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15.Farewell, Libraries?
15.圖書館，再見？
Amazon.com recent announcement that sales of e-books at the online megastore had overtaken sales of hardcover books came as no surprise. It had to happen sometime. But the news did conjure quite an interesting mental image: libraries that from now on will look smaller and less crowded. The habits of readers may not change. But their enviroments will. Theoretically, your space will be more spare, more serenely uncluttered. That's the theory, at least. My experience is that stuff expands to fill the space available. But you can dream.
亞馬遜網站最近宣布，這個超大網上書城的電子書銷量已經超過精裝書，這不奇怪。這種情況早晚都會發生。但是，這條消息確實讓人們的腦海里出現一副有趣的畫面：從現在開始，圖書館會顯得更小一些，也不那么擁擠了。讀者的習慣也許不會改變，但他們的環境會改變。從理論上說，你的空間會更大，更整齊清爽。至少理論上如此。按照我的經驗，東西會自動增加，去填取可用的空間，但你可以盡情想象。
With books, the absence of packaging does nothing to contents. I can buy a hardover copy of Moby Dick or download it into an e-reader, and Melville is still Melville. But I grew up loving Rockwell Kent's illustrations of that novel, and later Barry Moser's. It's hard to think of the book without them. I can do that, certainly, but some little is lost.
就書而言，沒有包裝對內容毫無影響。我可以買一本精裝的《大白鯊》或把內容下載到電子書上，梅爾維爾還是梅爾維爾。但是，我從小到大都喜歡羅克韋爾·肯特的這部小說配的插圖。難以想象這本書少了那些插圖。當然，我能接受，但是還是少了些什么。
I come from a generation for whom the books and records on the shelf signaled, in some way, who you were. If you visited a friend, you took the first chance you had to surrepititiously scan that friend's Kindle, but is that the same? And try that kind of snooping on a bus or in a coffee shop and you'll probably get arrested.
對我們這代人來說，架上的書和唱片在某種程度上標志著你是什么樣的人。如果去拜訪某一位朋友，你會抓住第一時機偷偷掃一眼朋友的書架，了解一下這個人。我猜，我也可以窺視朋友的“金讀”電子書，但是這一樣嗎？要是在公共汽車或咖啡店這樣探頭探腦，你大概會被抓。
The stuff of our lives is a comfort. We look up at the shelves and we see old friends.(Yes, there aare books on my shelves that aren't my friends, that I haven't finished or even started, but someday I will, I promise-my home library is a physical manifestation of ambivalence.) There is a comfort in the continuity of seeing the same books year after year. I guess there might be some of the same pleasure in scrolling through a digital librar or music playlist, but somehow I think something will be lost.
生活中的物件對我們是一種安慰。抬頭看一眼書架，我們看到的是老朋友。（不錯，書架上有些書不是我的朋友，我沒有讀完甚至壓根就沒讀過，但有朝一日我會讀——我的家庭圖書館是矛盾心理的有形體現。）年復一年看到同樣的書給人以安慰。我猜，滾動數字圖書館或音樂播放表或許也會產生類似的快樂，但不知怎么的，我還是覺得少點兒什么。
