重读旧书 寻找那份基于内疚的快感

For children, it’s a comfort. As we become accustomed to a world in which change is the only real constant, the familiarity of the book at bedtime is something to cling to. Adults aren’t immune to those feelings, either. To quote the septuagenarian writer Larry McMurtry: “If I once read for adventure, I now read for security. How nice to be able to return to what won’t change.”
对于孩子来说，读书是一种享受。现实世界瞬息万变，而读书可以使我们放松。孩子一旦养成了睡前阅读的习惯便会一直保持。对成年人来说也一样。 正如老年作家拉里·麦克默特里（Larry McMurtry）所说，“从前我读书是为了寻求新奇感，现在我读书是为了寻求安全感，书中世界平稳安逸，读书能使我放松。”

Except that often, that’s not quite the case. We notice fresh details. Our interpretations change as we evolve – cheerleading for the strivers, for instance, gives way to admiration for characters who are slow and steady.
只是很多时候，事情往往不是这样，每次重读旧书我们都能发现新细节。随着我们思想的成熟，我们的见解也在发生改变——比如，我们会为书中努力拼搏的人喝彩，又敬佩那些脚踏实地，慢慢前进的人。

Vladimir Nabokov had a theory about this. He believed that the process of moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, stood between us and artistic interpretation the first time round. By the fourth reading, the experience has apparently assumed more of the directness of looking at a painting. “One cannot read a book: one can only re-read it, ” he said.
对此，弗拉基米尔·纳博科夫（Vladimir Nabokov）就有相应的看法。他认为，人在第一次读一本书时眼睛需要从左向右逐行逐页的移动，这会干扰人们对文字的艺术性解读。当读到第四遍时，出于对文本的熟悉，人们再看书就像看一幅画那样直接。“读书这个说法并不恰当，一本书是不能被一次性读懂的，只能去重读。”

Scientists have weighed in, too, citing the mental health benefits of re-reading. Research conducted with readers in the US and New Zealand found that on our first reading, we are preoccupied by the ‘what?’ and the ‘why?’. Second time round, we’re able to better savour the emotions that the plot continues to ignite. As researcher Cristel Russell of the American University explained of re-readers in an article published in the Journal of Consumer Research, returning to a book “brings new or renewed appreciation of both the object of consumption and their self”.
经过反复验证，科学家也表示，阅读旧书有益于我们的身心健康。通过对美国和新西兰的读者进行调查，发现我们读完第一遍书时，心中难免会存疑。当我们再次拿起书本，才能品味细节，才能随着情节发展，体会心潮起伏的感觉。美国一所大学的研究员克里斯特·罗素曾在《消费者研究》（Consumer Research）杂志就重读旧书这一问题发表了一篇文章，文章指出，重读旧书不仅能加深对书的理解，也能增进读者的自我认识。

Heart of the matter
本文重点

It’s true that we often find former selves on the pages of old books (literally, if we’re fond of scribbling in the margins). But even without the aid of marginalia, these texts can carry us back to a time and place, and remind us of the kind of person that we were then.
我们通过重读旧书，还可以发现我们上次的阅读思路（如果你有在书页上涂鸦的习惯的话）。其实，即使你未做任何笔记，读到熟悉的文字，你也会想起旧时旧景，以及那时的自己。

We’re changed not only by lived experience but also by read experience – by the books that we’ve discovered since last reading the one in our hand.
多读书，多经历，都能帮助我们成长——读旧书更是如此。

More so than the movie director or the musician, the writer calls upon our imaginations, using words to bid us picture this declaration of love or that betrayal. It’s not surprising that in my social media poll, of the many and varied titles that people returned to, only one was non-fiction (Enemies of Promise, Cyril Connolly’s hybrid of literary criticism and memoir). A book is a joint project between writer and reader, and for its alchemy to work, we must pour so much of ourselves into reading that our own life story can become braided with the story that’s bound between the book’s covers.
比起导演和音乐家，作家更能激发我们的想象力，那些爱，誓言以及背叛，种种情感都由作者寥寥数语勾勒而出，具象化地浮现在我们眼前。我在各个社交网站上发布调查，询问别人正在重读的书籍，回复中只有西里尔·康诺利（Cyril Connolly）的《希望的敌人》（Enemies of Promise）一书不是虚构故事而是文学评论及回忆录合集。书籍将作者与读者联结起来，而为了达到这种效果，我们必须在阅读时将书的内容与自己的生活经历相关联，以便与之产生共鸣。

Perhaps what’s really strange is that we don’t re-read more often. After all, we watch our favourite films again and we wouldn’t think of listening to an album only once. We treasure tatty old paperbacks as objects, yet of all art forms, literature alone is a largely one-time delight. A book, of course, takes up more time, but as Mead and Ellis confirm, the rewards make it amply worthwhile. They needn’t be anointed classics, either. Sabbath’s Theatre by Philip Roth, EL Doctorow’s Ragtime and Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch are all on my re-reading list – just as soon as I’ve finished War and Peace, that is.
也许，更多时候我们应该问问自己为什么不经常翻翻旧书。毕竟，我们会挑出自己喜欢的电影反复看，也会把一张唱片听上好几遍。我们把破旧的平装书当做宝贝，却鲜少重读它们。不可否认的是，读一本书就会占据我们很多时间，但正如米德和埃利斯所说，重读旧书会是我们收获颇丰。我们不一定要读那些文学经典，我的清单上列出的重读书目有：菲利普·罗斯（Philip Roth）的《安息日剧院》（Sabbath’s Theatre），EL·多克托罗（EL Doctorow）的《拉格泰姆》（Ragtime），唐娜·塔特（Donna Tartt）的《金翅雀》（The Goldfinch），——等我看完《战争与和平》（War and Peace）就去重翻这些旧书。