基本信息

• 英文标题：Educated
• 中文标题：你当像鸟飞往你的山

（中文标题翻译稍后吐槽。）

Why You Should Read This Book

简单来说，畅销书：

• 奇迹！一部新人处女作，上市第一周即登上《纽约时报》畅销榜，至今已累计80周，仍高居Top1，全美销量破百万册，作者因此书被《时代周刊》评为“年度影响力人物”！
• 美国亚马逊年度编辑选书 第一名
• 《纽约时报》《华尔街日报》《波士顿环球报》畅销书排行 第一名
• Goodreads 读者票选 超越米歇尔《成为》，获年度最佳图书
• Goodreads 399699 人打分，42720 条评论， 4.48 分（满分 5 分）
• 《洛杉矶时报》最佳传记奖
• 《纽约时报》《卫报》《华盛顿邮报》《泰晤士报》《星期日泰晤士报》《经济学人》《奥普拉杂志》、美国国家公共广播电台等二十多家权威媒体年度图书。

仔细想想，其实我不太怎么读近年的新书或畅销书。

N年前，我读过追风筝的人，在当时还算”新“或者”畅销“。最近两年读过的畅销书，可能只有两本：一是东野圭吾的《解忧杂货店》，另一本Benjamin Dreyer写的Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. 再仔细想想，其实追风筝的人再当时算是追了个新，追了个畅销，而读解忧完全是因为喜欢东野，而读Dreyer则是因为这其实是一本畅销或者说是流行的”工具书“。

其实从来没有思考过这个问题，但与阅读best seller相比而言，仿佛我潜在是有一点倾向去读那些有一点点年份的所谓的”经典“的。当然，这里并没有包边判断在里面，并没有说”新出的书就不好“的意思，只是总结了一下发现自己的阅读倾向仿佛是这样。

不过，如果你不读畅销书的话，这本书或许也是值得读一下的，因为就连比尔盖茨也给了它极高的评价。

概述

本书描述了主角塔拉·韦斯特弗，即作者本人从贫穷愚昧的大山中走出，在杨百翰大学完成本科学业，而后在教授、导师的力荐下进入顶尖学府深造，最终在剑桥大学取得博士学位的成长经历。

在塔拉十七岁前，她生活在一个深受父权制意识与偏执的宗教教义浸染、充斥着家庭暴力的扭曲家庭中。父亲在十七年间灌输给塔拉的畸形的观念和习惯并没有随着她接受良好的教育而烟消云散，而是像鬼魂一样萦绕在她生活的各个角落，父亲的信仰，哥哥的暴力，使她不仅无法正常继续学业，还陷入了精神世界的自我奴役。而塔拉通过另一个哥哥泰勒的指引，老师、同学、朋友的帮助，逐步挣脱了身体与精神的双重奴役，完成了一场真正的生命教育之旅，而这其中最为重要的还是塔拉本人的坚韧、独立思想以及与过去决断的勇气。

塔拉以自己的亲身经历向读者传达了教育的重要性，因为教育能让人习得最基本的生存理念和看待事物的角度与方法，获得不同的视角，理解不同的人、经历和历史。塔拉对比了她接受正规知识后的理性和读大学前由于封闭而造成的视野局限，更突出了教育是一把打开了人们生命中一道道大门的金钥匙。当你以教育为翼，像鸟儿一样纵情飞翔，终将会抵达属于自己的山巅。

中文书名

好的，是时候吐槽中文书名了。

直译和意译之间其实很难取舍。如果电影《这个杀手不太冷》忠实的翻译成中文《里昂》那么我大概率就不看了。如果电影《楚门的世界》如果不翻译的这么直接，起个更有趣的题目，或许我会早很多年就决定看。但是大多数时候我更喜欢直译，因为意译的过程中就加入了原作者之外的、只属于翻译者的思想，影响了原著的完整性。

抱着这个念头，我是非常想吐槽《当你像鸟飞往你的山》这个译名的。WTF。What does it have anything to do with “educated”?

然后我发现好像我错了，因为有人解释说flee like a bird to your mountain是Bible Psalm 11:1中的一节，意思是找到新的信仰。

Wow. Just WOW.

我以为是个蹩脚的翻译，结果还有圣经的典故，从信仰系统、无知到知识，找到了新的山，山就是你的信仰。牛逼的标题。

然后我发现我好像又错了，圣经原文见这里，because David, instead of fleeing to the mountains like a bird, he chose to flee to the Lord.

山对于Lord来说是贬义的，是无知的鸟才会去寻求庇护的地方。这么一说，仿佛信仰系统和无知才是山，知识才是真正的Lord。How I can flee to the mountain like a bird when I have the Lord? How I can flee back to my parent’s ignorant belief system when I can fly to the sea of the knowledge?

该死的翻译。

一千个读者 一千个哈姆雷特

对于盖茨而言，推荐这本书大致有两个原因，一个是学习的决心和自学的能力，另一个则是反抗自己的信仰系统获得知识的震撼。引用：

• “I’ve always prided myself on my ability to teach myself things. Whenever I don’t know a lot about something, I’ll read a textbook or watch an online course until I do." … “I thought I was pretty good at teaching myself – until I read Tara Westover’s memoir Educated. Her ability to learn on her own blows mine right out of the water.”
• “Educated is an amazing story, and I get why it’s spent so much on the top of the New York Times bestseller list.” … “It reminded me in some ways of the Netflix documentary Wild, Wild Country, which I recently watched. Both explore people who remove themselves from society because they have these beliefs and knowledge that they think make them more enlightened. Their belief systems benefit from their separateness, and you’re forced to be either in or out.”

对于我而言，这本书对我的触动不大，我想了想，有两个原因。

人类简史

是的，第一个原因是另外一本书：《人类简史》。

在阅读作者的童年的整个过程中，我对他的父亲没有任何的judgement，因为根据人类简史，其实所有宗教都是智人虚幻的想象。无论多么激进、过分，其实就是一群人共同相信的想象罢了。

就跟Born a Crime中提到的hood一样。虽然那不是宗教，不是信仰，但是是人们共同相信的想象。本书作者逃离摩门教家庭对我的震撼要小于Trevor在母亲的教导下逃离apartheid, which is true, unconditional love.

如果老田的《魔鬼中的天使》是song of the year话，book of the year当仁不让是Born a Crime. Yep, it’s that good.

我的故事

When my parents were young, there were some big movements (hey, I’m trying to be politically correct here,) where there wasn’t enough food for everybody, and lots of students dropped out of school and became part of the movement. For them, not being starved to death, or killed, not having proper education, but being able to join the army, then joining a state-owned company for life, was probably the best scenario they could have. During that time, in the worst case, you could get starved to death because of the lack of food, or get killed if you said something politically incorrect in public places.

When I reached 7, if I had some issues learning-wise, nobody in the family could help me, cuz they didn’t go to college. They might know the answer, but they didn’t know how to speak in a way that a 7-year-old would understand. Back then, I would literally cry out of frustration.

But I don’t blame them, at all. Because I know, for them, getting out of their traditional family life and getting into the city as blue-collar workers are “educated.” They’ve made a big jump. They flew out of their mountains and got “educated.”

I guess I was either smart or lucky (or both) that my story unfolded better later in my life. I was lucky enough to get into the best university and toured the whole EU. For me, I’ve also made a jump. It’s nothing compared to “from an illiterate to a doctor,” but it was something; I jumped the way of small-city life and got enlightened.

To be fair, though, I started from a much better place than my parents. Thanks to my parents, I started in a small city, not a rural area, and I had the chance to get educated. For that, thank you, mom and dad.

I can understand why people would feel shocked by this book, I am too, but not that much.

My family history is a book of getting educated and getting out of our old lives. So, the educated book? It is OK, but my mind isn’t blown away.

What Moved Me

Yes, you can love your family and still choose to say goodbye to it.