【赫临译笔】在书店里度过的时光 - 心云驛站

在书店里度过的时光是最快乐的。你可能钟爱读书，抑或只是买本书作礼物，甚至进店可能只为躲避一阵急雨。无论哪种情况，你很快就会进入完全忘我的状态。

想从书架上拾起一本尘封已久的图本的冲动难以抵御，尽管这种择书方式不该恭维，因为你很可能拿到的是本很无聊的书。

很快你就会沉浸在一本书中，通常要过很长时间，你才能意识到自己在书店逗留的时间太久，你必须赶去赴一个被遗忘的约会，当然，书是没有买成。

我认为书店最大的魅力在于给人以脱离尘世的机会。没有多少地方可以这样。你可以随心所欲地在这里徜徉。如果是一家好书店，不会有店员走过来，老一套地招呼道：“先生，能为您效劳吗？”你浏览一遭完毕。

这时，也只有这时，你才需要他的服务。当然你可能要找一个特别的地方，但当他把你带到那时，就应该小心翼翼地退出，丝毫看不出他有推销一本书的兴趣。

对于书店里琳琅满目图书的诱惑，你要格外小心。很可能你进店去找一本关于古币的图书，出来时却拿着一本最新的畅销小说。这是很危险的事情，除了花很多钱不说，你还会一章一节地去读，浪费了大量时间。

Time spent in a bookshop can be most enjoyable, whether you are a book-lover or merely you are 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 pickup 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.

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. You can wander round such places to your heart's content. If it is a good shop, no assistant to you with inevitable greeting, "Can I help you, sir?" You 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 carefully and look as if he is not interested in selling a single book.

You have to be careful not to be attracted by the variety of books in a bookshop. It is very easy to enter the shop looking for a book on ancient coins and to come out carrying a copy of the latest best-selling novel. This sort of thing can be very dangerous. Apart from running up a huge account, you can waste great deal of time wandering from section to section.

弓虽发表于 2014-1-17 11:01
读朋友的译文总是受益匪浅！
拜读问好，祝新年愉快！

丛中笑发表于 2014-1-17 22:04
书同有路勤为径，学海无涯苦作舟。开卷有益!