《非普通读者》，英国小说家Alan Bennett所著。作者想象了英国女王伊丽莎白二世爱上阅读之后的生活变化。从邂逅流动借书站，到与诺曼的相识，女王的读书习惯渐渐培养起来了；从皇宫的侍卫，到英国首相，周围的人都不理解也不乐意看到女王为什么突然读起书来；从南希·米特福德到普鲁斯特，女王博览群书，却才发现书海没有止境。
文章短小精悍，不着痕迹的英式幽默把故事讲得引人入胜。
选取其中几段翻译。
To begin with, it's true, she read with trepidation and some unease. The sheer endlessness of books outfaced her and she had no idea how to go on; there was no system to her reading, with one book leading to another, and often she had two or three on the go at the same time. The next stage had been when she started to make notes, after which she always read with a pencil in hand, not summarising what she read but simply transcribing passages that struck her. It was only after a year or so of reading and making notes that she tentatively ventured on the occasional thought of her own. "I think of literature," she wrote, "as a vast country to the far borders of which I am journeying but cannot possibly reach. And I have started too late. I wil never catch up." Then (an unrelated thought): "Etiquette may be bad but embarrassment is worse."
首先，她读书的时候确实感到惶恐不安。书是无穷无尽的，她被吓到了，也不知道怎么继续读下去。她读书没有规律，读完一本再接着读另外一本。在同一时段，通常她会同时阅读两到三本书。下一个阶段，她开始做读书笔记。读书的时候，她总是拿着铅笔，不是为了总结她读了什么，而是摘录那些打动她的段落。这样读书和记笔记一年左右之后，她才开始小心翼翼地试着写下自己偶尔的想法。“我觉得文学是”，她写道，“一个广阔的地区，我正在其中畅游，但是它的边界实在太远了，根本不可能到达。而且我起步太晚了。我永远都无法追赶上。”她接着写（不相干的想法）：“礼仪规矩不好，但总好过令人难堪。”
Authors, she soon decided, were probably best met with in the pages of their novels, and were as much creatures of the reader's imagination as the characters in their books. Nor did they seem to think one had done them a kindness by reading their writings. Rather they had done one the kindness by writing them.
很快她就下定决心，与作家的交流最好还是通过他们写的小说。作家不过是读者想象中的人物，正如他们书中的角色也是作家想象出来的。他们不认为读者阅读他们的作品是一件善举，反而他们自己写书才是为了读者好。
That the Queen was not more troubled by Norman's sudden departure might seem surprising and to reflect poorly on her character. But sudden absences and abrupt departures had always been a feature of her life. She was seldom told, for instance, when anyone was ill; distress and even fellow feeling something that being Queen entitled her to be without, or so her courtiers thought. When, as unfortunately happened, death did claim a servant or even sometimes a friend, it was often the first time that the Queen had heard that anything was amiss, "We mustn't worry Her Majesty" a guiding principle for all her servants.
女王并没有因为诺曼的突然离去而太过担忧难过。这看起来可能让人惊讶，有损女王的声誉。但是，面对毫无征兆的离别，一直是女王生活的一部分。举个例子，当有人生病了，没有人会通知女王；作为女王，她是不能有忧虑悲伤之类的感情的，或许她的侍臣就是这样认为的。当她的一个侍仆或者一个朋友不幸去世了，往往那时候女王才刚知道出了事。所有仆人都秉持一个原则，“我们不能让女王担忧。”
In the darknes it came to the Queen that, dead, she would exist only in the memories of people. She who had never been subject to anyone would now be on a par with everybody else. Reading could not change that - though writing might.
Had she been asked if reading had enriched her life she would have had to say yes, undoubtedly, though adding with equal certainty that it had at the same time drained her life of all purpose. Once she had been a self-assured single-minded woman knowing where her duty lay and intent on doing it for as long as she was able. Now all too often she was in two minds. Reading was not doing, that had always been the trouble. And old though she was she was still a doer.
She switched the light on again and reached for her notebook and wrote:"You don't put your life into your books. You find it there."
Then she went to sleep.
在黑暗中，女王想到，如果她死了，她就只能活在人们的记忆中。她从来没有当过谁的臣民，死了之后她就跟她的臣民一样了。读书是无法改变这一点的，但写作可能有用。
如果问到阅读是否丰富了她的生活，女王可以毫不犹豫地给出肯定的回答，尽管阅读也确实让她筋疲力尽。过去，坚定的她只有一种想法，她知道自己的责任，并且有能力的话，她愿意一直承担下去。现在，大部分时候，她有不同的心思。阅读不等同于实干，这一直是个问题。虽然她年纪大了，但她依然是一个实干者。
女王再次打开灯，拿起笔记本，写道：“不要把生活与书混合。要在书中寻找生活。”
"I wonder," she turned to her other neighbour, "whether as professor of creative writing you would agree that if reading softens one up, writing does the reverse. To write you have to be tough, do you not?" Surprised to find himself discussing his own subject, the professor was momentarily at a loss. The Queen waited. "Tell me," she wanted to say, "tell me I am right." But the lord lieutenant was rising to wait upon her and the room shuffled to its feet. No one was going to tell her, she thought. Writing, like reading, was something she was going to have to do on her own.
“我想知道，”她对她的邻座说，“阅读使人温和，写作的作用却是相反的。作为一个创意写作教授，你是不是同意这种说法？要写作的话，你必须得强硬起来，是这样吗？”教授没有想到女王居然会讨论他的教学科目，他有片刻的失神。女王在等着。“告诉我，”女王想跟教授说，“告诉我，我说的是对的吧。”但是治安长官站了起来等着女王发表讲话，整个房间的人都慢吞吞地起立了。女王心想，没有人会告诉她答案。就像阅读，写作也是得她自己一个人干。
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