A Private Library All Your Own
佚名 / Anonymous
A borrowed book is like a guest in the house; it must be treated with punctiliousness, with a certain considerate formality. You must see that it sustains no damage; it must not suffer while under your roof. You cannot leave it carelessly, you cannot mark it, you cannot turn down the pages, you cannot use it familiarly.
But your own books belong to you; you treat them with that affectionate intimacy that annihilates formality. Books are for use, not for show; you should own no book that you are afraid to mark up, or afraid to place on the table, wide open and face down. A good reason for marking favorite passages in books is that this practice enables you to remember more easily the signif?icant sayings to refer to them quickly.
Everyone should begin collecting a private library in youth. One should have one’s own bookshelves, which should not have door, glass windows, or keys; they should be free and accessible to the hand as well as to the eye. The best of mural decorations is books; they are more varied in color and appearance than any wallpaper, they are more attractive in design, and they have the prime advantage of being separate personalities, so that if you sit alone in the room in the f?irelight, you are surrounded with intimate friends. The knowledge that they are there in plain view is both stimulating and refreshing. You do not have to read them all. Most of my indoor life is spent in a room containing six thousand books; and I have a stock answer to the invariable question that comes from strangers. “Have you read all of these books?” “Some of them twice.” This reply is both true and unexpected. Books are of the people, by the people, for the people. Literature is the immortal part of history; it is the best and most enduring part of personality. But book-friends have this advantage over living friends; you can enjoy the most truly aristocratic society in the world whenever you want it. The great dead are beyond our physical reach, and the great living are usually almost as inaccessible; as for our personal friends and acquaintances, you cannot always see them. Perhaps they are asleep, or away on a journey. But in a private library, you can at any moment converse with Socrates or Shakespeare or Carlyle or Dumas or Dickens or Shaw or Barrie or Galsworthy. And there is no doubt that in these books you see these men at their best. They wrote for YOU. They “laid themselves out”. They did their ultimate best to entertain you, to make a favorable impression. You are necessary to them as an audience is to an actor; only instead of seeing them masked, you look into their inmost heart of hearts. The “real Charles Dickens” is in his novels, not in his dressing-room.
借来的书，就如同家里的客人，一定要谨小慎微地以礼相待，让它在你保管期间毫发无损。你不能将它随便乱扔，不能在上面涂抹刻画，不能把书页折卷，不能随心所欲地用它。
但是，你的书归自己所有，大可不必拘于形式，可与之亲密接触。书是供人使用的，而非用来展示的。你不必担心在书上涂得乱糟糟的，也不必担心把书打开扣在桌面上会对书有什么损伤。将你喜爱的篇章在书中标注出来，这样很容易让你记住名句，迅速地在大脑中翻阅。
人人都应在年少时就开始藏书，构建自己的私人图书馆。每个人都应有一个属于自己的无门、无窗、无锁的书架，里面的书能一览无余，伸手可及。墙壁装饰应首选书籍；与墙纸相比，它们色彩纷呈，外观多样，更能吸引人们的眼球。其最大的优点是，拥有“个性”，因此，若你一个人坐在家中的火炉旁，便会有被一群亲密友伴包围的感觉。一想到知识近在咫尺，你就会兴奋不已，精神备增。你无须将所有书都读一遍。我的大多数室内时光都消耗在书房里，那里藏书六千册。我已准备好了如何回答来客千篇一律的问题：“所有的书你都读过吗？”“有些读了两遍。”这个答案是事实且令人感到意外。书乃民有、民治、民享之物。
文学是历史中不朽的章节，是拥有最优秀、最恒久个性的部分。与书为伴要比与人为伴更有优势。如果你愿意，可随时体验世界上最真实的贵族社会的生活。我们无法见到逝去的伟人，也无缘结识活着的伟人。即使亲朋好友，也不能时常相见。他们也许在安睡，也许在旅途中。然而，在自己的图书馆里，你可随时与苏格拉底、莎士比亚、卡莱尔、大小仲马、狄更斯或萧伯纳、巴里、高尔斯华绥等人交谈。显然，你可以从书中看到这些人最优秀的一面。他们为你而写，淋漓尽致地展示自己，取悦你，希望留给你一个美好的印象。对他们来说，你的重要性有如观众之于演员，只不过，你看到的并非一张伪饰的脸，而是他们发自内心深处的东西。“真正的狄更斯”体现在他的小说里，而非他的更衣室中。
记忆填空
1. Books are for , not for show; you should own no that you are afraid to mark up, or afraid to place on the , wide open and face down. A good for marking favorite passages in books is that this practice enables you to remember easily the signif?icant sayings to refer to them .
2. The knowledge that they are there plain view is both stimulating and refreshing. You do not have to them all. Most of my indoor is spent in a room containing six thousand books; and I have a stock to the invariable question that comes strangers.
佳句翻译
1. 你不能将它随便乱扔，不能在上面涂抹刻画，不能把书页折卷，不能随心所欲地用它。
2. 一想到知识近在咫尺，你就会兴奋不已，精神备增。
3. 他们为你而写，淋漓尽致地展示自己，取悦你，希望留给你一个美好的印象。
短语应用
1. You must see that it sustains no damage; it must not suffer while under your roof.
under your roof：归你管辖，在你麾下
2. You are necessary to them as an audience is to an actor; only instead of seeing them masked, you look into their inmost heart of hearts.
as...to...：犹如……之于……
