Writer David Dobbs: My Top Longreads of 2011
David Dobbs writes articles on science, sports, music, writing, reading, and other culture at Neuron Culture and for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Atavist, Nature, National Geographic, and other publications.
大卫·多布斯 (David Dobbs) 在 Neuron Culture 以及《纽约时报杂志》、《大西洋月刊》、《返祖派》、《自然》、《国家地理》和其他出版物上撰写有关科学、体育、音乐、写作、阅读和其他文化的文章。
He’s working on a book about the genetics of human strength and frailty.
他正在写一本关于人类力量和脆弱的遗传学的书。
He also twitters and tries to play the violin.
他还叽叽喳喳地说话，并尝试拉小提琴。
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Truly we live, as Steve Silberman said, in a time of longform renaissance.
正如史蒂夫·西尔伯曼所说，我们确实生活在一个长期文艺复兴的时代。
The reading year was notable not just for the rise of many long reads and Longreads, but for the debut of The Atavist and Byliner, two new venues for publishing pieces too long for magazines but too short for books.
阅读年的引人注目之处不仅在于许多长读物和长读物的兴起，还在于《返祖派》和《署名者》的首次亮相，这两个新平台出版的文章对杂志来说太长，但对书籍来说太短。
Both, like Longreads, brought me lots of good reading.
两者都像长读物一样，给我带来了很多好书。
And The Atavist, which was first off the blocks, let me publish a story, My Mother’s Lover, for which I had tried but failed to find the right length and form for almost a decade.
最早出版的《返祖者》让我出版了一个故事《我母亲的情人》，近十年来我一直在尝试，但未能找到合适的长度和形式。
Cheers to Longreads for helping spearhead this renaissance—and to you, Constant Reader, for doing the reading that in all but the most immediate sense makes the writing possible.
为 Longreads 干杯，因为它帮助引领了这场复兴，也为你，忠实的读者，干杯，因为你的阅读几乎是最直接的意义上使写作成为可能。
Here are my top 5 longreads of 2011, plus some extras.
以下是我 2011 年最热门的 5 篇长读物，以及一些额外的内容。
My filter: a combination of what I thought best and what continued to resonate with me.
我的过滤器：结合了我认为最好的和持续引起我共鸣的。
Writing is hard.
写作很难。
I’m moved by the dedication to craft in these pieces.
我被这些作品的工艺奉献精神所感动。
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“Autistic and Seeking a Place in an Adult World,” by Amy Harmon, New York TimesHarmon pulls off something extraordinarily difficult here: she draws on little more than straight reportorial observation to show a young autistic man moving out into a world that struggles to accommodate him.
《自闭症患者在成人世界中寻求一席之地》，艾米·哈蒙 (Amy Harmon) 着，《纽约时报》哈蒙在这里完成了一件极其困难的事情：她仅利用直接的报道观察来展示一个年轻的自闭症男子正在走向一个难以容纳他的世界。
Neither is quite ready for the other; yet they engage, as they must.
双方都没有为对方做好准备。但他们必须参与进来。
Gorgeously structured and an immense reward.
华丽的结构和巨大的奖励。
(Bonus: She later tells how she put it together.)
（奖励：她后来讲述了她是如何将它们组合在一起的。）
Janet Malcolm’s “Art of Nonfiction” interview in Paris ReviewMalcolm has written several of the best books I’ve ever read; The Silent Woman haunts me more on every reading.
珍妮特·马尔科姆在《巴黎评论》上接受的“非小说类艺术”采访马尔科姆写了几本我读过的最好的书；每次读《沉默的女人》，我都会更加难以忘怀。
Here she reveals how she did it: a rigorous method wielded by a powerful mind and rarefied sensibility.
在这里，她揭示了她是如何做到的：强大的头脑和敏锐的情感运用了严格的方法。
Equally moving and informative were the Paris Review interview with John McPhee and a Chris Jones conversation with Gay Talese.
同样感人且内容丰富的还有《巴黎评论》对约翰·麦克菲的采访以及克里斯·琼斯与盖伊·塔莱斯的对话。
I am now in love with Talese, though he never calls.
我现在爱上了塔莱斯，尽管他从不打来电话。
“Study of a lifetime,” by Helen Pearson, NaturePearson, Nature’s features editor, shows how fine science writing is done, following a set of researchers researching a set of people and they’re all trying to figure out the same thing: How to make sense of their lives.
Nature 杂志专题编辑 Helen Pearson 的《一生的研究》展示了优秀的科学写作是如何完成的，跟随一组研究人员研究一组人，他们都试图找出同一件事：如何理解他们的生活。
Lovely stuff, true to complex, incredibly valuable science about complex, richly textured lives.
可爱的东西，忠实于复杂的、关于复杂、丰富的生活的极其有价值的科学。
“Climbers: A team of young cyclists tries to outrun the past,” by Philip Gourevitch, The New YorkerYoung Rwandan cyclists try to ride into the future.
《攀登者：一群年轻的自行车手试图超越过去》，菲利普·古雷维奇（Philip Gourevitch），《纽约客》年轻的卢旺达自行车手试图骑进未来。
Some rough road, some fine riding (and writing).
有些道路崎岖，有些骑行（和写作）很好。
“California and Bust,” by Michael Lewis, Vanity FairCalifornia as a formerly developed country.
《加州与胸围》，迈克尔·刘易斯 (Michael Lewis)，《名利场》 加州作为一个前发达国家。
Includes deftly rendered bicycle ride with former governor Schwarzenegger.
包括巧妙地与前州长施瓦辛格一起骑自行车。
Lewis is writing some of the best stuff out there right now.
刘易斯现在正在写一些最好的东西。
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Okay that was 5 and then some.
好吧，那是 5 个，然后是一些。
But these I couldn’t’ leave out:
但我不能忽略这些：
“The Apostate,” Lawrence Wright, The New YorkerThe Church of Scientology versus Wright and the New Yorker fact-checking department.
《叛教者》劳伦斯·赖特，《纽约客》山达基教会与赖特和《纽约客》事实核查部门。
Former is overmatched.
前者已被超越。
“The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist,” by Rich Shapiro, WiredRiveting and bizarre.
里奇·夏皮罗（Rich Shapiro）的《项圈炸弹抢劫案的难以置信的真实故事》，《连线》引人入胜且奇异。
“The Promise,” by Joe Posnanski, at Joe BlogsPromises made, broken, and kept, variously, by Bruce Springsteen, the United States of America, and Posnanski’s dad.
乔·波斯南斯基 (Joe Posnanski) 的《承诺》(The Promise)，乔博客 (Joe Blogs) 布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀 (Bruce Springsteen)、美利坚合众国和波斯南斯基 (Posnanski) 的父亲分别做出、打破和遵守的承诺。
4 stars easy, 5 if you love Bruce.
4星很容易，5星如果你喜欢布鲁斯。
And who doesn’t?
谁不呢？
“What Made This University Researcher Snap?” by Amy Wallace, WiredHow and why a scientist went postal.
“是什么让这位大学研究员崩溃了？”作者：艾米·华莱士 (Amy Wallace)，《连线》(WiredHow) 以及科学家为何选择邮寄。
Amy Wallace gets inside a scary head.
艾米·华莱士陷入了可怕的头脑中。
too many Daves, by David QuiggBlatant cheating, as this is a blog, and Quigg almost always writes very short posts But he’s reading long stuff, all good, and responding to it beautifully as writer and reader; almost no one gets so much done in so little space.
大卫·奎格（David Quigg）写的太多戴夫（Daves），公然作弊，因为这是一个博客，奎格几乎总是写很短的帖子，但他正在阅读长篇文章，所有内容都很好，并且作为作家和读者做出了漂亮的回应；几乎没有人能在如此狭小的空间内完成如此多的工作。
If you harbor even a spark of literary love, he’ll fan it.
如果你怀有哪怕一丝文学之爱的火花，他都会为你煽风点火。
Disclosures: The Atavist and Nature published stories of mine this year, and Wired.com (actually a separate outfit from Wired the magazine) hosts my blog.
披露：《Atavist》和《Nature》今年发表了我的故事，《Wired.com》（实际上是《Wired》杂志的一个独立机构）托管我的博客。
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Share your own Top 5 Longreads of 2011, all through December.
整个 12 月，分享您自己的 2011 年 5 首长读作品。
Just tag it #longreads on Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook.
只需在 Twitter、Tumblr 或 Facebook 上标记#longreads 即可。