Why books are here to stay | Small Thing Big Idea, a TED series

Transcriber: TED Translators admin Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

譯者: Marssi Draw 審譯者: Regina Chu

I will lend books to people, but of course, the rule is

我會借書給人，當然前提是：

"Don't do that unless you never intend to see that book again."

「還想再看到那本書就不要借。」

[Small thing.]

[小事情]

[Big idea.]

[大想法]

The physical object of a book is almost like a person.

書的形體和人幾乎沒有兩樣。

I mean, it has a spine and it has a backbone.

我的意思是，書有書背，書有脊椎。

It has a face.

書有臉。

Actually, it can sort of be your friend.

其實書也可以算得上是你的朋友。

Books record the basic human experience

書記錄人類基本的經驗，

like no other medium can.

沒有其他媒材做得到這點。

Before there were books,

在書出現之前，

ancient civilizations would record things

古代文明記錄事情

by notches on bones or rocks or what have you.

會刻在骨頭、石頭或手邊的東西上。

The first books as we know them originated in ancient Rome.

我們所知最早一批書籍來自古羅馬。

We go by a term called the codex,

我們稱之為手抄本，

where they would have two heavy pieces of wood

手抄本會用兩片厚木板

which become the cover,

做為書封，

and then the pages in between would then be stitched along one side

其中的書頁會以針在一側相縫，

to make something that was relatively easily transportable.

讓運送書相對容易一點。

They all had to completely be done by hand,

這些書全都得用手寫，

which became the work of what we know as a scribe.

因此產生了我們所知的抄寫員。

And frankly, they were luxury items.

坦白講，書是奢侈品。

And then a printer named Johannes Gutenberg,

後來有一位名叫 約翰尼斯·谷騰堡的印刷商，

in the mid-fifteenth century, created the means to mass-produce a book,

他在十五世紀中葉發明了 大量印刷書籍的方法，

the modern printing press.

也就是現代印刷機。

It wasn't until then

從那時開始，

that there was any kind of consumption of books by a large audience.

書籍才開始有大批讀者。

Book covers started to come into use in the early nineteenth century,

十九世紀早期開始使用書皮，

and they were called dust wrappers.

當時稱為書封。

They usually had advertising on them.

通常書封上會有廣告。

So people would take them off and throw them away.

所以大家拆開書封之後就會丟掉。

It wasn't until the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century

直到十九、二十世紀轉換之際，

that book jackets could be seen as interesting design

書衣才有機會被視為有趣的設計，

in and of themselves.

書衣本身就是一件設計。

Such that I look at that and I think,

有趣到我看書衣的時候會想：

"I want to read that.

「我想看那本書。

That interests me."

那本書吸引了我。」

The physical book itself represents both a technological advance

書的實體不僅展現了技術進步，

but also a piece of technology in and of itself.

同時書本身也是一門技術。

It delivered a user interface

書傳遞的使用者界面，

that was unlike anything that people had before.

不像前人過去有的任何東西。

And you could argue that it's still the best way

你可以說，直到現在書還是最好

to deliver that to an audience.

傳遞使用者界面給讀者的方式。

I believe that the core purpose of a physical book

我相信實體書的核心價值

is to record our existence

是要記錄我們的存在，

and to leave it behind on a shelf, in a library, in a home,

讓人留在書櫃、圖書館、家裡，

for generations down the road to understand where they came from,

留給未來的世代， 讓他們了解我們從哪裡來，

that people went through some of the same things

大家共同經歷過某些事，

that they're going through,

這些我們正在經歷的事，

and it's like a dialogue that you have with the author.

就像你和作家的對話。

I think you have a much more human relationship to a printed book

我想你和印刷書有更人性化的關係，

than you do to one that's on a screen.

比你跟電子書相比還人性化多了。

People want the experience of holding it,

人想要體驗拿著書、

of turning the page, of marking their progress in a story.

打開書頁、在故事中留下進度的記號。

And then you have, of all things, the smell of a book.

然後你在這之中就有了一本書的味道。

Fresh ink on paper or the aging paper smell.

新鮮的墨印味，或是舊書頁的味道。

You don't really get that from anything else.

你從其它東西不會得到這些。

The book itself, you know, can't be turned off with a switch.

書本身無法用一個開關關掉。

It's a story that you can hold in your hand

書是你可以握在手中的故事，

and carry around with you

然後隨身帶著，

and that's part of what makes them so valuable,

這也是讓書如此珍貴的原因，

and I think will make them valuable for the duration.

我想只要書存在的一天就會很珍貴。

A shelf of books, frankly,

坦白說，整櫃書

is made to outlast you, (Laughs)

會活得比你久，（笑聲）

no matter who you are.

不管你是誰都一樣。