Quitting Smoking

Quitting Smoking is a nonfiction work by Li Ruhao based on his own experience of quitting. Although its Douban rating is not widely listed on mainstream platforms, its value lies in its truthful record of the struggles and awakening of an ordinary Chinese smoker. The author is not a medical expert but a longtime smoker who meticulously depicts the dual shackles of physical dependence and psychological habit, and the process of finally breaking free. The book contains no obscure medical theory; instead, it offers abundant slice-of-life scenes and inner monologues—the craving for the first cigarette in the morning, the pressure to accept a cigarette in social settings, the trouble of weight gain after quitting—details that resonate strongly with readers who have had similar experiences.\n\nAs an editor, I believe the book's unique value lies in its “ordinariness” and its “sense of process.” It offers no quick-fix secrets but honestly shows the relapses, setbacks, and small victories of quitting; this truthful record of non-linear progress is more instructive than many success-story-style quitting guides. The author's prose is plain and restrained, with occasional self-deprecating humor that lightens the heaviness of the subject. However, the book leans heavily on personal narrative and offers relatively limited social and cultural critique of tobacco or data on health harms, making it more suitable as psychological encouragement than as a scientific manual. Overall, it is a warm and sincere record of self-dialogue whose power lies not in telling you how to do it but in showing you that “someone walked this path and succeeded.”