On the second floor of the town's industrial and commercial office is the "Xinhua Bookstore".
Bookstores are not big, not so much bookstores as stationery stores, because there are very few books in them. Bookstores sell students' homework books, stationery and other school supplies.
But this place was one of the few places I bought extracurricular books when I was a kid.
The thicker books in the bookstore are generally some reference books such as the Xinhua Dictionary, the Chinese Yearbook, and the Encyclopedia, and the "tomes" are famous works, such as the Four Masterpieces, the New Language of the World, and the Ancient Literature Guanzhi, and there are very few books with high reading value.
It wasn't until I was in the upper grades of elementary school that under the sidewalks of the Su-style arcades on both sides of the street, there were book sellers who occupied the road one after another to run book stalls, and they bought some magazines and newspapers, such as "Readers", "Reader's Digest", "Zhiyin", "South Wind Window" and other newspapers and magazines.
There are also some of the earliest scar literature depicting Zhiqing, such as: "Children from the Forest", Ye Xin's trilogy "Young People of Our Generation", "The Wind Is Cold", "The Broken Years" and other best-selling books.
These books and periodicals are like spiritual food for me as a teenager, which is extremely tempting.
When I was a child, my parents gave me pocket money that was very limited, so buying books was definitely not OK.
So I often pretended to go to the book stall to pick up books and buy books, and it was impossible to actually buy books. I flipped through the pages as I picked and read, secretly reading. When I met the stall owner and seller, I was not immediately chased away, but I was told not to dirty and damage the book, as long as it did not affect the sale of the book.
If you're lucky, standing and reading, a magazine or the like is almost complete.
When you are young, not only is there a lack of materials, but the access to knowledge and information is also extremely limited and scarce.
I am a person who loves to read, and sometimes even the family calendar, some products, medicine instructions, I will look at it with great interest.
When there are no books, any book is a good book.
For a while, I liked the illustrated (doll) serial books very much, and whenever I saw these books, it was like going crazy, and I always tried to find a way to look at them and feast my eyes.
In that era when information was not very developed, people's desire to obtain some limited knowledge through lead printed text and black and white illustrations was very strong, even if it was a small book such as a serial book, everyone read it with relish and interest.
Hezai, the second son of Uncle Anand, who lives in the same alley, was a living as a renter.
Go to their book stall to read doll books such as "Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", and "West Chamber", which is free. Because of the acquaintance of his neighbors, he was not embarrassed to accept the rent money of one of my children.
But more times, more time. Riverboy began to hate this little fart who just read books and didn't give money. I still remember the strange expression of River Boy, the wrinkled eyebrows, and the itchy blue and white face; that scene, many years later, I still remember it clearly.
Even children can understand some information transmitted by human faces in seconds.
But just reading villain books and not giving them money to read books is my fault, and I am somewhat underwhelmed. After all, others earn money to make a living by subsidizing their families.
Slowly, I was embarrassed and didn't dare to go.
Around the park later in the town, there were stalls selling used goods and stalls selling old books. So I began to go to the old book stall to read books, in order to read the books not to be gossiped by the stall owners, I would occasionally buy a few copies, meaning.
Those old books didn't know where to get them, anyway, a lot, a bunch of them. It's not as neat as the new book, it's stacked stacked up, scattered on top of the plastic canvas, as you choose, the price is also very cheap.
In addition to the used book market, there is also a used clothes market and an old furniture market. Every afternoon at the entrance of the town's park, there are actually quite a few stalls. If I had a few pocket money in my hand, I would squat and pull out a few copies, just like online Taobao now.
Old books are cheap and do not affect normal reading, so I always have a fondness for reading and buying old books.
When I was a teenager, I had a strong desire to read extracurricular books, and this desire lasted until I became an adult.
When I was in junior high school, my family's economic conditions were slightly better.
I started to have "tomes" books. Famous works such as "Dream of the Red Chamber", "The Tale of the West Chamber", "Water Margin" and so on, I especially like it, love it, look at it without incident, and unconsciously read it.
It's not enough to watch it once, just watch it a second time.
Some chapters are still picked and picked to see, just pick those martial arts chapters to look back and forth. Plots such as the righteous qi and heroic shortness of breath in "Water Margin" are read and read repeatedly. "Drunken Beating Jiang Men Shen", "Zhongyi Tang Juyi", I am happy and not tired, like a number of family treasures.
According to the personality image of the characters in the book, I gave different nicknames to the little playmates of about the same age around the alley.
The neighbor's Xiaole, who looks like a monkey spirit monkey essence, black skinny black and thin, I gave him a nickname of "drum flea - time shift"; his brother Xiao Chain grew fat and fat, and his face was round, I called him "Heavenly Fire Star - Black Whirlwind", and the big male on the opposite bunk called him "Jade Qilin - Lu Junyi".
Anyway, I can know the names of as many people in the book, so I give the children around me as many nicknames as they are happy or unhappy.
Another book that had a great influence on me was Dream of the Red Chamber.
When reading "Dream of the Red Chamber", in most cases, I looked at the clouds and seemed to understand. But I can always pick some tears, qingqing me, love and love chapters to come back and read, although in most cases I have not fully understood.
In my memory, what I remember more clearly is the third time that "Dream of the Red Chamber" describes Lin Daiyu's words:
"Two bends seem to be crouching non-crouching eyebrows, and a pair of seemingly weeping is not crying with bare eyes." The state of two sorrows, pampered and sick. Tears lit up, and the panting was slight. Quiet like delicate flowers shining on the water, acting like a weak willow supporting the wind. ”
"The heart is more than dry, and the illness is like Xizi winning three points."
The main character in "Dream of the Red Chamber", Lin Daiyu, is a woman with inner wisdom and external show, Chuchu moving, cute and sentimental.
The beauty of Lin Daiyu is also reflected in her talented and rich poetic temperament.
But I always can't understand, Lin Daiyu is always sick, crying at every turn, feeling very sick. But why is pathology also called "beauty"? I couldn't figure it out.
When I re-read the opening chapters, I began to understand a little. Dai Yu was originally a Daizhu Immortal Grass in the Too Illusory Realm, and was blessed by the Divine Attendant's dripping water, and accompanied him to return the tears of his first life to the human world, and turned into a human world.
The reason why Lin Daiyu always cried was that she was asked by heaven to come to the human world to make a wish.
The book shows a variety of different characters, although it is a fictional image, but the talent displayed by the character of Daiyu is also difficult for ordinary people to achieve.
There is another important character in "Dream of the Red Chamber", that is, Wang Xifeng. This character is indispensable and a fierce character.
Sister Feng's ability and viciousness are quite famous in Jia Province, but in the end there is also retribution, she died of illness early, and after her death, she was also buried hastily, and no one sympathized with her.
As the saying goes, "the organs calculated too cleverly, and they mistook Qingqing's life."
I admire the great wisdom of the author, Mr. Cao Xueqin. Mr. Mister's great wisdom is not only reflected in the vivid shaping of the characters, but also the life scenes clearly reproduce every detail of people's lives hundreds of years ago.
The "Grand View Garden" in Jia Province is like a condensed small society. "Dream of the Red Chamber" also allowed me to travel through historical time and space, see the complexity of social figures in those years, and also see the joys and sorrows of people and the various changes in the world hundreds of years ago.
I saw how a family that was once in power and rich and prosperous was going to decline step by step.
Therefore, no matter in which era, no matter what kind of thing or group, it is impossible to stand in the forefront of the times forever, and it will inevitably slowly decline and decline, which is the inevitable course of historical development.
"Prosperity must decline, and decline will flourish", the cause of cause and effect reincarnation, as if only Buddhism can have an ultimate and complete statement.
In the process of reading, whether it is the character image or the plot story in the book. Even after many years, looking back, I can always see real life, more or less similar shadows and imprints.
"History is surprisingly repetitive," I think. Even if it is only a novel, it is derived from society and is connected with the context of life, and life is an objective existence of flesh and blood.
Good literature has the function of channeling and bridge. Readers of different eras can realize dialogue across time and space, so that we can truly feel the joys and sorrows of our predecessors.
The famous writer Tie Ning", "If Time Is Impossible to Save", once said:
Literature can also be said to be an art of time, an art that has the ability to connect history, the present and the future. Throughout the ages, those good literatures have not been the bones of history, but the flesh and blood of history.
Because of literature, we can glimpse the life and labor of our ancestors, love and sorrow, thoughts and expressions of thought, and we can still have the ability to communicate with their hearts after thousands of years.
Later, when I went to high school, I was nervous academically, and I read a lot less "tome" books, but my interest in reading still did not weaken.
The interest in reading in my youth has had a huge impact on my life.
When a person reads a book and lets the book grow with him, then examines the world and looks at himself, the world view and outlook on life he obtains are completely different.
Despite these effects and changes, there has been no substantial change in our lives now. But from the heart, at least for my own positioning and evaluation, it is sober and objective.
When you step on the stage of middle age, there are variables in every day of life, every moment in life.
Now I am not too old, when I can move my hands, feet can lift, my head can turn and be healthy, I can look back on the past with warmth, I can clearly see my current shortcomings, and the future direction, which is the wisdom and rationality that books bring me.
The new human beings are now in a completely different context from our lives. Some of our past life experiences are unimaginable and incomprehensible to the current generation.
The materialistic nature of adolescence is undoubtedly scarce, but everyone's experience is very rich, and everyone has many, many stories.
Our generation carries the hopes of the past, the present and the future; our generation is the mainstream of the development of this society and the times. In our generation, there are also many small stories of growing up, and it is a pity that these stories are not written.
But looking back, those trivial experiences also have unique value in a sense.
So I tried my best to write down the few memories that remained in my mind. Many years later, when I read these little stories again, I will be warmed with a smile.
That's enough.