Daffodil:What's the most thoughtful present you've ever received?it's often small things during unexpected times. my favourite ones that i remember off the top of my head: fruits and medicine and extra pay for cab fare instead of subway (from my student's mom, when i was teaching english in beijing last summer through a fever), a roast chicken dinner (from flatmate and her boyfriend, during my studio finals when i was surviving off chips and coffee also was sick), tissue box (when i was yet again sick and had no time to buy tissues during finals back in first year), i am sick a lot. Locust:What was your favorite book as a child?my dad really loved buying books for me when i was young. some of the really memorable ones include a set of anecdotes of the childhoods of nobel prize winners, a set of short stories about plants and animals (i remember there was one story about perseverance in there, a gardener was grafting a chrysanthemum tree to get rings of flowers each in a different colour, and the tree was very happy to be beautiful in the end. and another one about two plants living together, one loved the other very much but it began to die as the other plants roots invaded it and stole of all its nutrition and water. and a lot of others. it was a bit of sad book, with beautiful illustrations). and the arabian nights. and the andersen tales. these were my memories of early childhood in china. and then later after i moved to canada particular books that stood out include the chinese mickey mouse clubhouse magazines (hahaha), charlotte's web, junie b jones series, beresteine bears, babysitter's club, and then in adolescence 地图女孩和鲸鱼男孩的故事,家有小丑,十八岁的金盏花, 七只象, some nora mcclintock suspense novels, got into manga, etc etc.