The Virtues of Book Ownership真正擁有一本書

By Stephanie Cohen 毛川/選 何遠遠/注

“Can you spare1 a dollar so I can buy this book？”

I heard a mans deep voice ask this question as I raced up a flight of stairs， speeding my way to the second floor of the local public library to drop off some overdue books.2 His voice was coming from the librarys “sale room” on the first floor—a room that is little more than a closet but where you can score decent books and classics for a dollar or 50 cents.3

I couldnt hear the response of the person he was talking to， but his question bounced around4 in my head for the rest of the day. I wondered if the individual from whom hed asked for the loan5 might have asked why anyone would need to borrow money to buy a book when they were standing inside a library—where any book can be borrowed for free. Then I wondered which book he wanted to buy， and why， because some books are indeed meant to be held onto6 for longer than standard loan times， even forever.

There are some books （ok， more like many books， especially in my house） that need to be owned outright7. They need to be there on a shelf or in a pile， ready to be pulled out at just the right moment when you need the book （or when you dont know you need the book until you start reading it again）； you even need some of the books youve already read， because their presence can rekindle thoughts that were sparked by an earlier reading.8

Ownership has always been about more than having the means to purchase a book—though as the man in the library illustrated， the means is necessary to kick off the process.9 Mortimer Adler， the founder of the Great Books program， explained in the 1940s exactly how you should go about reading a book and had this to say about book ownership：

When you buy a book， you establish a property right10 in it， just as you do in clothes or furniture. When you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book.11 Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself， and the best way to make yourself a part of it—which comes to the same thing—is by writing in it.

The provenance of books—a record of ownership of a particular book through the course of time—can be found in antique books by studying bookplates and stamps placed on pages by one-time owners.12 The British National Archives recently highlighted some of the amazing antique books in its collection and the trail of owners each book passed between and how they establish this record of ownership.13

Ownership today can be tracked more often by scribbles and doodles and less by the elaborate bookplates of barons and earls.14 I pity the person who one day winds up with copies of some of my books—I am a notes-in-the-margins lady， filling books with arrows， brackets， asterisks， underlining， question marks， and exclamation points.15 These notes are the heavy traffic of my wrestling with ideas； the library would not abide this.16

I asked one of my young sons why we should keep our family books instead of selling them. He explained it this way： “The oldest person in a family needs to pass down the books to the youngest person. Then they pass it down to their youngest kid.” If the process gets repeated again and again， a family achieves the goal of successively17 （and successfully） educating each new generation.

In a recent Financial Times article on book collecting， city editor Jonathan Guthrie， who purchases old books， maintains that the words are merely one part of a books allure18. “Words are just one element of a book and not always the best part. Books as physical objects have a charm that also comes from typography， illustration， format and back-story.19 That is why collecting books can be such a deep source of pleasure，” Guthrie writes. But in an age when Marie Kondos best-selling book on the Japanese art of tidying up and getting rid of clutter is a staple in conversations， I fear book piles may be an obvious target for many families.20

Last week， I let my daughter cut school so she could join me on what has become an annual pilgrimage to buy more books.21 Every year， a massive annual used book sale is held in Princeton， NJ.22 Typically there are between 85，000 and 125，000 books for sale over numerous days， most for less than $3. It is book lovers nirvana23. For two and half hours my daughter and I sat on the floor digging through24 books， creating “maybe” piles and “definite” piles， books for ourselves and books for other members （and friends） of the family. These books will line our walls with our aspirations25—what we aspire to read， what we aspire to know， who we aspire to become through what we know. The books we own may embody26 the person we want to be. Even unread， they tell a story about us.

As we approached midday， we unfolded ourselves from beneath the tables and picked ourselves up off the floor.27 We dragged our numerous bags to the checkout line and paid the bill that made us owners of these 162 books.28 I didnt need to ask anyone to loan me a dollar that day， but if I had come up a dollar short， I would have asked another fellow book buyer to spot me， believing the need to own that particular book would be understood and graciously aided among the community of readers.29

1. spare： 給予，借。

2. 當我正沖上一段臺階，匆匆趕去當地公共圖書館二層還幾本逾期借閱的書時，聽到了一個男人用低沉的聲音詢問這個問題。a flight of： 一段（樓梯），一段（臺階）；overdue：（到期）未付的，未還的。

3. closet： 貯藏室，壁櫥；score： 贏得，獲得；decent： 像樣的，不錯的；classics： 經典作品，名著。

4. bounce around： 不停跳躍，任意變換。

5. loan： 借款，貸款。

6. hold onto： 抓緊，不放開。

7. outright： 完全地，徹底地。

8. 它們該被放在書架上或堆成一摞，以備需要時即刻取用（或是你本不知自己需要那本書，直到再次讀它）；你甚至需要幾本讀過的書，因為它們的存在會喚醒你以往閱讀時萌生的想法。pile： 一摞，一堆；presence： 存在， 出現；rekindle： 使重新活躍，使復蘇；spark： 引發，觸發。

9. illustrate： 表明，闡明；kick off： 開始。

10. property right： 財務權，產權。

11. prelude： 序幕，前奏； possession： 具有，擁有。

12. 通過研究一本古書的歷任舊主在書中留下的藏書票和印戳，能找出一本書的來源，也就是長期以來這本書的物主記錄。provenance： 起源，出處；antique： 古老的，古董的；bookplate： 藏書者標簽（貼在書中）；stamp： 印記，戳記。

13. British National Archives： 英國國家檔案館；highlight： 使突出，使強調；trail： 痕跡，蹤跡。

14. track： 跟蹤，追蹤；scribble： 潦草的字跡，涂鴉；doodle： 亂寫亂畫的東西；baron： 男爵；earl： 伯爵。

15. 我同情未來某天會拿到我的藏書的那個人——我是個“愛在空白處做筆記的女士”，書中畫滿了箭頭、括號、星號、下劃線、問號和感嘆號。wind up： 以……告終；margin： 頁邊空白，白邊；bracket： 括號；asterisk： 星號；exclamation point： 感嘆號。

16. wrestle with： 設法處理，費力解決；abide： 容忍，忍受。

17. successively： 連續地，接連地。

18. allure： 誘惑力，吸引力。

19. typography： 版面設計；illustration： 圖示，插圖；format： 版式，開本；back-story： 背景故事，前傳。

20. 但是，如今近藤麻理惠那本關于日本收納及整理雜物藝術的暢銷書成了人們聊天的主要內容，在這樣一個時代，我擔心對很多家庭來說，那一摞摞的書會成為首當其沖的清理對象。clutter： 雜亂的東西；staple： 主要部分，重要內容。

21. cut school： 曠課；pilgrimage： （到喜歡且常去之地的）旅行。

22. massive： 大規模的；NJ： New Jersey，美國新澤西州。

23. nirvana： 天堂，極樂世界。

24. dig through： 翻遍，挖掘。

25. aspiration： 渴望，抱負。

26. embody： 具體表現，體現。

27. approach： 靠近，接近；midday： 中午，正午；unfold： 展開，打開。

28. drag： （使勁而吃力地）拖，拽；checkout： 付款臺，結賬處。

29. come up： 出現；fellow： 同伴的，同情況的；spot： 注意到，發現；graciously： 和藹地，寬厚地。