Learn to love reading
《一本好书》上演“一出好戏”
I've had a digital version of UK writer W. Somerset Maugham's 1919 novel, The Moon and Sixpence, on my Kindle for quite some time now. I bought it because it's a classic. But I still haven't got around to actually reading it. For some reason, the word "classic" is daunting to me.
英国作家威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆写于1919年的《月亮和六便士》英文版小说在我的电子书里已经有一段时间了。因为这是本名著，所以我买下了它。但我还没真正开始读这本书。出于某种原因，“名著”一词让我心生胆怯。
But I changed my mind after I watched The Wonderful Read, a Chinese variety show that came out on Tencent Video on Oct 8.
但在看完中国综艺节目《一本好书》之后，我改变了主意，这档节目已于10月8日在腾讯视频上线。

The show introduces The Moon and Sixpence in its very first episode. Instead of reading extracts from the book and talking about its literary value – as many other literature-themed shows do – it brings the book to life by turning it into a play. We watch as Charles Strickland, the book's central character, leaves his wife, his children and his boring job as a stockbroker to pursue his dream of becoming a painter in Paris.
节目在第一集中便介绍了《月亮和六便士》。不同于其他文学主题节目那样阅读书本节选，讨论其文学价值，该节目将书中情节编成一出戏剧，令这本书变得生动有趣。我们看着书中的主人公查尔斯·思特里克兰德抛妻弃子，辞去了股票经纪人的乏味工作，在巴黎追求自己的梦想 —— 成为一名画家。
But that's not all. The show's host and studio guests talk in depth about Strickland's choices in between scenes from the play. He chooses to chase after his dream – "the moon" – even if it means taking risks and being called crazy and selfish. He simply can't bear another minute of living his boring old life – to live for "sixpence" – as many of us do in real life.
但节目也不止于此，主持人和客座嘉宾在节目中深度地讨论了思特里克兰德在一幕幕戏剧中的选择。他选择追求自己的梦想 —— “月亮” —— 哪怕这意味着冒险，甚至被人称为自私的疯子。他就是再也无法忍受多一分钟的乏味旧生活 —— 为“六便士”而活 —— 正如现实生活中我们许多人那样。
At that moment, I knew I was certainly going to read The Moon and Sixpence.
那时，我知道自己一定会去读《月亮和六便士》。
"We are trying to provide a fitting room for the readers," Guan Zhengwen, director of The Wonderful Read, told Beijing Youth Daily. "They can see whether a certain book is suitable for them or not."
“我们这个节目，就是大众阅读的试衣间，”《一本好书》的导演关正文在接受《北京青年报》采访时表示。“读者们可以看看这本书到底适不适合自己。”
And the choices in that "fitting room" are all classics – from novels like Love in the Time of Cholera by Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to non-fiction like Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Israeli writer Yuval Noah Harari, as well as sci-fi masterpiece The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
而“试衣间”内的所有选择都是名著 —— 从哥伦比亚作家加夫列尔·加西亚·马尔克斯所著的小说《霍乱时期的爱情》到以色列作家尤瓦尔·赫拉利所著的《人类简史》等纪实类作品，以及刘慈欣的科幻代表作《三体》。
The show helps to ease readers into these classics, so that they feel more comfortable with starting their reading journey. You can feel less daunted and more ready to pick up a book and read it yourself. I know I will.
这档节目帮助读者减少读名著的压力，让他们更为舒适地开始一段阅读旅程。你不会感到那么害怕了，会更有准备地拿起一本书阅读。我知道我会的。