What s happened？ ﹣ Bugger all.

O little town of Llareggub，

they prattle till nightfall，

Pert， pubescent child，

Then gradually the place wakes up

At the working classes.

Smart girls make passes

Then off they go to bed again.

這本一夜致博的指南倒是黃黑紅白依樣畫葫蘆，不太加油添醬。吳read.99csw.com靄儀引過勞倫斯《查泰萊夫人的情人》給縮成兩行詩：

And， as the day goes by，

How still we see thee lie，

Is defiled by perve with nerve，

We hear the locals gossiping，

千真萬確是時髦女郎勾引勞力漢。Vladimir Nabokov的Lolita更是嬌滴滴春情早發，色迷迷雨打梨花，浪蕩盪一「榻」胡塗：

Till Quilty gets wild...

我真想一夜致博，問九_九_藏_書了好幾家書店都沒有吳靄儀說的那本妙書：How To Become Ridiculously Well Read in One Evening。問她，她說不必買了，她找出來給我。今天果然送來了。薄薄一本企鵝，一九八五年初版，編者E O Parrott一九九零年六十六歲就去世了。視力衰退，辭去教職，專心寫作，編撰過好幾本很俏皮的妙書：How to Become Absurdly Well Informed About The Famous And The Infamous；How to be Tremendously Tuned In to Opera；How to be Well Versehttps://read.99csw.comd in Poetry。他的《前言》一上來就說博覽群書，夢寐以求（「To be well-read is surely highly desirable」），而生也有涯，書也無窮，總不能放棄電視節目放棄酒館啤酒去死啃名著。他說想當年散文家藍姆早就想出簡化名著的絕招，編寫《莎士比亞故事集》（Tales from Shakespeare），後人於是紛紛續貂，有的狗尾，有的貂尾，弄到後來，明明是正襟危坐的作品，都作興羼入非非之想了（「It is now the fashion to seek for sexual meanings and pornographic undertones even iread.99csw.comn passages where almost certainly the author intended nothing of the kind」）。

Dylan Thomas 的 Under Milk Wood說的是寂寂小城，無風作浪；說三道四，蜚短流長；從早到晚，上床始忘；所為何事？一片空茫！

英國人社交聊天靠肚子里的雜料撐場面，這種書內容淺淺寓意深深，最能助人穩操勝券。全書共有三十一位作者執筆，各顯奇才，也如比賽。事實上，這些作家的確喜歡比賽；編者自己是「entries in various literary competitions」；作者有的「has been a literary competitio九九藏書n winner for many years」；有的「was joint winner of the 1973 Daily Mail competition」；有的「Has been a regular literary competition winner since 1950s」。有的似乎是上了癮：「An inveterate weekend literary competitor」；有的一九四零年就參賽到現在。書後的作者簡介也有趣，有的說討厭旅行，討厭談論自己作品的作家；有的說有四名孫子和八枚還相當管用的牙齒（「four grand children and eight fairly sound teeth」）！