大跌眼鏡 英媒評出最具影響力的10本書

Throughout history, books have disseminated the ideas and discoveries of the world’s most influential thinkers.
縱觀歷史，書籍一直都發揮着爲世界上最有影響力的思想家們傳播偉大觀點和重大發現的作用。

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.
最近一項調查顯示，在由英國民衆投票選出的世界上最有價值的10本書中，有一半出自世界著名的科學家之手。

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.
這項調查由弗里歐書社發起的，目的是選出世界上對人類價值最大的書籍。進入前10名的書籍作者包括查爾斯·達爾文、阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦、斯蒂芬·霍金，以及喬治·奧威爾和哈珀·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名都是科學家的著作。達爾文的《物種起源》獲得35%的投票排在第2位，霍金的《時間簡史》獲得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名的是獲得37%的投票的《聖經》。

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，在英國南部有37%的人投票給了達爾文的具有開創性的鉅著《物種起源》，而英國北部則有41%的人選擇了《聖經》。

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.
調查由民治調查公司組織，包括了2000多名的英國民衆，涉及到30本被認爲最有價值的書籍。

The measure for selection was not by popularity or by the enjoyment experienced in reading the book.
調查要求民衆選擇書籍的標準並不是根據流行程度或是閱讀時體驗到的愉快程度。

Participants were asked to rate the influence and significance their selected books have had on the modern world.
而是要求民主根據書籍對現代社會的影響力和意義來投票。

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.
排名中的其他科學著作還包括：愛因斯坦的《相對論》，獲得了15%的投票；以阿爾弗雷德·諾爾司·懷特海和伯特蘭·羅素提出的數學理論爲基礎所著的三卷本著作《自然哲學的數學原理》，獲得了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·沃森的講述發現DNA結構過程的自傳著作《雙螺旋》也入選，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.
這十本書中還包括了一些經典的小說，喬治·奧威爾的反烏托邦小說《一九八四》排在第5位，哈波·李的《殺死一隻知更鳥》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.
弗里歐書社的編輯部主任湯姆·沃克說：“這次的調查結果反映出一些非常有趣的問題，比如《時間簡史》是一本很少人閱讀的暢銷書，而儘管當前經濟局勢不佳但入選的經濟類書籍卻相對較少，另外政治色彩鮮明的小說入選的也僅佔兩名。”

‘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.
“讓我疑惑的問題是，《物種起源》和《聖經》非常接近的投票比例是否表明科學和宗教領域中仍然存在兩級分化現象，又或者這實際上反映的是現代讀者對觀點的選擇方式更加均衡？”

‘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?
“如果這項調查在一百年或者是三十年之前來做會是什麼結果？或是放在三十年之後又會是什麼樣子呢？達爾文的書是否還會繼續排在前10名裏，《一九八四》的排名是否還會這麼靠前，《古蘭經》對英國的意義是否還會有如此之大，《雙螺旋》的知名度會不會因爲DNA技術的發展而有所提高呢？…”

‘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.’
“根據選出的這些書的著作年份來看，目前，也許對我們理解這個世界最有影響力的事物不只來自媒體，同樣也來自書籍。”