一位CEO的书单

    文字已经深深地融入了唐•格雷厄姆的血液中。他是格雷厄姆控股公司（Graham Holdings）的首席执行官，旗下拥有备考和在线教育公司Kaplan。但是格雷厄姆公司和家族仍以老本行新闻业务著称。直到在去年卖给杰夫•贝佐斯之前，《华盛顿邮报》（Washington Post）一直是格雷厄姆控股公司皇冠上的宝石。格雷厄姆的祖父于1933年买下了《华盛顿邮报》，格雷厄姆的父母都担任过邮报的出版人。他的母亲凯瑟琳•格雷厄姆还写过一本回忆录《个人历史》（Personal History）。唐自己的职业生涯非常庞杂，他在越南服过役，还在华盛顿当过一年半的警察。唐•格雷厄姆抽出一些时间和《财富》聊了聊他的夏季读书清单。以下是对话节选：

    你如何空出时间来阅读？

    读书是我生活中最大的乐趣之一。当度假、旅行或周末的时候，我会多读一些书，但平常也看的不少。

    最喜欢读谁的犯罪侦探小说？

    乔治•佩雷卡洛斯的侦探小说。很多城市都有一名神秘的当地作者，而佩雷卡洛斯便是华盛顿特区的那位。他写过书，并担任过电视剧《火线》（The Wire）其中几集的导演。40年前，我曾是华盛顿的一名警察……他的有些作品也是以这一时期为背景的。他对警察和平民之间的互动描写的特别好。他的确是一名好作家。

    在儿童时代，你最喜欢哪本书？

    《小熊维尼》（Winnie-the-Pooh）系列、苏斯博士的《Horton Hatches an Egg》、约翰•突尼斯的棒球题材小说。他曾是纽约最佳新闻记者。对于当时的我来说，他们所讲述的这些故事非常有吸引力。我也把《小熊维尼》的故事读给我的孩子们听。

    哪本书对你的影响最大？

    在我20岁出头的时候，一位朋友给我寄了本历史作家罗伯特•康科斯特写的《The Great Terrorone》，这是首批描述斯大林统治时期历史的书籍之一。我父亲是二战退伍老兵。在成长过程中我了解了不少有关二战的历史，但是我并不清楚斯大林的为人以及他所代表的一切。《The Great Terror》改变了我对很多事情的看法。

    你认为有关领导力方面人人必读的书是哪本？

    太多了。除了我母亲的书之外，还有丘吉尔的著作《马尔堡：他的人生和时代》（Marlborough: His Life and Times）。该书讲述了丘吉尔的祖先建立反法联盟的故事，当时法国人占领了欧洲大部分领土。这是丘吉尔最好的一本书，而且该书也说明，伟大的领袖的笔下也将诞生伟大的领袖。

    哪些书进入了你的夏季阅读清单？

    弗吉尼亚州前任参议员詹姆士•韦伯刚刚出版了新书《我听见了祖国的召唤》（I Heard My Country Calling）。这是一本有选择性的自传，里面并没有描述他的参议员工作，也没有介绍他为里根总统工作或担任海军部长的经历。该书讲述的是他在军事世家的成长故事，以及他在越南和海军学院服役的经历。真是一本好书。他是最好的一位参议员作家。

    本月还有一本新书出版，名字叫做《On the Rocketship: How Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope》，作者理查德•惠特迈尔。该书颇具正能量，其内容超越了标题本身，也超越了白思豪（现任纽约市市长——译者注），审视了全国特许及公立学校是如何形成联盟并相互改变的。

    我还十分期待罗伯特•提姆伯格的自传《蓝眼睛男孩》（Blue-eyed Boy）。他曾在越战中担任海军陆战队军官，就在他本要离开的前几天，一枚爆炸的手榴弹让他容颜尽毁。他曾做过十几次手术。本书是主人公生活的真实写照，他的伤疤改变了他的容貌，还让他失去了工作。

    译者：翔

    Words are woven into Don Graham’s bloodline. He’s the CEO of Graham Holdings, which today owns test prep and online education company Kaplan. But his company and his family are best known for their newspaper roots. Until its sale to Jeff Bezos last year, the Washington Post was Graham Holdings’ crown jewel. Graham’s grandfather bought the Washington Post in 1933, and both of his parents were Post publishers. In addition, his mother, Katharine Graham, wrote the memoir Personal History. His own career has been wide and varied and includes serving in Vietnam, as well as a year and a half stint as a Washington D.C. policeman. Don Graham took a few moments to chat about his summer reading with Fortune. The following are edited excerpts.

    How do you make time to read?

    Reading is one of the great pleasures of my life. I read more when I’m on vacation or when I’m traveling or on weekends, but I’ve always read a lot.

    What’s your favorite guilty pleasure read?

    George Pelecanos’s detective novels. Lots of cities have a local mystery writer and Pelecanos is the one for D.C. He wrote and directed a few of the episodes of The Wire. Forty years ago I was a cop in D.C. …some of his books take place at the same time, he gets down the interaction between police and citizens really well. He’s a really good writer.

    What was your favorite book when you were a child?

    The Winnie-the-Pooh books, Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hatches an Egg. John R. Tunis’s baseball novels. He was the New York newspaperman of the day. They told stories that just hit me in the right way at that age. I read the Pooh books to my kids again.

    What book has had the most influence on you?

    When I was in my early 20s a friend sent me a book by a historian Robert Conquest, The Great Terrorone—one of the first attempts to write a history of the Stalin regime. My dad was a WWII vet. I had a grown up learning about WWII, but I did not understand who Stalin was and what he stood for. The Great Terror changed the way I thought about a lot of things.

    What’s one leadership book everyone should read?

    There are so many. In addition to my mother’s book, Churchill’s Marlborough: His Life and Times. It’s about Churchill’s ancestor who has to build a coalition against the French, who had conquered most of Europe. It’s Churchill’s best book, which is saying something. A great leader writing about a great leader.

    What’s on your summer reading list?

    James Webb, the former senator from Virginia, just published I Heard My Country Calling. It’s a selective autobiography—there’s nothing about being senator or his time working for Regan or being a secretary of Navy. It’s about his upbringing as military brat and service in Vietnam and naval academy. Hell of a book. He’s the best writer who was a senator.

    There’s a brand-new book published this month called On the Rocketship: How Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope by Richard Whitmire. It’s very optimistic and looks beyond the headlines, beyond DeBlasio, and examines how charter and public schools around the country are forging alliances and changing each other.

    I’m also looking forward to the autobiography Blue-eyed Boy by Robert Timberg. He was a marine officer in Vietnam, and days before he was supposed to leave, a grenade exploded and tore away the front of his face. He’s had dozens of operations and it’s the story of living with an injury that changed his appearance and took his career away.