Recently, the winner of the Mao Dun Literature Award and the famous writer Mai Jia was invited by Tencent News Chinese Books to share his "Book of Life" activity, which has attracted wide attention. The reporter learned from the Greater Bay Area Literary IP Huacheng Publishing House that the "Mai Family Reads with You" series published by it has been published in two volumes, with a total of eight volumes, 10,000 words of essence interpretation, 15 minutes of classic introduction, and the classic literature has achieved mass dissemination.
When he was 12 years old, Mai Jia first encountered "Lin Hai Xueyuan", and before reading this book, he took it for granted that people all over the world lived in a rough life like the people in the village. This book opened the Mai family's cognition of the outside world, and also planted the seed of "reading well". In order to let this seed take root and sprout, the "Mai Family Reads with You" series of books came into being.
It is reported that Mai Jia personally served as the editor-in-chief, and joined hands with famous writers such as Li Jingze, A Lai, Ge Fei, Su Tong and other famous writers to select a number of world-class classics for readers, hoping to find the "book of life" that turns the gears of fate for more people. The editors have always adhered to the editorial concept of "reading is going home" of the Mai family, and rearranged the content of the official account into the form of a paper physical book to the market.
Some people believe that there is a certain threshold for reading masterpieces, and a certain amount of experience is required. As a long-term and professional literary reader, Mai Jia, who benefits from reading, wants to help more people enter the depths of literature and nourish their souls. So, starting in 2017, he plans to spend 20 years to accompany readers to read 1,000 famous books. He found book reviewers to select books, dismantle books, invited professional anchors to give lectures, and released them on the official account of "Maijia Reads with You" with a beautiful background sound.
It's a onerous and trivial affair, and it takes a lot of patience to persevere. Sometimes seeing the comments of different opinions in the background of the official account, the Mai family is deeply frustrated. But because of the "boasting of Haikou" back then, the Mai family and his team still persist to this day. Mai admitted that if he hadn't made such a public commitment, he might have lost at any time. Today, this official account has more than 1.3 million followers, more than 2,400 days of reading, and more than 100 million readers.
According to reports, "Mai Family Reads with You" is committed to thinning the seemingly unattainable classics, that is, condensing each masterpiece into a fine interpretation of less than 10,000 words. Each guide is presented in a relatively simple text that is close to the taste of contemporary young readers. These profound and fashionable expressions are not only the result of the painstaking polishing of book reviewers, but also the feedback and response to readers' past appeals.
A book is divided into seven interpretations, one of which represents the amount of reading in a day, allowing readers to reduce the burden of reading while also reaping the cleansing of classic precipitation. The explanation from shallow to in-depth greatly reduces the difficulty of reading comprehension. From the first article about the writer's life, writing background, and theoretical knowledge, to the last article to sort out the highlights of "dry goods" and connect the current sublimation theme, the "tome" is no longer prohibitive.
In order to fit the pace of the current fast-paced times, the beginning of each famous book is read aloud by a professional voice. Readers only need to scan the QR code to interweave sound and literature, and let the classics fill the gaps of time. After the publication of "Mai Family Reading with You (Volume 1)", it was awarded the 2023 "China Good Books" March Recommended Books, the Top Ten Best Books of the Southern China Book Festival, and the "National Reading Book Fragrance 38" 100 Good Books. These honors are not only an affirmation, but also reflect the recognition and thirst of young people in the new era for innovative forms of reading.
The reporter learned that the theme of the series of books, from the first series of the pursuit of the meaning of life, the pursuit of confusion, return to the truth, accept the various regrets of life, to the second series of feelings of love and ideals, explore human nature, recognize the true face of life, layer by layer, every aspect of thinking, is the subject of young people's concern. On the pages of the book, Mai Jia tries to lead readers to "dialogue" with more sages, and those refined lives and thoughts make readers more enlightened in the face of noisy and confused reality.
"Writing is a kind of self-healing for me, and I feel that I have soothed and healed the deepest pain points in my heart. When talking about his latest work "Human Letters", Mai Jia said, "When people are absent, literature will definitely fill in the places." Perhaps, in real life, literature has no practical use, but at a critical time in life, it will become a belief to help people resolve suffering and even "live". "The Mai Family Reads with You" is the "Book of Life" given by the Mai family to these souls who need to be healed.
(Photo courtesy of Huacheng Press)
(Author: Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reporter in Guangzhou, Chen Xing, correspondent, Lin Jing, Yang Liuqing)