Zhu Shanpo

這些年只要看到實體書店倒閉，我心裡就十分難受。因此，每次經過那些規模較大的實體書店，我都忍不住停下匆匆腳步，進去看看，翻翻那些賞心悅目的書，離開時多多少少買幾本。經常遇到收款員問我是不是會員，如果不是，可以馬上辦，買書當即打八折。我總是說，不是，不用辦，不用打折。我並非錢多，而是想以全價購買的方式支援一下實體書店，希望它能挺住，賓客盈門，生生不息。

The bookstore has always been my spiritual home. I grew up in a remote mountain village, and I didn't have many opportunities to get to the town as a child. Every time I go to the town, the must-go place is Xinhua Bookstore, and I can't touch the books on the shelves, and I am reluctant to leave. In order to buy books, I often used my time after school to go to the mountains to chop firewood, and then use a wheelbarrow to push the firewood to the town. On the day off, they depart in the morning and walk a long way, usually until late in the evening to get to the town, and sell firewood to state-run restaurants, earning five or six cents per trip. Reluctant to spend two cents to buy a barbecued pork bun to fill his stomach, he turned around and ran to Xinhua Bookstore to buy one or two books that he had loved for a long time, and then returned the same way.

Reading while walking along the way, returning home, reading the book, and then lending the book to the same peers in the village who also love to read, or treasure the book to prevent rats and cockroaches from eating it, and then take it out when you reread it. On two or three occasions, the bookstore was closed after the trolley repeatedly broke down halfway through, and the bookstore was closed by the time the money was exchanged in town. Sometimes, I happen to encounter a bookstore that takes inventory and eats a closed door. In a more extreme case, once, because the restaurant had a surplus of firewood, there was nowhere to pile up, and I didn't want my firewood, so I had to push the firewood home in the dark, and I was tired and hungry on the lonely mountain road, and I was so sad that I cried. But the loss of not being able to buy books is more uncomfortable than being tired and hungry.

After I started working, my favorite place to go was still the bookstore. When I lived in the county seat, I used to go out shopping or take a walk at night, but I always walked and walked into the bookstore. If my wife or children get separated from me on the street, they will definitely find me in the bookstore. No matter what city you go to on a business trip, if you have extra time, you always find a bookstore to sit for a while, order a cup of coffee, and flip through the pages.

During the two years of studying in Nanjing, I lost count of how many times I walked into the Pioneer Bookstore and walked through the dazzling array of books. Wrapped in books, soaked in books, you stare at books, and books look back at you. Some books, not necessarily bought, just a touch is good. I can often spend an afternoon at the bookstore. Coming out of the bookstore, the night was dark, and the street was brightly lit, and I felt that the day was complete and steady. Later, every time I went back to Nanjing, I tried to go to the Pioneer Bookstore. A bookstore is the soul of a city, the spiritual destination of readers, and a harbor that can make people's hearts peaceful and tranquil. It seems that if you don't go to the bookstore, you won't go to Nanjing. When you are tired of walking around the city, a bookstore is the best place to rest.

I now work in Guangzhou and go to bookstores more often. Sometimes, go to a place for the only reason there's a nice bookstore there.

Although I usually buy books online, I often go to physical bookstores to buy books. The physical bookstore is "physically visible" and "buy and get", and also stamps the blue seal of "XX Bookstore" on the last page of the book, and walks through the bustling sea of people with the book, and the feeling is very different. I can't say goodbye to a brick-and-mortar bookstore. I really hope that brick-and-mortar bookstores will get better and better, like the last bastion in the city, and at least survive stubbornly.

For this reason, I am willing to go to the bookstore more often, spend more time, and have a friendship with them for longer than ever.

People's Daily (08/0/0 0 Edition)