布宜诺斯艾利斯：一座让人爱上读书的城

2017-07-03

新东方英语·中学版 2017年7期

如果我問你，世界上人均拥有书店数最多的城市是哪个？你或或许会说巴黎，也可能会说伦敦，或者你知道香港书店很多，但也许你猜不到，最终的答案是阿根廷的首都布宜诺斯艾利斯。而事实上，布宜诺斯艾利斯不仅书店众多、书市繁荣，其书店之美也堪称壮观。在网购如此发达、许多书店濒临倒闭的今天，这个城市的居民仍旧愿意时时去书店逛逛，大街小巷也常常见到居民们捧着纸质书阅读的动人风景。这背后究竟有什么样的原因呢？

Buenos Aires has more bookshops per inhabitant than any other city in the world， according to a recent study by the World Cities Culture Forum.

With a population of around 2.8 million， Buenos Aires has at least 734 bookstores—roughly 25 bookshops for every 100，000 inhabitants. Worldwide， only Hong Kong comes close， with 22 bookshops per 100，000， followed by Madrid in a distant third with just 16 and compared to a mere 10 bookshops for every 100，000 for London.

The Mass Immigration and the Love of Books

Gabriela Adamo， who until recently was the president of the city&apos；s annual book fair—an event which draws over 1 million visitors each year—says Argentina&apos；s love affair with the book is related to the wave of mass immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A century ago， Buenos Aires was the shining capital of one of the wealthiest countries of the world. European immigrants poured into Buenos Aires， creating a multicultural environment in which culture and the arts thrived1）. "The book as an object became a cultural symbol back then. It&apos；s something that persists today，" says Adamo.

Standing Still in the Modern Economy

But contemporary economics also plays a role： books are exempt2） from Argentina&apos；s standard sales tax—a whopping3） 21% on most goods—and internet sales and electronic book readers have yet to make inroads on4） the local publishing market.

"Argentinians still prefer to come in and browse for books，" says Antonio Dalto， business manager of El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookshop5）. "We have a website for selling books， but it only draws a small percentage of readers. As a matter of fact， they seem to use it more to select titles online， but then they come to buy the actual book here at the shop."

That is perhaps unsurprising， considering the grandeur6） of the shop&apos；s setting： opened as a theatre in 1919 and converted7） into a giant bookstore 15 years ago， the Grand Splendid still boasts the beautiful ceiling frescoes8） painted by an Italian artist almost a century ago. Around 1 million customers visit it each year to browse through its huge 21，000-square-foot showroom， or withdraw into one of the old theatre boxes perched9） for a leisurely read.

"Culture is very important to the people of Buenos Aires. Even young kids read books； we see them here every day. Books for teenagers are one of our biggest sellers，" says Dalto. Publishers and booksellers say that the city&apos；s book market is distinctly catholic10） in taste， immune11） to fads or fashion.

Inquiring into the Depths of Personality

Publishing experts have also linked the country&apos；s love for reading to its obsession with psychoanalysis： Argentina has more psychologists per inhabitant than any other country in the world， and according to Virginia Ungar， a member of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytical Association， the habitual introspection12） of therapy makes Argentinians ideal readers.

"Psychoanalysis， reading and the arts in general are all linked because they are all an inquiry into the depths of personality. Both literature and psychoanalysis work with the word，" says Ungar， who is president-elect of the International Psychoanalytical Association founded by Sigmund Freud in 1910.

Argentina is one of the most prolific13） book publishers in Latin America， and the number of titles published has grown steadily each year， from 16，092 in 2004 to 28，010 in 2014. The total number of books printed in 2014 was 123 million.

世界城市文化論坛最近（编注：英文原文发表于2015年9月）的一项研究表明，布宜诺斯艾利斯人均拥有的书店数比世界上的其他任何城市都多。

布宜诺斯艾利斯的人口约为280万，这里至少有734家书店，大约每10万人就有25家书店。放眼全世界，也只有香港的数字与此相近，每10万人拥有22家书店；马德里名列第三，但与第二相差较远，每10万人只有16家书店；相形见绌的是，伦敦每10万人仅有10家书店。

大移民带来的爱书文化

该市一年一度的书展每年都会吸引超过100万的游客。加布里埃拉·阿达莫直到最近一直都是书展的主席，他说阿根廷人对书籍的热爱与19世纪末20世纪初那场大规模的移民浪潮有关。

一个世纪之前，布宜诺斯艾利斯还是个熠熠生辉的都城，它所在的国家阿根廷是当时世界上最富有的国家之一。来自欧洲的移民涌入布宜诺斯艾利斯，形成了多元文化环境，在这样的环境下，文化和艺术繁荣发展。“书籍这种物品成为当时的一个文化象征，一直持续到现在。”阿达莫说。

屹立于现代经济的浪潮

不过，现代经济环境也同样发挥了作用：图书在阿根廷免征标准销售税（大多数商品都要征收这种税，税额高达21%），而且网络销售和电子书阅读器尚未对当地的出版市场产生大的影响。

“阿根廷人仍愿意通过逛书店来买书，” El Ateneo大书店的业务经理安东尼奥·道尔图说，“我们有个卖书的网站，但只吸引了一小部分的读者。事实上，他们似乎更多的是用这个网站在线搜索书名，可随后就会来我们书店这里买实体书。”

想想这家书店布置之富丽堂皇，人们的做法也许就不足为奇了。这里在1919年建成之初是一个剧院，15年前被改造成了巨型书店。店里仍以穹顶上拥有的精美壁画为傲，这些壁画是大约一个世纪前由一名意大利画家绘制而成。每年约有100万顾客光临这家书店，他们在这里2.1万平方英尺的巨大展厅里浏览图书，或是走进其中一间供读者悠闲读书的古老剧院包厢。

“文化对布宜诺斯艾利斯人来说非常重要。甚至连孩子们也阅读，我们每天都能看到他们来这里看书。青少年书籍是我们最畅销的品类之一。”道尔图说。出版商和图书销售商也都说这里图书市场的受众兴趣相当广泛，不受时尚和流行的影响。

痴迷于对内心的深度探寻

出版专家还把这个国家对阅读的喜爱与该国民众对心理分析的痴迷联系在一起：阿根廷人均拥有的心理医生数量比世界上其他任何国家都要多。而且据布宜诺斯艾利斯心理分析协会的成员弗吉尼亚·昂加尔说，习以为常的内省疗法使阿根廷人成为理想的读者。

“心理分析、阅读以及艺术总体来说是相通的，因为它们都是对个性的深度探寻。文学和心理分析都是由文字来发挥作用的。” 昂加尔说。她已当选为国际心理分析协会的主席，该协会是1910年由西格蒙德·弗洛伊德建立的。

阿根廷是拉丁美洲出版图书最多的国家之一，并且从2004年的16092种到去年的28010种，每年出版的图书数量都在稳步增长。2014年印刷的图书总量为1.23亿册。

Bookshop that Never Sleeps

It is not only the market for new books which is thriving： Buenos Aires also has a total of 102 rare and secondhand bookshops， far outranking London with only 68 or Berlin， with only six， and is third in terms of secondhand bookshops per inhabitant after Johannesburg and Tokyo， most of them congregated14） along Avenida Corrientes.

The city&apos；s unusual hours—people often meet for dinner at 11pm， and shops stay open until after midnight—also play a role， says Ignacio Iraola， general manager of the Argentinian branch of the Spanish publishing behemoth15） Planeta.

"Buenos Aires is a city that wakes up late and the day stretches out into the early hours，" he says. "Avenida Corrientes is like a long， open bookshop that never sleeps."

Away from the city centre， local bookshops also thrive. Tucked away16） in the bohemian17） neighbourhood of Villa Crespo is La Internacional Argentina， an independent store which specialises in first editions of Latin American authors. One of its owners， Nicolás Moguilevsky says， "We hold a fair every two months on a Saturday on the sidewalk here. It&apos；s really surprising， sometimes up to 500 people come， many of them young kids. And they usually walk away with two or three books that they get here for the price they would pay for just one at one of the big bookshops downtown."

"If this was a job we would have got bored by now and quit—our existence is a miracle，" says Garamona， another owner of the bookshop. Although the bookshop barely scrapes by18）， it has been in business for 15 years now， a testament19） to the unquenchable20） thirst of the city for books.

不眠的书店，不灭的书之爱

布宜诺斯艾利斯不仅新书市场欣欣向荣，而且还有出售珍藏本和二手书的书店，数量共计102家，与只有68家的伦敦和只有6家的柏林相比遥遥领先。就人均拥有二手书书店的数量来看，该市仅排在约翰内斯堡和东京之后，位居第三。这些旧书书店大多都聚集在科连特斯大街上。

这个城市有着非同寻常的作息时间。人们通常在晚上11点聚餐，于是书店也会一直开到深夜之后，而这也是书市繁荣的一个原因，西班牙出版巨头普拉内塔在阿根廷分部的总经理伊格纳西奥·伊劳拉说。

“布宜诺斯艾利斯是一个晚起的城市，这里的白天一直延长至凌晨，”他说，“科连特斯大街就像是一个长长的书店，一直营业，不眠不休。”

在远离市中心的地方，当地书店也同样欣欣向荣。阿根廷国际书店隐匿在克雷斯波郊外的非传统社区，是一家专门销售拉美作家首版书的独立书店。书店的所有人之一尼古拉斯·莫吉莱维斯基说：“我们每两个月的周六都会在这里的人行道上举办图书集市。真难以置信，有时候会有多达500人前来，其中许多都是年轻人。离开时他们通常会带走从这里买到的两三本书，而用同样的钱他们在市中心的那些大型书店里只能买到一本。”

“要是卖书是一份会令我们到现在早就干烦了不干了的工作，那我们的存在可就是个奇迹。”该书店的另一位所有人加拉莫娜说道。这家书店尽管只是勉强在维持经营，但至今也已经开了15年，这足以证明这座城市对书籍无法遏制的渴望。

1. thrive [θra?v] vi. 欣欣向荣；茁壮成长；兴旺发达

2. exempt [?ɡ?zempt] adj. 被免除的；被豁免的

3. whopping [?w?p??] adj. 异常大的；庞大的

4. make inroads on：消耗，削弱，影响。inroad [??nr??d] n. （尤指通过消耗或削弱其他事物取得的）进展

5. El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookshop： El Ateneo大书店，是布宜诺斯艾利斯最著名的书店，常年雄踞在各种“世界最美书店”榜单上。

6. grandeur [?ɡr?nd??（r）] n. 宏伟；堂皇；壮丽

7. convert [k?n?v??t] vt. 改造，改建（房屋等）

8. fresco [?fresk??] n. 湿壁画

9. perch [p??t?] vt. 把……置于

10. catholic [?k?θl?k] adj. 广泛的；包罗万象的

11. immune [??mju?n] adj. 不受影响的