Every book stands by itself, like a one-family louse, but books in a library are like houses in a city. Although they are separate, together they all add up to something; they are connected with each other and with other cities. The same ideas, or related ones, turn up in different places; the human problems that repeat themselves in life repeat themselves in literature, but with different solutions according to different writings at different times.

　　单独一本书犹如一个独家小院，但汇集到图书馆则好似城市中的千家万户。虽然仍是各自独立，结合起来可就非同寻常了。家家户户彼此相依，还与其他城市相连。相同的思想或相关的思想在不同的地方出现;人生中反复出现的问题在文学中也反复出现，但不同的时代、不同的作品会提出不同的解决办法。

　　Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be. If you concentrate on books somebody tells you “ought” to read, you probably won’t have fun .But if you put down a book you don’t like and try another till you find one that means something to you, and then relax with it, you will almost certainly have a good time—and if you become as a result of reading, better, wiser, or more gentle, you won’t have suffered during the process.

　　读书之所以能成为乐趣，只在于你有这样的期待。你若是只读别人说的是你“应该”读的书，那可能就不会有什么乐趣可言。但你若是把自己不喜欢的书放下另换别的，直至找到一本你觉得有意思的书，然后轻松地读下去，那你几乎肯定会乐在其中——假如你能因此而变得更高尚、更聪明、更温雅，那阅读本身就不是一种苦差事了。

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（编辑：王美娇）