We asked notable Beijingers: "What's on your bookshelf?" Here's how Zhang Lijia, author of the memoir "Socialism is Great," answered:

My favorite childhood book was a cartoon version of Journey to the West, because it was one of the very few fun books available to Chinese children in the 1970s.

A book that changed my life is Jane Eyre.  It made me fall in love with the English language and encouraged me to search for a bigger life/world.

The book with the most sentimental value for me is Odyssey’s Illustrated Guidebook to the Old Silk Road – I used it as I was falling madly in love with my former husband as we travelled together in Xinjiang.

The last book I read was Lolita. I had previously read the book in Chinese, but you have to read it in English because it is effectively about Nabokov’s love affair with the language.

The last book I bought was Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because I was planning to go to Japan for Chinese New Year.  I previously read and loved his Norwegian Wood.

One “must-read” China book is Jonathan Spence’s The Search for Modern China.

A book that I pretend to have read is Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

A Beijing bookshelf I’d like a peek at is the Beijing mayor.

My three all-time favorite books? A Dream of Red Mansions. Each time I read it, I feel I can learn something new. Resurrection by Tolstoy – it’s simply brilliant. Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje. The language is so original and poetic; I was very inspired.

The book I would hide from visitors is Anais Nin’s.

A fictional character I’d love to meet is Humbert from Nabokov’s Lolita. It would be excellent fun to talk to him, listen to his vivid, accented English – and indeed French – and perhaps try to seduce him!

Lijia appears tomorrow (Saturday, March 6) at 12.30pm, at the Bookworm Literary Festival session Sex in the Palace, with Derek Sandhaus and Linda Jaivin, discussing the lusty lives of foreigners in China in the Imperial era. RMB 50.