Spanish author Marc Serena shares with Chinese readers his book about youth, dreams and travel. Provided to China Daily

Youth, dreams and global travel are the focus of many books aiming to attract young adult readers.

Marc Serena, a 29-year-old Spanish journalist, has just launched his book detailing his year traveling the world, La Volta dels 25, in Beijing.

This is not just another travel book, says its Chinese editor Wang Qixian. "It doesn't focus on scenery or travel tips. It's about people," he says. "It's an anti-travel travel book."

The book details 25 chance meetings with 25-year-olds in 25 countries. Serena, who was 25 in 2008, wrote about the other 25-year-olds he met on the road while trying to determine the "spirit of the times" from them.

Serena says young people are the leaders of tomorrow. He wanted to explore how these people, whose lives do not make the headlines, live everyday life.

Serena spent a few weeks in China, speaking with a Greenpeace worker in Beijing and a Paralympic champion in Hong Kong.

He does not consider China's environment overly problematic, but he wanted a "holistic picture", "because environmental issues are a global problem", he says.

Serena also interviewed a Chilean girl in jail, a poet in Zimbabwe and a homosexual man in India.

"Everywhere is different and everybody is different," he concludes. Even in China, he realized a Beijinger may have more in common with a Barcelona native than a Chinese from the countryside.

But he says people from Asian countries did seem to be rushing and hurrying more than those from other continents.

He also found that to be 25 means: "you have a sense of what you want to be, but not that specific. You have the sense that you can change your life".

At the book launch at Instituto Cervantes, the room was packed with stylish young readers who were lured by the themes of dreams, travel and youth.

The attendees, mostly female, were practical about their future plans. They asked Serena questions about his budget, how to balance work and play and how much time it took to get to know a country.

Zhou Yangbo, a 25-year-old translator, says her dream is to do a cultural exchange with a company. She resolved to act after reading the book.

"I'm goal-oriented. I dream practical dreams which I experiment with a little each time," she says.

A 24-year-old who gave her name as Froggy Li, had a different idea.

"Why dream and plan and exhaust yourself? I say, let nature take its course," she says.

Serena, who started his journey in 2008 without a plan or commission, says he hopes readers take one line to heart: "Be careful of what you dream, because it may come true."

sunye@chinadaily.com.cn

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