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- The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
《非普通讀者》
- faber and faber, 124 pp.
- Rating:
[Read/Skim/Toss] [Buy/Borrow]
去圖書館借這本書的時候，圖書館阿姨跟我聊了一下，她說這本書很有趣，問我是否之前有看Alan Bennett其他的書籍。我提到因為在BBC 4〈Afternoon Reading〉聽到作者Alan Bennett朗讀自己作品《The Uncommon Reader》引起我的興趣，我覺得Alan Bennett和Stephen Fry朗讀有聲書風格很不一樣，但是一樣有趣。阿姨形容Alan Bennett的特色是"dry humor"。就這樣，加上kindle剛來的第一個禮拜，我整個人深陷在字句串連的書頁裡，不能自拔。
一切都是狗的錯，某天皇室狗在白金漢宮的花園裡狂吠亂叫 (barking their heads off)，英國女王出面制止並意外發現一輛西敏寺的巡迴圖書車，並向前為狗狂吠亂叫道歉。女王為了不讓圖書館員Mr Hutching覺得巡迴圖書車好像很貧瘠，就順口問：有什麼書你可以推薦的嗎？
圖書館員Mr Hutching回問：What does Your Majesty like?
結果女王遲疑了一會，說真的連女王自己都不知道。因為身為女王是不能有偏好的，而閱讀這嗜好牽涉到偏愛，女王必須避免個人喜好。
She’d never taken much interest in reading. She read, of course, as one did, but liking books was something she left to other people. It was a hobby and it was in the nature of her job that she didn't have hobbies. Jogging, growing roses, chess or rock-climbing, cake decoration, model aeroplanes. No. Hobbies involved preferences and preferences had to be avoided; preferences excluded people. One had no preferences. Her job was to take an interest, not to be interested herself. And besides, reading wasn't doing. She was a doer. - p6
不能有偏愛嗜好的女王，為了不空手而回顯得失禮，借了一本Ivy Compton-Burnett的書。打開首頁上面圖書館日期章最後一次被借閱是1989年，女王感到意外。
Queen：‘Oh. The last time it was taken out was in 1989.’
Mr Hutchings： ‘She’s not a popular author, ma’am.’
Queen： ‘Why, I wonder? I made her a dame.’
Mr. Hutchings refrained from saying that this wasn’t necessarily the road to the public’s heart. – p. 9
短短124頁，Alan Bennett引出來的藏書串連 TBR list (To be read)又抄了滿滿的一頁。就像朱少麟說得：「書本身會告訴你下一步要往哪裡走，這件事情請相信。」
What she was finding also was how one book led to another, doors kept opening wherever she turned and the days weren’t long enough for the reading she wanted to do. But there was regret, too, and mortification at the many opportunities she had missed. – p. 22
「原來，一本書會勾引出另一本書，那種感覺，彷彿隨時隨地一轉身都能碰見一扇開啟的門。此外，她也發現：一旦想看書，每天的時間不知怎地總嫌不夠長。」
書裡頭不斷地提到意識流大師普魯斯特，半年前《1Q84 3》一開始就提到《追憶似水年華》，看來這七本隨著我飄洋過海的《追憶似水年華》非得找個良辰吉時開始閱讀，沒喀完總覺得心裡有疙瘩。
這本書推薦給所有的書蟲，從作者Bennett寫作風格可以深深地感受到書蟲們對於閱讀哲學的共鳴。幾乎每一頁都有很棒的佳句，讓我在閱讀的過程中不停地頻頻點頭嘴角上揚。
*And it occurred to her (as next day she wrote down) that reading was, among other things, a muscle and one that she had seemingly developed. She could read the novel with ease and great pleasure, laughing at remarks … that she had not even noticed before. – p. 102
*The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included.
*She was not a gentle reader and often wished authors were around so that she could take them to task. 'Am I alone,' she wrote, 'in wanting to give Henry James a good talking-to?'
'I can see why Dr. Johnson is well thought of, but surely, much of it is opinionated rubbish?'
It was Henry James she was reading one teatime when she said out loud, 'Oh, do get on.'
這本書推薦給所有的書蟲，從作者Bennett寫作風格可以深深地感受到書蟲們對於閱讀哲學的共鳴。幾乎每一頁都有很棒的佳句，讓我在閱讀的過程中不停地頻頻點頭嘴角上揚。
Book Quote: （我的最愛佳句－紅色粗體）
女王沉迷於閱讀的嗜好，已經搞得全英國上上下下一個頭兩個大地，努力想辦法如何讓女王戒掉成癮的閱讀習慣。故事接近尾聲時，女王睡前沈靜地思考了一下，閱讀帶給她什麼？而閱讀習慣是否改變她的看待事物的心境？
接著女王寫下'You don't put your life into your books. You find it there.' -p.104 然後關燈睡覺。從不閱讀→閱讀→"不務正業"地嗜書→考慮寫作，女王複雜轉折的內心，作者Bennett揣摩英國女王心境寫得很生動維妙維肖。
女王沉迷於閱讀的嗜好，已經搞得全英國上上下下一個頭兩個大地，努力想辦法如何讓女王戒掉成癮的閱讀習慣。故事接近尾聲時，女王睡前沈靜地思考了一下，閱讀帶給她什麼？而閱讀習慣是否改變她的看待事物的心境？
Had she been asked if reading had enriched her life she would have had to say yes, undoubtedly, though adding with equal certainty that it had at the same time drained her life of all purpose. Once she had been a self-assured single-minded woman knowing where her duty lay and intent on doing it for as long as she was able. Now all too often she was in two minds. Reading was not doing, that had always been the trouble. And old though she was she was still a doer.
接著女王寫下'You don't put your life into your books. You find it there.' -p.104 然後關燈睡覺。從不閱讀→閱讀→"不務正業"地嗜書→考慮寫作，女王複雜轉折的內心，作者Bennett揣摩英國女王心境寫得很生動維妙維肖。
*And it occurred to her (as next day she wrote down) that reading was, among other things, a muscle and one that she had seemingly developed. She could read the novel with ease and great pleasure, laughing at remarks … that she had not even noticed before. – p. 102
'I can see why Dr. Johnson is well thought of, but surely, much of it is opinionated rubbish?'
It was Henry James she was reading one teatime when she said out loud, 'Oh, do get on.'
*“One has given one’s white gloved hand to hands that were seeped in blood and conversed lightly with men who have personally slaughtered children. One has waded through excrement and gore; to be Queen, I have often thought, the one essential item of equipment a pair of thigh length boots.”"
*“One reads for pleasure. It is not a public duty.”
*"Above literature?' said the Queen. 'Who is above literature? You might as well say one was above humanity."
*"...she felt about reading what some writers felt about writing: that it was impossible not to do it and that at this late stage of her life she had been chosen to read as others were chosen to write."
*Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.
*Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds.
TBR list (To be read)：缺的部份陸續補上
- Ivy Compton-Burnett
- Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love.
- Joanna Trollope
- Harry Potter (no time for
- Kazuo Ishiguro (University of East Anglia)
- Ian McEwan (University of East Anglia)
- Rose Tremain (University of East Anglia)
- Alice Munro
- Henry James
- T.S. Eliot
- Cecil Beaton
- J.R. Ackerley - My Dog Tulip
- E.M. Forster
5. The Uncommon Reader contains references to dozens of authors and characters, including Joanna Trollope and Harry Potter, writers affiliated with the University of East Anglia (such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan), Alice Munro and Henry James. How did the Queen’s entourage discuss such a broad range with her? What are the implications of name games designed to judge a person by his or her taste in books? What does one’s reading list say about oneself?
13. In what ways does The Uncommon Reader enhance your previous reading of works by Alan Bennett? How might the novella’s Queen have responded to the students in The History Boys, and vice versa?
看來得下一本Alan Bennett的《The History Boys》閱讀完，才能回答這問題。我的TBR List越來越長了
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