Recently, Professor Yan Feng's "don't have to read" book list has been widely circulated on the Internet, which has won the recognition of many book friends, after all, life is limited, there are too many garbage books (including some famous masterpieces), and it is necessary to read classic books.
Some books shake your heart and stir your thinking after reading.
What do you think?
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"Don't have to read" the book list
Yan Feng
1, the vast majority of classical Chinese novels: saying this will arouse a strong dislike of many people, but novels are really not our strength. The specific reasons will not be expanded here.
In addition to the four famous works, "Jin Ping Mei", "Ru Lin Wai Shi", "Liaozhai", "Three Words and Two Beats", etc., there are really not many good ones. For example, "Fengshen Yanyi", the characters are rigid, the plot is single, the thinking is stale, and under the fame, it is actually difficult to bear.
One of the things I regret most in my life is that I wrote a "Introduction to the Evolution of the Gods" when I was young, and I was really short of money at that time...
2. The vast majority of modern Chinese literary works from May Fourth to 1949: I admire the pioneering modern literary sages, whose merits are immortal, but this is from the perspective of literary history.
Except for Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Lao She, Zhang Ailing, Cao Yu and a few others, on the whole, they are really naïve, and from the perspective of ordinary readers, they really can't look at it. As a dr. in modern Chinese literature, I have endured for a long time.
3. The vast majority of contemporary Chinese literature from 1949 to 1976: I have basically read them all and have absolute say.
In the works of this period, the proportion of non-literary factors is too large, and these non-literary factors have also changed over time, and they are not what they used to be, so there is no need to eat everything as we were when we were young, and pick up all the dishes in the bowl.
4, the vast majority of contemporary Chinese write historical novels: historical novels are one of the most difficult to write novels, requiring experience, knowledge, temperament, immersion, the most details, charm, pen power, writing skills.
These are particularly difficult for contemporary Chinese. For example, there is a very famous writer of historical novels who describes a feudal official who has been in the late Qing Dynasty for decades:
"Tears flashed in his eyes with excitement"; "He excitedly held Sang Zhiping's hand and said"; "Two pairs of hot hands held tightly"; "Solemn eyes looked out of the window"; "Life is rare and the most love." Yes, it's hard to come by! ”......
Come on, give me a break!
5, the vast majority of Western popular novels: in fact, it is also very bad, the real good looks are so few. Please note that what I am talking about here is only good looks, not good.
I like to read foreign popular novels in my spare time, but this is a very painful hobby, because there are so few good ones to watch. Most of it is garbage, real garbage.
6, the continuation of all famous books: whether Chinese or foreign, the sequels of famous books are very unsuccessful, the reason is very simple: the expectations are too high, this author is not the author of the other.
"Liu Xinwu Continues the Dream of the Red Chamber", "Mrs. Derwent", "Scarlett", "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"... Both perfectly explain an idiom: dog-tailed mink.
Therefore, people who like to continue should be careful...
7, many classic philosophical works: this article will cause a strong dislike of many people, but philosophy has many functions are gradually being replaced by science, so it can also be largely faded out of the vision of ordinary readers.
What's worse is that philosophical works are often very obscure, need to spend a lot of time and energy, and it is difficult to say what can be obtained in the end, so the input and output are disproportionate, and they may also go astray, the risk is very large, and it is prudent to enter!
The literary youth could not help but think of How Heidegger, how Wittgenstein was, how Husserl was. IMHO: Can you read it? Even if you can understand it, is it worth the huge effort you put in for this?
How nice it is to have this time, have a cup of coffee, fall in love, and go out to see a scenery. When I was young, I spent the time others talking about love to nibble on philosophy, and as a result, I didn't chew out anything, only a late marriage.....
8. All success, psychiatry, chicken soup books
Deceitful, useless.
9. All conspiracy theory books
Deceptive, harmful.
Of course, although this "no need to read" list of books is liked by the majority of book lovers, as Professor Yan Feng himself said, many people do not agree with the article that "many philosophical classics do not have to be read".
Regarding the "book that does not have to be read", in the book "Twelve Letters to Youth" by Mr. Zhu Guangqian, a famous contemporary aesthetician and educator, there are some very enlightening views, let's take a look.
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Books are inexhaustible, and it is useless to read them all
Zhu Guangqian
Books are inexhaustible, and it is useless to read them all, and many books have no value in reading. Reading more worthless books loses the time and energy to read a valuable book; so choose carefully.
Naturally, you yourself will not choose, but will have to teach it to critics and specialist scholars. I can't tell you the books you have to read, I can tell you the books you don't have to read.
Many people have a purpose of not reading new books published in modern times. Because many popular new books only cater to the temporary social psychology, it is really worthless, and the books that have survived the elimination of the times are permanent, and they are worth reading once or twice or even countless times.
I dare not advise you not to read new books at all, but I hope that you will pay special attention to this, because modern youth have a tendency not to read new books. Everything else can be learned fashionable, but reading and learning cannot be fashionable.
The books I am referring to that do not have to be read, not new books, books that are talked about books, books that are worth reading a second time, walking into a library, although you see thousands of volumes of paper books, of which the real can be called "books" may be difficult to ten volumes and a hundred volumes.
All you should read is these ten hundred volumes. In the middle of these books, you can not only get more accurate knowledge, but also invisibly absorb the spirit and methods of the university's governance. These books can shake your heart and stir your thinking.
Other reviews, such as the Outline of Literature, the Outline of Science, and the magazines and newspapers, are really not available to you. Instead of reading a thousand volumes of poetry, you should read a "National Style" or "Nineteen Ancient Poems", and instead of reading a thousand volumes of books on Greek philosophy, you should read a Plato's Republic.
You may ask me what books I should read? This is not an easy question to answer.
You probably remember that the Beijing "Beijing News Supplement" once asked for "ten kinds of books that young people must read", and it turned out that some people cited all ten kinds of geometric algebra, and some people cited ten kinds of "Historical Records" and "Book of Han".
This seems to be almost comical to others, but the applicants each have a big truth. Originally, the original intention of this solicitation, to be the standard of all people by the standard of one person, as if I only like to eat noodles, you can not eat rice, is a completely wrong view.
Each person's talents, interests, environment, and occupations are different, how can you come up with ten kinds of books that are like a panacea, for countless young people in the world to read feel the same fun, and have the same effect?
I went out of my way to survey several British public libraries. The most popular books in their Youth Reading Department can be divided into four categories:
1. Adventure novels and travelogues
2. Myths and fables
3. Creature Stories
4. Celebrity biographies and patriotic novels
Among the books represented are Verne's "Eighty Days Around the World", "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", Defoe's "Robinson's Drifting", Dumas's "Three Swordsmen", Hawthorne's "Strange Book", "Dangu Gossip", Kingsley's "Greek Hero Biography" and so on.
Although these books are popular in foreign countries, they are not very suitable for Chinese youth to read. Most of the Chinese students are teenagers and matures, and in the middle school years, they are happy to talk about a little bit of science. They—including you and I, of course—are happy not only to talk about literature, but also to study social and even philosophical questions.
This is a natural tendency, and it cannot be ignored, and my personal opinion may as well be discussed with you. Education after the age of fifteen or sixteen should be developed and understood, and education before the age of fifteen or sixteen should be developed imagination. Therefore, junior high school students should read more imaginary texts, and high school students should read texts containing academic theories.
Speaking of which, I have not yet replied to the question of what kind of book should be read. To be honest, I am not able to reply, I myself have not read a few "must read books for young people", and I have long read some books that must be read in adulthood.
For example, among chinese books, I am most pleased with "National Style", "Zhuangzi", "Chu Ci", "Shi Ji", "Ancient Poetry Source", "Selected Writings", "ShiShu Xinyu", "Tao Yuanming Collection", "Li Taibai Collection", "Huajian Collection", "Selected Words of Zhang Hui", "Dream of the Red Chamber" and so on.
Among foreign books, I am most pleased with the poetry collections of Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, and Browning, the Seven Tragedies of Sophocles, Shakespeare's Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Goethe's Faust, Ibsen's Plays, Turgenev's Virgin's Virginity, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Maupassant's novels, and so on.
If I had been solicited by beijing's Beijing News Supplement, I might have put this antique foreign goods on the list and made it into "ten kinds of books that young people must read." But I know it's ridiculous. So I dare not answer the question of what book you should read now. You should consult a specialized scholar you know and ask each of them to specify three or two kinds of books that young people can read within the scope of their studies.
If you ask a person to think for you in all aspects, for example, if he is a person who studies literature, he may know that the young people's must-read books should contain common sense of social problems and science, etc., and he is not very sure, let's take one or two kinds of pulling together as far as he knows, you are like asking about being blind.
At the same time, you must know that reading is like an adventure, and you can't rely on the guidance of others, and you have to spend some effort to search for it yourself. I have never heard anyone read according to the "ten kinds of books that young people must read" or "one hundred kinds of world famous works" that others have set for him, and then become a scholar.
Others can only be introduced, and the choice is up to you.
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