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Saturday, September 10, 2011

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

13 comments:

Unknown said...

謝謝po文介紹書籍。也曾試著用ibook下載,當時在新加坡,ibook被新block了。回到丹麥,沒想到也無法下載!一定要有美國的account!中文書也是少之可憐!不明白當世界吶喊環保之際,下載書是拯救樹林最好的方法啊!這就好似禁烟,千方百計的設限,為什麼不就禁賣呢?我已在哥本哈根settle down 了,next step找學校!
祝好Monica

Rice Bowl Tales 有碗話碗 said...

Food allergy 或 food intolerance 都是父母的惡夢,看見孩子們這不能吃,那不能吃的,又知道他們都需要均衡營養,做父母的真是心痛!

幸好有書替 Miss LK 解憂。多謝你的介紹,有空要找來讀讀,好擴濶自己的看書領域。

在此順帶提及兩位作者及她們的書,你或許會喜歡的。
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt

Anonymous said...

Dear LK,

你介紹的書籍都很好看呢!我常常都看的津津有味.有時常感嘆書中世界實在太令人沉迷,常常一鑽進去很難回歸現實生活.所以總再浩瀚的書海與現實人生中拔河...

希望小V盡快康復,照顧孩子真的很累人.尤其他變得很有主見之時.好好休息吧!祝中秋節快樂!

V said...

記得剛讀完The Thirteenth Tale時,大家都在猜誰從火堆裡被救了出來。Setterfield的回應大致是如此:讀者常假設作者知道故事的所有安排,但事實並非如此,連我自己都不曉得生存者是誰,你想是哪位就哪位吧。想像空間任你遨遊就是了。我很喜歡這本書的印刷字體編排、封面設計和紙張選擇,很有意思。

我是沒辦法用ipad讀電子書的,得求助於kindle。

Miss LK said...

祝大家中秋節快樂!!!

Monica,
咦, 我itune是到新加坡才設的, ㄧ向沒有受限... ibook的概念應該就是全球通用吧? 真是太可惜了!!!

也祝你ㄧ家開開心心在美麗的哥本哈根過夢想中的生活 :)

Jane,
我自己為食, 小V胃口也好, 近來過敏復發真是傷透腦筋, 然孩子大了自身亦知健康重要, 漸漸懂得戒口, 往好的方面想, 清淡自然的飲食養生 :)

兩本書已加入書單, 待讀完再來分享!

fish,
很高興你也喜歡這些書, 書是人類智慧的寶藏, 對自己最划算的投資 :)

為人父母的路途上, 我只有幼稚園程度, 和小Vㄧ同成長吧!

V,
實體書尤其是hardcover 整體設計呼應用心, 數位版就隔了ㄧ層較難體會.

The Thirteenth Tale如同走迷宮, 每個角色的出發點各異... 那場大火是climax, 也是Vida Winter自身和作家敘事的分水嶺. 我還滿著迷此書淡淡晨霧氛圍, 享受閱讀文字的質感多過故事紋理 :)

material girl said...

啊呀呀呀呀~我正想著要去買 Flavia 的中文版新書來看哩!(因為第一本是看中文的)沒想到 Miss LK 也讀過,發現妳也是 Flavia 的同好讓我好高興啊!\^o^/

我好羨慕妳有英國版的 HP 喔。身為英國控的我居然只能讀美國版的 HP,感覺真的是太遜了!雖然我覺得很好奇,美國版的 HP 不曉得有沒有被 edit 過... (S 認為事事嚴格保守的美國最愛的就是控制資訊,所以一定有被剪接過...)

material girl said...

另外我最近沈迷 HP 費寢忘餐,真希望能夠找 Miss LK 來討論書中劇情啊...

剛剛看完第五集,Umbridge 的 Defense against dark art 的課程內容竟然跟從前學校充滿教條式的公民與道德有異曲同工之妙... HP 與 Sirius Black 兩人血氣方剛意氣用事,悲劇發生時 Dumbledore 責怪自己而不怪 HP, 果然是有大將之風,戰場的錯誤的確不怪小兵而得怪帶兵首領。

目前正在用力拼第六集...

Miss LK said...

MG果然和我志同道合啊!
中文版的Flavia應該也很好看 對白多的書翻譯差別不大
話説HP美國版應該不會修改吧... HP人物裏我最欣賞的就屬Dumbledore 記得Sirius慘遭毒手時 Dumbledore感嘆自己忘記年輕的衝動 錯估情勢 我就深深感動HP is about life :)

第六集和第七集有更多關於人心之罪 不忍掩卷呢!

Anonymous said...

Dear Sis,

Glad to hear everything went well! Rest more & get well soon!

Mian

V said...

看到左欄字句,嚇了一跳。Get well soon and speedy recovery!

Echomiao said...

雖然在旅行放空狀態 還是十分罣念 希望 Miss LK 一切安好 疤痕是生活的印記 badge of honor. 保重!

Unknown said...

祝早日康復!人生旅途總有坑坑洞洞的,可以解決的總是幸運啊!傷痕是戰果!他曰回憶起,又是故事一則!

Silvia said...

Miss LK,

刚刚读到旁边的那段话,敬佩你笑对人生的态度。好勇敢洒脱!

照顾身体哦:)

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