窃书贼、善本与书店主

  A. H. Bartlett给我们讲述了一个关于窃书贼、善本以及善本书店主之间的故事。主角有三个，一个是窃书贼Gilkey，一个是被偷的善本书店主Snaders（当然他只是众多被偷的店主之一），以及将他们联系起来的那些善本书。之所以不将Gilkey说成是偷书贼，因为我们伟大的孔乙己先生已经明确表示偷书不叫偷，而应该叫窃。更何况Gilkey自己虽然承认偷书在法律上市不对的，但却并不觉得偷书的行为在道德上站不住脚（"He was aware that stealing books was illegal, and et he continued to steal them, because he did not equate illegal with wrong."）。不得不说Gilkey和一般的窃书贼不同，他不仅窃书，而且手法高明，轻易地通过别人的信用卡号和电话就能得到自己想要的书，而且全是善本。他对善本书的渴望达到了极限，甚至因诈骗窃书而多次入狱也无怨无悔，宁愿失去自由。出狱后又进行他新的“窃书”计划。Bartlett经过和Gilkey的采访和接触，最后明白，后者疯狂的敛书不为别的，只因为他觉得拥有了自己一手建立起来的珍本藏书，自己的社会地位就会提高，仿佛拥有了这些书，不管看或不看，自己就跻身了上流社会。我们不禁为Gilkey幼稚的想法宛然一笑，也为他对书的执着感叹。试问哪个爱书人不希望自己能以最少的代价换取最多最好的藏书呢。即使是书店主在手拿一本不是自己的书时也会萌生占有它的想法，但他最终还是忍住了，我想这就是窃书贼和爱书者之间的区别吧。君子爱书，取之有道。

        最后摘录一些文中有趣的文字，以供消遣：

1.For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner … let him be struck with palsy, & all his members blasted…. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not, & when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever. —Anathema in a medieval manuscript from the Monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona 估计这是对窃书贼最毒的诅咒吧

2.I have known men to hazard their fortunes, go long journeys halfway about the world, forget friendships, even lie, cheat, and steal, all for the gain of a book. —A. S. W. Rosenbach, twentieth-century book dealer 道出了所有爱书者的心声

3.一首警告偷书的诗

This book belongs to none but me

For there’s my name inside to see.

To steal this book, if you should try,

It’s by the throat that you’ll hang high.

And ravens then will gather ’bout

To find your eyes and pull them out.

And when you’re screaming

“Oh, Oh, Oh!”

Remember, you deserved this woe.

—Warning written by medieval German scrib

4.作者还谈到秦始皇“焚书坑儒”以及纳粹对书籍的破坏

The fearsome urge to destroy or suppress books is an acknowledgment of their power, and not only that of august scientific, political, and philosophical texts but that of small, quiet books of poetry and fiction as well, which nonetheless hold great capacity to change us. 可见书籍的力量还是很大的。

5.In 1644, John Milton wrote: “For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.” Nearly three hundred years later, in 1900, Walt Whitman echoed that sentiment: “Camerado! this is no book, / Who touches this touches a man.” 读书如读人。

6.Sanders说道：

I actually don’t think that this is necessarily a good thing. Books should always be acquired for the sheer love and joy of it. Thinking of them as investment objects first turns them into mere widgets and commodities. It reduces their cultural heritage and diminishes not only the books, but their authors and readers as well. Let’s leave the pork belly future to Wall Street.

7.Winston S. Churchill, a bibliophile who paid for his books, nonetheless understood the same intimate attachment: “What shall I do with all my books?” was the question; and the answer, “Read them,” sobered the questioner. But if you cannot read them, at any rate handle them, and, as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas. Set them back on their shelves with your own hands. Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition.对待书多了的态度，“随便翻翻”吧。