Editor's Note
April day on earth, the most beautiful time to read.
On the occasion of World Book Day on April 23, Beijing Youth Daily Daily Supplement launched the "Questionnaire • Third Season", hoping that in the era of fragmented information, people will not give up paper reading; under the trend of electronics, they still maintain their love for paper books.
Different from the questionnaires of the previous two seasons, this season specially invited Shi Hang, Zheng Yuanjie, Xiao Fuxing, Tang Xiaobing, Fu Guangming, Li Dongjun and Yuan Yidan, seven old friends of the "Daily Supplement" and senior book lovers as the "question writers" of the questionnaire, they put their thoughts on reading into the title, in the high-quality questions and answers, readers can appreciate the joy and power that reading brings to mankind.
Reading is the investment behavior with the highest return rate in the world, and I hope that this version of the questionnaire can enlighten and moisten the hearts of every book lover.
World Book Day Album No. 2
Author: Zheng Yuanjie (Writer)
Respondent: Xiao Fuxing (Writer)
Shi Hang (Screenwriter, Planner)
William Wang (Writer)
Dai Weina (poet, scholar)
Ji Xiaoqin (Book Editor)
one
If you invented papermaking or your ancestors, and you're faced with the impact of e-books on paper books, use an ancient poem to describe your mood.
Xiao Fuxing: The Bishu Deep Palace is still tied to horses, and the green mountains and broken shores want to welcome people. (Xu Weishi)
Shi Hang: Don't worry about the road ahead, don't know yourself, no one in the world knows the king.
William Wang: The sunset is infinitely better, but it is nearly dusk.
Dai Weina: Where to stir up dust. Self-consolation doesn't have to clean the shelves...
Ji Xiaoqin: There are infinite Dan qing hands in the world, and a sad painting cannot be completed.
two
Which do you think it means that a tree becomes a book or a bed?
Shaw Fuxing: Each has its own meaning. I am not in favor of exaggerating the meaning of reading. People need to read, but they can't just read without sleeping. Moreover, I usually lie in bed when I read now.
Shi Hang: Where I lie, there is the bed. I say what I wrote is a book, and others might say it's bound scrap paper.
William Wang: The significance of the book is great. Books carry a lot of information and have a similar structure to life, and if a tree is conscious, it is certainly willing to become another life. One can sleep on the surface of many things, as long as it is flat. In other words, a tree becoming a bed is a degrading existence, and becoming a book is a transcendent existence.
Dai Weina: Whether it becomes a book or a bed, it is a posthumous name for the tree, and it has become a tool for mankind, and even if it is valuable, it is the value of anthropocentrism. Maybe the tree has its own values? So the tree is still the happiest to live as a tree on its own.
Ji Xiaoqin: Books. Huize numbers much more than a bed.
three
Paper books bring us a lot of life phrases, such as "turning the face is faster than turning the book", "this thing has turned over", etc. Do you think e-books can also bring us new words of life? Let me give you an example.
Shaw Fuxing: Past events are put in favorites.
Shi Hang: You need to recharge yourself.
William Wang: Seriously, I really can't give such an example. All I know is that when I read a book when people call me, I say, "Wait, let me finish these pages." "But if I'm reading an e-book, I'll say, 'Wait, let me finish this page.' The word "read" became the word "pull."
Dai Weina: New tools will definitely lead to new words, and of course it may be more rudimentary words. For example, the popular yyds and other opening initials on the Internet reflect the perceived poverty.
Ji Xiaoqin: Paper book fans said they couldn't remember any examples (stallholders).
shop
Have you ever wanted to collect a paper out-of-print book?
Shaw Fuxing: Never thought about it. I'm not a collector, and books are for me to read.
Shi Hang: I've been doing this for many years. At present, my own favorite collection is the English version of "Resurrection" signed by Tolstoy (with a handwritten letter), and the "Broken Gold and Jade" of the "Ancient Dragon Early Works Series" signed by Gu Long.
William Wang: I thought about it. The book is wonderful, but it has a very stupid body. No matter how bestselling the book, the generation and dissemination are limited, while the e-book is unlimited. Therefore, the same content, the book has "this one", while the e-book can not have. As for which book to collect, I haven't thought about it yet, but I won't collect encyclopedias of the kind of knowledge, I will collect literary books. The closed books are like bricks and stones, but I can think that there can be hidden people, even if the technology is developed, I have to admit that it is a miracle.
Dai Weina: I have been quietly collecting out-of-print books to the best of my ability, mainly poetry and drama.
Ji Xiaoqin: I have practiced it many times. It is not for the sake of collecting, it is just want to find it, find that it is out of print, and decisively earn when encountered.
five
Will you get the paper book signed to you by the author and sold online at a markup for cash?
Shaw Fuxing: No. I don't think books are worth more because they have the author's signature. The value of the book lies in the book itself, just as the beauty of the flower lies in the flower, not in the vase.
S HANG: I wouldn't do that. People have sold my autograph books to others online, and they are generally sold. I'm to blame, of course.
William Wang: No, the signature makes the book "this one", and the collection is a cultural relic.
Dai Weina: No, not so poor.
Ji Xiaoqin: No. Favorite signed books will be treasured, do not borrow or send, do not sell.
land
Electronic social means have largely replaced paper correspondence. Do you think paper books will eventually be replaced by e-books?
Xiao Fuxing: At least on the mainland, I believe that paper letters will not be completely eroded. In later days, handwritten letters were more classical. Classical music has a history of hundreds of years, and it has not died out due to the emergence of new music including rock, electronic, etc., and the voices of Bach and Mozart can still be heard all over the world.
Shi Hang: I think Bamboo Jane will be replaced by paper books. If nothing else, let's wait for what we see to be true.
William Wang: How to understand "substitution"? Replacing the paper book at the social level and becoming a cultural relic, I don't think it will. If it means replacing people's daily learning and mainstream applications, that's for sure. Paper books will be marginalized, but they should coexist with e-books for a long time. Paper books can replace bamboo books, parchment books, etc. because they are essentially the same, they are all direct material carriers. The cost of e-book technology carriers is high, and there are many conditions, in case there is no electricity, it cannot be read. Human beings are also a kind of material being, and they must have an instinctive demand for material entities, which is human nature.
Dai Weina: Never. Embarrassed to say, I've always worked like a cave man on a hilltop. Don't talk about poetry, I have a manuscript for my doctoral dissertation and translation. The keyboard cannot replace the improvisational pleasure that comes with the friction of paper and pencil. Where is electronic reading, the touch and breath that paper books themselves carry, and the sense of awe of reading.
I have a friend who prefers paper books, and he has recently switched to e-books, because reading e-books is not in awe, you can make the energy jump brush, a book is quickly brushed. My rejection is more deep-rooted, I am oversensitive to electricity, the first year of college to the computer room computer class, immediately fever; take a car through the dense area of power lines, do not look up to know that there is a high-voltage corridor overhead, because it will hurt the head; the light of the electronic screen also makes me uncomfortable... Mobile phones, computers, printers are all pollution, which can be called nerve pollution. Modernization consumes not only electricity, but also our flesh. The future paper books will probably be a kind of collectibles, luxury goods, health care products with great investment value...
Ji Xiaoqin: No. There must be people in this world like me, but whenever you can find a paper book (old or new), you will never read an e-book.
Seven
Nowadays, many readers, for spatial and economic reasons, first screen good works through e-books, and then buy paper books. Do you think the advent of e-books will help readers leave classic paper books instead of being as mixed as they used to be? And then play the role of readers voting with banknotes to encourage quality works by quality authors?
Xiao Fuxing: Reading or listening to e-books first is one of the best ways to choose paper books. I often do this myself, especially audiobooks, and listen to a few paragraphs to see if it is what you need and want to see, and save your eyes. Such a choice will play a role in encouraging high-quality authors to work in quality.
Shi Hang: E-books can also help stupid readers more easily find piles of junk books.
William Wang: It's definitely advantageous. When I was a child, I saw a lot of "stall books", all of which were messy content, but now, the stall books have long disappeared. It's not that strange, cheap, and horrifying information is no longer needed, but that it's that things are everywhere on the Internet and don't need to give it a heavy material form. Some online novels are very popular, but converted into paper books may not be best-selling. The paper books of our time, if compared with the past era, are too sophisticated on the whole, from the content to the design, if the book can be crossed, it will light up the eyes of the past readers. It is a pity that too many of our lives today are not blessed in the blessing.
Dai Weina: I don't think it will be a kind of preference, but I believe it will be a flood of inundation and loss. To be lost in the ocean of information is to be without information and guidance. The result will simply be that channels will make it easier to manipulate readers and push what they want you to see in front of you.
Borges wrote a novel imagining a huge map that was 1:1 in proportion to the real world. If a huge map with a scale of 1:1 is made one day, then people will definitely get lost on this map. You hold this map as if you didn't, and having countless choices is the same as having no choices.
Ji Xiaoqin: "Screen the works through e-books, and then buy paper books" I have not operated, but I think to a certain extent can help accurately determine the purchase list. However, it also varies from person to person, in my opinion, the difference between paper books and e-books is still relatively large, good paper books will have careful consideration in paper selection, typesetting design, process application, etc., the sense of design and artistry need to really touch the real book to get it, these presumably reading e-book experience can not be experienced and then there is a possibility of missing.
I have always believed that in any era, there is a broad market for truly high-quality authors and works, and there will be no too obvious differences due to different reading carriers.
Guest recommendation
Recommender: Zheng Yuanjie
"Ancient Literature", "Journey to the West", and "Don Quixote": These are the three books that have had the greatest impact on me. As a child, I read Journey to the West and Don Quixote, two books that retained my imagination. In his youth, he read "Ancient Literature and Guan Zhi" and borrowed it from his first love. Loved the book. Unexpectedly, when my first love dumped me, she offered to return the book, it was the seventies of the last century, I couldn't buy this book, I asked my first love if she could give me this book, she refused. I copied it day and night, and as a result, many articles could be memorized.
Recommender: Ji Xiaoqin
"Hu Shi Miscellaneous Memories" (by Tang Degang): This book is wonderful, it is recommended to read it in conjunction with tang Degang's "Hu Shi Oral Autobiography". Tang Degang's observation angle and pen power are outstanding, and as far as my personal reading experience is concerned, Hu Shi, a celebrity, has changed from a distant view to amiable and approachable.
"Lazy Searching for Old Dreams" (by Xia Yan): The memoirs of Xia Yan, the "Old Man of the Century", tells a magnificent and detailed account of the history of the first half of the 20th century. For example, Tian Han rushed to the airport to send Xia Yan off, and picked a bouquet of azaleas on the grass outside to give to his old friend, saying that "you can enjoy it in the clouds."
"Seeing Laughter Collection" (illustrated version) (by Huang Yongyu): Mr. Huang Yongyu, 98, spent two weeks to draw an illustration of each poem, a total of more than 170 pictures, such an interesting person is so efficient, admired. This book is suitable for reading in the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Draft/Reporter Guo Jia, Wang Mian, Zhang Jia