memorable photos while keeping eye-contacting with the nervous me. An “insider” mentioned us in the “7 ways to pass your used books to other readers in Singapore” on thefinder.com. A former book club organizer participated the event and gave me a letter a physical one with two pages of suggestions and tips. The most beautiful moment was when Yulu read Gibran’s poem “On joy and sorrow”, I can see the feeling of peace and touched from everyone’s face—exactly what I would like to spread in ruxubooks(@facebook, @meetup)!

July 2nd 2016 is my first year anniversary of living in Singapore. The book exchange event was an anniversary gift for myself. I was so excited that I couldn’t fall asleep at night. I felt my book dream is just around the corner where I will arrive soon. Recently, I heard that a bookstore closed on the same day in Osaka. A 94-year old man who has been running it for the past 70 years has just passed away on that day. Life is always full of uncertainties, I am doubtful whether there will be a better tomorrow. Rather than just dreaming and coming out a well designed blueprint, I would prefer to keep moving my butterfly’s wings and see what kinds of tornado they may trigger in the future.

I am going to hold two more book exchange meetups before October 2016, join us on @facebook or @meetup to get the latest updates. If you are a booklover who would like to share your passion about reading, you’re more than welcome to drop me a line ruxubooks@gmail.com.

[1]. "ruxubooks":

  - "ruxu" comes from Zhu Xi's poem <The Book> written more than 800 years ago. The oblong pool is a metaphor for book reading. It is not a pool of stagnant water because there is always fresh water flowing in. The last two lines of the poem are frequently quoted to indicate that if people can be broad-minded enough to tolerate and embrace different ideas, they will be able to have ever-flowing fresh thoughts.

  - "ruxu" is also the alias (unique id) during my first job :)


The Book
观书有感
ɡuān shū yǒu ɡǎn


Zhu Xi
朱熹（宋）
Zhū Xī （Sònɡ）

There lies a glassy oblong pool,
Bàn mǔ fānɡ tánɡ yí jiàn kāi,
半亩方塘一鉴开，


Where light and shade pursue their course.
tiān ɡuānɡ yún yǐnɡ ɡònɡ páihuái.
天光云影共徘徊。


How could it be so clear and cool?
Wèn qú nǎ dé qīnɡ rúxǔ,
问渠哪得清如许,

For fresh water comes from the source.
wèi yǒu yuántóu huó shuǐ lái.
为有源头活水来。

AI-generated translation.

大约两周前，ruxubooks（@facebook, @meetup）在新加坡办了一场换书 meetup 活动。作为我 “书之梦” 的第一步，它离完美还差得很远。即便如此，我依然为自己感到骄傲，也很感激一路上那些给过我灵感和鼓励的他和她。

我一直在问自己：“我的 ‘书之梦’ 到底是什么？”老实说，我现在还不知道答案。最初的动力来自我终极的人生理想：如果一辈子只能做一件事，我想做妈妈，因为那可能是我能给这个世界带来的最大影响。无论有意还是无意，父母对我们的影响几乎都无法避免。

然而，每个父母都有自己的局限：他们可能因为自己的成长经历而对某一类人抱有很深的偏见；他们可能无法带孩子走遍世界，去看这个世界有多么丰富和美妙；他们的人生观也可能已经过时，不再适用于新时代，等等。阅读恰恰是最容易帮助我们突破父母局限、唤醒孩子潜力的方式之一。作为一种正在消失的物种，我真心相信，阅读纸质书、感受它的重量、质地和气味、在页边写下注释的体验，是电子书无法替代的。（历史上有人为了甲骨书和纸书打过架吗？？？）

到这里，我的 “书之梦” 大概可以描述成：“让纸质书里的美与智慧跨越代际地流动和传播。” 只是……这依然没有勾勒出一个足够清晰的图景。而且我还有太多不往前走的借口：我平时已经很忙了，我需要一份全职工作来付账单，我没有出版行业的人脉，也没有相关经验……所以这么多年，它一直都在，却几乎没有真正向前推进过。

两年前，Sun 在西雅图海边给我看过一个小本子，上面记满了他创业过程中所有一闪而过的点子。“我已经写满两个本子了。” 他这样对我说。也是在那一天，从海边回 Bellevue 的路上，我认真想了想自己的 “书之梦”，并想出了这个名字[1]。几个月后，我注册了域名 ruxubooks.com，也开通了微信公众号。去年搬到新加坡以后，我启用了网站 ruxubooks.com，原本想把它做成一个书评网站，结果最后还是把它当成了个人博客，去年只发过一篇文章。

今年六月初，张淼把北京“书岛”的创始人介绍给了我。他是个理想主义者，创办 “书岛” 是为了让人通过书彼此连接。他说：“岛上没有书。岛民带来自己的书，彼此交换，然后离开……这像是一本书的旅程。不管你的阅读趣味多么古怪，总会有另一个和你相似的人，希望你们能在书岛上相遇……” 让我特别激动、特别受鼓舞的是，原来真的有人在做和我梦想如此相近的事情。虽然我完全没有经验，但我还是想试一试。

面对新的挑战时，我通常是担心多过兴奋。我和 Adelina 聊过这件事，她观察说这在女性身上很常见，因为女孩从小就被教育要“礼貌”“有条理”“完美”……然而，我们其实应该被鼓励去犯更多错误，接受不完美，在不断尝试和练习中变得更好、更强。五月初，她邀请我参加她组织的 SAAS PM meetup，这也成了我学习如何在新加坡组织一场 meetup 的机会。

在筹备第一次 ruxubooks（@facebook, @meetup）活动的过程中，我收获了很多支持和惊喜。瑾瑜、刘博和世成陪我一间一间逛书店选场地，woods the books 那位好心的店员还告诉我哪家书店可以租场地。师长当了 MC 兼摄影师，在我紧张得不行的时候，一边和我保持眼神交流，一边拍下了很多值得纪念的照片。还有“圈内人”在 thefinder.com 的这篇文章里提到了我们：7 ways to pass your used books to other readers in Singapore。一位曾经组织过读书会的人也参加了活动，还送给我一封真正的纸质信，写了整整两页建议和 tips。最美的时刻，是 Yulu 朗读纪伯伦的诗 “On joy and sorrow”。我能从每个人脸上看到那种平静和被触动的感觉——而那正是我希望通过 ruxubooks（@facebook, @meetup）传递出去的东西。

2016 年 7 月 2 日，是我来到新加坡一周年的日子。这场换书活动，是我送给自己的一份周年礼物。我兴奋得晚上都睡不着，觉得自己的书之梦已经近在咫尺，好像马上就能抵达。最近我还听说，大阪有一家书店在同一天关门了。经营那家书店七十年的 94 岁老人，也恰好在那天离世。人生总是充满不确定，我甚至怀疑是否真的会有一个更好的明天。与其只是做梦、画出一张设计精良的蓝图，我更愿意不断扇动自己的蝴蝶翅膀，看看未来究竟会掀起怎样的龙卷风。

在 2016 年 10 月之前，我还会再办两场换书 meetup。欢迎关注我们的 @facebook 或 @meetup，获取最新动态。如果你也是热爱阅读、愿意分享阅读热情的人，非常欢迎给我写信：ruxubooks@gmail.com。

[1]. "ruxubooks":

  - “ruxu” 取自朱熹八百多年前写的《观书有感》。半亩方塘可以看作读书的隐喻。它不是一潭死水，因为总有新鲜活水不断流入。诗的最后两句经常被引用，用来说明如果一个人能有足够开阔的心胸去包容和接纳不同的观念，就能拥有源源不断的新思想。

  - “ruxu” 也是我第一份工作时用的 alias（唯一 id） :)


The Book
观书有感
ɡuān shū yǒu ɡǎn


Zhu Xi
朱熹（宋）
Zhū Xī （Sònɡ）

There lies a glassy oblong pool,
Bàn mǔ fānɡ tánɡ yí jiàn kāi,
半亩方塘一鉴开，


Where light and shade pursue their course.
tiān ɡuānɡ yún yǐnɡ ɡònɡ páihuái.
天光云影共徘徊。


How could it be so clear and cool?
Wèn qú nǎ dé qīnɡ rúxǔ,
问渠哪得清如许,

For fresh water comes from the source.
wèi yǒu yuántóu huó shuǐ lái.
为有源头活水来。