8:08: Hello all, this is Matt Schrader, CW's Community editor coming to you live from The Wolf Totem Book Launch at The Bookworm. The 'Worm is its typical buzzy self, with the usual crowd of well-coiffed, imminently stylish bibliophiles milling about. Everyone just finished up listening to a terrifically engaging talk by Prof. Goldblatt, not so much on Wolf Totem (his latest translated work), but on the difficulties, some poingnant, some funny, all interesting, of rendering works from one language to another. See many copies of TBJ (booo!!) and City Weekend (huzzah!) in the hands of BWorm patrons. We're waiting for the Wolf Totem launch to get geared up here.

8:11: Just realized that that last entry took me three minutes to get written up. This whole book launch is expected to last twenty minutes. Hope everyone enjoys the world's shortest live blog.

8:12: Been in The Bookworm a number of times before, don't think I've ever heard what sounds like Tom Petty (but probably isn't) coming over the speakers. Would be cool if The Bookworm could get The Heartbreakers for a talk here. Have any of them ever written a book? If they haven't, they should. If it were one of those fluffy ghost-written autobiographical pieces, I even have a title for them: "We Got Lucky". Just in case you can't tell, we're still in a holding pattern here, waiting for the launch to get underway.

8:14: Hah! Got that last long entry down to two minutes. Progress has been made here.

8:14: Someone taps a microphone. Methinks we're about to get underway here.

8:15: I see Jo Lusby (head potentate of Penguin Books in China) being accosted by an earnest-looking pair with sound equipment. They appear to be interview-seekers. Wonder if I should perhaps also be doing some accosting. Decide that I'm more comfortable over in the corner, snarkily sniping on my live blog.

8:18: Methinks methought wrong.

8:20: A fuwuyuan comes over to tell me that no one's allowed to be doing any work on their computer this evening. I threaten to club him with my CW business card. He goes away.

8:20: Didn't actually threaten. More like "showed him my CW business card". Still, if we lived in a world without consequences, it would have been cool if I had clubbed him (that's all that keeps me from constantly clubbing people, actually).

8:21: Aaaaaaaaand we're underway!!! Jo Lusby gets up, starts telling us why Wolf Totem is awesome.

8:21: She calls Wolf Totem the "most exciting thing [Penguin Books China] has been involved in". Can't wait to get my hands on this book . . .

8:22: Apparently took nearly three years to go from start to finish on getting this book published.

8:23: Jo announces that this is the "global launch" of Wolf Totem. We're the first ones to get our grubby little hands on it. Hooray! According to Jo, this may be the first English-language translation of a Chinese book to make major waves in international circles. Certainly hope so. The more people in the West who start reading Chinese literature in translation, the better.

8:24: Howard Goldblatt expresses worries about breaking something in a fall getting up on a pedestal. All the younger translators in the room secretly root for a spill.

8:25: The distinct smell of flatulence steals into my part of room. In the Bookworm? In the middle of a book launch? Seriously?

8:25: Prof. Goldblatt begins to read the book aloud. Everyone is rapt. A cellphone rings. A dot matrix printer in the corner makes the dot matrix printer noise (what's the word for that noise?). The mood is briefly broken.

8:26: I am forced to confront the reality that it is very, very difficult to live blog someone reading a passage from a book. All I can tell you is, trust me, from what I've heard so far, it's good. You're going to want to buy it (note to Jo Lusby and Penguin: any share of the royalties that earned me can be forwarded to Matt Schrader, c/o City Weekend Beijing).

8:30: From listening to this book, it sounds like this book has a lot of wolves in it. Huh. Whodathunkit?

8:30: There's the dot matrix printer again! Can't someone get that thing turned off?

8:31: Just occurred to me that Prof. Goldblatt said that he doesn't enjoy reading his own work after he's finished it because of all the things he inevitably spots that he would like to change. Wonder what he's thinking as he's reading this aloud? Actually not too bad a reader. Very dramatic.

8:32: The book launch comes to an end. The flatulence odor returns. Good times. Now let's see if I can't get my hands on a copy of Wolf Totem (apparently signed by the author, Jiang Rong). Thanks for reading, everyone!