I will lend books to people, but of course, the rule is "Don't do that unless you never intend to see that book again."
我会借书给别人, 不过,当然前提是: “除非你不打算再见到那本书, 否则不要这么做。”
[Small thing.]
【小事物】
[Big idea.]
【大道理】
The physical object of a book is almost like a person. I mean, it has a spine and it has a backbone. It has a face. Actually, it can sort of be your friend. Books record the basic human experience like no other medium can.
书本的物理模样几乎和人一样。 我的意思是, 书有书“脊”,书有书“骨”, 书有封“面”。 事实上,它大概还能成为你的朋友。 书本记录了基本的人类体验, 其它任何媒介都难以相提并论。
Before there were books, ancient civilizations would record things by notches on bones or rocks or what have you. The first books as we know them originated in ancient Rome. We go by a term called the codex, where they would have two heavy pieces of wood which become the cover, and then the pages in between would then be stitched along one side to make something that was relatively easily transportable. They all had to completely be done by hand, which became the work of what we know as a scribe. And frankly, they were luxury items.
在书本诞生之前, 古文明通过在骨头或者石头 或者别的材料上刻字记录事情。 我们所熟悉的书 最早起源于古罗马。 我们将它们称为 “手抄本(codex)”, 由两块厚重的木板 组合成封面, 然后沿着一侧 将中间的书页缝上去, 做成相对比较容易携带的书。 这些书全部都得用手写, 因而有了我们称之为 “书吏(scribe)” 的工作。 坦白说,它们属于奢侈品。
And then a printer named Johannes Gutenberg, in the mid-fifteenth century, created the means to mass-produce a book, the modern printing press. It wasn't until then that there was any kind of consumption of books by a large audience.
然后一位名叫约翰内斯·谷登堡 (Johannes Gutenberg)的印刷商, 在 15 世纪中叶, 发明了大批量生产书籍的办法, 现代印刷机。 自那以后, 书籍才开始有了大批的读者。
Book covers started to come into use in the early nineteenth century, and they were called dust wrappers. They usually had advertising on them. So people would take them off and throw them away. It wasn't until the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century that book jackets could be seen as interesting design in and of themselves. Such that I look at that and I think, "I want to read that. That interests me."
书皮到 19 世纪初才投入使用, 它们被称为防尘护封。 上面一般有广告。 所以人们会把它们卸下来扔掉。 直到 19 世纪末 与 20 世纪初的交界之际, 书套护封本身 才被视为有趣的设计。 这样我看见护封会心想, “我想读一读那本书。 它让我感兴趣。”
The physical book itself represents both a technological advance but also a piece of technology in and of itself. It delivered a user interface that was unlike anything that people had before. And you could argue that it's still the best way to deliver that to an audience.
纸质书籍本身 不仅代表了技术的进步, 它自身也是一项科技。 它所传递的用户界面 是前所未有的。 你也可以立论说,它至今仍是 将其传达给读者的最佳方式。
I believe that the core purpose of a physical book is to record our existence and to leave it behind on a shelf, in a library, in a home, for generations down the road to understand where they came from, that people went through some of the same things that they're going through, and it's like a dialogue that you have with the author.
我相信,纸质书籍的核心价值 在于记录我们的存在, 并将其留存在书架上, 图书馆中,家里, 让未来的世代得以理解 他们从何处来, 让他们知道前人也曾经历过 他们现今正在经历的事情, 就像是和作者的对话一样。
I think you have a much more human relationship to a printed book than you do to one that's on a screen. People want the experience of holding it, of turning the page, of marking their progress in a story. And then you have, of all things, the smell of a book. Fresh ink on paper or the aging paper smell. You don't really get that from anything else.
我觉得与屏幕上的书籍相比, 你和印刷书籍的关系更加人性化。 人们想要捧起书本的体验, 想要翻过书页, 标记在故事中的进度。 从而在其中有了书本的味道。 书页上新鲜的油墨, 或是陈旧纸张的气味。 你真的没法从其他地方 得到这种体验。
The book itself, you know, can't be turned off with a switch. It's a story that you can hold in your hand and carry around with you and that's part of what makes them so valuable, and I think will make them valuable for the duration.
书本身并不能一键关闭。 书是你能捧在手中的故事, 你能将它随身携带, 这也是让它们弥足珍贵的原因, 我觉得也会让它们至少 在一段时间内很珍贵。
A shelf of books, frankly, is made to outlast you, (Laughs) no matter who you are.
坦白说,一书架的书, 必定比你更加长久,(笑声) 不管你是谁。