以下内容节选自林语堂先生的《生活的艺术》一书。先阅读中文，然后自己试着想想英文如何表达，这样可以更好的和大师学习。
读书是文明生活中所公认的一种乐趣，极为无福享受享受此种乐趣的人所羡慕。我们如把一生爱读书的人和一生不知读书的人比较一下，便能了解这一点。凡是没有读书癖好的人，就时间和空间而言，简直是等于幽囚在周遭的环境里边。他的一生完全落于日常例行公事的圈禁中。他只有和少数几个朋友或熟人接触谈天的机会，他只能看见眼前的景物，他没有逃出这所牢狱的法子。但在他拿起一本书时，他已立刻走进了另一个世界。如若所拿的又是一部好书，则他便已得到了一个和一位最善谈者接触的机会。这位善谈者引领他走进另外一个国界，或另外一个时代，或向他倾吐自己胸中的不平，或和他讨论一个他从来不知道的生活问题。一本古书使读者在心灵上和长眠已久的古人如相面对，当他读下去时，他便会想象到这位古作家是怎样的形态和怎样的一种人，孟子和大史家司马迁都表示这个意见。一个人在每天十二小时中，能有两小时的工夫撇开一切世俗烦扰，而走到另一个世界去游览一番，这种幸福自然是被无形牢狱所拘囚的人们所极羡慕的。这种环境的变更，在心理的效果上，其实等于出门旅行。
Reading or the enjoyment of books has always been regarded among the charms of a cultured life and is respected and envied by those who rarely give themselves that privilege. This is easy to understand when we compare the difference between the life of a man who does no reading and that of a man who does. The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighbourhood. From this prison there is no escape. But the moment he takes up a book, he is immediately put in touch with one of the best talkers of the world. This talker leads him on and carries him into a different country or a diiferent age, or unburdens to him some of his personal regrets, or discusses with him some special line or aspect of life that the reader knows nothing about. An ancient author puts him in communion owith a dead spirit of long ago, and as he reads along, he begins to imagine what that ancient author looked like and what type of person he was. Both Mencius and Sema Ch'en, China's greatest historian, have expressed the same idea. Now to be able to live two hours out of twelve in a different world and take one's thought off the claims of the immediate present is, of course, a privilege to be envied by people shut up in their bodily prison. Such a change of environment is really similar to travel in its psychological effect.
自己总结一下：
读书的好处，特别是读好书的好处是无限扩展一个人能够接触的时间、空间和人物，从而把人从日常事务中解脱出来片刻，换换脑，透透气。这种体验好比一次精神旅游。
此段英文中，我个人最欣赏的词是“immediate world”，感觉用词非常精准。
关于“immediate”朗文字典有以上的解释，在此处应该是属于第四种解释。“immediate world”就是眼前的世界，或周遭环境。
我自己的应用：
If I can not find a true friend in my immediate world, it is Ok, at least I can read.
Maybe I can find my soulmate when I am reading.
I can unburden most of my personal regrets by just writing. I heard that someone call it writing zen.
