《经济学人》盘点2018年度好书 送给爱读书的你 The Economist’s books of the year

四、文化类

1. The Personality Brokers. By Merve Emre.

《人格经纪人》（作者：梅尔韦·埃姆雷）

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the best-known personality test, is the focus of an entertaining cultural history of the personality-assessment industry. Its enduring popularity ought not to be surprising: after all, it offers both the “rush of self-discovery” and “the comfort of solidarity” with others of the same type.

最著名的人格测试“迈尔斯-布里格斯类型指标”在人格评估业成为娱乐文化一部分的过程中扮演着核心角色。它经久不衰的热度应该并不令人意外：毕竟，它可以让人“迅速发现自我”，同时又因为同一种类型的其他人的存在而获得“抱团取暖的安慰”。

2. The Prodigal Tongue. By Lynne Murphy.

《英式英语与美式英语爱恨交织的关系》（作者：琳恩·墨菲）

The first and perhaps only book on the relative merits of American and British English that is dominated by facts and analysis rather than nationalistic prejudice. For all its scholarship, this is also a funny and rollicking read.

关于美式英语与英式英语相对而言的优点，这是第一本、可能也是唯一由事实和分析而不是民族主义偏见占主导的书。尽管是学术性著作，读来却轻松有趣。

rollicking['rɑlɪkɪŋ] : adj.欢乐的；喧闹的

3. Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece. By Michael Benson.

《太空漫游：斯坦利·库布里克、阿瑟·克拉克与杰作的诞生》（作者：迈克尔·本森）

An illuminating account of a collaboration that resulted in a landmark film. The author’s scientific background helps him to explain its pathbreaking visual effects. The making of a great work of art has rarely been anatomized so thoroughly.

富有启发意义地记述了一段协作关系，这段关系最终缔造了一部具有里程碑意义的电影。作者的科学背景帮助他解读了影片中开创性的视觉效果。伟大艺术作品的形成过程很少得到如此全面的剖析。

五、小说类

1. The Long Take. By Robin Robertson.

《长镜头》（作者：罗宾·罗伯逊）

The wondrous story of a Canadian veteran of the World War II who washes up in New York and then Los Angeles. Walker, the protagonist, is haunted by his experiences in combat and by memories of his youth.

关于一名加拿大籍二战老兵漂泊到纽约、然后又到洛杉矶的奇妙故事。主人公沃克无法摆脱战争经历和年轻时的回忆。

protagonist[prə'tæg(ə)nɪst]: n.主角

2. The Silence of the Girls. By Pat Barker.

《女孩们的沉默》（作者：帕特·巴克）

The “Iliad” reimagined from the perspective of Briseis, the captured slave-girl who is the cause of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon—and in the original is almost silent.

从被抓获的奴隶女孩布丽塞丝的角度重新构思《伊利亚特》，她成为阿喀琉斯与阿伽门农争吵的原因——而在原作中，她基本上沉默不语。

3. Milkman. By Anna Burns.

《送奶人》（作者：安娜·伯恩斯）

The winner of this year’s Man Booker prize is set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland in an unnamed city that looks like Belfast. A haunting depiction of the impact of violence on ordinary lives.

这是2018年的布克奖获奖书籍，以北爱尔兰动荡时期为背景，故事的发生地点是一座看起来像贝尔法斯特的无名城市。本书描写了暴力对普通人的生活所产生的影响，让人难以忘记。

六、科技类

1. Beyond Weird. By Philip Ball.

《怪诞之外》（作者：菲利普·巴尔）

Wearing deep learning lightly, this author explains quantum mechanics simply and thoughtfully, revealing the theory’s true power as a way of knowing what can be said about nature.

本书作者举重若轻，简练而有创见地阐释了量子力学，揭示了该理论作为了解自然界的一种方式所具有的真实力量。

2. Rocket Men. By Robert Kurson.

《火箭人》（作者：罗伯特·古尔松）

A gripping account of Apollo 8, the first manned space flight around the Moon. The story of the dangerous mission that laid the ground for the Moon landing has not been told in such detail until now.

扣人心弦地讲述了关于首次载人绕月飞行的“阿波罗8号”的故事。这次危险的任务为登月打下了基础，在此之前，从来没有哪一本书如此细致地讲述这段往事。

3. Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine and Mysteries of Blood. By Rose George.

《九品脱》（作者 罗丝·乔治）

This history of blood takes its name from the quantity in a human body. The author visits high-tech facilities, a South African slum and Nepalese villages to convey what is known and what remains mysterious about the liquid.

这本系统阐述血液的书是根据人体内血液的数量命名的。作者探访了高科技场所、南非的一处贫民窟以及尼泊尔的村庄，为的是告诉读者有关这种液体的众所周知以及依然神秘的知识。

来源：经济学人、参考消息网

编审：yaning