English Original
Abraham Lincoln became a voracious reader. He read every book and newspaper he could find. To remember important passages, he copied them onto wooden shingles due to a scarcity of paper, memorizing them or saving the shingles for later transcription.
His father disapproved, fearing reading would "spoil him for work." However, Abraham completed more chores than his father, and his stepmother defended his right to read at home. She recalled, "We would just let him read on and on till he quit of his own accord."
Lincoln maintained scrapbooks on shingles and paper, collecting poetry, history, witty sayings, and fine passages. He even had one for arithmetic, which survives with a boyish rhyme scrawled beneath a weights and measures table.
With lamps and candles scarce, he often read, wrote, and did sums by flickering firelight, lying on his stomach before the large hearth. His cousin, John Hanks, remembered that after a day of barefoot labor, Abraham would take a piece of corn bread, sit with his long legs propped up, and "read, and read, and read" whenever he had a chance.
Once, he borrowed a famous book, Weems's "Life of Washington," from a neighbor, Mr. Crawford. He stored it on a shelf, but it fell through a crack in the wall during a rainstorm and was soaked into near pulp. The cranky Mr. Crawford demanded that Abraham "work the book out." The boy agreed and paid for the damaged book by pulling fodder for the cattle for three days. Thus, Abraham Lincoln purchased his first book.
中文翻译
亚伯拉罕·林肯成了一名如饥似渴的阅读者。他阅读能找到的每一本书和每一份报纸。为了记住重要的段落，由于纸张稀缺，他把它们抄写在木制墙面板上，要么背下来，要么把木板留待日后誊写。
他的父亲并不赞成，担心阅读会“让他干不了活”。然而，亚伯拉罕干的杂活比父亲还多，他的继母也维护他在家阅读的权利。她回忆说：“我们就让他一直读啊读，直到他自己停下来。”
林肯在墙面板和纸张上保存着剪贴簿，收集诗歌、历史、妙语和优美的段落。他甚至有一本用于算术的剪贴簿，至今仍存留着，在一张度量衡表下面涂鸦着一首稚气的押韵诗。
由于灯和蜡烛都很稀缺，他常常趴在巨大的壁炉前，借着闪烁的炉火光阅读、写作和计算。他的表兄约翰·汉克斯回忆说，在一天赤脚劳作之后，亚伯拉罕会拿一块玉米面包，坐下来把长腿翘得比头还高，一有机会就“读啊，读啊，读啊”。
有一次，他从邻居克劳福德先生那里借了一本名著——威姆斯的《华盛顿生平》。他把书放在一个架子上，但一场暴雨中，书从墙板的裂缝掉了进去，几乎被泡成了纸浆。脾气暴躁的克劳福德先生要求亚伯拉罕“用干活来抵偿这本书”。男孩同意了，并为这本损坏的书付出了代价——为牛群拉饲料干了三天活。就这样，亚伯拉罕·林肯买下了他的第一本书。