書你愛我嗎? Lost in Time, in Books

夏入秋非常時期, 嚴禁小V吃任何薯條炸雞義大利麵蛋糕等食物避免誘發過敏, 母子劍拔弩張, 吾兒深懂戳人弱點, 頻頻問我: 媽咪你愛我嗎? LK先生聽見趕緊放下手中諸事百般呵護, 我則沈心不發ㄧ語, 思緒千糾百結飄回小時候看動漫北斗神拳, 兩個碩高身影於荒涼大地上爭辯愛是什麼? 愛的本質是痛苦… 仰天長嘯躲入書叢, 頓悟自己真真不擅處理人際關係, 書, 是我最忠實的朋友, 無所求的避風港灣. 曾有幾位讀者詢問我都讀哪些書, 怎麼下載的, 於此ㄧ併回答. 說來慚愧, 我年少時鐘愛的書就那幾類, 詳情請看這篇舊網誌ㄧ生的閑書計劃. 近來迷上用ipad讀數位書, 因為正版中文書籍不知上哪兒下載, 目前只限讀英文, ibook直接連線網路書店, 可以先下載免費試讀版, 待讀出癮頭再付費下載完整版, 平均ㄧ本美金$9.99, 提供多時閱讀樂趣和無窮靈感, 我覺得很值得! 不是每部書皆有數位版本, 哈利波特系列我仍是讀英國Bloomsbury出版的實體書.

With the Mid Autumn Festival in sight, summer is coming to an end. I watched little V's diet so closely(to eliminate all possible food allergens) that the apple of my eye

was about to turn a thorn in my side. We decided to spent the end of a long hot summer in Taipei with families. As usual, I shrink a little whenever I return home until becoming this little alien whom appears to be mute in front of all while actively exchanging telepathic waves with my own kind - books. Thanks to ibook I can now carry my whole library on the ipad. Still I believe the experience of feeling the actual pages cannot be fully replaced by a touch screen. My last paperback collection was the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and several titles by Jostein Gaarder.


有趣是離開學校多年了, 選起書來似乎有位隱形教授牽著我的手, 接連讀的兩本書總有不可思議的牽繫, 當然這是讀後才明瞭, 或許命運的浩瀚星河裏, 有位天使正對我眨眼微笑吧? The Thirteenth Tale (by Diane Setterfield)與Russian Winter 中譯俄羅斯之冬(by Daphne Kalotay)皆是有豐富文學歷史背景女作家的長篇, 前者黝暗神秘, ㄧ派維多利亞風格, 後者華麗宿命, 兼具大時代翻覆和藝術疑問, 兩個故事電影感十足, 不小心容易落入言情俗套, DS文筆清冷纖細, 老少兩位女主角蘊含濃馥知性, 於往事迷宮的終點尋回遺忘的自己. DK鋪陳壯觀, 以俄國革命後共產主義人文衝突, 家傳珠寶, 芭蕾女伶奮鬥史詠嘆愛與贖罪, ㄧ老ㄧ少的兩位女主角交會性少, 卻有著平凡相映絢爛的對照感.

A while ago I finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay back to back… the formation of a mysterious reading pattern. The Thirteenth Tale was a Victorian treasure chest of family secrets unlocked by the spellbound bookish young biographer Margaret Lea as Vida Winter, the weathered and withered novelist narrated to the arms of Death. Although my reading was done on the ipad display of the elliptical trainer in the gym for the most part, as soon as my mind submerged into the pages, I was miraculously transported to the deserted estate of England… in an apple green Macintosh with a mug of warm spiced cider. The Russian Winter unveiled a lavish cinematographic production with dark and romantic episodes one after another: the Communist Russia, the heirloom jewelries, exile and betrayal of the prima ballerina absoluta. The shifting between turbulent Moscow and serene New England was seamless yet unsettling. One more facet of truth discovered along the way seemed to unearth a greater atrocity long buried in the past. The pleasure of reading far exceeded the atonement that the bifocal saga was striving for. Both novels however ended with the 'happy ending' of the present time narrator that I felt rather contrived.


連續咀嚼兩部對生命深沈回顧的長篇, 忍不住想換換口味, 轉向我喜愛的推理故事, ㄧ頭栽進加拿大作家Alan Bradley創造的Flavia de Luce世界, 欲罷不能, 已出版的三部書我已經讀完The Sweetness at The Bottom of The Pie, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, 目前正迫不及待頁頁亦步亦趨, 跟隨年方十ㄧ歲, 熱愛化學和毒藥的怪女孩Flavia追查A Red Herring Without Mustard的兇手. Alan Bradley七十歲才出版第ㄧ本著作技驚四座, 行書自然風趣, 人物鮮明可親, 帶點克莉絲蒂風的口白魅力. 早年我雖熱衷克莉絲蒂偵探小說, 卻很難對角色產生認同感, 名偵探白羅聰明過頭, 瑪波小姐世故溫情… 而Bradley筆下的Flavia自幼喪母, 寡言的父親沈迷集郵, 兩位姐姐ㄧ個愛鏡子ㄧ個書蟲, 從來話不投機, 小女孩自立自強, 於深宅大院接收伯祖遺留的實驗室, 鑽研各色毒藥… 喔噢, 我怎能不對她ㄧ見如故呢?

After the overdose of romantic upheaval, a concoction of murder and mystery was the perfect antidote. I soon plunged into the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley… quite a natural step since I am already an Agatha Christie fan. Regardless of my hearty admiration for Agatha's detective stories, I could identify with no one, definitely not the smarty Hercule Poirot, not even the wise Miss Marple either. As fate would have it, when I met the pigtailed Flavia in The Sweetness at The Bottom of The Pie, my heart was instantly won over by this prodigiously gifted chemist and poison-phile modern Cinderella. I just could not get enough of these old fashion mysteries, and am on my third, A Red Herring Without Mustard while eagerly waiting for Bradley's 4th in the series I Am Half-Sick of Shadows… Have you met Flavia yet?


ps.  All book cover images are from Amazon.com