Title image: Stills of "Things to come"
Recently, there are two hotly discussed things among readers (book buyers): one is that Kindle is about to withdraw from the Chinese market; the other is that a group of readers cannot accept light paper, and they are crusading against publishing houses that use light paper on the Internet, listing the blacklist of light paper books. At the heart of both of these topics is the question of reading habits, with every reader having some reading preferences, some people accustomed to convenient e-books or paper paperbacks, and some people hoping to buy books that can be saved for a lifetime or even buried with themselves.
Joe Quinnan, the author of The Great Book, would have been eager to join the discussion if he had been in China. He is like a typical Douban user, who can be quoted when defending his reading taste and habits, and will be mean and sarcastic about what he does not look up to. He hated the Kindle so much that he didn't read books on paper; he had more than a thousand books, but he didn't keep them for preservation, most of his books were paperbacks, and when he read them, he scribbled and drew, and he casually poisoned the authors in the blanks and wrote bad reviews. He wrote a big book about his bookishness in "Big Book"—yes, this can be written into a book—and some of these sentences were put on the Internet, which amounted to crazy pulling and pulling wars.
However, outside of different reading habits, anyone who reads a book can find resonance in this book: what makes us go to the book together? And what makes us read one book after another? What exactly do books mean for our lives? Kunnan writes a lot of moving reasons in the book, and here are some of them.
You can read anywhere
- Except for the toilet
Although I read at least a hundred books a year, even two hundred is commonplace, by New Year's Eve, I still feel that nothing has been achieved. I spend at least two hours a day reading books (fiction is the majority) and two hours a day reading newspapers and magazines to prepare for work, while my job is mainly to laugh at stupid people and scoundrels. Naturally, I don't let go of the places I take for granted—home, offices, trains, cars, planes, parks, and private gardens—but I also read in theaters, concert halls, boxing arenas, not necessarily at halftime. I read while waiting for my drunken friend to be released from bail from the detention center, I lined up for meniscus repair surgery as I read, I waited for someone to recover from my coma as I read, and I waited to deliver ice as I read [the author jokes here about The Iceman Cometh, the American playwright Eugene O'Neill's famous work. 】。 More than once, I buried my head in reading in order to forget the little at the end of the subway car; as to why I would take the subway alone in the middle of the night, I could not explain it myself. I would bring books with me wherever I went, such as waiting in line at the supermarket to check out, during jury appointments, or while waiting for people I didn't know much and didn't care much about. I can read no matter where I live, with one exception – the toilet. I find the act of reading in the toilet vulgar enough to be described in words and disrespectful to the person who wrote the book, unless the author is outrageously bad.
Stills from Pulp Fiction
There is a book than touching a fish
What's better?
I indulged in the joy of "stealing a kiss." In high school, the boys sitting in front of me were as strong as rhinos, and I used to call "Dr. No" or "Underwater City" [both books belong to the 007 series.] Mounted on his back, he reads James Bond's thrilling adventures with great interest while the teacher is chattering about the Latin word Ablative Case, also known as off-grid or adverb, one of the twists and turns of Latin nouns. Genetic fallacies and photosynthesis. During my college summers, I worked the night shift at a bubble gum factory, volunteering to climb into the ceiling chimney to clean; older, fatter full-time workers were reluctant to take the job. Even if they are not afraid of heights, they are afraid of climbing ladders. Once I'm seated in my stainless steel nest—and there's no way the people below can verify how dirty the head is—I make a little noise every once in a while, creating the illusion that I'm cleaning, and then read F. Scott Fitzgerald all night surrounded by sugar and debris. In my twenties, I worked at an A&P warehouse in the fun-free suburb of Philadelphia, where I was responsible for trucking. When I rest in the middle of the night, I also read books. For this reason, the truck drivers who worked with me didn't give me a good look. To be on the safe side, I never read Russian literature, existentialism, poetry, or books like the Epistles of Madame Sevigne in front of them, lest they pounce on me and tear me to pieces. The three-day anti-war demonstrations on "Day of Revenge" lasted in October 1969, mainly in Chicago. In Washington, where anti-war demonstrations were in full swing, Peter "Pete" Seeger was a famous American folk singer who participated in various protests such as the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War. In order to divert my attention, I read anti-traditional culture books that had been sanctioned by the authorities, such as Steppenwolf, Journey to the East, and Siddhartha, which were very in line with the trend of the times. Once, I was at the Philadelphia Athletic Field while watching Jerry Garcia: country singer, garcia band lead singer. Performing the song "Truckin", while bringing "Pancake House" [an early work by American writer John Steinbeck]. Read it from beginning to end. By the time he was almost done singing, I was ready to read "On My Deathbed" by william Faulkner. That's it. I often sneak out of picnics, birthday parties, soccer games, and hide in the grove, garage, or uninhabited gazebo for a while.
Stills from "The Genius Family"
Safety valves for social terrorism
Books have always been my safety valve, and when a book falls from the sky in the most unexpected place, it is a miracle. The existence of books seemed to tell me that there were too many idiots in this house. Edith Wharton: American writer. Maybe she's dead, but she's still a lot more interesting than these idiots. I always seize the time to read and refuse to miss any opportunity. There are only twenty-four hours in a day, of which seven hours have to be spent on sleep. In my opinion, at least four of the remaining seventeen hours should be spent on reading. Of course, four hours a day doesn't satisfy my appetite. A friend once told me that Bram Stoker wanted to tell us through Dracula that humans need to live hundreds, thousands of years to read all the books they want to read. Count Dracula was actually a misunderstood bookworm, and the misfortune of tens of thousands of maidens was not because Dracula was the embodiment of evil, but because he could only live long enough until he finished the book he wanted to read. I can't determine the veracity of this statement, because I haven't found time to read Dracula yet. If possible, I would like to read eight to ten hours a day, every day and year. Even more.
From the Harry Potter film series
study
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Reading is my favorite thing, nothing else. When I was seven years old, in a touring Quaker City [another name for Philadelphia.] When I borrowed books from the mobile library, I made up my mind. In the words of François Rabelais: I was born that way. I know why I'm so obsessed with reading: I read because I want to be somewhere else. Yes, the world I live in, especially this society, is not satisfactory, but the world in the book is even better. This feeling is more pronounced if a person is particularly poor, or lacks arms and legs. At that time, I was trapped in a social housing, facing my parents who were not performing well, and only then did I start a crazy reading career, as if there was no tomorrow. And I am convinced that this desire to escape from reality, which arises every day and even every hour, is the main reason why people read. I mean, of course, smart people. My father, who fell out of ninth grade and headed for self-destruction, endlessly engaged in a series of meaningless, soul-destroying jobs. But he almost always carries a book with him. He read like drinking to pretend he wasn't here, and even if he was, he didn't want to be himself. I think this impulse is very common. Regardless of their public statements, and no matter how much they comfort themselves, most book lovers don't read primarily to get more information, to kill time, or to improve themselves, not even to C.S. Lewis, to know they're not alone. They read in order to escape into a more exciting and rewarding world. There, they don't hate their jobs, their partners, their governments, their lives.
Joe Queenan is an American journalist and critic, columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, GQ, and Spy Magazine, and is also featured in Time Magazine, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Golf Digest, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New Republic, New York Times, The Guardian, and other media. He has appeared on shows such as the David Letterman Evening Show, Good Morning America, Today, and The Daily Show. His memoir, Closed Hours, was acclaimed by major media outlets and was listed by The New York Times as one of the 100 books of the year 2009. Books had supported him through a funless Philadelphia childhood, and he became an avid reader and determined to defend the book for the rest of his life.
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"The Great Book"
Author: (Us) Joe Kunnan Translator: Dandan Chen
Publisher: Sanhui Books | The Commercial Press
password:
47 micro qqMg2ctOftK ah https://m.tb.cn/h.flaWBGi?sm=699a1e
Why do we buy books? For books turn darkness into light and nothingness into existence.
This is a book about books that will resonate deeply with every book lover.
Under the impact of digital publishing, bookstores have closed down one after another, and the number of people reading books has also decreased. Kunnan, like many book lovers, is pondering this serious question. Although this book is a reflection generated in the book in a dilemma, the author uses an interesting style to tell the story of his relationship with the book, falling in love with the book all the time, and it is irrepressible to laugh. This book examines today's reading ecology, touching on passionate and dedicated booksellers, besieged libraries, and the daily plight of book lovers. Kunnan not only talked about his reading habits, but also studied the reading habits of friends, family members, etc. and the interesting stories of reading and making friends through investigation and inquiry. Unlike books that sit back and talk and keep their distance from their readers, this book makes true book lovers unforgettable and stimulates them to read more books.
Edited | Ashanshan