World Book Day special: Understanding Xi through his book list

"My biggest hobby is reading. Reading has become part of my lifestyle."

- Xi Jinping

President Xi Jinping is known as an avid reader. On World Book and Copyright Day, let's review some of the books Xi has read and drawn inspirations from during his years, beginning as a youth and growing into the country's top leader.

Das Kapital

In the late 1960s, Xi spent seven years of his youth in a small village in Northwest China's Shaanxi province. Though his formal education was disrupted at the time, Xi's hunger for knowledge drove him to keep reading by himself.

One of Xi's favorite books at the time was Das Kapital by Carl Marx. Xi said he read through the book for three times and has written many books of notes in response.

Xi has on many occasions urged Party officials to master the tenets of Marxism by reading the original works, including Das Kapital.

"Some think the political economics of Marxism is outdated, and Das Kapital is outdated, which is a rash judgment and is incorrect," Xi said in a group study of the Communist Party of China's top leadership in 2015.