completely immersed in the needs and passivities fostered by a culture in which sales are everything.”

托马斯·默顿(1915 - 1968),美国和尚,牧师和作家,曾被记者问一系列的七个问题:名字最后三本书你读过,你现在正在读的三本书,你想读的书,这些书影响了你,为什么,每个人都应该读的书,为什么。在影响他的书籍中，他引用了威廉·布莱克的诗歌作品，古希腊思想家和作家的各种戏剧，以及一些宗教著作。当被问及为什么这些书对他产生了影响时，他回答说，“这些书和其他类似的书让我摆脱了一种完全沉浸于需求和被动的生活的混乱和无意义，在这种文化中，销售就是一切。”

So how would you answer the questions?

那么你怎么回答这些问题呢?

In 1947, Clifton Fadiman coined the term home-run book. When a baseball player hits a home run, he hits the ball so hard and so far he’s able to run round the four bases of the diamond, and score points not only for himself but for the other runners already on a base. It’s the most enjoyable and satisfying event in a baseball game. Likewise, a home-run book describes not the child’s first reading experience, but the first time they read a book which induces such pleasure and satisfaction that they can’t put it down. For hundreds of millions of children around the world, the best known example of a home-run book will be the Harry Potter stories.

1947年，克利夫顿·法德曼创造了“本垒打书”这个词。当一个棒球运动员击出本垒打时，他击出的球是如此的用力，以至于他能够绕着菱形的四个垒跑，不仅为他自己也为已经在垒上的其他跑者得分。这是棒球比赛中最令人愉快和满意的事情。同样地，一本本垒打的书描述的不是孩子第一次阅读的经历，而是他们第一次读到一本书时的喜悦和满足，使他们爱不释手。对于全球数亿儿童而言，《哈利·波特》(Harry Potter)系列小说将是最著名的全垒打图书。

As adults, we’re always looking for our own home-run books, not just for the first time, but time after time again. Anyone who has ever read a novel in one sitting will always remember the

pleasure and satisfaction which await them, and eagerly, insistently, sometimes even desperately seeks to reproduce the marvelous sensation again. We cannot withstand the hunger to visit another world, to meet different people, to live other lives and to reflect on ourselves.

作为成年人，我们总是在寻找自己的本垒打书籍，不仅仅是第一次，而是一次又一次。任何曾经一口气读完一本小说的人都会永远记得等待着他们的快乐和满足，会急切地、坚持地、有时甚至是绝望地再次寻求这种奇妙的感觉。我们无法忍受渴望去另一个世界，去见不同的人，去过别人的生活，去反思自己。

Danger! Books may change your life. Such is the power of reading.

危险!书可以改变你的生活。这就是阅读的力量。

Unit 2 Active reading (2) / P33 They were alive and they spoke to me

I sit in a little room, one wall of which is now completely lined with books. It is the first time I have had the leisure of working with anything like a collection of books. There are probably no more than 500 in all, but for the most part they represent my own choice. It is the first time, since I began my writing career, that I am surrounded with a goodly number of the books I have always longed to process. The fact, however, that in the past I did most of my work without the aid of a library I look upon as an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

我坐在一个小房间里，其中一面墙现在已经完全摆满了书。这是我第一次有时间整理像藏书这样的东西。可能总共不超过500个，但在很大程度上它们代表了我自己的选择。自从我开始写作生涯以来，这是我第一次被一大堆我一直渴望处理的书包围着。然而，事实上，在过去，我的大部分工作都是在没有图书馆的帮助下完成的，我认为这是一种优势而不是劣势。

One of the first things I associate with the reading of books is the struggle I waged to obtain them.

Not to own them, mind you, but to lay hands on them. From the moment the passion took hold of me I encountered nothing but obstacles. The books I wanted, at the public library, were always out. And of course I never had the money to buy them. To get permission from the library in my neighborhood – I was 18 or 19 years of age – to borrow such a “demoralizing” work as The Confession of a Fool, by Strindberg, was just impossible. In those days the books which young people were prohibited from reading were decorated with stars – one, two or three – according to the degree of immorality attributed to them. I suspect this procedure still obtains. I hope so, for I know of nothing better calculated to whet one’s appetite than this stupid sort of classification and prohibition.

我与阅读联系在一起的第一件事就是为了获得它们而进行的斗争。你要知道，不是要占有它们，而是要亲手得到它们。从激情占据我的那一刻起，我遇到的只是障碍。我想要的书，在公共图书馆，总是出书。当然，我从来没有钱买它们。在我18、19岁的时候，我从附近的图书馆借了一本《傻瓜自白》这样一本“道德败坏”的书，这简直是不可能的事。在那些日子里，年轻人被禁止阅读的书籍都装饰着星星——一颗、两颗或三颗——根据他们被认为不道德的程度而定。我怀疑这个程序仍然有效。我希望如此，因为我不知道还有什么比这种愚蠢的分类和禁止更能激起人的食欲的了。

What makes a book live? How often this question arises! The answer, in my opinion, is simple. A book lives through the passionate recommendation of one reader to another. Nothing can throttle this basic impulse in the human being. Despite the views of cynics and misanthropes, it is my belief that men will always strive to share their deepest experiences.

是什么让一本书充满活力?这个问题经常出现!在我看来，答案很简单。一本书是通过一个读者热情地向另一个读者推荐而存在的。没有任何东西可以抑制人的这种基本冲动。尽管有愤世嫉俗者和厌世者的观点，我相信男人总是会努力分享他们最深刻的经历。

Books are one of the few things men cherish deeply. And the better the man the more easily will he part with his most cherished possessions. A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum – of

both books and money. A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.

书籍是人们珍爱的为数不多的东西之一。一个人越优秀，就越容易放弃他最宝贵的财产。搁在书架上的书是浪费弹药。像货币一样，书籍必须不断流通。借出和借到最大限度——包括书和钱。一本书不仅是一个朋友，它为你结交朋友。当你拥有了一本有思想和精神的书，你就充实了。但当你把它传递下去时，你的财富就增加了三倍。

Here an irrepressible impulse seizes me to offer a piece of gratuitous advice. It is this: Read as little as possible, not as much as possible! Oh, do not doubt that I have envied those who have drowned in books. I, too, would secretly like to wade through all those books I have so long toyed with in my mind. But I know it is not important. I know now that I did not need to read even a tenth of what I have read. The most difficult thing in life to learn to do only what is strictly advantageous to one’s welfare, strictly vital.

在这里，我有一种无法抑制的冲动，想提出一条毫无道理的忠告。它是这样的:尽可能少读，而不是尽可能多读!哦，不要怀疑我羡慕那些埋头书本的人。我也偷偷地想要读完我心中摆弄了很久的那些书。但我知道这并不重要。我现在知道，我读过的书，连十分之一都不需要读。人生中最困难的事，就是学会只做对自己有利的事，绝对重要的事。

There is an excellent way to test this precious bit of advice I have not given rashly. When you stumble upon a book you would like to read, or think you ought to read, leave it alone for a few days. But think about it as intensely as you can. Let the title and the author’s name revolve in your mind. Think what you yourself earnestly if it be absolutely necessary to add this work to your store of knowledge or your fund of enjoyment. Try to imagine what it would mean to forego this extra pleasure or enlightenment. Then, if you find you must read the book, observe with what extraordinary acumen you tackle it. Observe, too, that however stimulating it may be, very little of the book is really new to you. If you are honest with yourself you will discover that your stature has increased from the mere effort of resisting your impulses.