大跌眼镜 英媒评出最具影响力的10本书

Throughout history, books have disseminated the ideas and discoveries of the world’s most influential thinkers.

纵观历史，书籍一直都发挥着为世界上最有影响力的思想家们传播伟大观点和重大发现的作用。

Now a new survey has shown that half of the top 10 ‘most valuable’ books – as voted by the British public – were written by eminent scientists.

最近一项调查显示，在由英国民众投票选出的世界上最有价值的10本书中，有一半出自世界著名的科学家之手。

The poll by The Folio Society set out to select the most valuable works to the human race and authors of those picked include Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, as well as George Orwell and Harper Lee.

这项调查由弗里欧书社发起的，目的是选出世界上对人类价值最大的书籍。进入前10名的书籍作者包括查尔斯·达尔文、阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦、斯蒂芬·霍金，以及乔治·奥威尔和哈珀·李。

Two of the top three titles were written by scientists. Darwin’s The Origin of Species gained 35 per cent, while Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time gained 17 per cent.

前3位中的2名都是科学家的著作。达尔文的《物种起源》获得35%的投票排在第2位，霍金的《时间简史》获得17%的投票排在第3位。

But the Bible was voted the most valuable text overall with 37 per cent of the votes.

而排在第1名的是获得37%的投票的《圣经》。

Interestingly, 37 per cent of people living in the south of the UK voted for Charles Darwin’s seminal scientific tome, but 41 per cent of northerners opted for the Bible.

有趣的是，在英国南部有37%的人投票给了达尔文的具有开创性的巨著《物种起源》，而英国北部则有41%的人选择了《圣经》。

The study, conducted by YouGov for the publisher, asked over 2,000 members of the British public which three books from a list of 30 they considered to be the most valuable.

调查由民治调查公司组织，包括了2000多名的英国民众，涉及到30本被认为最有价值的书籍。

The measure for selection was not by popularity or by the enjoyment experienced in reading the book.

调查要求民众选择书籍的标准并不是根据流行程度或是阅读时体验到的愉快程度。

Participants were asked to rate the influence and significance their selected books have had on the modern world.

而是要求民主根据书籍对现代社会的影响力和意义来投票。

Other scientific works included: Relativity by Einstein with 15 per cent of the vote and Principia Mathematica - a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell – with 12 per cent of votes.

排名中的其他科学著作还包括：爱因斯坦的《相对论》，获得了15%的投票；以阿尔弗雷德·诺尔司·怀特海和伯特兰·罗素提出的数学理论为基础所著的三卷本著作《自然哲学的数学原理》，获得了12%的投票。

The Double Helix, which is an autobiographical account of the discovery of the structure of DNA written by James D. Watson, also made the cut in tenth place.

另外詹姆斯·杜威·沃森的讲述发现DNA结构过程的自传著作《双螺旋》也入选，排在第10名。

Classic works of fiction also made up the top 10, including George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which came in fifth place and Harper Lee’s classic To Kill A Mockingbird at number seven.

这十本书中还包括了一些经典的小说，乔治·奥威尔的反乌托邦小说《一九八四》排在第5位，哈波·李的《杀死一只知更鸟》排在第7位。

Tom Walker, Editorial Director at The Folio Society, said: ‘The results of the survey highlighted some interesting dynamics, with A Brief History of Time on the list -surely one of the most under-read bestsellers ever written, - relatively little on economics despite the financial climate and only two overtly political, fiction titles in the list.

弗里欧书社的编辑部主任汤姆·沃克说：“这次的调查结果反映出一些非常有趣的问题，比如《时间简史》是一本很少人阅读的畅销书，而尽管当前经济局势不佳但入选的经济类书籍却相对较少，另外政治色彩鲜明的小说入选的也仅占两名。”

‘The first question I had was whether the similar figures for Darwin and the Bible does show a continuing polarisation between the realms of science and religion, or whether in fact it reveals a more balanced approach to ideas for the modern reader.

“让我疑惑的问题是，《物种起源》和《圣经》非常接近的投票比例是否表明科学和宗教领域中仍然存在两级分化现象，又或者这实际上反映的是现代读者对观点的选择方式更加均衡？”

‘How different might the survey have looked a hundred, or even thirty years ago? How might it look in another thirty years – will Darwin have taken over; will the worrying rise of Nineteen Eighty-Four’s relevance continue; might the Qur’an continue to rise in significance in the UK; or might advances in DNA technology mean that The Double Helix grows in stature?

“如果这项调查在一百年或者是三十年之前来做会是什么结果？或是放在三十年之后又会是什么样子呢？达尔文的书是否还会继续排在前10名里，《一九八四》的排名是否还会这么靠前，《古兰经》对英国的意义是否还会有如此之大，《双螺旋》的知名度会不会因为DNA技术的发展而有所提高呢？…”

‘Given the age of the majority of titles perhaps our greatest influence on how we understand the world is nowadays as much through media as through books.’

“根据选出的这些书的著作年份来看，目前，也许对我们理解这个世界最有影响力的事物不只来自媒体，同样也来自书籍。”