《華盛頓郵報》前任CEO唐·格雷厄姆的書單

Words are woven into Don Graham’s bloodline. He’s the CEO of Graham Holdings, which today owns test prep and online education company Kaplan. But his company and his family are best known for their newspaper roots. Until its sale to Jeff Bezos last year, the Washington Post was Graham Holdings’ crown jewel. Graham’s grandfather bought the Washington Post in 1933, and both of his parents were Post publishers. In addition, his mother, Katharine Graham, wrote the memoir Personal history. His own career has been wide and varied and includes serving in Vietnam, as well as a year and a half stint as a Washington D.C. policeman. Don Graham took a few moments to chat about his summer reading with Fortune. The following are edited excerpts.

文字已經深深地融入了唐·格雷厄姆的血液中。他是格雷厄姆控股公司（Graham Holdings）的首席執行官，旗下擁有備考和在線教育公司Kaplan。但是格雷厄姆公司和家族仍以老本行新聞業務著稱。直到在去年賣給傑夫o貝佐斯之前，《華盛頓郵報》（Washington Post）一直是格雷厄姆控股公司皇冠上的寶石。格雷厄姆的祖父於1933年買下了《華盛頓郵報》，格雷厄姆的父母都擔任過郵報的出版人。他的母親凱瑟琳o格雷厄姆還寫過一本回憶錄《個人歷史》（Personal History）。唐自己的職業生涯非常龐雜，他在越南服過役，還在華盛頓當過一年半的警察。唐o格雷厄姆抽出一些時間和《財富》聊了聊他的夏季讀書清單。以下是對話節選：

How do you make time to read?

你如何空出時間來閱讀？

Reading is one of the great pleasures of my life. I read more when I’m on vacation or when I’m traveling or on weekends, but I’ve always read a lot.

讀書是我生活中最大的樂趣之一。當度假、旅行或週末的時候，我會多讀一些書，但平常也看的不少。

What’s your favorite guilty pleasure read?

最喜歡讀誰的犯罪偵探小說？

George Pelecanos’s detective novels. Lots of cities have a local mystery writer and Pelecanos is the one for D.C. He wrote and directed a few of the episodes of The Wire. Forty years ago I was a cop in D.C. …some of his books take place at the same time, he gets down the interaction between police and citizens really well. He’s a really good writer.

喬治o佩雷卡洛斯的偵探小說。很多城市都有一名神祕的當地作者，而佩雷卡洛斯便是華盛頓特區的那位。他寫過書，並擔任過電視劇《火線》（The Wire）其中幾集的導演。40年前，我曾是華盛頓的一名警察……他的有些作品也是以這一時期爲背景的。他對警察和平民之間的互動描寫的特別好。他的確是一名好作家。

What was your favorite book when you were a child?

在兒童時代，你最喜歡哪本書？

The Winnie-the-Pooh books, Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hatches an Egg. John R. Tunis’s baseball novels. He was the New York newspaperman of the day. They told stories that just hit me in the right way at that age. I read the Pooh books to my kids again.

《小熊維尼》（Winnie-the-Pooh）系列、蘇斯博士的《Horton Hatches an Egg》、約翰o突尼斯的棒球題材小說。他曾是紐約最佳新聞記者。對於當時的我來說，他們所講述的這些故事非常有吸引力。我也把《小熊維尼》的故事讀給我的孩子們聽。

What book has had the most influence on you?

哪本書對你的影響最大？

When I was in my early 20s a friend sent me a book by a historian Robert Conquest, The Great Terrorone—one of the first attempts to write a history of the Stalin regime. My dad was a WWII vet. I had a grown up learning about WWII, but I did not understand who Stalin was and what he stood for. The Great Terror changed the way I thought about a lot of things.

在我20歲出頭的時候，一位朋友給我寄了本歷史作家羅伯特o康科斯特寫的《The Great Terrorone》，這是首批描述斯大林統治時期歷史的書籍之一。我父親是二戰退伍老兵。在成長過程中我瞭解了不少有關二戰的歷史，但是我並不清楚斯大林的爲人以及他所代表的一切。《The Great Terror》改變了我對很多事情的看法。

What’s one leadership book everyone should read?

你認爲有關領導力方面人人必讀的書是哪本？

There are so many. In addition to my mother’s book, Churchill’s Marlborough: His Life and Times. It’s about Churchill’s ancestor who has to build a coalition against the French, who had conquered most of Europe. It’s Churchill’s best book, which is saying something. A great leader writing about a great leader.

太多了。除了我母親的書之外，還有丘吉爾的著作《馬爾堡：他的人生和時代》（Marlborough: His Life and Times）。該書講述了丘吉爾的祖先建立反法聯盟的故事，當時法國人佔領了歐洲大部分領土。這是丘吉爾最好的一本書，而且該書也說明，偉大的領袖的筆下也將誕生偉大的領袖。

What’s on your summer reading list?

哪些書進入了你的夏季閱讀清單？

James Webb, the former senator from Virginia, just published I Heard My Country Calling. It’s a selective autobiography—there’s nothing about being senator or his time working for Regan or being a secretary of Navy. It’s about his upbringing as military brat and service in Vietnam and naval academy. Hell of a book. He’s the best writer who was a senator.

弗吉尼亞州前任參議員詹姆士o韋伯剛剛出版了新書《我聽見了祖國的召喚》（I Heard My Country Calling）。這是一本有選擇性的自傳，裏面並沒有描述他的參議員工作，也沒有介紹他爲里根總統工作或擔任海軍部長的經歷。該書講述的是他在軍事世家的成長故事，以及他在越南和海軍學院服役的經歷。真是一本好書。他是最好的一位參議員作家。

There’s a brand-new book published this month called On the Rocketship: How Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope by Richard Whitmire. It’s very optimistic and looks beyond the headlines, beyond DeBlasio, and examines how charter and public schools around the country are forging alliances and changing each other.

本月還有一本新書出版，名字叫做《On the Rocketship: How Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope》，作者理查德o惠特邁爾。該書頗具正能量，其內容超越了標題本身，也超越了白思豪（現任紐約市市長——譯者注），審視了全國特許及公立學校是如何形成聯盟並相互改變的。

I’m also looking forward to the autobiography Blue-eyed Boy by Robert Timberg. He was a marine officer in Vietnam, and days before he was supposed to leave, a grenade exploded and tore away the front of his face. He’s had dozens of operations and it’s the story of living with an injury that changed his appearance and took his career away.

我還十分期待羅伯特o提姆伯格的自傳《藍眼睛男孩》（Blue-eyed Boy）。他曾在越戰中擔任海軍陸戰隊軍官，就在他本要離開的前幾天，一枚爆炸的手榴彈讓他容顏盡毀。他曾做過十幾次手術。本書是主人公生活的真實寫照，他的傷疤改變了他的容貌，還讓他失去了工作。