評論
打印
There was certainly no talk of comfort and joy, of the lively subculture of those of us who comprise the real clan of the book, who read not to judge the reading of others but to take the measure of ourselves. Of those of us who read because we love it more than anything, who feel about bookstores the way some people feel about jewelers. The silence about this was odd, both because there are so many of us and because we are what the world of books is really about. We are the people who once waited for the newest installment of Dickens' latest novel. We are the people who saw to it that Pride and Prejudice never went out of print.
顯然沒有人談論我們這些真正的讀書人的舒適與樂趣，談論我們活躍的亞文化。我們讀書不是為了評判他人的閱讀，而是為了估量我們自己。我們這些人愛讀書超過一切，看見書店的感覺就像有些人看見珠寶商一樣，但人們不會談論我們。這種沉默實在令人奇怪，因為我們人數眾多，而且我們才是真正的讀書界。我們就是當年翹首以望，等著狄更斯小說最新一期連載的那些人，我們就是那些永遠不會讓《傲慢與偏見》絕版的那些人。
Nothing had changed since I was a solitary child being given leather bookmarks by relatives for Christmas. It was still in the equivalent of the club chairs that we found one another: at the counters in bookstores with our arms full, at the front desks in libraries, at school, where teachers introduced us to one another—and, of course, in books, where book-lovers make up a lively subculture of characters. "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing," says Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird.
從當年親戚們在圣誕節送我這個愛獨處的孩子皮制書簽一直到現在，一切都沒有改變。在書店柜臺邊抱著滿懷書籍的人，在圖書館借書臺前等待的人，在學校里老師為我們介紹認識的那些人，當然，還有在書本里構筑亞文化的眾多讀書愛好者，都是和坐在椅子里讀書的人志同道合的人。在《殺死一只知更鳥》這本小說里，斯考特說過直到我害怕會失去一本書的時候才開始愛上讀書。這就像人不懂得熱愛呼吸一樣。”
Reading is like so much else in our culture: the truth of it is found in its people and not in its pundits and its professionals. If I believed what I read about reading I would despair. But instead there are letters from readers to attend to, like the one from a girl who had been given one of my books by her mother and began her letter, "I guess I am what some people would call a bookworm."
讀書與我們文化中很多東西都相似。它真正的意義在普通人心中，而不是在學術權威和專家學者身上。如果我相信我讀過的關于閱讀問題的文章，那我就要絕望了。好在我還有讀者給我的來信要我回復。比如有個小姑娘，她媽媽送給她一本我寫的書，她給我寫了一封信，開頭提到我想我就是人們所說的書呆子。”
"So am I," I wrote back.
我回信說我也是。”
