（一）
我真一夜致博，问了几书店有吴霭仪说的那本妙书：How To Bee Ridiculously Well Read in One Evening。问，说不必买了，找给我。今果送了。薄薄一本企鹅，一九八五年初版，编者E O Parrott一九九零年六十六岁就世了。视力衰退，辞教职，专写，编撰几本很俏皮的妙书：How to Bee Absurdly Well Informed About The Famous And The Infamous；How to be Tremendously Tuned In to Opera；How to be Well Versed iry。他的《前言》一就说博览群书，梦寐求（“To be well-read is surely highly desirable”），生有涯，书无穷，总不放弃电视节目放弃酒馆啤酒死啃名着。他说年散文蓝姆早就简化名着的绝招，编写《莎士比亚故集》（Tales from Shakespeare），人於是纷纷续貂，有的狗尾，有的貂尾，弄，明明是正襟危坐的品，兴羼入非非了（“It is now the fashion to seek for sexual meanings and praphidertones even in passages where almost certainly the author intended nothing of the kind”）。
（二）
本一夜致博的指南倒是黄黑红白依画葫芦，不太加油添酱。吴霭仪引劳伦斯《查泰莱夫人的情人》给缩两行诗：
Smart girls make passes
At the w classes.
千真万确是髦女郎勾引劳力汉。Vladimir Nabokov的Lolita更是娇滴滴春情早，色迷迷雨打梨花，浪荡荡一“榻”胡涂：
Pert， pubest child，
Is defiled by perve with nerve，
Till Quilty gets wild...
Dylan Thomas 的 Under Milk Wood说的是寂寂城，无风浪；说三四，蜚短流长；从早晚，床始忘；所何？一片空茫！
O little town of Llareggub，
How still we see thee lie，
Then gradually the place wakes up
And， as the day goes by，
We hear the locals gossiping，
they prattle till nightfall，
Then off they go to bed again.
What s happened？ ﹣ Bugger all.
英国人社聊靠肚子的杂料撑场面，书内容浅浅寓意深深，最助人稳操胜券。全书共有三十一位者执笔，各显奇才，比赛。实，些的确喜欢比赛；编者己是“entries in various literary petitions”；者有的“has been a literary petition winner for many years”；有的“was joint winner of the 1973 Daily Mail petition”；有的“Has been a regular literary petition winner since 1950s”。有的似乎是了瘾：“An ie weekend literary petitor”；有的一九四零年就参赛现在。书的者简介有趣，有的说讨厌旅行，讨厌谈论己品的；有的说有四名孙子八枚相管的牙齿（“frand children a fairly souh”）！