Chapter 54 9. My bookshelf ①

①The original title is "My Study Room", which has been abridged. Let's say that M Yaoying wrote a wonderful article about her method of handling books in the study, and that method is so coincidental with mine, if I had published a word about my method of handling books before this, or If I had met her before, I would really say that she stole my Evans.So I wrote a long editor's note at the end of her article-I hope editors can write a long note at the end of other people's articles. —showing that her theory coincides completely with mine.In fact, all we have is a common theory, which goes something like this:

(Translation of her article) Of course, it is very good for public libraries or school libraries to choose a cataloging method to classify books one by one according to the regulations, whether it is based on Dewey's classification method or Wang Yun's five classification method.But this method is impossible for a poor scholar. He does not have a complete set of library editions to display, and he often lives in a lot of alleys in Shanghai or Nanjing.This kind of alley house usually has a reception room, two living rooms, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. If he (or she) can have a study room, he or she will be considered lucky.In addition, his (or her) limited book collection is usually individualized, presumably more by his or her favorite authors and less by other authors.So what did he do with these books?

I don't know about others, but this is my method (I'm happy with this switch from third person to first person, because English also inadvertently forgets about the gender of the second word for "I" and "my" difference.) My method is a natural one.For example, when I was sitting at the desk, I received a book or publication in the mail, and I put it on the desk.If a visitor comes while I'm reading it, I take it into the living room and read it with my friends.If the friend is gone and I forget to bring it back, I let it go and put it in the living room.But sometimes it's so interesting that I don't want to go to sleep, but just relax, so I take it upstairs and read it in bed.If the book catches my interest, I will read it, but if it doesn't, I can use it as a pillow. This is what I call the natural method, which can be roughly defined as " A way to keep books close at hand." I can't even say what's "proper" about books

where it can be placed. The logical result of this approach, of course, is that books and magazines are everywhere.On the bed, on the sofa, in the reception room, on the shelf, beside the tap, etc., there is a rich impression that cannot be obtained in the classification of Dewey or Wang Yunwu. This approach has three advantages that can be introduced.First, there is a variety of intricate beauty.Because of this, the books are all mixed together, leather-bound hardcover, paper-bound, Chinese, English, large and thick volumes, lightweight rough-edged books, some with pictures of medieval heroes, some with Nude modern girls, all mixed in an intellectual platter, including a microcosm of the entire history of mankind.Second, there is a rich and varied taste.I have a book of philosophy next to a treatise on natural science, and a humorous pamphlet by the side of a dignified moral book.They just formed a motley team, each seeming to have opposing opinions, and amuse my imagination with a ridiculous argument.Thirdly, This method has a very convenient advantage, because if a person has all his books in the study, he will obviously have nothing to read in the drawing room.With this method, I can increase my knowledge even in the toilet.

What I want to declare is that it is my personal method, and I am not asking for the approval of others or asking them to do like me.The reason I am writing this article is because my guests often shake their heads and sigh when they see the way I live.Since I haven't asked them, I don't know if it's a sigh of disapproval or approval...but I don't care. The above article can be said to be a good example of essays in China today.This has the elegance of ancient Chinese prose and the intimacy and casualness of modern prose.The following is a summary of my editor's note.I say:

The title caught my attention when I received this contribution, as if someone had stolen one of my great treasures, and as I read on I was astonished to find that my favorite collection and disposal The method of the book has also been discovered by another independent worker at the same time.So how can I not say a few words on this point?I know that reading is a cultivated business, but since it came under the sway of university enrollees it has degenerated into a cheap, vulgar, philistine enterprise.Collecting books was originally a kind of self-cultivating pastime, but now, since the nouveau riche got involved in this elegant thing of loving books, the situation has unfortunately changed.These people always have the complete works of this writer, the complete works of that man of letters, bound in beautiful Moroccan leather, kept in exquisite glass cases.But when I looked at their bookshelves, there were no books left empty. This fact means that these books have never been touched except by their servants who come to clean and wipe them.There are no curls, no fingerprints, no soot that accidentally falls on it, no careful blue pencil marks, no maple leaves in the book, just a lot of uncut pages.

So it seems that even collecting books has fallen into a vulgar state.Ming ×× wrote an article on reading antiques, talking about the vulgar school of collecting antiques. Now that Ms. Yao uses this meaning to talk about book collection, I can't help but feel very happy.As if only you feel the meaning, there is always someone else in the world who will feel the same as you.Wang Yunwu's classification method is very good for public libraries, but what use is this method for a poor scholar's study?We must have a different principle, which has been pointed out by the author, that is: "See the small in the big, see the big in the small, see the real in the empty, and see the empty in the real." The author's words are It is said that the house and garden of a poor Confucian were arranged, but this principle is also applicable to the disposal of books.When this principle is used properly, you can turn a poor scholar's study into a truly unexplored continent.My theory is:

Books should never be categorized.There is a science to categorizing them, but an art to not categorizing them.Your five-foot bookshelf should be a small world in itself, a collection of books leaning against a scientific journal, a detective story next to a Guyau book, and that's it. An effect occurred.With such an arrangement, the five-foot bookshelf becomes a "rich" bookshelf for you to enjoy.Conversely, if there is a copy of Sima Qian's "Historical Records" on the bookshelf, then when you don't want to read "Historical Records", the bookshelf is meaningless to you. It becomes an empty bookshelf, just a pair of books. Dry bones.Everyone knows that the beauty of women lies in their mystery and cuteness, and ancient cities like Paris and Vienna are fascinating because after you have lived there for ten years, you still can't be sure what you will find in a winding alley.It was the same in the library.There should also be a kind of mystery and cunning in the library, because you can never guess what was on that particular shelf months or years ago.

All books should have their individuality and should never have a uniform binding.That's why I'm still not happy to buy "Sibu Beiyao" or "Sibu Series". The so-called personality of them is partly due to their appearance, and partly due to the environment in which they were purchased.You may have bought that book in a small town in Anhui during your summer trip, and maybe someone else has paid a higher price for this book than you.If those books are bought and placed on the shelf in a natural way, you will occasionally see a small and thin copy of Wang Guowei's "History of Yuan Opera".You start searching like hunting, from top to bottom, from east to west, when you get something, you have really got it, not just holding it.There are beads of sweat on your brow, and you feel like a hunter on a lucky hunt.Perhaps you searched all the way down to the burrow.And just when you are about to read the third volume, you find that it is missing again.You stood there for a while, thinking that you had lent it to someone, and sighed helplessly, like a bird that a primary school student was about to catch but let it fly away.In this way, a veil of mystery and loveliness will always hang over your study, and you never know what you will find.In short, your study will have a kind of womanly sweetness and big-city secrets.A few years ago, I met a fellow teacher in Tsinghua University. He had a study room. There was only one box of books in this study room, but they were all officially labeled and classified from one to one thousand, according to the American Library Taxonomy of associations.When I borrow a copy of "History of Economics" from him, he can immediately tell me that the book is "580.73A" with great pride.He prides himself on his "American efficiency."He is a real American student, but I didn't mean to praise him when I said this.