我很喜欢的书店,以前翘课和朋友一起去逛的地方。 The Strand Calls for Help, and Book Lovers Answer “It’s awkward because the track record for the ownership here is not great,” one customer said. “But it’s also an institution. My parents shopped here.” For months, the Strand bookstore in downtown Manhattan, from its fiction stacks to its cookbook section to its rare books, has been nearly deserted. But on Sunday, half an hour before the store was scheduled to open, about a dozen people lined up in the cool fall breeze, waiting to get inside.
They had come in response to a plea from the store’s owner, Nancy Bass Wyden, who announced on social media Friday that its revenue was down nearly 70 percent from last year and that the business had become unsustainable. “I’m going to pull out all the stops to keep sharing our mutual love of the printed word,” she wrote. “But for the first time in the Strand’s 93-year history, we need to mobilize the community to buy from us so we can keep our doors open until there is a vaccine.” https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/books/the-strand-bookstore-nyc.amp.html
柏林天寒,书页随风翻动,听起来像叹息,也如诀别。 讣告由她妹妹的孙女代发:“今天,德国最古老书店的女主人在家中去世,她回到了原点……”
1871年,海尔嘉的爷爷几乎花光所有积蓄买下书店,把家安在了楼上。 薇赫家族,从此成为了书店的守护者。 第一次世界大战,爷爷把硝烟挡在门外,魏玛共和国时期,父亲将骚乱护在阶前。
她几乎读遍了整个书店的书,文字养人,海尔嘉出落得山清水秀,还成为了家族几百年来第一个女大学生。
海尔嘉没有爱情,从不约会,她总是独自坐在收银台前,看书是她全部的浪漫。 如果硬要说一个奇怪之处,便是她老爱给客人推荐一本童书——《史托佛飞过海上》。
海尔嘉把它挂在最显眼的地方,这是她今生唯一的远航。 了却心愿,花甲之年,她决定将余生“嫁”给书店。 地板、木门、桌椅,全都是1840年留下的古董,老物件历尽沧桑,情深义重。 “它们看着我长大,也伴着我老去。”
总有人笑她顽固、古怪、墨守成规,但只有海尔嘉知道,这是守书人的骨气。 “没有人可以控制我的思想,门都没有。”
她讨厌排行榜上人气爆棚的“爆款”,书架上每一本书她都精挑细选。 “我都看不下去的书,又怎么能卖给别人呢?”
讲到这里,海尔嘉会偷偷笑,说起一件事。 几年前,一男一女两位客人都看上了一本旧书,但架子上仅剩一本。 海尔嘉这个老书虫一眼就看出端倪,让两人合买一本,轮着看。 “其实还有很多本”海尔嘉窃喜:“但能看上同一本书,是缘分啊。”
白发胜雪,双腿不便,她拄着一根拐杖,守着那堆老书,准时开店。
当年来店里买书的小孩,再入大门,已是老翁。 曾经说后会有期的故人,重闻他名,已化尘埃。 昨日热闹非凡的街巷,如今十室九空,只有海尔嘉的书店,如大海孤灯。
这早已不是一间书店,这是海尔嘉的国度,是孤独者的教堂。 书籍,就是信仰。 去年德国疫情严重,游客锐减,大小书店关门大吉,海尔嘉仍坚守阵地。 客人不敢进店,她就把诗句打印下来,贴在玻璃上。 在角落处,是她写的一句话——阅读,是一场无声的反抗。
我想起作家吉井忍写的一段话: 书店给人的心理上的面积,比实际上的面积大很多。 每一本书拥有自己的世界,书店则是所有这些世界的入口。
98岁的海尔嘉长眠在书店之上,那是她终身守护的宇宙。
在天之灵,也将化为星与月。
长夜难明,燃命为灯。
觉得纸质书还是会一直存在。和孩子们一样 ,喜欢抱着书窝在沙发上看,不喜欢电子书。而且感觉我这样的人数量应该不少
The Strand Calls for Help, and Book Lovers Answer “It’s awkward because the track record for the ownership here is not great,” one customer said. “But it’s also an institution. My parents shopped here.”
For months, the Strand bookstore in downtown Manhattan, from its fiction stacks to its cookbook section to its rare books, has been nearly deserted. But on Sunday, half an hour before the store was scheduled to open, about a dozen people lined up in the cool fall breeze, waiting to get inside.
They had come in response to a plea from the store’s owner, Nancy Bass Wyden, who announced on social media Friday that its revenue was down nearly 70 percent from last year and that the business had become unsustainable. “I’m going to pull out all the stops to keep sharing our mutual love of the printed word,” she wrote. “But for the first time in the Strand’s 93-year history, we need to mobilize the community to buy from us so we can keep our doors open until there is a vaccine.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/books/the-strand-bookstore-nyc.amp.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/10/31/business/strand-bookstore-support-new-york-covid-trnd/index.html
可惜前两年,那个老爷爷不想再做了,也没有人愿意接这个书店。这个店最后被隔壁的花店给盘下来了。
说得有道理
也想到那家店了,虽然我只是10年前在那买过一本二手的漫画。
去下单了一本Stoffel fliegt übers Meer.
同感,
最近几年尤其喜爱拿着书看。一方面颈椎原因。
另一方面,对着电脑,好像只是连了一个脑机接口。
抱着书,信息(你也可以说是知识)便有了物质的载体。