虽然经历了一些起伏，不过三月是精神状态还不错的一个月。这个月的书读得非常 “存在主义”，让我意识到，只有我直面那些让我感到恐惧的 “存在之事实”，我才有可能真正拥抱与此相伴的欢欣。
Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book. Harper Collins
This is a book about a boy raised in a graveyard.
The premise was pretty obviously inspired by The Jungle Book—who doesn’t want to have written something like The Jungle Book? I had to go back and read about Mowgli and his jungle friends to quench my nostalgia.
All in all, this was a fun read, although I don’t quite enjoy the conspiracy and revenge stuff—I’d rather just watch the boy grow up in a graveyard without him being some kind of astonishingly important figure. Let’s have more ordinary people as protagonists, you know?
劳伦斯·里斯《奥斯维辛：一部历史》，刘爽译，广西师范大学出版社
这是我首次比较深入地了解纳粹大屠杀的历史。说起大屠杀，我从前的印象差不多只有 “惨绝人寰”；可是读这本书，我才知道 “惨绝人寰” 究竟是什么样子——其中种种细节令人失语、背上冒出冷汗。
就如作者所说，此书展现出一个与许多人的看法相悖的事实——即，许多参与大屠杀的军官并非失去主观能动性、机械地服从组织的命令；相反，他们积极地、充满创造性地参与到一项种族灭绝罪行中，改进设施、提高效率，以此争功。
历史的战场总要有人打扫，大屠杀的 “真相” 并不是一个单一的故事。因此我感佩这样凝视深渊的人，因为我们都需要知道，“人” —— “多么高贵的理性！多么伟大的力量！” ——究竟是什么样的东西。
Irvin D. Yalom, Love’s Executioner. Harper Perennial
After When Nietzsche Wept, I’ve had another satisfying and illuminating reading experience with Yalom. Honest, well-structured, equipped with witty titles and well-timed pedagogical messages about psychotherapy. For non-therapists, this would also be a worthy read, since all of us are bound to face the existential themes–death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness–one way or another.
Irvin D. Yalom, The Schopenhauer Cure. Harper Collins.
Brilliant, ingenious dramatization, and all-in-all a wonderful reading experience, as I have learned to expect from Yalom. He calls this novel an “odd amalgam of fiction, psychobiography and psychotherapy pedagogy”–a most successful attempt!
This story has a premise similar to When Nietzsche Wept, but while the latter is set in a fictional past, the former is set in the modern time. Schopenhauer lived in a time when he couldn’t have gotten in touch with psychotherapy, so Yalom created the fictional character Philip, the modern-day reincarnation of Schopenhauer, and put him into group therapy. Potent material!
Nonetheless, I’ve decided, upon finishing this novel, to give myself a break from Yalom for a while. As wonderfully prolific as he is, he has this vexing tendency to recycle his materials, especially when it comes to pedagogical content. It’s understandable but it annoys me when I see it happen. Better to space out his works so I don’t feel like I’m reading repetitive words!
Matt Haig, The Midnight Library . BBC Radio 4
睡前偶然打开来听的有声书。不长，premise 很有趣，但并不算有新意。
听完全书，其中的细节还是打动了我。最近读了很多存在主义心理治疗的文本，这个故事似也在呼应存在主义的课题：关于肩负起生活的自由和责任，关于创造自己的意义。
在网上买书时看到，一时兴起就下了单，看完又立刻转手卖了出去。
短短一册，大体来说是读得很困惑的一本书。也许因为我完全不懂设计，不过整本书似乎脉络和架构并不清晰。讲述具体项目的部分挺有意思，但论述都流于散点，让我这个外行人完全摸不着头脑。
三月令我非常受触动的一本书是星野道夫《森林，冰河与鲸》；写《给不可及之物的赞歌》时，正是因为这个小册子而感到宽慰和宁静。（本篇的头图也是书中所收的星野道夫摄影作品之一。）不过因为慢慢地每天翻几页，到现在也没有读完；就留给四月再写吧。
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