如果我問你，世界上人均擁有書店數最多的城市是哪個？你或或許會說巴黎，也可能會說倫敦，或者你知道香港書店很多，但也許你猜不到，最終的答案是阿根廷的首都布宜諾斯艾利斯。而事實上，布宜諾斯艾利斯不僅書店眾多、書市繁榮，其書店之美也堪稱壯觀。在網購如此發(fā)達、許多書店瀕臨倒閉的今天，這個城市的居民仍舊愿意時時去書店逛逛，大街小巷也常常見到居民們捧著紙質書閱讀的動人風景。這背后究竟有什么樣的原因呢？

Buenos Aires has more bookshops per inhabitant than any other city in the world， according to a recent study by the World Cities Culture Forum.

With a population of around 2.8 million， Buenos Aires has at least 734 bookstores—roughly 25 bookshops for every 100，000 inhabitants. Worldwide， only Hong Kong comes close， with 22 bookshops per 100，000， followed by Madrid in a distant third with just 16 and compared to a mere 10 bookshops for every 100，000 for London.

The Mass Immigration and the Love of Books

Gabriela Adamo， who until recently was the president of the city&apos；s annual book fair—an event which draws over 1 million visitors each year—says Argentina&apos；s love affair with the book is related to the wave of mass immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A century ago， Buenos Aires was the shining capital of one of the wealthiest countries of the world. European immigrants poured into Buenos Aires， creating a multicultural environment in which culture and the arts thrived1）. "The book as an object became a cultural symbol back then. It&apos；s something that persists today，" says Adamo.

Standing Still in the Modern Economy

But contemporary economics also plays a role： books are exempt2） from Argentina&apos；s standard sales tax—a whopping3） 21% on most goods—and internet sales and electronic book readers have yet to make inroads on4） the local publishing market.

"Argentinians still prefer to come in and browse for books，" says Antonio Dalto， business manager of El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookshop5）. "We have a website for selling books， but it only draws a small percentage of readers. As a matter of fact， they seem to use it more to select titles online， but then they come to buy the actual book here at the shop."

That is perhaps unsurprising， considering the grandeur6） of the shop&apos；s setting： opened as a theatre in 1919 and converted7） into a giant bookstore 15 years ago， the Grand Splendid still boasts the beautiful ceiling frescoes8） painted by an Italian artist almost a century ago. Around 1 million customers visit it each year to browse through its huge 21，000-square-foot showroom， or withdraw into one of the old theatre boxes perched9） for a leisurely read.

"Culture is very important to the people of Buenos Aires. Even young kids read books； we see them here every day. Books for teenagers are one of our biggest sellers，" says Dalto. Publishers and booksellers say that the city&apos；s book market is distinctly catholic10） in taste， immune11） to fads or fashion.

Inquiring into the Depths of Personality

Publishing experts have also linked the country&apos；s love for reading to its obsession with psychoanalysis： Argentina has more psychologists per inhabitant than any other country in the world， and according to Virginia Ungar， a member of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytical Association， the habitual introspection12） of therapy makes Argentinians ideal readers.

"Psychoanalysis， reading and the arts in general are all linked because they are all an inquiry into the depths of personality. Both literature and psychoanalysis work with the word，" says Ungar， who is president-elect of the International Psychoanalytical Association founded by Sigmund Freud in 1910.

Argentina is one of the most prolific13） book publishers in Latin America， and the number of titles published has grown steadily each year， from 16，092 in 2004 to 28，010 in 2014. The total number of books printed in 2014 was 123 million.

世界城市文化論壇最近（編注：英文原文發(fā)表于2015年9月）的一項研究表明，布宜諾斯艾利斯人均擁有的書店數比世界上的其他任何城市都多。

布宜諾斯艾利斯的人口約為280萬，這里至少有734家書店，大約每10萬人就有25家書店。放眼全世界，也只有香港的數字與此相近，每10萬人擁有22家書店；馬德里名列第三，但與第二相差較遠，每10萬人只有16家書店；相形見絀的是，倫敦每10萬人僅有10家書店。

大移民帶來的愛書文化

該市一年一度的書展每年都會吸引超過100萬的游客。加布里埃拉·阿達莫直到最近一直都是書展的主席，他說阿根廷人對書籍的熱愛與19世紀末20世紀初那場大規(guī)模的移民浪潮有關。

一個世紀之前，布宜諾斯艾利斯還是個熠熠生輝的都城，它所在的國家阿根廷是當時世界上最富有的國家之一。來自歐洲的移民涌入布宜諾斯艾利斯，形成了多元文化環(huán)境，在這樣的環(huán)境下，文化和藝術繁榮發(fā)展?！皶@種物品成為當時的一個文化象征，一直持續(xù)到現在?！卑⑦_莫說。

屹立于現代經濟的浪潮

不過，現代經濟環(huán)境也同樣發(fā)揮了作用：圖書在阿根廷免征標準銷售稅（大多數商品都要征收這種稅，稅額高達21%），而且網絡銷售和電子書閱讀器尚未對當地的出版市場產生大的影響。

“阿根廷人仍愿意通過逛書店來買書，” El Ateneo大書店的業(yè)務經理安東尼奧·道爾圖說，“我們有個賣書的網站，但只吸引了一小部分的讀者。事實上，他們似乎更多的是用這個網站在線搜索書名，可隨后就會來我們書店這里買實體書?！?/p>

想想這家書店布置之富麗堂皇，人們的做法也許就不足為奇了。這里在1919年建成之初是一個劇院，15年前被改造成了巨型書店。店里仍以穹頂上擁有的精美壁畫為傲，這些壁畫是大約一個世紀前由一名意大利畫家繪制而成。每年約有100萬顧客光臨這家書店，他們在這里2.1萬平方英尺的巨大展廳里瀏覽圖書，或是走進其中一間供讀者悠閑讀書的古老劇院包廂。

“文化對布宜諾斯艾利斯人來說非常重要。甚至連孩子們也閱讀，我們每天都能看到他們來這里看書。青少年書籍是我們最暢銷的品類之一?！钡罓枅D說。出版商和圖書銷售商也都說這里圖書市場的受眾興趣相當廣泛，不受時尚和流行的影響。

癡迷于對內心的深度探尋

出版專家還把這個國家對閱讀的喜愛與該國民眾對心理分析的癡迷聯(lián)系在一起：阿根廷人均擁有的心理醫(yī)生數量比世界上其他任何國家都要多。而且據布宜諾斯艾利斯心理分析協(xié)會的成員弗吉尼亞·昂加爾說，習以為常的內省療法使阿根廷人成為理想的讀者。

“心理分析、閱讀以及藝術總體來說是相通的，因為它們都是對個性的深度探尋。文學和心理分析都是由文字來發(fā)揮作用的?！?昂加爾說。她已當選為國際心理分析協(xié)會的主席，該協(xié)會是1910年由西格蒙德·弗洛伊德建立的。

阿根廷是拉丁美洲出版圖書最多的國家之一，并且從2004年的16092種到去年的28010種，每年出版的圖書數量都在穩(wěn)步增長。2014年印刷的圖書總量為1.23億冊。

Bookshop that Never Sleeps

It is not only the market for new books which is thriving： Buenos Aires also has a total of 102 rare and secondhand bookshops， far outranking London with only 68 or Berlin， with only six， and is third in terms of secondhand bookshops per inhabitant after Johannesburg and Tokyo， most of them congregated14） along Avenida Corrientes.

The city&apos；s unusual hours—people often meet for dinner at 11pm， and shops stay open until after midnight—also play a role， says Ignacio Iraola， general manager of the Argentinian branch of the Spanish publishing behemoth15） Planeta.

"Buenos Aires is a city that wakes up late and the day stretches out into the early hours，" he says. "Avenida Corrientes is like a long， open bookshop that never sleeps."

Away from the city centre， local bookshops also thrive. Tucked away16） in the bohemian17） neighbourhood of Villa Crespo is La Internacional Argentina， an independent store which specialises in first editions of Latin American authors. One of its owners， Nicolás Moguilevsky says， "We hold a fair every two months on a Saturday on the sidewalk here. It&apos；s really surprising， sometimes up to 500 people come， many of them young kids. And they usually walk away with two or three books that they get here for the price they would pay for just one at one of the big bookshops downtown."

"If this was a job we would have got bored by now and quit—our existence is a miracle，" says Garamona， another owner of the bookshop. Although the bookshop barely scrapes by18）， it has been in business for 15 years now， a testament19） to the unquenchable20） thirst of the city for books.

不眠的書店，不滅的書之愛

布宜諾斯艾利斯不僅新書市場欣欣向榮，而且還有出售珍藏本和二手書的書店，數量共計102家，與只有68家的倫敦和只有6家的柏林相比遙遙領先。就人均擁有二手書書店的數量來看，該市僅排在約翰內斯堡和東京之后，位居第三。這些舊書書店大多都聚集在科連特斯大街上。

這個城市有著非同尋常的作息時間。人們通常在晚上11點聚餐，于是書店也會一直開到深夜之后，而這也是書市繁榮的一個原因，西班牙出版巨頭普拉內塔在阿根廷分部的總經理伊格納西奧·伊勞拉說。

“布宜諾斯艾利斯是一個晚起的城市，這里的白天一直延長至凌晨，”他說，“科連特斯大街就像是一個長長的書店，一直營業(yè)，不眠不休?！?/p>

在遠離市中心的地方，當地書店也同樣欣欣向榮。阿根廷國際書店隱匿在克雷斯波郊外的非傳統(tǒng)社區(qū)，是一家專門銷售拉美作家首版書的獨立書店。書店的所有人之一尼古拉斯·莫吉萊維斯基說：“我們每兩個月的周六都會在這里的人行道上舉辦圖書集市。真難以置信，有時候會有多達500人前來，其中許多都是年輕人。離開時他們通常會帶走從這里買到的兩三本書，而用同樣的錢他們在市中心的那些大型書店里只能買到一本?！?/p>

“要是賣書是一份會令我們到現在早就干煩了不干了的工作，那我們的存在可就是個奇跡。”該書店的另一位所有人加拉莫娜說道。這家書店盡管只是勉強在維持經營，但至今也已經開了15年，這足以證明這座城市對書籍無法遏制的渴望。

1. thrive [θra?v] vi. 欣欣向榮；茁壯成長；興旺發(fā)達

2. exempt [?ɡ?zempt] adj. 被免除的；被豁免的

3. whopping [?w?p??] adj. 異常大的；龐大的

4. make inroads on： 消耗，削弱，影響。inroad [??nr??d] n. （尤指通過消耗或削弱其他事物取得的）進展

5. El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookshop： El Ateneo大書店，是布宜諾斯艾利斯最著名的書店，常年雄踞在各種“世界最美書店”榜單上。

6. grandeur [?ɡr?nd??（r）] n. 宏偉；堂皇；壯麗

7. convert [k?n?v??t] vt. 改造，改建（房屋等）

8. fresco [?fresk??] n. 濕壁畫

9. perch [p??t?] vt. 把……置于

10. catholic [?k?θl?k] adj. 廣泛的；包羅萬象的

11. immune [??mju?n] adj. 不受影響的

12. introspection [??ntr??spek?n] n. 內??；自??；反省

13. prolific [pr??l?f?k] adj. （作家、畫家或作曲家）多產的，作品豐富的

14. congregate [?k??ɡr?ɡe?t] vi. 集合；聚集

15. behemoth [b??hi?m?θ] n. 巨頭；龐大企業(yè)

16. （be） tucked away： （某處所）隱藏在（寂靜的地方）

17. bohemian [b???hi?mi?n] adj. 不拘于傳統(tǒng)的；放蕩不羈的

18. scrape by： 勉強維持；勉強度日

19. testament [?test?m?nt] n. 證據；證明

20. unquenchable [?n?kwent??bl] adj. 不可抑制的；滿足不了的