The art of the bookshelf

山東鄄城縣第二中學 張 佳

你的書架上擺放著哪些書呢？ 這些書是如何擺放的？ 簡簡單單的一個書架，又隱藏著哪些秘密？ 讀完這篇文章，或許你能找到答案。

體裁說明文文章詞數 建議用時約474 9分鐘

難詞探意

1. extensive /?k'stens?v/ adj. 廣闊的；廣大的

2. random /'r?nd?m/ n. 隨意

3. antiquarian /,?nt?'kwe?ri?n/ adj. 古文物的

4. photogenic /,f??t??'d?en?k/ adj. 上鏡的

5. eclectic /?'klekt?k/ adj. 不拘一格的

Whenever I am invited to my friends' houses for the first time, I can't help inspecting their bookshelves. Part of the draw might be that the contents of a bookshelf tell the story of a life.

Tom Cox, author of ten books said that his ownextensivecollection is partly a reflection of his ambitions. “I value what I want to read, because I'm thinking about what's going to expand my horizons as a writer.” So there's no denying that what we choose to display to the world in the form of our reading material says something about us.

My own bookshelf is a road map through my life. If you pointed to my shelves atrandom, I could name the year when I acquired the book, where I was working, and probably where I was living at the time. I thought I was alone in this, but Ben Critchley, anantiquarianbookseller and collector in Edinburgh, agrees that our shelves tell the story of our life. “If I disappeared tomorrow and people wanted to know what I was like, they could look at my bookshelf and get some idea,” he said.

Cox's extensive collection caught my eye online for itsphotogenicqualities. It's a collector's library, mostly grouped by publisher and it's clear that he takes pride in the way his books are displayed. “I've become someone who's interested in the look of books as well as reading them,” he said.And he's certainly not the only one who feels this way: Books have an unusual power, becoming a part of the decorations of a room in their own right.

It's not just on our own shelves that we love to explore our fascination with noteworthy book displays. Nina Freudenberger's 2019 book Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home with Books explores some of the world's mosteclecticand unusual libraries, featuring homes with books on every flat surface,working reference collections, floor-to-ceiling shelves with rolling ladders, piles of books stacked by size, and much more. “Book collections tell so much about their owners; it is such an easy way to get to know about their hopes, dreams, ambitions and interests,” she said. “And a big part of that story is that how we arrange our books, and interact with them, which is such a personal thing, unique to each individual. There are so many different formats of how people lived with their book collections, and each one was beautiful. Some wanted to be surrounded by their books in every room； others had them on shelves, behind glass or simply lining their floors. Each home had a story to tell through the way they lived with their books.”

Whether we're conscious of it or not, our book collections are making statements, broadcasting messages and telling a story before a single page has been turned.

Reading Check

1. Why is Ben Critchley mentioned in the text?

A. To show his great ambition.

B. To show his beautiful bookshelf.

C. To show his book collection.

D. To show bookshelf's reflection of its owner.

2. Whose collection drew the author's attention online?

A. Cox's.

B. Ben Critchley's.

C. Nina Freudenberger's.

D. The author's friend's.

3. Which of the following statements may Nina Freudenberger agree to?

A. Bookshelves play an important role in storing things.

B. Books' color matters a lot in readers' preference.

C. Bookshelves convey a lot about their owners.

D. Books are usually grouped by publisher.