评论
打印
Evan Thomas, the best-selling biographer of Robert F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower and the author of a half-dozen other books, has seen those books reviewed over the years by The New Yorker, The Washington Post and The Atlantic. But with the recent publication of his latest work, “Being Nixon: A Man Divided,” he experienced for the first time a new phenomenon: the Bill Gates bump.
埃文·托马斯(Evan Thomas)是罗伯特·F·肯尼迪(Robert F. Kennedy)与德怀特·D·艾森豪威尔(Dwight D. Eisenhower)畅销传记的作者，另外还著有五六本其他书籍，都曾登上《纽约客》(The New Yorker)、《华盛顿邮报》(The Washington Post)和《大西洋月刊》(The Atlantic)的书评版面。但是这一次，他的新作《身为尼克松：一个分裂的男人》(Being Nixon: A Man Divided)却遇到了新鲜事：比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)冲击波。
Just before Christmas, Mr. Thomas learned that his book had been favorably reviewed by Mr. Gates on his blog, Gates Notes.
圣诞节前，托马斯得知，盖茨在自己的博客Gates Notes上夸奖了这本书。
“I’m surprised by the number of biographies I read that paint their subjects in black-and-white terms,” Mr. Gates wrote. “A classic example is former U.S. president Richard Nixon, who is too often portrayed as little more than a crook and a warmonger. So it was refreshing to see a more balanced account in ‘Being Nixon,’ by author and journalist Evan Thomas.” The review was illustrated by a photograph of the book on a desk adorned with objects from the Nixon era, like a rotary phone.
“我读过的传记里，很多作者都把自己笔下的主人公写成黑白分明的角色，这真让我吃惊，”盖茨写道，“一个典型的例子就是美国总统理查德·尼克松，他经常被描绘成骗子和好战分子。所以作家兼记者埃文·托马斯的《身为尼克松》里不偏不倚的描写真是让人耳目一新。”评论还配有照片，照片上这本书被放在书桌上，旁边点缀着尼克松时代的物品，诸如拨盘电话之类。
Mr. Thomas was taken by surprise. “I’ve never met Bill Gates,” he said. “I had no idea he had a books blog.”
托马斯大吃一惊。“我从来没见过比尔·盖茨，”他说。“我根本不知道他还有个读书博客。”
“I was thrilled because he has a lot of reach,” Mr. Thomas said, adding that sales of the book jumped soon after that review was posted. “I can tell the blog is well read because I heard from all sorts of random people.”
“我很兴奋，因为他影响的范围很广，”托马斯说。他还补充道，这篇书评发表之后，该书的销量马上节节攀升。“我敢说，有很多人都看到了这篇博客，因为各种各样不同的人都来跟我说这件事。”
For years, Mr. Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft who now focuses on the philanthropic work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, had been scribbling notes in the margins of books he was reading and then emailing recommendations to friends and colleagues.
盖茨是微软公司的联合创始人，目前专注于比尔及梅林达·盖茨基金会(Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)的慈善工作，多年来，他一直都喜欢边读书，边在书页空白处随手做些笔记，还喜欢发电子邮件向朋友和同事们荐书。
Then he began to post these recommendations and critiques on the blog. “A few years ago I started thinking it would be fun to share some of these notes with the public,” Mr. Gates wrote in a recent email interview. “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.”
后来，他开始把这些推荐和批评贴在自己的博客上。“几年前，我觉得和公众分享一下这些笔记可能会很有意思，”盖茨在近期接受电子邮件采访时写道。“我一直喜欢阅读和学习，所以，如果有人看到一篇书评，就愿意去阅读，并且在网上和朋友们分享自己的想法，这不是很棒吗。”
Mr. Gates says he reads about 50 books in a year, eschewing digital readers for old-fashioned books on paper. When he is busy with work, he reads about a book or two a week but will consume four or five in the same period while vacationing with family.
盖茨说，自己每年都要读大约50本书，他不用数字阅读工具，还是选择老式的实体书。忙于工作的时候，他每周读一两本书，但是和家人在一起休假时每星期都要读四五本。
He has loved reading since boyhood. “I did things like reading the encyclopedia for fun,” he said, “and I was lucky in that my parents would buy me any book I wanted.”
他从小就喜欢读书。“我会读百科全书，因为觉得很有意思，”他说，“很幸运，我想要什么书父母都会给我买。”
The books section is one of a handful on Mr. Gates’s blog. He also writes on his philanthropic work and his foundation’s endeavors in health care, education and the like. The blog is filled with personal touches like a slide show of him with his friend Warren Buffett (including one of Mr. Buffett doing push-ups at Mr. Gates’s 50th birthday celebration) and an ode to his father to mark his father’s 90th birthday. But his book reviews tend to generate the most attention.
读书并不是是盖茨博客的唯一内容。他还会写些自己的慈善工作，以及自己的基金会在健康、教育等方面所做的努力。他的博客充满个人色彩，比如他和朋友沃伦·巴菲特(Warren Buffett)在一起时的照片的幻灯秀（其中包括巴菲特在盖茨50岁生日会上做俯卧撑的照片）；还有为庆祝他父亲90岁生日所献上的一篇赞歌。但他的书评是最引人瞩目的。
On Gates Notes, he often recommends books that have a bend toward science and public health. This year, he read, and liked, “Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World,” by Mark Miodownik; “On Immunity: An Inoculation,” by Eula Biss; and “Should We Eat Meat? Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory,” by Vaclav Smil, to name a few.
在盖茨的笔记里，他经常推荐与科学和公共健康有关的书籍。今年，他喜欢的书包括马克·米奥多尼克(Mark Miodownik)的《重要的东西：探索人造世界中的各种原材料》(Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World)、尤拉·比斯(Eula Biss)的《免疫：一种预防》(On Immunity: An Inoculation)，以及瓦克拉夫·斯米尔(Vaclav Smil)的《我们应当吃肉吗？现代肉食者的演化与后果》(Should We Eat Meat? Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory)，等等。
Last month, he published a short list and accompanying video of his favorite books read in 2015. (His reviews are not necessarily for books published within the calendar year.) The list included Mr. Thomas’s Nixon biography; “Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever?” by Nancy Leys Stepan; and “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” by Carol S. Dweck. (“‘Mindset’ first came to my attention a few years ago,” Mr. Gates wrote, “in a fascinating invention session on education with my friend Nathan Myhrvold.”)
上个月，他发表了一份配有视频的短名单，上面是自己2015年喜爱的书籍（他的书评不局限在2015年出版的书中）。其中包括了托马斯的尼克松传记、南希·雷斯·斯蒂潘(Nancy Leys Stepan)的《根除：这个世界上的疾病能永远消失吗？》(Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever?” )，以及卡罗尔·S·德维克(Caro S. Dweck)的《思维模式：新成功心理学》(Mindset: The New Psychology of Success)。盖茨写道，“几年前，我和朋友内森·梅尔沃德( Nathan Myhrvold)一起接受一次精彩的创意教育培训时就注意到了《思维模式》这本书。”
On the best-of list, he also included, “Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words,” by Randall Munroe, the graphic writer and cartoonist who created the blog XKCD.
在这份最佳书目名单中还有图文书作家与卡通画家，博客“XKCD”的创建者兰道尔·门罗(Randall Munroe)的《解释者：用简单的话说清复杂的事物》(Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words)。
Earlier in the year, Mr. Gates lavished praise on an earlier book of Mr. Munroe’s: “What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.” “My guess is that you haven’t spent a whole lot of time wondering what would happen if you pitched a baseball at 90 percent of the speed of light,” he wrote. “I haven’t either. But that’s O.K., because Randall Munroe has figured it out and explained it really clearly in his book ‘What If?’”
今年年初，盖茨高度赞美了门罗的早期作品《那又会怎样？对荒诞假设问题的严肃科学回答》(Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words)。“我猜你不会花很多时间去思考‘如果以光速的90%投出一只棒球会怎样？’这样的问题，”他写道，“我也没想过。不过这没关系，兰道尔·门罗想了，还在他的《那又会怎样？》这本书里做了清晰的解释。”
Mr. Munroe first learned that Mr. Gates had read and enjoyed his book when a relative sent him a screen shot of a photograph showing Mr. Gates reading his book. “I stared at it for a while,” Mr. Munroe said in a phone interview. “It didn’t really register. I didn’t know what to do.”
一个亲戚给门罗发了一张屏幕截图，是盖茨读他的书的照片，门罗这才知道盖茨喜欢自己的书。“我盯着这张图盯了好一会儿，”门罗在接受电话采访时说。“这不像真的。我不知道该怎么办才好。”
Mr. Gates said in the interview that he tries to fill his reviews with bits of information he hopes people will consider, even if they don’t end up reading the book. “I read textbooks related to global health but they are pretty technical for a general audience, so I generally don’t review them,” he said. “I make an exception for things like ‘Sustainable Materials: With Both Eyes Open,’ where the authors’ conclusions are important, and they help clarify some important basic facts. I like to share what I learn from books like that because I know most people won’t read the whole thing but some will read an 800-word review of it.”
盖茨在采访中说，他尽量在书评里多放他希望人们思考的信息，就算人们最后不会去读这本书也好。“我读和全球健康问题有关的教材，但是它们对于一般读者来说技术性太强了，所以我一般不推荐这样的书，”他说。“但是也有例外，比如《可持续材料：双眼睁大》(Sustainable Materials: With Both Eyes Open)，作者们的结论非常重要，他们还澄清了一些重要的基本事实。我希望分享自己从这样的书里学到的东西，因为我知道，大多数人不会读完一整本书，但是有些人会读完一篇800字的书评。”
He also shares some unexpected titles. Of Allie Brosh’s memoir, “Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened,” Mr. Gates wrote: “You will rip through it in three hours, tops. But you’ll wish it went on longer, because it’s funny and smart as hell. I must have interrupted Melinda a dozen times to read to her passages that made me laugh out loud.”
他还会分享一些出人意料的题材。比如艾丽·布罗什(Allie Brosh)的回忆录《夸张与一半：不幸的状况、对机制、骚乱与其他事情有缺陷的处理》(Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened)，盖茨写道：“这本书顶多花三个小时就能读完，但你会希望它能更长一点儿，因为它实在太聪明，太有趣了。读这本书的时候我起码打断了梅林达十几次，给她念能让我大笑起来的段落。”
Of the novel “The Rosie Project,” by Graeme Simsion, Mr. Gates wrote: “I started it myself at 11 p.m. one Saturday and stayed up with it until 3 the next morning. Anyone who occasionally gets overly logical will identify with the hero, a genetics professor with Asperger’s syndrome who goes looking for a wife. (Melinda thought I would appreciate the parts where he’s a little too obsessed with optimizing his schedule. She was right.)”
至于格拉伊姆·西姆森(Graeme Simsion)的小说《罗西方案》(The Rosie Project)，盖茨写道：“星期六晚上11点，我开始读这本书，一口气读到凌晨三点。偶尔有过度逻辑化倾向的人都会对主角产生认同，他是个患有阿斯伯格征的基因学教授，在寻找一个妻子（梅林达觉得我会特别喜欢这部分，因为他有点过于沉迷优化自己的方案。她是对的）。”
He rarely posts negative reviews of books, explaining that he sees no need to waste anyone’s time telling them why they shouldn’t bother reading something. He doesn’t spare himself, though. “I have a habit, which I don’t recommend, of finishing essentially every book I start,” he said. “And if I disagree with a book I spend lots of time writing notes in the margins. Perversely, this means that the more I dislike a book, the longer I spend reading it.”
他很少发表对什么书的差评，他说，这是因为他觉得没必要浪费时间告诉人们为什么不应该读什么。不过他对自己并不宽容。“我有个习惯，不过我并不推荐，那就是一本书一开头一定要读完，”他说。“如果我不同意这本书的观点，我会花很多时间在书边写笔记。变态的是，这意味着我愈是不喜欢一本书，就会花费愈长的时间去读它。”
As publishers have become more aware of Mr. Gates’s reviews — missing the publicity they used to get from Oprah Winfrey’s televised book club or from the regular author appearances on “The Colbert Report,” which have been less frequent since Stephen Colbert moved to CBS from Comedy Central — they have tried to figure out how to get their new books in front of him.
现在没有了奥普拉·温弗瑞(Oprah Winfrey)的电视读书俱乐部；随着史蒂芬·科尔伯特(Stephen Colbert)离开CBS，转投Comedy Central台，“科尔伯特报告”(The Colbert Report)中原本是固定的作家访谈节目也愈来愈少，出版社的曝光机会减少了，他们开始日益关注盖茨的书评，想知道怎么才能让他读到自家出版的新书。
Stephanie Kim, a publicist for Mr. Munroe’s publisher, hustled her way into a connection with someone on Mr. Gates’s team only to be told, “‘We don’t have any say over what Bill chooses,’” she said “‘We just leave it on his desk and he reads what he wants to read.’” Ms. Kim lucked out.
门罗的出版社的公关人员史蒂芬妮·基姆(Stephanie Kim)想尽办法和盖茨团队里的某人建立了联系，只被告知，“我们对比尔的选择完全没有发言权，”她说，“‘我们只能把书放在他桌上，然后他想读什么就读什么。’”基姆的运气不错。
Mr. Gates’s reading selections are influenced by his wife, his work and the experiences that move him. “Someone at the foundation recently recommended ‘The Vital Question,’ by Nick Lane,” he said, “which is about mitochondria and the origins of life on Earth. It was so good that as soon as I finished it, I ordered all of Lane’s other books.”
盖茨选书受妻子影响，工作和其他经历也会影响他。“最近基金会里有人推荐我读尼克·莱恩(Nick Lane)的《生死攸关的问题》(The Vital Question)，”他说，“这是关于线粒体与地球上生命的来源的。它太精彩了，一读完我就下单买了莱恩写的所有书。”
“This is one of the things I love about reading,” Mr. Gates said. “Each book opens up new avenues of knowledge to explore.”
“这就是我热爱阅读的原因之一，”盖茨说，“每本书都会开启一条条通往探索新知的大道。”
