Voyage

我原本沒想quote英文書的, 但昨天之前都沒準備, 在日期跳到明天之前, 大概也碰不到家裡的書. 想到若取消一週的讀書日, 就極可能不會有耐心的繼續下去, 另外也是維持它在週三的執念作祟, 於是只好拿手邊一直沒帶回家的書, 充數一下.

說是充數, 是指讀書日; Anne Fadiman這本書, 我是非常喜歡的. (說「這本書」好像不太對, 因為我明明讀的是中文版. 哈) 才會又買了本原文版, 想加減知道譯者說她好用難字, 少用的字, 甚至拉丁文的原文, 到底長什麼樣子.

When the Irish novelist John McGahern was a child, his sisters unlaced and removed one of his shoes while he was reading. He did not stir. The placed a straw hat on his head. No response. Only when they took away the wooden chair on which he was sitting did he, as he puts it. “wake out of the book”.

“Wake” is the right verb, because there is a certain kind of child who awaken from a book as from an abyssal sleep, swimming heavily u through layers of consciousness toward a reality that seems less real than a dream-state that has been left behind. I was such a child.

Perface,Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris

不過, 我原想quote關於極地探險的一章, 一時找不到想quote的段落. 於是改變主意引用前言. 這本書中文版名「愛書人的喜悅」, 大概就是因為, Anne Fadiman, 如她自己所說, 是個wake from book的小孩.

附註: 說到充數, 其實上週的讀書日才真是充數. :p