Mr. Buxton taught me Shakespeare in 10th grade. We were reading Macbeth. Mr. Buxton, who probably had better things to do, nonetheless agreed to meet one night to go over the text line by line. The first thing he did was point out the repetition of themes. For example, the reversals of things.

What Mr. Buxton didn’t tell me was what the play meant. He left the conclusions to me. The situation was much the same with my religious studies teacher in 11th grade, Mr. Flanders, who encouraged me to have my own relationship with the Gospels.

High school was followed by college, where I read Umberto Eco’s The Role of the Reader, in which it is said that the reader completes the text, that the text is never finished until it meets this voracious (渴求的) and engaged reader. The open texts, Eco calls them. In college, I read some of the great Europeans and Latin Americans: Borges and Kafka, Genet and Beckett, Artaud, Proust-open texts all. I may not have known why Kafka’s Metamorphosis is about a guy who turns into a bug: but I knew that some said cockroach, and others, European dung beetle.

There are those critics, of course, who insist that there are right ways and wrong ways to read every book. No doubt they arrived at these beliefs through their own adventures in the stacks. And these are important questions for philosophers of every stripe. And yet I know only what joy and enthusiasm about reading have taught me, in bookstores new and used.

There is not now and never will be an authority who can tell me how to interpret, how to read, how to find the pearl of literary meaning in all cases.

Supposing the truth is not hard, fast, masculine, simple, direct? You could spend a lifetime thinking about this sentence ,and making it your own. In just this way, the freedom to see literature,history, truth unfolding ahead of me like a book whose spine has just now been cracked.

Reading the world in 195 books

In 2012, I set myself the challenge of trying to read a book from every country of all 195 UN-recognized states in a year.【小题1】. I created a blog called A Year of Reading the World and put out an appeal for suggestions of titles that I could read in English.

The response was amazing. Before I knew it, people all over the planet were getting in touch with ideas and offers of help. Some posted me books. Others did hours of research on my behalf. 【小题2】. Even with such an extraordinary team behind me, however, sourcing books was no easy task.

But the effort was worth it. As I made my way through the planet’s literary landscapes, extraordinary things started to happen. Far from simply armchair travelling, I found I was inhabiting the mental space of the storytellers. I discovered, bookpacking offered something that a physical traveller could hope to experience only rarely: it took me inside the thoughts of individuals living far away and showed me the world through their eyes. More powerful than a thousand news reports, these stories not only opened my mind to basic information of life in other places, but opened my heart to the way people there might feel. 【小题3】. Through reading the stories shared with me by bookish strangers around the globe, I realized I was not an isolated person, but part of a network that stretched all over the planet.

One by one, the country names on the list that had begun as an intellectual exercise transformed into places filled with laughter, love, anger, hope and fear. 【小题4】. At its best, I learned, fiction makes the world real.

How to Use a Modern Public Library

Has it been a while since your last visit to a public library? If so, you may be surprised to learn that libraries have changed for the better. It’s been years since they were dusty little rooms with books. They have transformed themselves into places where you can develop your love of knowledge, meet interesting people, or find out how to start a business.

Check out a book. While libraries still loan out (出借) books, you’ll find it easier to get a copy of whatever you’re looking for, thanks to a cooperative network of area libraries. Via such networks, libraries share their books with each other through the use of delivery vehicles. Once the book you’ve requested is delivered to the nearest branch, they will inform you by e-mail, so you can pick it up.

Check out other items. The library is now a multimedia zone, loaded with information in many formats (载体形式). You can borrow movies on DVDs, music on CDs, and popular magazines. Some libraries even loan out toys and games. If a popular magazine you want isn’t offered and the library keeps a list of such requests, they may bring it in when enough interest is shown.

Join targeted reading groups. Libraries will often hold reading-group sessions aimed at various age groups. Perhaps you’d like to learn a language or improve your English. The library may sponsor a language group you could join. If you have difficulties reading, ask about special reading opportunities. Your library might be able to accommodate you. And you might find it relaxing to bring your small kid to a half-hour Story Time while you sit quietly in a comer with a good book.

Start a business using the help of your local library. If you want to have a business your own, your local library can become a launch space for it. In library books computers, you can find information on starting a business. Many libraries will help you with locally supplied information about business management shared through chambers of commerce(商会)and government agencies, and they will offer printing, faxing and database services you need.