比爾·蓋茨如何選出他的年度最佳書籍清單
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has emerged as a force in the publishing industry, thanks to the book reviews he posts on his blog, Gates Notes. Mr. Gates, who says he reads about 50 books a year, discussed his love of reading, how he makes his selections and what book Warren Buffett recommended. Below are excerpts from a recent email interview.
微軟公司的聯合創始人比爾·蓋茨(Bill Gates)因爲在自己的博客Gates Notes上發表書評，成了出版界一股新力量。蓋茨先生說自己每年大約讀50本書，他在這裏談了自己對閱讀的愛好，如何選擇書籍，沃倫·巴菲特(Warren Buffett)推薦他讀了什麼書。下面是最近的一次電子郵件採訪節選。
What role does reading play in your life?
問：閱讀在你的生活中扮演什麼樣的角色？
It is one of the chief ways that I learn, and has been since I was a kid. These days, I also get to visit interesting places, meet with scientists and watch a lot of lectures online. But reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding.
答：它是我最主要的學習方式之一，從我小時候就是這樣了。這些日子以來，我也去拜訪有趣的地方、同科學家會面，在網上看很多講座。但閱讀仍然是我學習新鮮事物與測試自己理解力的重要方式。
For example, this year I enjoyed Richard Dawkins’s “The Magic of Reality,” which explains various scientific ideas and is aimed at teenagers. Although I already understood all the concepts, Dawkins helped me think about the topics in new ways. If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t really understand it.
比如說，今年我很喜歡理查德·道金斯(Richard Dawkins)的《真相的魔力》(The Magic of Reality)，它解釋了各種科學概念，目標讀者是青少年。儘管那些概念我都理解，道金斯還是能夠幫助我以新的方式思考這些話題。如果你無法簡單明瞭地解釋某種東西，你就沒有真正理解它。
What made you decide to start the books blog and write reviews?
問：你爲什麼決定開始寫薦書博客和書評呢？
I have always loved reading and learning, so it is great if people see a book review and feel encouraged to read and share what they think online or with their friends.
答：我一直都喜歡閱讀和學習，所以如果人們看到一篇書評，於是就去讀這本書，並且在網上，或者與朋友們分享自己的想法，這會是很棒的一件事。
It also helps to have a platform for talking about the work I’m doing, both through the foundation and separate from it, because I find people are curious about it.
另外，有一個平臺來講一講我手頭在做的工作也很好，不管是不是基金會的事，因爲我發現人們對此很感興趣。
How do you choose the books you read? Recommendations from family/friends/media?
問：你怎樣選擇要讀什麼書呢？是通過家人、朋友或媒體的推薦嗎？
It’s a mix of things. Melinda and I will sometimes exchange books we like. I also get recommendations from friends. After I finish something great, I will often try to find other books by that author or similar ones on the same subject.
答：各種因素都有。梅林達(Melinda)和我有時候交換自己喜歡的書。朋友們也向我推薦書。我讀完一本好書，也經常會去找這個作者的其他著作，或是類似題材的其他書籍。
Earlier this year Melinda and I saw the musical “Hamilton,” which inspired me to read Ron Chernow’s biography.
今年年初，我和梅林達看了音樂劇《漢密爾頓》(Hamilton)，所以我就去讀了洛恩·徹諾(Ron Chernow)的這本漢密爾頓傳記。
What was the process of selecting the books for the best-of-the-year list? Any tough choices?
問：你是怎麼選擇你的年度最佳書籍清單的？有沒有難以取捨的情況？
I didn’t set out to do this intentionally, but when I looked back at the books I read this year, I realized that a lot of them touch on the theme “how things work.”
答：我不是有意這麼做的，但回憶今年讀過的書，我發現很多都與“事物如何運行”這個主題有關。
Some, like Randall Munroe’s “Thing Explainer,” are written exactly for that reason. He uses diagrams paired with the most common 1,000 words in the English language to explain complicated ideas.
有些書，比如蘭道爾·門羅(Randall Munroe)的《解釋者》(Thing Explainer)就是完全爲這個目的而寫的。他使用圖表，配上最普通的1000來個英文單詞，去解釋複雜的概念。
Other books on my list offer insights into human beings, our values, our strengths and flaws.
我的最佳名單裏的其他書籍還提供了對人類自身、我們的價值觀、我們的優點與弱點的觀察。
Is there one book that was an unexpected choice for you that you unexpectedly loved?
問：有沒有什麼書對你來說是意外之選，你本來沒想到自己會喜歡上它。
One of the main reasons I started my blog was to share thoughts about what I’m reading. So it is nice to see people sharing their own reactions and recommendations in the comments section of the site.
答：我開這個博客的主要原因之一就是希望分享自己的閱讀心得。所以看到別人在網站評論裏分享他們的反饋和推薦是非常愉快的事情。
One book that was especially fun to highlight was “Business Adventures,” by John Brooks. This is the first book Warren Buffett recommended to me after we met in 1991, and it is still the best business book I have ever read. Brooks deserves to be much better known than he is.
約翰·布魯克斯(John Brooks)的《商業冒險》(Business Adventures)是一本特別有意思的書。我和沃倫·巴菲特是1991年認識的，這是他推薦給我的第一本書，到現在仍然是我讀過的最好的商業書籍。布魯克斯配得上比現在更響亮的名氣。
Although he wrote in the 1960s, the issues he talks about are still relevant today. “Business Adventures” went out of print decades ago and Brooks died in 1993, but his family was nice enough to let me post one chapter called “Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox” on my blog.
儘管他創作的時期是20世紀60年代，但他討論的話題在今天仍然很重要。《商業冒險》幾十年前就已經絕版了，布魯克斯也於1993年去世，但他的家人很慷慨，允許我在自己的博客上貼出了書中的一章，名爲“複印，複印，複印，複印”。
I don’t read a lot of fiction but was surprised by how much I loved the novel “The Rosie Project,” by Graeme Simsion. Melinda read it first and kept stopping to recite parts of it out loud to me. Eventually, I decided to take a look.
我沒有讀過很多虛構文學，但是卻喜歡上了格拉伊姆·西姆森(Graeme Simsion)的小說《羅西方案》(The Rosie Project)，讓我自己也很吃驚。這本書是梅林達先讀的，她不斷停下來給我讀裏面的章節。最後我也決定看一看。
I started it one night at 11 p.m. and stayed up with it until 3 a.m. It is very funny, while also showing a lot of empathy for people who struggle in social situations.
我是夜裏11點開始讀的，一直讀到凌晨三點。它非常有意思，也對那些拼命應付社交場合的人表現出了許多共情心。
After I sent it and the sequel (“The Rosie Effect”) to dozens of friends and wrote about it on my blog, I heard from a lot of people who were touched by it. There is talk of turning it into a movie, which I hope happens. Rosie and Don Tillman would make a great on-screen couple.
後來我把這本書和它的續集《羅西效應》(The Rosie Effect)拿給幾十個朋友讀，還在博客上寫了書評，然後很多人都說他們讀過之後受到了感動。聽說有人想把它拍成電影，我很希望這能實現。羅西和堂·迪爾曼(Don Tillman)肯定能成爲不錯的銀幕情侶。
I like highlighting the work of Vaclav Smil. He has written more than 30 books, and I have read them all. He takes on huge topics like energy or transportation and gives them a thorough examination.
我還想強調一下瓦克拉夫·斯米爾(Vaclav Smil)的著作。他寫的30多本書我全都讀過。他講述能源和交通之類重大題材，並且對之進行詳盡的闡釋。
Smil’s books are not for casual readers and I don’t agree with him on everything, but I like to feature his work because the world would be a better place if more people thought as rigorously and systematically as he does.
斯米爾的書不適合隨手翻閱的讀者，我也並不贊同他的所有觀點，但是我想特別提一下他的作品，因爲加入更多人都能像他這樣進行縝密而有系統的思考，世界就能變得更好。
