一份新年英文書單
在這一片祥和的過節氛圍中，小女一直在思考，本周的公眾號應該要走什麼路線。因為顯然，作為一個無業游民，結束了昆明的年會同傳之後，做會已經是過去過去時和未來未來將來時。
大凡新年伊始，大家可能都會立下很多new year resolution。估計讀書和學英語也是其中命中率最高的兩項，辣么，就讀一本英文書好了。於是本人決定推薦一下英文書單。
遵循的標準是：非虛構、語言易懂、篇幅適中、可讀性強。不過可能會帶有比較強的個人偏好。
不推薦虛構類書籍的原因是，英文原版小說用的詞都很高深，至少我瀏覽過的都是，不是文法高級的那種高深，而是用很多我們平時不會經常用的辭彙，頻率多到影響理解故事情節的理解。哪怕是Flipped、暮光之城這類暢銷書也有點多。也翻過傲慢與偏見（Pride&Prejudice）、霍亂時期的愛情（Love in the Time of Cholera）等，都覺得好難啊。反而是非虛構，能讀得下去，因為比較容易找到共鳴。
以下排名不分先後，供君參考，博君一笑。（本文所有圖片均來自亞馬遜）
- 我看的第一本英文書是《窮爸爸富爸爸》Rich Dad, Poor Dad
難度基本上是這樣：
「There are times when I have given and nothing has come back, or what I have received is not what I wanted. But upon closer inspection, and soul searching, I was often giving to receive, instead of giving for the joy that giving itself brings.」
這一段其實是在說，好的商業應該做到的是真心給予，而不是功利性地交換。
我不認為這本書是商業指南和人生贏家指南，然而貌似很多人看了這本書之後都開始想要創業。
有一些關於資產Assets和負債Liability的基本劃分，是蠻好的個人理財入門讀物。
亞馬遜鏈接：What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!》 Robert T. Kiyosaki【摘要 書評 試讀】圖書
2. 第二本暢銷書是《高效能人士的七個習慣》
有一次推薦給朋友，還被罵你怎麼看著這種成功學讀物。。。額，因為，真的很實用啊。
有一次給Marshall Ganz做翻譯。他說，真正的leadership是需要heart＋mind＋hands都到位，才能夠促成大家的行動，實現積極的改變。這本書是講mind和hands的部分，通俗點說，是商業社會的技巧和規則，俗稱套路。你覺得套路重要嗎？我覺得挺重要的。Heart，或者是動機部分，往往是很複雜的，需要每個人好好問問自己，以及對自己誠實才能捋順。慢慢想清楚自己的心的同時，去學一點技能，是一件好事。
Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (25th Anniversary Edition)-Kindle商店-亞馬遜中國
3. 第三本開始感受到英文美的是《李娜自傳》Li Na: My Life
在上海書展看到的，原作是中文，經過譯者翻譯成外語。看的時候感覺可以學到很多很好的表達，尤其是中國特色的一些東西。可惜放假在家這本書不帶在身邊，沒有辦法給大家舉例子。摘一段簡介，可以見微知著：
「Outspoken and immensely likeable, Li Na is one of the world』s top ten players. In My Life, she tells her remarkable story of ups and downs with honesty and humour.
In 2008, Li Na left China』s national sports system under an experimental programme that enabled tennis players to 『fly solo 單飛』. In three short years, she won career-defining victory at the French Open. My Life follows Li Na from an austere childhood 出身貧寒 spent at a tennis academy to her emergence as the best tennis player Asia has ever produced. It is a both story marked by great personal tragedy in the form of the death of her beloved father, by intense self-doubt and multiple knee injuries and a story of the importance of hard work, of persistence and never giving up on your dreams. My Life also gives insight into the development of tennis in China. More than any other player, Li Na』s career parallels Chinese tennis』s growth from a little known and rarely played novelty to one of the most popular sports in the country.」
看完了以後更喜歡她了，因為她非常非常likable，很真實authentic。也覺得她很幸運可以遇到她老公。
亞馬遜：《Li Na:My Life》 LI Na【摘要 書評 試讀】圖書
4. 第四本讓我在地鐵上笑出聲音來的是《江城》River Town。社科類最愛，沒有之一。文字之雋永幽默、內涵之深刻，又抑或是我讀它的timing剛剛好，幫我認識到自己所處的這個國家、文化、人群的好與壞。那些moments讓我願意去付諸行動，而不再做一個旁觀者。
他教會讀者去擁抱生活的複雜：
「Now I realized that the simplicity had been a mirage. That was the way so many things in Fuling turned out --- complex and uncertain. To some degree it was just the difficulties of life anywhere in the world. Death, divorce, lies, abortion, expell, etc. Those things happened everywhere. But in Fuling it had taken me longer to see that side of life, because at first as a waiguoren I was held at a distance, and in a way that distance was hardest to deal with once it was gone. It was like looking at a blank meaningless smile and suddenly recognizing a lifetime of sadness concentrated int he corner. I hoped that the students would keep it somewhere int he back of their minds, and that they would find something steady and true in its simple beauty, this was the faith I had in literature: its truth was constant, unaffected b the struggles of daily life. Despite that, the people there would turn fine. Most of them were. They were tough, and sweet and funny and sad, and people that would always survive. It wasn』t necessarily gold, but perhaps because of that it would stay.」
他啟發讀者看到中國人和美國人的個人主義的差別，在於中國人往往缺少self-identity，而美國人則是創造一個community去服務於individualism。
「This same instinct led to the mobs that gathered around accident victims, staring passively but doing nothing to help. Crowds often formed in Fuling, but I rawly saw them act as a group motivated by any sort of moral sense. I had witnessed that far more often in individualistic America, where people wanted a community that served the individual, and as a result they sometimes looked at a victim and thought: I can image what that feels like, ands I will help. Certainly there is rubbernecking in America as well, but it was nothing compared to what I saw in Fuling, where the average citizen seemed to react to a person in trouble by thinking That is not my brother, or my friend, or anybody I know, and it is interesting to watch him suffer. When there were serious car accidents, people would rush over, shouting eagerly as they ran, 「Sile meiyou? Silemeiyou?」 - Is anybody dead? Is anybody dead? In the end, the divide between crowd and mob was extremely fragile in Fuling.
The longer I lived in Fuling, the more I was truck by the view of the individual - in my opinion, this was the biggest difference between what I had known in the West and what I saw in Sichuan. The sense of self seemed largely external; you are identified by the way that others viewed you. that had always been the goal of Confucianism, which defined the individual』s place strictly in relation to the people around her: a mother, a daughter, a wife. This was an excellent way to preserve social harmony, but once that harmony was broken the lack of self-identity made it difficult to put things back together again. Often it seemed that in China there was no internal compass that was able to withstand these events. There wasn』t a tradition of anchoring one』s identity to a fixed set of values regardless of what others thought, and in terrain periods this had contributed to the country』s disasters.」
他告訴讀者什麼是修養：
（他和一個小販吵架，出手打了他）「I was ashamed of what i had done. I was glad that the people on Gansuntang liked me enough to come to my defense, but I knew that I had been needlessly cruel and petty. The incident left me embarrassed; I had been educated at Princeton and Oxford, and yet for some reason I felt the need to face off with a Sichuanese shoeshine man until the locals said he had no culture. I knew that his harassment had nothing to do with me personally, and I knew that I should have sympathy for him, because his bitterness was the result of other pressures. But after a year and a half in Fuling I couldn』t push away the wave of hatred that I felt. I could remind myself who I was, and I could think about the advantages that I had received my whole life; but out on the street all of that slipped away. The strangeness and the pressures of life in a place like that were bound to change you, and something in side of me had stiffened long ago. In deed, I wasn』t certain that the man was entirely worong; perhaps the people in Fuling didn』t need this kind of waiguoren. but to some extent they had helped create him, and for better or worse we were struck together. 」
如此種種，simply fascinating，一生推。
5. 第五本讓我認識到，其實人與人之間並沒有那麼大的差別，deep down we are all connected的《工廠女孩》Factory Girls
這張照片在我手機裡面存了很長時間：
我在其中一個姑娘上看到太多自己的影子，甚至於她想做同傳的夢想也無出其右。我想我只是很幸運可以live my dream罷。
作者Leslie Cheung是江城Peter Hessler的太太。同樣的人文關懷，同樣的花好幾年時間去仔細聽一群人的故事，有點感動。她曾經在TED上做過演講，可以配合著一起看：
The voices of Chinas workers
《打工女孩:從鄉村到城市的變動中國》 張彤禾 (Leslie T.Chang), 張坤, 吳怡瑤【摘要 書評 試讀】圖書
River Town和Factory Girls我沒有在亞馬遜上搜到英文原版，感興趣的童鞋可以淘寶哈～
6. 第六本是大學時代，外教給我們推薦的一本很可愛的口袋書《芒果街上的小屋》 The House on Mango Street。
年代其實有些久遠了，甚至家裡也沒有紙質版，但是不知道為什麼這裡面的小主人公Esperanza一直留在我的腦海里。一個小女孩通過她清新的雙眸去看這個世界的時候寫下的小故事們。搜了搜亞馬遜，是這樣介紹的：「Esperanza』s story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will become.」於是有點想重溫一下。
亞馬遜：《The House on Mango Street》 桑德拉?希斯內羅絲 (Sandra Cisneros)【摘要 書評 試讀】圖書
7. 第七本是去有次上海公益新天地見到了TOMS創始人之後，被他的Charisma打動，入手的一本短小精悍但是很實用的社會企業創業小故事 Start Something that Matters
說他有Charisma個人魅力，其實只是因為一個細節——現場發言環節結束之後，觀眾提問，他對於社會企業創業有什麼建議之類的。Blake沒有立刻回答，而是沉思了一會說：「並不是因為我不知如何回答你的問題，我只是在回憶，有哪些經驗是我的書中沒有寫的。書你可以回家看，我想在現場說一些另外的經驗。」在觀眾席的我當時就想，我要看看這本書。
TOMS是鞋類品牌，顧客買一雙，他們就會捐一雙給貧困兒童，是買一捐一模式較為成功的典範，源於創始人Blake一次旅行看到當地孩子沒有鞋子穿的經歷。雖然TOMS背後也有很多爭議，但是不管怎樣，能實現一個idea，已經不易。
《Start Something That Matters》 Blake Mycoskie【摘要 書評 試讀】圖書
8. 第八本是終於促使我去行動和改變，而不是執著於自己內心「公益慈善的高冷夢想」（友人語。。。）的《藍毛衣》the Blue Sweater
作者辭去華爾街基金的工作，去盧安達為當地婦女做小額貸款項目。最終成立了Acumen Fund，這一路的經歷、思考和實踐，很有力量也很感人。
語言難度大概是這樣：
「Business was fundamental to building systems for a change. I have to learn the skills I needed to change the world. Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic.」
「Money is freedom and confidence and choice. And choice is dignity.」
「I know myself well enough that I could inspire people and help create a dream, but I need the assistance of a professional manager to build an organization that would sustain our collective vision.」
因為這本書，更理解了專註、堅持和努力的重要性，而不再去憤世嫉俗地執著於自己內心的intention，明白business has a tough side，也更有勇氣去嘗試和行動。
給同樣喜歡公益、或者和我一樣忍不住探尋為什麼自己會喜歡這件事情的你。
Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World》 Jacqueline Novogratz【摘要 書評 試讀】圖書
9. 第九本是有些沉重的和死亡對話 Tuesdays with Morrie
是真實的故事。一個瀕臨死亡的老頭，每周二給過來探訪的學生講述一些小事、一些道理。沒有cliche的感覺，反而有些細節讓看書的人忍俊不禁。不過要想真正讀懂可能需要一些閱歷的。
《Tuesdays with Morrie》 米奇?阿爾博姆 (Mitch Albom)【摘要 書評 試讀】圖書
10. 第十本，哼，偏偏沒有，讓處女座的你們心痒痒哈哈哈哈～
吶，老師說了，看書的時候要勤記筆記。於是小女專門備了一個摘抄本，專門寫高大上的人生雞湯，以正三觀，咳咳。。。本子上有最喜歡的一首小詩，叫做Success。年三十發新年祝福的時候，我一直在想要不要把這首詩po出來，後來放棄了，因為我那可愛的母上大人一定會大聲嚷嚷這是什麼意思？。。。於是換了一段中文。
然鵝，這首詩看到的時候真的是很感動，就放肆一下在專欄中和你分享。原載於TOMS那本書的扉頁。
Success
To laugh often and love much,
To win the respect of intelligent people, and the affection of children
To earn the appreciation of honest critics, endure the betrayal of false friends
To appreciate beauty
To find the best in others
To leave the world a bit better
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition
To know even one life has breathed easier,
because you have lived,
This is to have succeeded.
好了，新年雞湯已撒完，書單也拉完。其實書單裡面有什麼不重要，最重要的是，在有些浮躁和忙到飛起的日子裡，大家可以真的拿起一本書，靜心去感受字裡行間的驚喜。行動力比較重要哈～
最後祝大家的新年願望都能實現！
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