在图书零售店分类中,独立书店自成一格,与其它形态各异的图书零售卖场几分天下,具备三点特质:一是无所依附,二是人文观照,三是持之以恒。三足鼎立,无往不胜。 
北京的单向街,南京的先锋书店,还有台湾的诚品书店。 
独立书店的布局正符合了时下大家追求小清新或者小资的想法。
 


这样的书店固然满足了都市人对于精神世界的追求,但是其营业状况却并不是很好,呐,今天给大家带来的就是外国撰稿人关于独立书店的一些思考。 

SHOULD WE FIGHT TO SAVE INDIE BOOKSTORES? 

I’ll admit that at times I’ve responded to news of random indie-bookstore shutterings as I do to news of catastrophes in faraway lands: with a pang of concern that soon settles into a vague sense of unease about the world and the problem of human existence. But I’ve always suspected that, should the war come home, I’d feel differently. And indeed, when news reached me Friday that a link to a petition to save St. Marks books was going around the Internet, I got that queasy, vertiginous feeling you get when you’ve been dumped, fired, evicted, or told that your kitten’s been run over. St. Marks is one of my bookstores, I screamed at the Internet: who thought they had the right to take it away? 

我承认,现阶段,我在听到那些关于自由独立书店的营业模式的消息的反应,正如我在听到遥远的大陆发生大灾难时的反应。伴随着一阵阵的担心,并且很快习惯于一种隐约的不安,这种不安和世界以及人类的存在有关。但我总是怀疑,战争是否应该开始,我有一种异样的感觉。确实,在星期五的时候,当我收到一封请愿书,为了拯救St. Marks的书而建立一个链接,此链接即将上线,(1)。St. Marks是我所知道的书店之一,我不禁要在互联网上大声呼吁:谁认为自己有权利将它们收回去? 

The answer, according to the petition, is indirectly New York City and its sky-high rents and less indirectly Cooper Union, the target of the petition and the owner of the building St. Marks books occupies. The bookstore would like Cooper Union to kindly lower its rent. 

根据那封请愿书来看,答案直接和纽约的高租金有关,同时也和Cooper联盟有一点关系,这个联盟就是请愿书的目标同时也是St. Marks书店占据的这座建筑的拥有者。书店希望Cooper联盟好心降低租金。 




The St. Mark’s Bookshop has a long tradition in the Lower East Side and serves an admirable and increasingly rare function. St. Mark’s is struggling to pay the market rent that Cooper Union is charging them at 31 3rd Ave. A significant rent concession by Cooper Union could save this irreplaceable neighborhood institution

St. Mark’s Bookshop在下东区有着悠久的历史,并且对上东区有一种令人钦佩却又越来越稀罕的功用。St. Mark’s正在支付市场租金中挣扎着,因为Cooper联盟命令他们在313号大街上交。Cooper联盟若对租金做出一次重要的让步就能够拯救这个无可替代的友邻的位置。 

I had a friend once who would go on and on and on about rent control and how it unbalanced the rental market for the rest of New York, arguments I found mostly convincing. Imagining the apoplexy that would seize him if he read the petition, I hesitated for a moment before signing. But the thing is that I really don’t want St. Marks books to close, and by hook or by crook (since it obviously won’t happen by book), I want it to be saved. My stance is entirely based in emotion:I have an emotional attachment to a certain vision of New York, and that vision includes a good indie bookstore on the L.E.S

我有一个朋友,他曾经就租金控制问题以及租金如何使纽约剩下的租赁市场保持平衡说个不停,而我发现他所说的这些有很大部分令人信服。能够想象她读完请愿书的时候可能会中风吧,所以我在签字的时候犹豫了一会。然而,事实就是我真的不愿意St. Marks书店关门大吉,并且无论如何,我希望它能被拯救。我的立场完全立足于情感:(2)

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