I moved to Tucson in August 1994 and the first week I got here, or maybe the first day, I started looking for bookstores. First one I found was a place called the Book Mark on Speedway. It screwed up my life. I walked in and saw a display of local authors, new releases, this sort of thing, and then the clerk, Gloria Chivers, came over and said, “Have you ever heard of Chuck Bowden?” I had heard his name before, in conjunction with Edward Abbey, when I was living in Seattle. I had read everything by Edward Abbey, but never anything by Bowden. I’d never even seen any of his books in the Seattle area, where there are lots of bookstores. Gloria said, “Here. Try this.” So the first book I read was Blue Desert, and then it was Mezcal. She had copies of Red Line and Desierto, but Blood Orchid wasn’t out yet. So, that was my introduction to Chuck. I read Blue Desert and I liked it. Blue Desert was pretty mild. This was before the Blood Orchid thing. That was something a little different. Then Chuck had a book signing at the Book Mark for Blood Orchid. I brought him a bottle of wine, which is hilarious, because we set the bottle of wine down and it got tipped over and soaked the whole stack of books. The bookstore lost, because they threw these drenched burgundy-colored books away. He got a little tipsy. I read it the day it came out. I went and Gloria was opening the boxes. She was slicing one open and I said, “Here, give me that.” And I went over on my patio in midtown, got a beer, and sat there and read the whole book. I said, “I don’t know if I like this. I don’t know.” I had to read it, but there was something disturbing. At the signing, I told Chuck, “Something disturbs me about this book.” His line was, “There’s no big words in there.” That was his joke.

中文翻译：

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一个书商记得查尔斯·鲍登

我于 1994 年 8 月搬到图森，在我到这里的第一周，或者也许是第一天，我开始寻找书店。我发现的第一个地方是 Speedway 上一个叫做 Book Mark 的地方。它搞砸了我的生活。我走进去，看到了本地作者、新作品的展示，诸如此类的东西，然后店员 Gloria Chivers 走过来说：“你听说过 Chuck Bowden 吗？” 当我住在西雅图时，我和爱德华修道院一起听说过他的名字。我读过爱德华修道院的所有作品，但从未读过鲍登的任何作品。我什至在西雅图地区从未见过他的任何书，那里有很多书店。格洛丽亚说：“在这里。试试这个。” 所以我读的第一本书是蓝色沙漠，然后是梅斯卡尔。她有《红线》和《Desierto》的副本，但《血兰花》还没有出。所以，这就是我对查克的介绍。我读了蓝色沙漠，我喜欢它。蓝色沙漠非常温和。这是在血兰花之前。那有点不同。然后查克在血兰花的书签上签了名。我给他带来了一瓶酒，这很有趣，因为我们把酒瓶放下，它翻倒了，把整叠书都浸湿了。书店输了，因为他们把这些湿透的酒红色书扔掉了。他有点醉了。我在它出来的那天读了它。我去了，格洛丽亚正在打开盒子。她正在切开一个，我说：“给我吧。” 我走到市中心的露台上，喝了一杯啤酒，然后坐在那里读了整本书。我说：“我不知道我是否喜欢这个。我不知道。” 我不得不阅读它，但有一些令人不安的东西。在签字时，我告诉查克，“这本书让我有些不安。” 他的台词是，“里面没有大词。” 那是他的笑话。