We can easily get all the wisdom of the ages， all the stories that have delighted mankind for centuries—but we must know how to use this treasure and how to get the most from it. The most unfortunate people in the world are those who have never discovered how satisfying it is to read good books.

Reading is a pleasure of mind. Your eagerness for knowledge and quickness make you a good reader. Reading is fun， not because the writer is telling you something， but because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works along with the writers or even goes beyond his. Your experience， compared with his， brings you to the same or different conclusions， and your ideas develop as you understand his.

我们可以很容易地获得各个时代的智慧，获得许多世纪以来使得人类愉悦的所有故事——但我们必须知道如何使用这个宝库，如何从中汲取最多的营养。世界上最不幸的人，就是那些从来没有发现读好书是多么让人满足的人。

阅读是一种心灵之乐。你求知的迫切愿望和思维的敏捷使你成为好的读者。阅读很有趣，不是因为作者告诉你什么事情，而是因为它使你的大脑活跃起来。你自己的想象力与作者的想象力相伴而行，甚至超出作者的想象力。你的经验，跟作者的经验进行比较，使你得出跟作者相同或相反的结论，而当你理解作者思想的时候，你自己的思想也发生着变化。

Every book stands by itself， like a one-family house， 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 literature， but with different solutions according to different writings at different times. Books influence each other; they link the past， the present and the future and have their own generations， like families. Whenever you start reading you connect yourself with one of the families of ideas， and finally you not only find out about the world and the people in it， you find out about yourself， too.

Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be. If you concentrate on books somebody tells you “you ought” to read， you probably wont have fun. But if you put down a book you dont 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， kinder， or more gentle， you wont have suffered during the process.

每本書都自成一体，就像独门独户的宅院，但图书馆里的书就像城市的房屋。虽然这些书各自独立，但这些书放在一起便作用非凡；它们互相联系，也和其他城市联系在一起。同样的思想，或者相关的思想，在不同的地方出现；在文学作品中重复出现的人类问题，却在不同的时代不同的作品中，有着不同的解决方案。书互相影响，它们连接着过去、现在和将来，并像家庭一样，有自己的“后代”。每当你开始阅读的时候，你就把自己和思想之家中的一个成员联系在一起。最后，你不但了解了世界和世界上形形色色的人，也了解了自己。

只有当你期望阅读能带来乐趣的时候，阅读才会有乐趣。如果你专注地读别人告诉你“应该”读的书，你也许不能从中获得乐趣。但是，如果你放下一本你不喜欢的书，试着读另外一本，直到发现一本你感觉有价值的书，然后轻松地读下去，几乎可以肯定，你会读得很愉快。如果阅读后你变得更优秀、更聪明、更友善或者更平和，那么在阅读的过程中，你不会觉得痛苦。

Word Bank

delight /d?'la?t/ v. 使愉快；使高兴

This news will delight his fans all over the world.

separate /'sepr?t/ adj. 独立的；单独的

He raises two separate issues.