| 不同的人有不同的读书目的。作者通过这篇文章给读者传递了这样一个信息：读书不应该仅仅是为了通过考试、获取信息，而是应该让自己感到心情愉悦，活得更充实。
Reading for Pleasure
The first thing I want to insist on is that reading should be enjoyable. Of course, there are many books that we all have to read, either to pass examinations or to acquire information, from which it is impossible to extract enjoyment. We are reading them for instruction, and the best we can hope is that our need for it will enable us to get through them without tedium. Such books we read with resignation rather than with alacrity. But that is not the sort of reading I have in mind. The books I shall mention in due course will help you neither to get a degree nor to earn your living, they will not teach you to sail a boat or get a stalled motor to run, but they will help you to live more fully. That, however, they cannot do unless you enjoy reading them.
Every man is his own best critic. Whatever the learned say about a book, however unanimous they are in their praise of it, unless it interests you, it is no business of yours①. And you who read are the final judge of the value to you of the book you are reading. We are none of us exactly like everyone else, only rather like, and it would be unreasonable to suppose that the books that have meant a great deal to me should be precisely those that will mean a great deal to you. But there are books that I feel the richer for having read, and I think I should not be quite the man I am if I had not read them. No one is under an obligation to read poetry or fiction or the miscellaneous literature which is classed as belles-lettres②. He must read them for pleasure，and who can claim that what pleases one man must necessarily please another?
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行文点评
文章开篇点题，用The first thing 首先表明了reading should be enjoyable这一观点。接下来作者从读书的目的说明只有enjoy reading才能够有助你live more fully。第一段最后一句That, however, they cannot do unless you enjoy reading them.对全段做出归纳总结，与段首主题句相互呼应，使本段结构严谨。
第二段首句Every man is his own best critic.就是本段的主题句，全段围绕这个主题展开议论。结尾处使用了一个反问句，这样不仅深化了主题，而且能引起读者的共鸣。
好文妙译
为快乐而读书
我想强调的第一点是，阅读应当是令人愉悦的。当然，我们每一个人都会为了通过考试，或是为了获取信息而阅读大量的书籍，这样的阅读是无法让我们获得快乐的。我们读这些书是为了获得指导，我们能期望的最多就是我们在读完之后不至于感到单调乏味。这样的书，我们读得无可奈何而不是轻松愉快。不过，这类阅读并不是我想要谈的。我在下面将要提到的那一类书既不能帮助你获取学位，也不能帮助你挣钱谋生，更不能教会你驾驶船只或修好出了故障的马达，然而，它们能够帮助你活得更加充实。而这一点，除非你喜欢读它们，否则是无法做到的。
最好的评论家是每个人自己。无论某个学者对某一本书作了什么评价，无论他们如何众口一词地对它大加称赞，倘若它激不起你的兴趣，那么这本书就与你毫不相干。作为读者，你是你所读书籍价值的仲裁人。我们当中，没有一个人跟另外一个人的评价完全相像，至多有点相像而已。想当然地认为对我来说很有价值的书恰恰对你也很有价值，这是不合情理的。但是也确实有这样的书，在读完之后，我感到更加充实了，我觉得要是没有读过它们，我就不会成为现在的我。没有什么人非要去读诗歌、小说以及其他归为“纯文学”的作品不可。读者读这些作品必然是为了获取快乐；然而谁又能说，使一位读者感到愉悦的书一定会让另一位读者喜欢呢?
词汇斟酌
extract vt. 获得，索取
tedium n. 厌烦, 沉闷
resignation n. 听任, 顺从
alacrity n. 爽快，乐意
in due course 及时地，在适当时
ear one’s living 赚钱谋生
stall v.(使)(
发动机)熄火
unanimous a. 全体一致的，一致同意的
miscellaneous a. 各色各样混在一起, 混杂的
belles-lettres n. 纯文学
佳句临摹
①【注释】no business of one’s与某人无关
【临摹】My plan is no business of yours.我的计划与你无关。
②【注释】under an obligation 有义务，有道义负责
【临摹】She’s under an obligation to him because he lent her money.因为他把钱借给她了，所以她有偿还他的义务。
思如泉涌
Books are the ever-burning lamps of accumulated wisdom. 书籍是积聚智慧的长明灯。
By reading we enrich the mind, by conversation we polish it. 读书使人充实，沟通使人精明。 |
