九九藏書

A fifty-three-year-old architect with a tragic sense of brick, Simon takes a year's sabbatical from his job and his marriage and moves to New York. The apartment he sublets is spacious and empty, so when he meets three gorgeous lingerie models -- half his age and a little down on their luck -- at a Lexington Avenue bar, it seems perfectly natural to invite them to move in. The situation, they point out, has the structure of a male fantasy. Simon's houseguests prove to be surprisingly perceptive and intelligent, but they are each a little lost, struggling to find their way in that difficult city. Simon, by turns doting and inattentive, tempted and horrified, offers them his skewed philosophies of life and love. Privately, he mourns his age, his stalled career, his diminishing sexual prowess, and the inevitable day when the women will leave him.

Donald Barthelme's new book of stories, Great Days, is perhaps most notable for the presence of seven formally related dialogues, The Crisis, The Apology, The New Music, Morning, On the Steps of the Conservatory, The Leap, and Great Days, which introduce a new aspect of his work. In these restless, possibility-haunted colloquies, stripped of everything save voices, changing pairs of women and pairs of men range an emotional terrain whose poles are hope and memory. Extravagant, profane, and comic, the dialogues are a considerable achievement, testing the possibilities of form and extending our engagement with the world.

In other stories Barthelme explores the tragic, ambiguous relationship between Cortés and Montezuma, uncovers units of the Swedish army on maneuvers in Manhattan, offers a country-music version of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, describes a heroic cutting contest between a king of jazz and a young challenger, and provides an account of a group of zombies out on a wife-buying expedition.

As Philip Stevick wrote in The Nation, Donald Barthelme's stories stand as touchstones for narrative art of the last two decades. Great Days is an important addition to an already impressive body of work.

Experimentation with the absurd, both in theme and technique, is by no means a totally new development in literature, especially for those readers familiar with the works of Camus, Kafka, Beckett, Genêt, and Robbe-Grillet. Like these writers, Mr. Barthelme satirizes and mimics most of the clichés of our popular culture, and, through the predicaments of his characters, makes the reader ask Why? Yet these predicaments, although bizarre, inane, and usually surrealistic, do not necessarily contain the morose connotations of most writers of the absurd. For example, in one tale the narrator is thirty-five years old, six feet tall, with the logic and reasoning of an adult. He is in the sixth grade, where Miss Mandible, his teacher, is frustrated in her desires to have an affair with him because, officially, he is a child!

These imaginative stories of dark humor, some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, are to be interpreted on many levels, and offer refreshing and thoroughly exciting reading.

Kaleidoscopically mesmerizing... Powerfully illuminating -- Village Voice

From New York to Tokyo to Copenhagen to the Radiant City of Le Corbusier, this sophisticated and surreal collection of short stories and brief visionary texts takes us on an exhilarating tour of the modern urban -- and psychological -- landscape. Alexandra, a designer of artificial ruins, creates a ruined wall with classical columns and a number of broken urns for a park in Arizona; a journalist for a magazine called Folks sets out to interview nine people who have been struck by lightning; and a retired messman steals fifty-three mothballed ships from the U.S. government.

Like a master magician, working with control and illusion, Barthelme breaks all rules. Manipulating language with irony, humor, and imagination, he captures the essence of our disorienting times.

Dizzying and enjoyable -- Publishers Weekly

Enticing. . . flecked with charm, surprise, and challenge -- Kirkus Reviews

花木蘭是家中的長女，性格爽朗率真，父母極力想幫女兒找到一個好歸宿，可是多次努力未果。此時卻收到了北方匈奴侵略的消息，朝廷召集各家各戶的壯丁。木蘭父親也在名單之內，木蘭不忍年邁殘疾的父親征戰沙場，決定割掉長發，偷走父親的盔甲，決定女扮男裝代父從軍。花家的祖先為了保護木蘭，便派出了心地善良的木須從旁幫忙。從軍的過程中，木蘭憑著堅強意志，通過了一關又一關的艱苦訓練，她的精神也感動了所有戰友。就在戰況告急的時候，她也被發現了女子的身份。她被遺留在雪地中，而最後也是她的及時出現，順利協助大軍擊退了匈奴。

JACK LONDON WAS born on January12,1876,in san Francisco,California,as John Griffith Chaney.His mother,Flora Wellman,was a teacher and spiritualist,and his father,Willian left them not long after,and Jack took his stepfather''s last name ,London.The family moved to Oakland and ,by the time he was ten,London was an avid reader,checking books out of the public library.London left school at age thirteen to work a number of odd jobs-as a cannery worker ,sailor ,oyster pirate,and fish patroller.

In1893,unemloyed workers marched in protest against the econormic crisis,and London,age seventeen,joined them.Arrested for vagerancy,he spent a month in jail.When he was released,he resolved to get his education.He earned his high school equivalency degree in a year and enrolled in the Univer-sity of California at Berkeley,where he read voraciously.London embraced the wroks of Darwin,Nietzsche,and Marx and became a socialist.In1897,he dropped out to join the gold rush in the Klondike region of Alaska and Canada.JACK LONDON WAS born on January12,1876,in san Francisco,California,as John Griffith Chaney.His mother,Flora Wellman,was a teacher and spiritualist,and his father,Willian left them not long after,and Jack took his stepfather''s last name ,London.The family moved to Oakland and ,by the time he was ten,London was an avid reader,checking books out of the public library.London left school at age thirteen to work a number of odd jobs-as a cannery worker ,sailor ,oyster pirate,and fish patroller.

In1893,unemloyed workers marched in protest against the econormic crisis,and London,age seventeen,joined them.Arrested for vagerancy,he spent a month in jail.When he was released,he resolved to get his education.He earned his high school equivalency degree in a year and enrolled in the Univer-sity of California at Berkeley,where he read voraciously.London embraced the wroks of Darwin,Nietzsche,and Marx and became a socialist.In1897,he dropped out to join the gold rush in the Klondike region of Alaska and Canada.

This songbook features 14 songs from the hit movie starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, including: Before I Fall in Love (Coco Lee) * Blue Eyes Blue (Eric Clapton) * I Love You (Martina McBride) * I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2) * It Never Entered My Mind (Miles Davis) * Maneater (Hall and Oates) * Never Saw Blue like That (Shawn Colvin) * Ready to Run (Dixie Chicks) * Where Were You (On Our Wedding Day)? (Billy Joel) * You're the Only One for Me (Allure) * and more.

在元旦新年的守歲夜，倫敦有四個失意絕望的人：因為跟一個15歲少女上床而聲敗名裂的電視名人馬丁；除了照顧自己嚴重殘疾的成年兒子沒有自己生活的中年婦女莫蓮；因為姐姐幾年前神秘失蹤而一直走不出心理陰影的少女傑絲；和樂隊解散、女友分手的美國搖滾歌手JJ。他們都想到著名的禮帽大廈樓頂跳樓自殺，四人在樓頂不期而遇。他們一起度過了一個晚上，講述各自不幸的遭遇，第二天一早各自回家，但從此形成了一個奇怪的四人小團體，開始發生各種各樣有趣的事情，比如他們試圖挽救馬丁的婚姻，結果一團糟；他們組成讀書會，專門討論自殺的作家們，他們還計劃不周地匆匆去金絲雀群島旅行……

這是英國當紅作家尼克·霍恩比第四部長篇小說，他的小說風格充滿喜劇色彩而給人以溫暖。在這部首印達17萬冊的新作中，他嫻熟地駕馭自殺這樣沉重的話題，時不時令讀者發出會心一笑。小說剛剛在美國上市就佔據《紐約時報》小說排行榜第四名，其受歡迎程度可見一斑。

新年前夜，四個生活失意的陌生人在倫敦著名的自殺聖地頂層大廈上不期而遇。馬丁是個名譽臭了大街的電視節目主持人，JJ是個失敗的音樂人，中年婦女莫琳除了一個植物人兒子之外一無所有，而潔絲是個四處碰壁的青春期叛逆少女。經過一個荒唐的夜晚，四人組成所謂的自殺俱樂部，試圖互相幫助，走出抑鬱的低谷。新的煩惱與笑料由此產生……

Once on a dark winter's day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd- looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares.

She sat with her feet tucked under her, and leaned against her father, who held her in his arm, as she stared out of the window at the passing people with a queer old-fashioned thoughtfulness in her big eyes.

本書是葉芝的代表作之一，這是一部特殊的作品。之所以說它特殊，原因有二：第一，這是詩人葉芝以詩歌的筆法寫出，卻又並非詩集的作品。第二，這是詩人用來表達他對愛爾蘭永恆的熱愛的一部重要作品。實際上，這是一部葉芝飽含著詩人的激情整理出的一部優美的愛爾蘭神話傳說集。詩人浸淫在愛爾蘭文化中多年，對於愛爾蘭傳說中的仙女等等魔幻力量的存在深信不疑，這種浪漫信仰給他的詩歌創作增添了特殊光彩。為了回報愛爾蘭民族文化這個提供給他以無限靈感的美的母體，葉芝用詩人的筆觸，記錄下他喜愛的凱爾特風土人情。本書集結了或綿延數頁，或寥寥幾句的鄉人閑談和神話傳說，風格和形式有點類似我國蒲松齡的《聊齋志異》。不過，與《聊齋》不同的是，本書更多的是強調詩人本人對於魔幻世界的思索與感激。

這是一部反映了作者早期的典型創作特徵的作品。它的內容包羅萬象：鬼怪、仙人、幽默故事和鄉間傳說層出不窮；它的文體更可謂雜而不亂：時而是一段關於生命和死亡的嚴肅探討，時而是一段農人放肆地講出的荒誕不經的故事，之間穿插著葉芝的詩歌片段。全書筆法自由輕鬆至極，行文充滿想象力，張揚一種神秘浪漫的美感以及對淳樸思想的熱愛。

《凱爾特的薄暮》是搜集自愛爾蘭斯萊戈和戈爾韋兩地的神話、傳說合集，是作者在愛爾蘭西北沿海村莊採風，和當地的各色人物交友聊天，並對這些談話筆記稍加整理，加上自己的一些思考和感悟編寫而成的。也可以視為一部文筆優美的散文集，其內容涉及天地神鬼，充滿各種有趣的奇談怪論，有點類似我國的《聊齋志異》，或者《閱微草堂筆記》。

這是一部有關現代科學發展史的既通俗易懂又引人入勝的書，作者用清晰明了、幽默風趣的筆法，將宇宙大爆炸到人類文明發展進程中所發生的繁多妙趣橫生的故事一一收入筆下。驚奇和感嘆組成了本書，歷歷在目的天下萬物組成了本書，益於人們了解大千世界的無窮奧妙，掌握萬事萬物的發展脈絡。

書中回溯了科學史上那些偉大與奇妙的時刻，引用了近年來發現的最新科學史料，幾乎每一個被作者描述的事件都奇特而且驚人：宇宙起源於一個要用顯微鏡才能看得見的奇點；全球氣候變暖可能會使北美洲和歐洲北部地區變得更加寒冷；1815年印度尼西亞松巴哇島坦博士拉火山噴發，噴涌而出的熔岩以及相伴而來的海嘯奪走了10萬人的生命；美國黃石國家公園是世界上最大的活火山……而那些沉迷於科學的科學家們也是千奇百怪：達爾文居然為蚯蚓彈起了鋼琴；牛頓將一根大針眼縫針插進眼窩，為的只是看看會有什麼事情發生；富蘭克林不顧生命危險在大雷雨里放風箏；卡文迪許在自己身上做電擊強度實驗，竟然到了失去知覺的地步……

本書在講述科學的奇迹與成就的同時，還浸潤著濃郁的悲天憫人的人文關懷。全書從科學發展史的角度對我們從哪裡來？我們是誰？我們到哪裡去？這一千古命題作了極為精當的闡釋，每一個人在閱讀此書之後，都會對生命、對人生、對我們所生活的世界產生全新的感悟。一位美國小讀者的父親說，讀過《萬物簡史》之後，他對死亡不再感到恐懼……作者認為，這是一本書所能獲得的最高評價。

Will tugged at his mother's hand and said, Come on, come on...

But his mother hung back. She was still afraid. Will looked up and down the narrow street in the evening light, along the little terrace of houses, each behind its tiny garden and its box hedge, with the sun glaring off the windows of one side and leaving the other in shadow. There wasn't much time. People would be having their meal about now, and soon there would be other children around, to stare and comment and notice. It was dangerous to wait, but all he could do was persuade her, as usual.

Into this wild abyss, The womb of nature and perhaps her grave, Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixed Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless the almighty maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds, Into this wild abyss the wary fiend Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while, Pondering his voyage...

—John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II The Golden Compass forms the first part of a story in three volumes. The first volume is set in a universe like ours, but different in many ways. The second volume is set partly in the universe we know. The third volume will move between the universes.

The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations; The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up; The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk & dry'd Reviving shake, inspiring move, breathing, awakening, Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds & bars are burst.

Let the slave grinding at the mill run out into the field, Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air; Let the inchained soul, shut up in darkness and in sighing, Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years, Rise and look out; his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open; And let his wife and children return from the oppressor's scourge.

They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream, Singing: The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning, And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night; For Empire is no more, and now the Lion & Wolf shall cease.

-from America: A Prophecy by William Blake O stars, isn't it from you that the lover's desire for the face of his beloved arises? Doesn't his secret insight into her pure features come from the pure constellations?

-from The Third Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke Fine vapors escape from whatever is doing the living.

The night is cold and delicate and full of angels Pounding down the living. The factories are all lit up, The chime goes unheard.

We are together at last, though far apart.

-from The Ecclesiast by John Ashbery

This brief and poignant novel from Germany explores existential questions as its 46-year-old narrator reflects on broken relationships and other failures, and struggles to come to terms with life.

The Shoe Tester of Frankfurt by Wilhelm Genazino, 2004 recipient of the Georg-Büchner-Preis, Germanys highest literary honor, is finally available to English-speaking readers in a pitch-perfect translation by Philip Boehm.

Employed by a high-end shoe manufacturer to test new products, the narrator spends his days wandering through his native city, encountering faces from his past (primarily female) and experiencing anew the many manifestations of the mystery of life. In the grand tradition of literary flaneurs, he takes note of his surroundings, from the significant to the mundane, and assembles them into a sort of mental collage that is at once self-portrait and cityscape.

Most remarkable in Genazinos work is the humor with which he invests this melancholic character. Though at times he fears that he teeters on the brink of insanity, he good-naturedly pursues the strange twists of fate that land him variously behind a table at the flea market, in a newspaper office, by the banks of a flooded river, or in a friends bed. As Peter von Matt wrote in Der Spiegel, Indeed, there is hardly a subtler humorist among todays writers than Genazino.

A just-so story, also called the ad hoc fallacy, is a term used in academic anthropology, biological sciences, and social sciences. It describes an unverifiable and unfalsifiable narrative explanation for a cultural practice or a biological trait or behavior of humans or other animals. The use of the term is an implicit criticism that reminds the hearer of the essentially fictional and unprovable nature of such an explanation. Such tales are common in folklore and mythology (where they are known as etiological myths)

《遠古傳奇》是吉卜林創作的兒童作品中最有名的故事集之一。在吉卜林所有的著作當中，他自己最喜歡的就是這本《遠古傳奇》。每一個故事都稱得上是吉卜林的代表作。他對動物的熱愛彷彿與生俱來，並從中獲得巨大靈感。本書所收集的大象的孩子、花豹身上的斑點是怎麼長出來的、獨來獨往的貓和其他寓言故事最初是吉卜林講給他孩子的女護理員聽的。前者講得津津有味，後者聽得如痴如醉。這些故事按照主題和描述的環境，從動物講到字母的起源，從史前山洞講到非洲熱帶叢林。本書以離奇而豐富的想象，細膩而生動的描寫，講述著很久很久以前人類與動物的種種變故。