Seven Days Book S5E4｜The reason why I came to Matt City

On the fourth day, write down what is something that you really want to do so that you can truly feel fulfilled and worthy of yourself? Or, what are the things you thought you would be able to do in life, but have yet to do so?

After officially becoming a native of Matt City on the 35th anniversary of June 4th , I followed the monthly seven-day book writing activity. Unknowingly, I had been writing from summer to autumn, from simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese , for exactly three months. Writing, reading, and interacting with many fellow writers from all over the world, and listening to everyone's sincere/friendly/humorous sharing is really touching and a great external motivation. There is a feeling that I have achieved the "minimum unit of freedom" of writing.

When I attended Matters' online sharing session for the first time, the host Ying Xin asked everyone why they write during the Q&A period. I answered in the comment area that writing is the motivation for everything I do.

This realization came about when I realized the meaninglessness of life and asked myself about it. I know that I am a life experiencer. After experiencing something, I always have the urge to write about it. It is a strong internal motivation that is difficult to explain. The act of "writing" may not happen immediately after experiencing it, but I am very sure that it will happen. It is also this mysterious inner power that strengthens my sense of experience of everything. In addition to the subjective feelings at the time, the third eye perception that consciously escapes, there is also the connection between unrelated things in some way. The excitement it brings - it’s like watching a great movie and there’s a big easter egg hidden behind it!

The relatively regular writing I have done recently has given me a sense of being worthy of myself. The thing that "really feels complete" is writing and publishing a novel that I feel very satisfied with. To round things out, the book will appear both at Enclave Bookstore in Taipei and at the recently reopened Monsoon Bookstore in Washington, DC. Both bookstores symbolize freedom to me.

Off topic easter egg

Yesterday, I saw the "enclave book selection" in the live photo of Monsoon Bookstore shared by @江雪on Twitter. What a wonderful free intersection! ✨

JF Books

Monsoon Bookstore was originally located in Shanghai and was a very famous independent bookstore. It was forced to close by the local government in 2018. Unexpectedly, six years later, the bookstore was reopened in the land of freedom, which was a great surprise and touch. Freedom is so powerful.

I know about Monsoon because I visited a friend in a bookstore many years ago. She was a colleague who worked with me in a youth hostel cafe when I was working and traveling in Shanghai for a few months after graduating from college. She taught me how to make various types of coffee. A few years later, I went to Shanghai to contact her again, and she had already moved to work at Monsoon Bookstore. Before the bookstore closed, I drank the coffee she made for the last time.

Nowhere Bookstore (Nowhere)

No introduction is needed⋯ XD

Theme Easter egg

If I want to add to the icing on the cake, this book will also be made into a movie, and it will make me think that I failed the film and drama major at Beijing Film Academy five times and declined the film major at Macau University of Science and Technology because the tuition was too expensive. With professional production capabilities, he participated in the creation of film adaptation scripts. XXD