Books and I
Xia Mianzun

For twenty years past, books have eaten into at least 10-20 percentof my pocket. Now the only things of some value under my roof, if any, are mybooks.

Since I have never entertained ambition for making a profound studyof any subject, the books I have acquired cover almost everything-religion,art, literature, sociology, philosophy, history, biology, etc. Most of them areChinese translations of literary works by famous foreign writers andanthologies of Chinese poetry and prose through the ages. The rest, oftencalled an outline or introduction, are merely on rudiments of various subjects.

I never care to borrow books from other people or a library. Itseems that books bought can better satisfy my bibliomania than books borrowed.You may also attribute this to some sort of desire for personal possessions.Whatever I have some new acquisitions, it always gives me great pleasure andsatisfaction to stamp my exlibris on them one-by-one.

As soon as a new book comes to hand, I always read the preface firstand then the table of contents. If it happens to be a thin one, I often finishit at one sitting. Otherwise, I often browse through one or two chapters orsections before putting it onto my bookshelf. I seldom read a thick book fromcover to cover unless it is a novel. By dint of the first impression it made onme at the time of buying, I have a rough idea of what a book is about and whatuseful materials in it are available to me. But I have little idea which bookis to be read or looked over again at what time. It is completely subject tothe whims of the moment. This often prompts me to liken myself and the books onmy shelf respectively to an ancient emperor and his concubines housedseparately in a row of adjoining rooms.

Much as I loved books, I take little care of them. In doing myreading, I often mark out what I regard as important in a book. If it is athread-bound Chinese book, I use a writing brush to draw small circles asmarkings. Otherwise, I use a red pencil to draw heavy underlines. Consequently,the books I have read are rarely clean.

It is said that those who have a great liking for candies willsicken to see them when later they happen to work in a candy store. Likewise,ever since I began to work in a bookstore, my obsession with books has beenvery much on the decline. Nevertheless, I still cannot help slipping back intothe same old rut, eager to buy this or that book. This is probably becausecandies are to be eaten with the mouth and not worth keeping as knickknackswhile books can be bought without being read and just left on a shelf.