Buying or Borrowing Books?

买书还是借书？

As we all know, books are close friends of humanity.It’s beyond question that books can enrich our mind, enlighten our spirits, and enhance our life.However, as to borrowing or buying books,people hold differentopinions.Some prefer buying,while some speak highly of borrowing.I think it would be more reasonable to take the view that we need both buying and borrowing.

众所周知，书籍是人类的朋友。毋庸置疑，读书能够充实人们的大脑，陶冶情操，更能够充实人们的生活。但是，对于买书和借书而言，人们有着不同的观点。许多人喜欢买书，而有些人喜欢借书。我认为我们既要买书也要借书。

As the famous philosopher Bacon said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested.”,books are of different kinds.So are our ways of getting them.For the books to be tasted and swallowed, such as novels for leisure and stories for fun, I prefer to borrow them.Borrowingthem can not only save our money,but more importantly, save us huge amounts of time and improve our reading efficiency,because books borrowed normally have a deadline to force us into finishing them in a limited time. However, for the books to be chewed and digested, such as classical literary works and textbooks, I’d like to buy them.Compared with borrowing books,buying them can offer us more freedom.We can keep the books as long as we wish, and moreover take whatever notes on the margin of the pages.

就如哲学家培根所说的，“一些书可以浅尝辄止；一些书可以狼吞虎咽；而有些书则需要细嚼慢咽，好好消化”。书籍有许多种。我们获得它的方式也会不一样。对于那些需要浅尝辄止，和狼吞虎咽的书，例如小说或故事，我会去借书。借书不仅能够省钱，更重要的是能够节省大量的时间，提高我们阅读的效率，因为借阅的图书能够逼迫我们在限定时间完成。但是，对于那些需要细嚼慢咽的书籍，例如古典文学，或是教科书，我会去买书。比起借书，买书能够提供我们更多的空间。我们可以随时看书，更重要的是我们可以在空白处做记录。

In short, whether to buy or to borrow books depends on what kind of book it is.The most important thing isnot how we get them, but how we discover the pleasure through reading.

总之，无论你是买书还是借书，那就要看你需要的是何种书籍。最重要的不是你如何得到图书，关键是我们能够从读书中得到快乐。