評論
打印
Bookshoppers' Paradise
購書者的樂園
Time spent in a bookshop can be most enjoyable, whether you are a book-lover or merely there to buy a book as a present. You may even have entered the shop just to find shelter from a sudden shower. Whatever the reason, you can soon become totally unaware of your surroundings. The desire to pick up a book with an attractive dust-jacket is irresistible, although this method of selection ought not to be followed, as you might end up with a rather dull book. You soon become engrossed in some book or other, and usually it is only much later that you realize you have spent far too much time there and must dash off to keep some forgotten appointment — without buying a book, of course.
你是個愛鉆書本的書蠹也罷，或者只是去那兒買本書當禮品的也罷，在書店里消磨一段時間，那可能是再愜意不過的了。說不定你鉆進書店，不過是為了找個躲過陣雨的場所。不論你進書店是何原因，一旦進去之后，你很快就會忘掉了周圍的一切。挑一本護封誘人的書籍，這種欲望很難抵擋，雖說不該按這種方法來選購書籍，因為到頭來，你會發現你買的那本書的內容相當乏味。（在書店里，）你很快就很專心地看起某本書來了，而通常直到很久以后你才意識到你在那里消磨的時間太多了，必須趕緊離開去赴某個已忘記的約會——當然是一本書也沒買。
This opportunity to escape the realities of everyday life is, I think, the main attraction of a bookshop. There are not many places where it is possible to do this. A music shop is very much like a bookshop. You can wander round such places to your heart's content. If it is a good shop, no assistant will approach you with the inevitable greeting: "Can I help you, sir?" You needn't buy anything you don't want. In a bookshop an assistant should remain in the background until you have finished browsing. Then, and only then, are his services necessary. Of course, you may want to find out where a particular section is, but when he has led you there, the assistant should retire discreetly and look as if he is not interested in selling a single book.
這種逃避日常生活現實的機會，我想，乃是書店主要的吸引人之處。能為你提供這樣機會的場所，并不很多。音樂制品商店和書店倒很相似。你可以在這種地方盡情逛悠。如果店里服務周全的話，不會有店員走過來，朝你說聲那句免不了的客套話:“先生，我可以為你效勞嗎?”如果你不想買，就什么也別買。在書店里，店員應該一直呆在不為人注意的地方，直到你已經瀏覽完以后才出來。這時候，而且只有這時候，他的服務才是需要的。當然啰，你也許想找到某個具體的圖書陳列處，但是等他領你到了那兒，店員就該悄悄走開才是，似乎對能否賣掉一兩本書并不感興趣。
