Later in my adult life，when I lived through a very difficult period，books became advisers。I read Dale Carnegie's How to Stop Worrying and Start Living and it was one sentence that showed me where to go：“How many of the things you worry about have come true？”None，I had to admit。What got me out of balance were never expected things。In Reinhardt Sprenger's The Principle of Self-Responsibility，“Envy is something you have to earn”allowed me to deal with colleagues'begrudging the success I had in a very different way。Their envy was the confirmation that I was rising above average。It taught that everything in life has a price，success as much as failure。Life would be poorer without reading。Whether it is books，short stories，articles or magazines，letters or e-mails；online or printed，words tell who we are and reveal what we only pretend to be。
In a few weeks Chinese New Year will be celebrated and holidays will begin。A good time to make some suggestions to the questions often asked in your mails：What should I read to improve my communication skills？So why not ask my good friend Tatjana，editor in chief of one of the largest German youth magazines to hear what she recommends to her readers in her literature pages：
“When I look at my library，I don't see only books。What I can see is a whole universe of imagination and knowledge。I am happy to introduce young Chinese readers to a small selection of favorite‘cult＆classics'Western literature。All books have been translated into many languages and sold millions of copies。
“Almost every child in Europe grows up with the fairy-tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen。From the fairy world we can shift to the fantastic planets of Jules Verne's 20，000 Leagues Under The Sea and travel in H。G。Wells's The Time Machine。We can enter the world of monsters in Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula。What fun to visit the adventures worlds of Charles Dickens'The Adventures of Oliver Twist，Alexandre Dumas’The Three Musketeers and get to know Huckleberry Fin in Mark Twain’s Mississippi Writings。We can read what inspired Queen Victoria of England in the 1860’s：Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland。It is even possible to walk through the cupboard if we read C。S。Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia。We can learn a lot about free spirit from George Orwell's Animal Farm。Many readers have cried over the diary of the Jewish girl Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl，written during World War II。In my long list of books I recommend one cannot be missing，Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince。The Little Prince’s sentence“You can only see well with your heart”has inspired millions of readers to look at life in a different way。