Once upon a time in the dead of winter1 in the Dakota Territory, Theodore Roosevelt took off in a makeshift2 boat down the Little Missouri River in pursuit of3 thieves who had stolen his prized4 rowboat. After several days, he caught up and got the draw on them with his trusty Winchester rifle, at which point they surrendered. Then Roosevelt set off to haul5 the thieves cross-country to justice. They headed across the snow-covered wastes6 of the Badlands to the jail at Dickinson, and Roosevelt walked the entire 60 kilometers or so—an astonishing7 feat8. But what makes it especially memorable9 is that during that time he managed to read Anna Karenina10.
I often think of that when I hear people say they haven't time to read. Reportedly, the average American does have time to watch TV, about four hours a day, the average person, I'm told, reads at a rate of 250 words per minute. So, based on these statistics11, he or she could, in a week, read the complete poems of T. S. Eliot12, two Thornton Wilder13 plays, the complete poems of Maya Angelou, Faulkner14's The Sound and the Fury, F. Scott Fitzgerald's15 The Great Gatsby, and the Book of Psalms16.
But a week is a long time by today's standards, when information is available17 at the touch of finger. We're being sold18 the ideas that information is learning, and we're being sold a bill19 of goods. Knowing the area of the state of Connecticut or the jumping capacity20 of a flea may be useful, but it isn't learning of itself, the greatest of all avenues21 to learning—to wisdom, adventure, pleasure, insight22, to understanding human nature, understanding ourselves and our world and our place in it—is in reading books.
Read for life, all your life. Nothing ever invented provides such sustenance23, such infinite24 reward for time spent, as a good book. Read to your heart's content. Let one book lead to another. They nearly always do.
Take up a great author and read everything he or she has written. Read about places you've never been. Read books that changed history: Tom Paine's Common Sense, the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.
Read those books you know you're supposed to have read and imagine as dreary25. A classic may be defined as a book that stays long in print26, and a book stays long in print only because it's exceptional. Why exclude the exceptional from your experience?
And when you read a book you love—a book you feel has enlarged the experience of being alive, a book that “lights the fire”—then spread the word.
To carry a book with you wherever you go is old advice and good advice. John Adams urged his son John Quincy to carry a volume of poetry. “You will never be alone,” he said, “with a poet in your pocket.”
有一回，西奥多·罗斯福在隆冬时节划着一条破烂不堪的小船，沿着流径达科他的小密苏里河顺流而下，追踪一帮小偷。这些人偷了他珍爱的划艇。几天之后，他追上了这帮人，用他那支性能可靠的温切斯特步枪逼着他们投降。接着，罗斯福拖着这些贼翻山越岭去见法官。他们穿过白雪皑皑的巴德兰德荒地前往位于迪金森的监狱，罗斯福步行了足有60多公里，这真是令人瞠目的伟绩。不过，最值得一提的是，在这段时间里他读完了《安娜·卡列尼娜》。
每当我听到有人说没时间读书的时候，就常常想起这件事。据报道，一个普通美国人每天大约看4小时电视，一个普通人每分钟能阅读250个字。那么，根据这些统计数字，一个人一周之内可读完T.S.艾略特的诗文全集，两本桑顿·王尔德的剧本，玛雅·安杰鲁的诗文集，福克纳的《喧嚣与骚动》，斯科特·菲茨杰拉德的《了不起的盖茨比》和《旧约·诗篇》。
然而, 当信息唾手可得的时候, 用现在的标准来看，一周就很长了。总有人告诉我们，接受信息就是求知；总有人藉此推销给我们一大堆商品。知道康涅狄格州的面积大小或者跳蚤的跳跃能力有多强也许有用，但这本身并不是知识。要获得真知，也就是要增长智慧，开阔眼界，品尝快乐，提高洞察力，理解人性，了解我们自己、我们的世界和我们在世界上的地位——达到这种目的最有效的办法就是读书。
生命不息，读书不止。从未有过什么发明能像一本好书那样为我们提供精神养料，让我们在有限的时间里得到无限的回报。尽情读书吧，一本接一本地读，我们几乎总能有所收获。
读读一个伟大作家的所有作品。读书可让你了解你从未去过的地方。也可读读曾经改变历史的书，像汤姆·佩恩的《常识》，腓特烈·道格拉斯的自传和拉谢尔·卡森的《寂静的春天》。
读读那些你应该读、可又怕读起来沉闷的书。名著之所以为名著，因为它是畅销不衰的书，而一本书能畅销不衰正是因为它不同凡响。为什么要把不同凡响的书排除在你的生活之外呢？
而且，假如你读到一本自己钟爱的书，觉得这本书丰富了你的生活，点燃了你思想的火花，那么就告诉他人吧。
“随身带本书”，这建议流传久远而且确实不错。约翰·亚当斯极力主张他的儿子约翰·昆西带一本诗集。他说:“有个诗人在你的口袋里，你永远不会孤单。”
1. in the dead of winter隆冬时节
2． makeshift adj．代用品，临时凑合的
3． in pursuit of (sb／sth) 追捕(某人／某物)
4． prized adj．珍爱的
5． haul v．把某人带上来审问或训斥
6． wastes [weists] n．无人烟的或不能住人的地区；荒地；荒漠
7． astonishing adj．使人惊讶的；惊人的
8． feat n．伟绩
9． memorable adj．值得纪念的，难忘的
10．Anna Karenina 《安娜·卡列尼娜》，俄国著名作家列夫·托尔斯泰的作品
11．statistics n． 统计数字
12．T． S． Eliot T． S． 艾略特，20世纪英国著名诗人
13．Thornton Wilder 桑顿·王尔德，著名剧作家
14．William Faulkner 威廉·福克纳，20世纪美国著名作家
15．F． Scott Fitzgerald F·斯科特·费茨杰拉德，20世纪美国著名作家
16．psalm n．圣歌，圣诗，赞美诗；the Book of Psalms 指《圣经》中的《诗篇》
17．available adj．可用的或可得到的
18．sell [sel] v．使某人相信某事属实
19．bill [bil] n．清单
20．capacity n．能力
21．avenue n．途径，方法
22．insight n．洞察力，深刻的了解
23．sustenance n．食物，营养，养料
24．infinite adj．无限的
25．dreary adj．沉闷的，枯燥的
26．in print已出版，销售