在快节奏娱乐逐渐占据主流的今天,阅读已经不是大部分人的消遣方式。然而,居住在美国普林斯顿的拜尔斯先生,却花了二三十年的时间,为自己打造了一座私人图书馆。对他而言,阅读有着怎样的魔力?他的故事能带给我们何种启示?

How Many Books Does It Take to Make a Place Feel Like Home?

有多少本书,才能让一个地方有家的感觉?

By Julie Lasky

At the turn of the millennium, Reid Byers set out to build a Private library at his home in Princeton, N.J. The project stretched over a generation and culminated this year in a book.

在千禧年来临之时,家住新泽西州普林斯顿的雷德·拜尔斯,开始着手建造一间私人图书馆。这项计划持续了二三十年,最终,随着今年出版的一本书而完美收官。

In “The Private Library,” Mr. Byers goes to the heart of why physical books continue to beguile us. Individually, they are frequently useful or delightful, but it is when books are displayed en masse that they really work wonders. Covering the walls of a room, piled up to the ceiling and exuding the breath of generations, they nourish the senses, slay boredom and relieve distress.

在《私人图书馆》这本书中,拜尔斯直击核心,探讨了为什么实体书仍旧让我们着迷。单看一本书时,人们往往会觉得它具有实用性,或令人愉悦。但只有将很多书陈列在一起时,才会真正产生奇妙的效果。这些书或铺满一面墙,或堆到天花板,散发着经年累月的气息——它们滋养感官,消磨困顿,缓解苦痛。

“Entering our library should feel like easing into a hot tub, strolling into a magic store, emerging into the orchestra pit, or entering a chamber of curiosities, the club, the circus, our cabin on an outbound yacht, the house of an old friend,” he writes. “It is a setting forth, and it is a coming back to center.”

拜尔斯写道:“人进入自己的书房时,应该感觉像是缓缓浸入一个热水浴缸、或者像漫步走进一家魔术商店,抑或像融入一个交响乐池。也可能像是置身一间奇物馆、一家俱乐部、一个马戏团、或是踏进了离港游艇上的一间船舱,或是一位老友的屋房。这既是启程远航,也是归心之旅。

Mr. Byers coined a term — “book-wrapt” — to describe the exhilarating comfort of a well-stocked library. To be surrounded by books is to be held rapt in an enchanted circle and to experience the rapture of being transported to other worlds.

一间藏书众多的图书馆会给人满心的喜悦和舒适。为描述这种感觉,鲍尔斯造了一个新说法:book-wrapt。被图书环绕的感觉,就如同在一个魔法圈中入了迷,体验着幻影移形到各种大千世界的欣喜若狂。

So how many books does it take to feel book-wrapt? Mr. Byers cited a common belief that 1,000 is the minimum in any self-respecting home library. Five hundred books ensure that a room “will begin to feel like a library,” he said.

那么,拥有多少本书,才能使人感受到“book-wrapt”?拜尔斯在书中提到了一种普遍认识:但凡对自己有点要求的人,书房藏书至少要有1000册。而要一个房间“开始有点书房的样子”,500本书是必须的。

And masses of books, he said, represent “delights that we hold in possibility” — the joy of being able to lift a hand and tap unexplored worlds.

拜尔斯还说,大量藏书意味着“我们在种种可能中会获得的快乐”:只要一抬手,就能触碰到未经探索的世界。

【内容拓展】

原文提到的书名是:The Private Library: The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Bookroom

生词好句

1.millennium

英 [mɪˈleniəm] 美 [mɪˈleniəm]

n. 一千年

拓展:

复数形式:millennia/millenniums

usher in the new millennium

迎接新千年的到来

at the dawn of the new millennium

新千年的曙光

2.stretch

英 [stretʃ] 美 [stretʃ]

vi. 延续(to spread over a long period of time)

拓展:

Many families' budgets are already stretched to breaking point.

很多家庭的预算已经达到了极限。

3.culminate

英 [ˈkʌlmɪneɪt] 美 [ˈkʌlməneɪt]

vi. (以某种结果)告终(to be the final result of a process)

拓展:

The CCTV Spring Festival Gala usually will culminate with a song called Tonight is Unforgetable.

央视春晚通常会以一曲《难忘今宵》作为落幕。

4.beguile

英 [bɪˈɡaɪl] 美 [bɪˈɡaɪl]

vt. (本文)吸引;欺骗

拓展:

I had to show I was not beguiled by his good looks.

我必须要表明,我没有被他的潘安之貌所迷住。

5.en masse

英 [ˌɒn ˈmæs] 美 [ˌɑːnmæs]

adv. 一群,一堆,全部(in one group all together usually in large numbers)

拓展:

Individually the children are delighful; en masse they can be unbearable.

一个孩子会让你觉得开心;一群孩子会让你难以忍受。

6.exude

英 [ɪɡˈzjuːd] 美 [ɪɡˈzuːd]

vt. 散发,流露

拓展:

exude confidence 透着自信

exude happiness 散发出幸福感

7.nourish

英 [ˈnʌrɪʃ] 美 [ˈnɜːrɪʃ]

vt. 滋养

拓展:

nourish your skin 养肤

a well-nourished baby 孩子养得好

You are nourished by where you live.

一方水土,养一方人。

8.stroll

英 [strəʊl] 美 [stroʊl]

vi. 散步,溜达,闲逛

9.yacht

英 [jɒt] 美 [jɑːt]

n. 游艇

10.coin

英 [kɔɪn] 美 [kɔɪn]

vt. (本文)创造(新词);铸币

11.exhilarating

英 [ɪɡˈzɪləreɪtɪŋ] 美 [ɪɡˈzɪləreɪtɪŋ]

adj. 兴奋的,非常开心的(excited; very happy)

12.enchanted

英 [ɪnˈtʃɑːntɪd] 美 [ɪnˈtʃæntɪd]

adj. 中了魔法的,着了魔的

13.rapture

英 [ˈræptʃə] 美 [ˈræptʃər]

n. 狂喜(extreme pleasure and excitement)

14.cite

英 [saɪt] 美 [saɪt]

vt. 列举(to give examples)

15.minimum

英 [ˈmɪnɪməm] 美 [ˈmɪnəməm]

n. 最小值

拓展:

反义词:maximum 最大值

16.self-respecting

英 [ˌselfrɪˈspektɪŋ] 美 [ˌselfrɪˈspektɪŋ]

adj. 像样的(used to say that someone has the qualities that a person of that type should have);自重的,有自尊心的

拓展:

No self-respecting government would allow such atrocities to be carried out in its name.

但凡是政府,就不会允许打着政府的旗号做出如此暴行。

17.tap

英 [tæp] 美 [tæp]

vt. 发掘,开发(to obtain or make use of something)

拓展:

tap the students' natural abilities

发掘学生的天赋

拥有一个属于自己的书房(通往大千世界的钥匙)(1)

拥有一个属于自己的书房(通往大千世界的钥匙)(2)

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