The Princeton Advanced Guide to Reading: 7 Tips for Discovering Fun from Reading

Editor's Note

People look forward to the "promised land" after contemplation and hard reading, but they stop at the beginning because of the difficulties. In the context of information fragmentation, many people seem to lose the initiative to read. Why do we read? What can I get out of reading? Is it really important to know in advance what you can get?

Reading, inwardly able to touch the concerns of the self, outward can build a connection between the self and the outside world. For those who truly love to read, reading not only inspires us, but also allows us to rediscover ourselves and get in touch with the lives of others, explore the infinite possibilities of the human world, and help us find a breathing space from the mediocrity of everyday life.

In his new book You Are What You Read, New York University scholar Robert DiYanni says that the joy of reading is complex and contradictory, and we both follow the author's perspective and have our own doubts; reading the book alone, but also connecting with others through the content of the book. In his book, he reveals why we should keep reading, while also giving it advice on how to become advanced readers.

The paradoxical pleasure of reading literature

Literary reading is a profound dialectical experience, and the pleasures it brings are often full of contradictions. When we read, we both follow the contents of the book Chinese and confront it. Especially when reading literature, although we do not necessarily agree with the author's values, we still follow the author's perspective, but we also resist what we read, question it, challenge it, and modify it in the way we think it is necessary.

The second paradox is that reading is lonely, but it is also a social process. We often see reading scenes where the reader is immersed in a book, so dedicated that time seems to have stopped. In The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm, Wallace Stevens describes such a engrossed reader who is fused with a book that has become a book where nothing can separate them, and there is not even any need for any reconciliation in it, because they are one.

Paradoxically, however, this seemingly lonely reader is not lonely at all. Everyone who actually reads is at least in contact with the writer himself, the narrator in the book, and the characters in the writer's work.

The pleasure of reading is not entirely an exclusive pleasure, but also a social pleasure—when we talk about a book with a friend or acquaintance, it constitutes a pleasure that transcends the connection between the reader and the writer. This pleasure is also reflected in the reader's participation in book clubs organized by schools, libraries, or other civic associations.

This kind of contradiction can touch the reader's inner concerns inwardly, and push the reader away from the center of the self and reach a farther place. On the one hand, reading focuses on the textual relationships in the work—images, details, actions, and other forms—as reading within the text. On the other hand, reading also looks at the textual connection outside the work, that is, the connection between the text and other texts and contexts, which is the reading between texts. Reading within the text and reading between texts complement each other and complement each other. They deepen each other, enrich each other, and improve each other. They are a dialectical, interlocking relationship.

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Why does reading need to be learned?

The book You Are What You Read responds to this question adequately: Learning to read is because learning to read confidently and skillfully improves the way we live and helps us enjoy life better. Good reading can hone our insight and improve our ability to think, and these skills are important in all aspects of life.

Our reading journey is often accompanied by multiple goals, including access to information, enjoyment, self-satisfaction, self-improvement, guidance, entertainment, touching, inspiration, etc. You Are What You Read hopes to help readers achieve these goals by making them better read.

Reading well, especially literature, is of great value. The value of learning to read well lies in the fun it brings, the knowledge it provides, and its ability to expand the reader's imagination of life.

A good reader should be able to observe the text, observe its outlines and shapes, and listen to the sound of the text. This requires the reader to slow down and savor what they see, hear, and feel. This can train readers to think about the reading process and improve our ability to observe what we read, the key is to slow down, think carefully, and treat it carefully. Learning to read can also explore universal truths in literary works, conduct philosophical thinking, create ourselves, and make the contents of the book intertwine with actual life, thus enriching our lives.

Seven additional suggestions for reading

First, read actively. In the process of reading, active observation, thinking and reasoning are carried out by building connection points between text and text, text and situation. Responsive, responsible forms of reading are serious, even energy-consuming. As Thoreau suggested in Walden, positive reading requires the reader to have the same stamina as an athlete preparing to compete in the Olympiad.

Second, read with expectations, that is, based on the previous content, the subsequent logic or situation is expected. Predictive reading envisions a possibility of a text and therefore requires imagination. Not only that, but the process of reading creates the possibility of satisfying or frustrating our expectations, thus creating the desire to continue reading and thinking. In the latter case, for example, we revise or make new ones that continue to satisfy our desire for success.

Third, it retraces what has already been read, including forward and backward reading, emphasizing the cyclical and spiral reciprocating nature of the reading process. By going back in time as we move forward the text, our text memories are constantly being updated to re-evaluate the situational and logical connections established in previous reading experiences. Reading is a cycle, a regression, not a linear experience. In the process, we move forward and backward at the same time between words, our expectations are modified, our memories are transformed, and we acquire new intellectual experiences. This is done not only for pure pleasure, but also because a second reading can make the work truly our own.

Fourth, to engage in analytical reading, we try to understand, interpret, and illustrate a text—first to ourselves and then to others. Interpretation involves actively creating meaning, not just passively absorbing content. Therefore, to interpret, it is necessary to unfold reasoning; to reason, first of all, it requires intellectual and emotional understanding. This is how the interpretation is based on inferences. Only by achieving rigor in reasoning can we be appropriate in interpretation.

Fifth, while reading, evaluate the value of the work, including how highly we value it and the value that its social, cultural, and moral leanings confer. The greater the attraction of a work, the stronger the arousal of our emotions, the higher the enlightenment of our intellect, the greater its value to us. We may value different works for different reasons. At different times in our life course, we value the same work differently.

Sixth, read the specific poems, plays, novels, stories, essays that interest you, not in general, in broad categories, including novels or plays or poems, or any type of literature, but read a specific work, and then read another work, and then another. Let these works connect and come together. In the process, we'll read about Shakespeare, or Dickinson, or Orwell, or Dickens. We will read Dickens's novels "Desolate Hills" or "Great Prospects"; we will read Shakespeare's plays, "Macbeth", "King Lear" or "The Tempest"; we will read Orwell's essay "The Elephant Hunt" or "Hanging"; and we will read Dickinson's verse: "Tell all the truth but tell it slant; There’s a certain slant of light”。

Seventh, set a reading goal, including several small goals: how long to read every day, week, month, and year. In college, I set myself a target of reading 2 books a week and 100 books a year, and I kept it well for 50 years. That's 5,000 books, or 4,000, because we take into account the repetition of reading. Joseph Luzzi, who teaches at Bard College, recommends switching between 4 different topics and different types of books for 45 minutes a day to enrich their reading experience.

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