Christopher Frizzelle
克裏斯托弗·弗裏澤爾
作者簡介
克裏斯托弗·弗裏澤爾（Christopher Frizzelle），西雅圖最著名的新聞周報《陌生人》（The Stranger）的主編，負責電影、音樂、視覺藝術、戲劇、食物、圖書等領域文章的采寫，並開設了一個每周文化專欄。在加盟《陌生人》以前，弗裏澤爾曾供職於《西雅圖周報》（Seattle Weekly）。
本文於2010年4月發表在《陌生人》雜誌網站上。文中描繪的新奇美妙的閱讀派對可能會讓你眼前一亮。天南海北、興趣各異的陌生人齊聚一室，開始一場閱讀盛宴。這裏有輕鬆的氛圍，有愜意的環境，有思想的交流和碰撞，也有甜蜜的約會和得遇知音的期待，但沒有狹隘、傲慢和偏見。“獨樂樂不如眾樂樂”，與誌同道合的朋友一起分享閱讀的快樂當真是人生一大樂事。心動不如行動，帶上一本書，約上三五好友，也來搞一個小型的閱讀派對吧！
Every first Wednesday of the month at 6:00 p.m., the Fireside Room at the Sorrento Hotel goes quiet and fills with people—crazy-haired, soft-spoken, inscrutable, dorky, NPRish, punk, white, black. The reading public. It fills right away, all these people who don’t know each other, and they sit very closely, sometimes three strangers to a couch. By 7:00 p.m., you can’t get a seat. 每月第一個周三的下午六點，索倫托酒店的“爐邊屋”餐廳裏靜悄悄的，坐滿了各色人等——有發型怪異者、柔聲細語者、神秘莫測者、神情呆滯者、自詡精英者、朋克裝扮者，有白人，也有黑人。這是一群閱讀的人。餐廳裏每次很快就坐滿了人，他們互不相識，但坐得很近，有時三個陌生人擠在一張沙發上。到7點的時候，幾乎找不到空座位。
The party spills into the foyer—there’s a table for chess or whatever near the elevator, and two people sitting there, staring into books. A reporter for the Shoreline Community College newspaper showed up the last time to ask about the event, but it’s not much of an event: Nothing happens. No one ever addresses the room. No one reads anything at you through a microphone. You just sit and read and get waited on, and leave whenever you feel like it. For the first two months, the hotel extended happy hour all night for the reading party, and somehow “happy hour all night” caught on:Now the hotel does happy hour all the time. 於是參加派對的人湧到了大廳。電梯旁有張用來下棋或做其他用途的桌子，兩個人坐在那裏專注地看書。上一次，雪蘭社區學院院報的記者現身此處，采訪關於活動的事。但這不是什麼活動：因為沒發生什麼事。沒有人登台致辭，也沒有人用麥克風講話。人們隻是坐著讀書，還有人接待，想走的話隨時可以走。最初兩個月，因為這個閱讀派對，酒店把“歡樂時光”1延長到了整個晚上，此舉大受歡迎。現在，酒店全天都提供“歡樂時光”服務。
You can read whatever you want, and it runs the gamut. Two reading parties ago, a business lawyer next to me was reading that day’s New York Times. An art critic was reading A Brief History of Curating by Hans Ulrich Obrist. A singer/performer/musician was reading Moby Dick. A furniture maker was reading Where We Live Now: An Annotated Reader, edited by Matthew Stadler. Charles Mudede was reading Walter Benjamin, possibly for the billionth time. An investigative journalist was reading Robert Greenfield’s Exile on Main St., about the Rolling Stones recording Exile on Main St. A food critic was reading Elaine Dundy’s The Dud Avocado, a drunky 1950s New York novel gorgeously republished recently by NYRB. A woman at the next table was reading Michael Lewis’s The Big Short. Someone else was scribbling in a notebook; there’s one in every crowd. 這裏什麼書都有，想讀就能讀。記得上上次閱讀派對中，我身邊一位商務律師在讀當天的《紐約時報》。一位藝術評論家在讀漢斯·尤裏斯·奧布裏斯特的《策展簡史》，一名歌手、演員兼音樂家在讀《白鯨記》，一位家具製造師在讀馬修·斯塔德勒所編的《現今居所：帶注解的讀者》。查爾斯·穆迪第1在讀瓦爾特·本雅明2的書，其實他可能已經讀了無數次了。一位調查記者在讀羅伯特·格林菲爾德的《頹廢大街》，該書記載了“滾石”樂隊灌錄專輯《頹廢大街》時的情況。一位美食評論家在讀伊萊恩·鄧迪的《紐約女孩在巴黎》，一部20世紀50年代的紐約小說，最近在《紐約書評》上精彩重刊。鄰桌一位女士在讀邁克爾·劉易斯的《大賣空》。還有人在筆記本上塗鴉——每一群人裏都有這種人。