April 23 is "World Book Day", but for book lovers, every day is a reading day. If reading is only advertised on the day of reading, this day is only a formal symbol.
Books should be the most loyal and kind friends in your life;
Reading should be a life impulse to continuously improve the spiritual world and pursue knowledge.
"How big is the difference between those who read and those who don't"
Author/Lin Yutang
1
Benefits of reading books.
This is easy to see when we compare the difference in the lives of a non-reader with a reader.
The person who did not develop the habit of reading was imprisoned by the world before him in terms of time and space.
His life was mechanical and rigid, he only talked to a few friends and acquaintances, and he only saw what was happening around him. He can't escape from this prison.
But when he picked up a book, he immediately went into a different world, and if it was a good book, he immediately came into contact with one of the most talkative people in the world.
The interlocutor guided him forward, took him to a different country or a different era, or vented some personal remorse to him, or discussed with him some learning or life question that he never knew existed.
An ancient writer makes the reader travel with a dead man who has long ago, and as he reads, he begins to imagine what that ancient writer looked like and what kind of person he was.
And that's not all. Readers are often brought into a realm of thought and reflection by books.
Even if it is a book about real things, there is a difference between seeing or experiencing those things with one's own eyes and reading about them in a book, because what is narrated in a book often becomes a scene, and the reader becomes a cold observer.
So, the best reading is the one that takes us into this contemplative state of mind, not the one that only reports the beginning and end of the story.
2
What kind of books to read, what kind of person to become.
I don't think people spend a lot of time reading newspapers, because the average newspaper reader is probably only aware of reports of events or events, and has no value in contemplation.
In my opinion, the Song Dynasty poet Huang Gu said the most wonderful thing about the purpose of reading. He said: "If you don't read it for three days, you will feel that the language is tasteless and your face is hateful."
What he meant, of course, was that reading gives a sense of elegance and flavor, and that this is the whole purpose of reading, and that only reading with this purpose can be called art.
The purpose of reading is not to "improve the mind," because when one begins to want to improve one's mind, all the pleasure of reading is lost.
He forced himself to read Shakespeare's Hamlet one night, and it was as if he had woken up from a nightmare, and he had gained nothing from it except that he had "read" it.
If a person reads with a sense of obligation, he does not understand the art of reading.
Therefore, according to the Huang Gu clan's speech, the kind of reading aimed at cultivating the elegance of personal appearance and the flavor of conversation is the only commendable method of reading.
This outward elegance clearly does not refer to physical beauty. Wong's "abomination" does not mean physical ugliness. Ugly faces can sometimes have a touching beauty, and beautiful faces can sometimes be annoying.
3
How to read a book.
Whether a person's conversation has a "taste" or not depends entirely on his reading method.
If the reader gets the "flavor" of the book, he will express it in his conversation, and if he has flavor in his conversation, he will inevitably show it in his writing.
So, I think flavor or hobby is the key to reading everything.
This hobby, like the craving for food, is necessarily selective and personal. Eating what a person likes to eat is the most hygienic way to eat after all, because he knows that eating these things must be smooth in terms of digestion.
Reading is the same as eating, "it is a tonic for one person, and a poison for others." "Teachers can't force students to read what they like, and parents can't expect their children to have the same hobbies as they do.
If the reader is not interested in what he reads, then all the time is wasted. And when one's mind and experience have not reached the level of reading a masterpiece, that masterpiece will only leave a bad taste.
4
When to read, where to read.
In China, students are often encouraged to "study hard". There was a well-known scholar who practiced hard study, and once when he was napping at night while studying, he took an awl and thorned it in the thigh. And another scholar, while reading at night, called a maiden to stand beside him, and when she saw him napping, she woke him up.
It's ridiculous.
If a person has a book in front of him and snoozes while the writers of ancient wisdom speak to him, then he should simply go to bed and go to sleep.
Putting a needle in his calf or waking him up didn't do him any good. Such a person has lost all the interest in reading. Valuable scholars don't know what "grinding" is, and they don't know what "hard study" is. They just love books and can't help but keep reading.
After this question is solved, the question of when and where to read the book can also be answered. There is no right time or place to study.
When a person is in the mood to read, he can read anywhere. If he knows the joy of reading, he will read whether he is in school or outside school, whether there is a school in the world or not.
5
The true art of reading.
So, what is the true art of reading? The simple answer is to pick up a book and read it when you're in the mood.
A person must read books out of his own nature in order to be able to fully enjoy the pleasure of reading.
He could take a copy of the Lisao, or the work of Omar Khayyam (the Persian poet), and take his lover by the hand to read it by the river.
If there are lovely white clouds in the sky, then let them read the white clouds and forget about the books, or read the books and the white clouds at the same time.
Reading and talking
Qian Mu: Reading should be interesting first
The purpose of reading is to put it simply, and it can be divided into two ways. The first is to seek a career for oneself, find a way out, seek food and clothing for one's family, and even close to fame and power, all from the standpoint of personal self-interest. The first is to read purely from an interest and enthusiasm for knowledge. There are two sides here, some because of their own temperament and hobbies, from an internal requirement to the road of reading, and some because of environmental problems and needs, from an external stimulus to the road of reading, in fact, these two sides often blend and reflect each other, and do not have to be strictly separated.
The two ways of reading mentioned above are sometimes incompatible. A person who studies for his own self-interest is not completely contrary to his own internal temperament and hobbies, and he has not been able to contribute considerably to the state and society, and to his present environment. A person who sets out purely for the interest and enthusiasm of knowledge does not want to find a career and find a way out, does not want to take care of his net worth, and even hopes to enjoy a considerable position. However, the difference is a millimeter, and the error is a thousand miles. In the end, there is a huge difference between the two roads. For example, the building house, one is a hotel, the other is a family house. The house is not indispensable to be used as a hotel, and the hotel is not indispensable to the use of a family's home, but in the end the nature is different, and the pros and cons are very different. As for the current general practice of blasphemy, whether it is mostly for the purpose of building hotels or building family homes, it is best for each person to reflect on himself, criticize himself, and understand for himself.
Ji Xianlin: The first good thing in the world is reading
There are no two ways for mankind to preserve wisdom for thousands of years, one is physical objects, such as the Great Wall, etc., and the other is books, the latter being the mainstay.
Before the invention of writing, wisdom was preserved by memory, and after the invention of writing, books were used. When you take out the memories in your mind and put them on paper, you form books, which are the treasure troves of wisdom that have been passed down from generation to generation.
The next generation must read in order to inherit and carry forward the wisdom of their predecessors. The reason why human beings can progress and never stop moving forward is because they can read and write books.
I often think that the development of human beings is like a relay race, where the first generation runs the first baton, and the second generation takes over the baton and runs the second baton, and then the third and fourth batons, and runs forever, forever, and so on, and so on, and so on and so on, and the inheritance of wisdom is also endless.
This kind of inheritance mainly depends on books, and books are a major event related to the inheritance of human wisdom, so why is reading not "the first good thing in the world"?
Liang Xiaosheng: Only reading can resist loneliness for a long time
No one should make the mistake of thinking that loneliness and loneliness will never find their way. The truth of modern society tells us that those two things will strike us sooner or later.
As for the intellectuals, I think that because the loneliness felt is often deeper, there is a need to have a stronger ability to resist loneliness.
This kind of ability, apart from being cultivated through reading, I can't contribute any other way at present.
The most valuable ability that knowledge gives to intellectuals is the ability to think. Because by the power of thought, no matter how lonely a person may be, he will never lose his last conversation partner, and that is himself. Talking to himself, even if he just did something that seemed to others to do nothing, he was enough to resist a long, long loneliness. If you are lucky enough to have a pen and enough paper, loneliness and terrible loneliness may blossom unexpectedly.
Wang Meng: Read some strenuous books
A valuable book is characterized by its ability to be recognized above the average level of a period and is the result of a higher level. It is actually aiming at the Himalayan peak of the spirit, it raises rather than lowers or panders to the masses, and its cognitive level must not be more stupid or lower than the average cognitive level. The popularization of culture is conducive to cultural democracy, but at the same time, it will inevitably produce cultural garbage. And, of course, there is the garbage that pretends to be sophisticated.
I'm advocating reading a little bit of effort. Read a little bit of books that you are not used to, and read a little bit of books that require you to check information, ask for advice, and discuss with teachers and friends. In addition to interesting books, read a little serious books. In addition to books that break news, books about miracles, and books that vent, we need to read books of science, logic, analysis, and innovation and artistic courage. In addition to books that go downstream, you should also read books that climb up and need to be weighed. In addition to the books you are familiar with in the vernacular, recitation and lecture books, you should also read books with a little academy atmosphere, ancient Chinese books, foreign language books, and tome books. In addition to the books that you know well, you should also read books that you have read little in the past, so that you don't laugh or marvel after reading for ten minutes, but you can't find the feeling for a while.