Henry loved books， but not like you and I love books， no. Not quite…

Henry loved to EAT books. It all began quite by mistake one afternoon when he wasn’t paying attention. He wasn’t sure at first， and tried eating a single word， just to test.

亨利喜歡書(shū)，但跟你我喜歡書(shū)可不一樣。完全不一樣。

他喜歡“吃”書(shū)。這一切全因某天下午一個(gè)不經(jīng)意的錯(cuò)誤而起。剛開(kāi)始，他也有點(diǎn)猶豫，然后試著吃了一個(gè)字，且當(dāng)一試。

Next， he tried a whole sentence and then the whole page.

Yes， Henry definitely liked them. By Wednesday， he had eaten a whole book. And by the end of the month he could eat a whole book in one go.

接著，他試著吃了一個(gè)句子，然后吃了一整頁(yè)。這下試出來(lái)了，亨利是真的喜歡吃書(shū)呢！到了星期三，他吃完一整本書(shū)。到了月底，他一口氣就能吃掉一本書(shū)了。

Henry loved eating all sorts of books. Story books， dictionaries， atlases， joke books， books of facts， even math books. But red ones were his favorites. And he was going through them at fierce rate.

亨利什么書(shū)都喜歡吃。故事書(shū)、字典、地圖冊(cè)、笑話書(shū)、常識(shí)書(shū)，甚至數(shù)學(xué)書(shū)也喜歡。不過(guò)他最喜歡的還數(shù)紅顏色的書(shū)，而且能以超級(jí)快的速度吃完。

But here is the best bit： the more he ate， the smarter he got.

Before long he could do his father’s crossword in the newspaper， and was even smarter than his teacher in school.

Henry loved being smart. So he kept eating books… And he kept getting smarter…and smarter… and smarter.

吃書(shū)的最大好處是：吃得越多，他就越聰明。

前不久，他都會(huì)做父親報(bào)紙上的填字游戲了，甚至比學(xué)校里的老師還聰明。

亨利很喜歡自己能變得聰明。于是他不停地吃書(shū)，不停地變聰明，變得越來(lái)越聰明，越來(lái)越聰明。

But the thing started going not so well. Henry was eating too many books， and too quickly at that. He was beginning to feel a little ill.

But here is the worst bit. Everything he was learning was getting mixed up…h(huán)e didn’t have time to digest it properly. Suddenly Henry didn’t feel very smart at all.

不過(guò)，事情開(kāi)始向不太好的方向發(fā)展。亨利吃了太多書(shū)，而且吃得太快。他開(kāi)始覺(jué)得有點(diǎn)不舒服了。

最糟糕的是，由于沒(méi)有時(shí)間消化，他把學(xué)進(jìn)去的東西都搞混了……突然間，亨利再也不覺(jué)得自己聰明了。

More than one person told him he should stop eating books.

-No more book. Dad.

-Your HEAD and BELLY can’t cope. Doctor.

-Besides， it means no one else can enjoy them. A desperate book.

-You owe a total of…School principal.

So， Henry gave up eating books， and sat sadly for a long time. What was he to do？

不止一個(gè)人告訴他不能再吃書(shū)了。

爸爸說(shuō)：不許再吃書(shū)了。

醫(yī)生說(shuō)：你的腦子和肚子應(yīng)付不來(lái)呀！

一本絕望的書(shū)說(shuō)：還有，你吃掉書(shū)后，別人就不能看了呀！

校長(zhǎng)說(shuō)：你該還好多好多書(shū)……

于是，亨利不吃書(shū)了。他心情沮喪地坐了很久。他該怎么辦呢？

Then， after a while， and almost by accident， Henry picked up a half-eaten book from the floor. But instead of putting it in his mouth…Henry opened it up…and began to read.

然后，過(guò)了一會(huì)兒，就在不經(jīng)意間，亨利從地上拾起一本吃了一半的書(shū)。他沒(méi)有把書(shū)塞進(jìn)嘴里，而是打開(kāi)了它，開(kāi)始閱讀。

Henry discovered that he loved to read， and he thought that if he read enough he might still become the smartest person on Earth. It would just take a bit longer.

亨利發(fā)現(xiàn)他好喜歡閱讀。他覺(jué)得，只要讀的書(shū)夠多，他總會(huì)成為這世上最聰明的人的，只不過(guò)需要多一點(diǎn)時(shí)間。