Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has emerged as a force in the publishing industry, thanks to the book reviews he posts on his blog, Gates Notes. Mr. Gates, who says he reads about 50 books a year, discussed his love of reading, how he makes his selections and what book Warren Buffett recommended. Below are excerpts from a recent email interview.

微软公司的联合创始人比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)因为在自己的博客Gates Notes上发表书评，成了出版界一股新力量。盖茨先生说自己每年大约读50本书，他在这里谈了自己对阅读的爱好，如何选择书籍，沃伦·巴菲特(Warren Buffett)推荐他读了什么书。下面是最近的一次电子邮件采访节选。

What role does reading play in your life?

问：阅读在你的生活中扮演什么样的角色？

It is one of the chief ways that I learn, and has been since I was a kid. These days, I also get to visit interesting places, meet with scientists and watch a lot of lectures online. But reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding.

答：它是我最主要的学习方式之一，从我小时候就是这样了。这些日子以来，我也去拜访有趣的地方、同科学家会面，在网上看很多讲座。但阅读仍然是我学习新鲜事物与测试自己理解力的重要方式。

For example, this year I enjoyed Richard Dawkins’s “The Magic of Reality,” which explains various scientific ideas and is aimed at teenagers. Although I already understood all the concepts, Dawkins helped me think about the topics in new ways. If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t really understand it.

比如说，今年我很喜欢理查德·道金斯(Richard Dawkins)的《真相的魔力》(The Magic of Reality)，它解释了各种科学概念，目标读者是青少年。尽管那些概念我都理解，道金斯还是能够帮助我以新的方式思考这些话题。如果你无法简单明了地解释某种东西，你就没有真正理解它。

What made you decide to start the books blog and write reviews?

问：你为什么决定开始写荐书博客和书评呢？

I have always loved reading and learning, so it is great if people see a book review and feel encouraged to read and share what they think online or with their friends.

答：我一直都喜欢阅读和学习，所以如果人们看到一篇书评，于是就去读这本书，并且在网上，或者与朋友们分享自己的想法，这会是很棒的一件事。

It also helps to have a platform for talking about the work I’m doing, both through the foundation and separate from it, because I find people are curious about it.

另外，有一个平台来讲一讲我手头在做的工作也很好，不管是不是基金会的事，因为我发现人们对此很感兴趣。

How do you choose the books you read? Recommendations from family/friends/media?

问：你怎样选择要读什么书呢？是通过家人、朋友或媒体的推荐吗？

It’s a mix of things. Melinda and I will sometimes exchange books we like. I also get recommendations from friends. After I finish something great, I will often try to find other books by that author or similar ones on the same subject.

答：各种因素都有。梅林达(Melinda)和我有时候交换自己喜欢的书。朋友们也向我推荐书。我读完一本好书，也经常会去找这个作者的其他著作，或是类似题材的其他书籍。

Earlier this year Melinda and I saw the musical “Hamilton,” which inspired me to read Ron Chernow’s biography.

今年年初，我和梅林达看了音乐剧《汉密尔顿》(Hamilton)，所以我就去读了洛恩·彻诺(Ron Chernow)的这本汉密尔顿传记。

What was the process of selecting the books for the best-of-the-year list? Any tough choices?

问：你是怎么选择你的年度最佳书籍清单的？有没有难以取舍的情况？

I didn’t set out to do this intentionally, but when I looked back at the books I read this year, I realized that a lot of them touch on the theme “how things work.”

答：我不是有意这么做的，但回忆今年读过的书，我发现很多都与“事物如何运行”这个主题有关。

Some, like Randall Munroe’s “Thing Explainer,” are written exactly for that reason. He uses diagrams paired with the most common 1,000 words in the English language to explain complicated ideas.

有些书，比如兰道尔·门罗(Randall Munroe)的《解释者》(Thing Explainer)就是完全为这个目的而写的。他使用图表，配上最普通的1000来个英文单词，去解释复杂的概念。

Other books on my list offer insights into human beings, our values, our strengths and flaws.

我的最佳名单里的其他书籍还提供了对人类自身、我们的价值观、我们的优点与弱点的观察。

Is there one book that was an unexpected choice for you that you unexpectedly loved?

问：有没有什么书对你来说是意外之选，你本来没想到自己会喜欢上它。

One of the main reasons I started my blog was to share thoughts about what I’m reading. So it is nice to see people sharing their own reactions and recommendations in the comments section of the site.

答：我开这个博客的主要原因之一就是希望分享自己的阅读心得。所以看到别人在网站评论里分享他们的反馈和推荐是非常愉快的事情。

One book that was especially fun to highlight was “Business Adventures,” by John Brooks. This is the first book Warren Buffett recommended to me after we met in 1991, and it is still the best business book I have ever read. Brooks deserves to be much better known than he is.

约翰·布鲁克斯(John Brooks)的《商业冒险》(Business Adventures)是一本特别有意思的书。我和沃伦·巴菲特是1991年认识的，这是他推荐给我的第一本书，到现在仍然是我读过的最好的商业书籍。布鲁克斯配得上比现在更响亮的名气。

Although he wrote in the 1960s, the issues he talks about are still relevant today. “Business Adventures” went out of print decades ago and Brooks died in 1993, but his family was nice enough to let me post one chapter called “Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox” on my blog.

尽管他创作的时期是20世纪60年代，但他讨论的话题在今天仍然很重要。《商业冒险》几十年前就已经绝版了，布鲁克斯也于1993年去世，但他的家人很慷慨，允许我在自己的博客上贴出了书中的一章，名为“复印，复印，复印，复印”。

I don’t read a lot of fiction but was surprised by how much I loved the novel “The Rosie Project,” by Graeme Simsion. Melinda read it first and kept stopping to recite parts of it out loud to me. Eventually, I decided to take a look.

我没有读过很多虚构文学，但是却喜欢上了格拉伊姆·西姆森(Graeme Simsion)的小说《罗西方案》(The Rosie Project)，让我自己也很吃惊。这本书是梅林达先读的，她不断停下来给我读里面的章节。最后我也决定看一看。

I started it one night at 11 p.m. and stayed up with it until 3 a.m. It is very funny, while also showing a lot of empathy for people who struggle in social situations.

我是夜里11点开始读的，一直读到凌晨三点。它非常有意思，也对那些拼命应付社交场合的人表现出了许多共情心。

After I sent it and the sequel (“The Rosie Effect”) to dozens of friends and wrote about it on my blog, I heard from a lot of people who were touched by it. There is talk of turning it into a movie, which I hope happens. Rosie and Don Tillman would make a great on-screen couple.

后来我把这本书和它的续集《罗西效应》(The Rosie Effect)拿给几十个朋友读，还在博客上写了书评，然后很多人都说他们读过之后受到了感动。听说有人想把它拍成电影，我很希望这能实现。罗西和堂·迪尔曼(Don Tillman)肯定能成为不错的银幕情侣。

I like highlighting the work of Vaclav Smil. He has written more than 30 books, and I have read them all. He takes on huge topics like energy or transportation and gives them a thorough examination.

我还想强调一下瓦克拉夫·斯米尔(Vaclav Smil)的著作。他写的30多本书我全都读过。他讲述能源和交通之类重大题材，并且对之进行详尽的阐释。

Smil’s books are not for casual readers and I don’t agree with him on everything, but I like to feature his work because the world would be a better place if more people thought as rigorously and systematically as he does.

斯米尔的书不适合随手翻阅的读者，我也并不赞同他的所有观点，但是我想特别提一下他的作品，因为加入更多人都能像他这样进行缜密而有系统的思考，世界就能变得更好。