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Bookshoppers' Paradise
购书者的乐园
Time spent in a bookshop can be most enjoyable, whether you are a book-lover or merely there to buy a book as a present. You may even have entered the shop just to find shelter from a sudden shower. Whatever the reason, you can soon become totally unaware of your surroundings. The desire to pick up a book with an attractive dust-jacket is irresistible, although this method of selection ought not to be followed, as you might end up with a rather dull book. You soon become engrossed in some book or other, and usually it is only much later that you realize you have spent far too much time there and must dash off to keep some forgotten appointment — without buying a book, of course.
你是个爱钻书本的书蠹也罢，或者只是去那儿买本书当礼品的也罢，在书店里消磨一段时间，那可能是再惬意不过的了。说不定你钻进书店，不过是为了找个躲过阵雨的场所。不论你进书店是何原因，一旦进去之后，你很快就会忘掉了周围的一切。挑一本护封诱人的书籍，这种欲望很难抵挡，虽说不该按这种方法来选购书籍，因为到头来，你会发现你买的那本书的内容相当乏味。（在书店里，）你很快就很专心地看起某本书来了，而通常直到很久以后你才意识到你在那里消磨的时间太多了，必须赶紧离开去赴某个已忘记的约会——当然是一本书也没买。
This opportunity to escape the realities of everyday life is, I think, the main attraction of a bookshop. There are not many places where it is possible to do this. A music shop is very much like a bookshop. You can wander round such places to your heart's content. If it is a good shop, no assistant will approach you with the inevitable greeting: "Can I help you, sir?" You needn't buy anything you don't want. In a bookshop an assistant should remain in the background until you have finished browsing. Then, and only then, are his services necessary. Of course, you may want to find out where a particular section is, but when he has led you there, the assistant should retire discreetly and look as if he is not interested in selling a single book.
这种逃避日常生活现实的机会，我想，乃是书店主要的吸引人之处。能为你提供这样机会的场所，并不很多。音乐制品商店和书店倒很相似。你可以在这种地方尽情逛悠。如果店里服务周全的话，不会有店员走过来，朝你说声那句免不了的客套话:“先生，我可以为你效劳吗?”如果你不想买，就什么也别买。在书店里，店员应该一直呆在不为人注意的地方，直到你已经浏览完以后才出来。这时候，而且只有这时候，他的服务才是需要的。当然啰，你也许想找到某个具体的图书陈列处，但是等他领你到了那儿，店员就该悄悄走开才是，似乎对能否卖掉一两本书并不感兴趣。
