[美文欣賞]

Reading Good Books

Devote some of your leisure, I repeat, to cultivating a love of reading good books. Fortunate indeed are those who contrive to make themselves genuine book-lovers. For book- lovers have some noteworthy advantages over other people. They need never know lonely hours so long as they have books around them, and the better the books the more delightful the company. From good books, moreover, they draw much besides entertainment. They gain mental food such as few companions can supply. Even while resting from their labors they are, through the books they read, equipping themselves to perform those labors more efficiently. This albeit~ they may not be deliberately reading to improve their mind. All unconsciously the ideas they derive from the printed pages are stored up, to be worked over by the imagination for their future profit.

[參考譯文]

閱讀好書

我再說一遍，把你的一部分空閑時光用來培養閱讀好書的愛好吧。那些設法把自己培養成為真正愛好讀書的人，確實是幸運的。因為愛讀書的人比之別人有著明顯的好處。只要手頭有書，他們就從來不知寂寞。書越好，讀來越是津津有味。他們從好書中不但得到樂趣，而且受到很多教益。他們從中獲得的那種精神食糧，從其他地方是很難得到的。即使是在工作休息時，通過讀書，他們的工作效率也能更加提高，盡管他們未必有意識地想到讀書是為了提高才智。在全然不知不覺中，他們從書中吸取的知識積累起來，經過想想象力的加工，對將來大有用處。