How long have you not calmed down and read a book? One month? A year? Or have you not touched a book since you graduated? While we are pondering, are we not a little annoyed that we have not read well? For those who want to work hard and want to make themselves better by acquiring more knowledge, but for various reasons, they have repeatedly "missed the appointment" in the matter of reading books, it must be chagrin.
According to the national reading survey report, the reading rate of china's national books in 2020 is 59.5%, and the per capita paper book reading volume of adult citizens in 2021 is 4.56.
It is conceivable that the number of people reading books, especially the people who read paper books, is getting fewer and fewer, and now people seem to have as long as they have a little leisure time, they are basically brushing their mobile phones.
The first chapter of "How to Read a Book" raises the question of whether these new-age communication media can really improve our understanding of the world.
It mentions: "Electronic devices such as radios, televisions, and mobile phones have replaced some of the functions provided by books in the past, while photographs have replaced some of the functions of drawing or artistic design." ”
The channels through which we receive information are diverse, but in fact, too much information, like too little information, is a kind of obstacle to understanding, in other words, the modern media is overwhelmingly flooding with information that hinders our understanding.
The reason for this phenomenon is:
The information efficiency of these beautifully packaged media is too high, so that the audience, listeners, and readers do not need to make their own conclusions, on the contrary, directly put the packaged ideas into their own minds, just like the video recorder is willing to accept the videotape, so that the idea is needless.
That is to say, we lack the important link of thinking about ourselves, and only what we think and digest will truly belong to us.
As the scholar Zhou Guoping once mentioned: I hope that young people will not just look at the words of those famous quotes, but systematically read down their favorite books one by one.
Yes, instead of relaxed and casual leisure activities, reading requires us to mobilize our brains to think deeply.
Moreover, have you found that in fact, the more fragmented information you receive, the more irritable your mentality becomes, and it is difficult to calm down.
Reading can replace the loneliness and emptiness brought by mobile phones, making people more quiet and more able to think deeply.
Especially like teenagers should read more good books, the history of adolescents' spiritual development is his reading history, reading not only affects the learning life of adolescents, but also profoundly affects their cultural literacy, spiritual world and future growth trajectory.
Reading, reading, of course, we are more referring to reading good books, reading classic books.
Like some nutritious online novels, although they could enjoy themselves at the time, they really couldn't learn anything except to pass the time.
I remember a classmate in high school, she is because she loves to read online romance novels, the grades fell from the top five in the class to more than thirty, it is simply cliff-like, the teacher also talked to her for this, but she was too addicted, or secretly looked, self-study pressed under the textbook to see, at night everyone rested in the corridor to see, and finally can imagine, the college entrance examination she was only admitted to a third-rate college. Now that I think about it, applying this energy to learning, the situation today must be very different.
Of course, we also understand a lot of truths, but we don't have self-discipline, so although most people can understand the importance of reading, not everyone can take the time to read a book in its entirety.
However, if the willingness to read a book is already rooted in the heart, you are willing to plan to read for this purpose, time is like water in a sponge, and there will always be a squeeze.
People who want to read, no matter how busy, will also use fragmented time to read, each person has 86400 seconds a day and night, who is not more than anyone and not less than anyone.
Just like Xiao ma Song teacher, he made full use of the fragmented time to read, collected 20,000 top creative works in the past ten years, and also collected the world's most classic copywriting, constantly promoting his own growth, and finally from a boilermaker to a creative director of an advertising agency.
Some people say that I just can't get interested in reading books, I just feel bored.
In fact, interests and habits can also be cultivated, you can start from the books you are interested in, slowly cultivate your interest in reading, slowly you will find the beauty of reading, do not find that obscure books at the beginning, hit personal interest.
When we are faced with a highly professional book, it is really difficult to be as relaxed and focused as a book on a story.
However, there are also methods of reading, as long as you master the methods, you can read fast and good.
Many people read books (including myself at the beginning) as soon as they get the book, starting from the first page, word by word, even if they encounter some less important information or are not interested, they are forced to read it, it seems that reading the book in this way can have a beginning and an end, in order to more perfectly understand the content of the book.
It wasn't until I read the book "How to Read a Book" that I had a new understanding of reading.
The authors of the book were Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doron, who published the first edition of How to Read a Book in 1940, and in 1970 Adler found Van Doeren's adaptation of How to Read a Book, which is the same version we see now. Adler is a legendary figure in the American academic and publishing circles, Van Doron is a professor at Columbia University in the United States, born in the family of scholars, is a well-read, very talented person.
It's a classic reading guide on how to read, and it topped the U.S. bestseller list. The reading methods and techniques inside are very helpful for reading books.
The French scholar Pascal said 300 years ago: "Read too fast or too slowly, and you will get nothing." ”
Francis Bacon also said: "Some books only need to be tasted, some books are swallowed, and a few books have to be chewed and swallowed slowly." ”
"How to Read a Book" addresses this problem, proposing that different speeds of reading are the solution, our goal is to read better, but sometimes to read slower, sometimes to read faster. Only the reader gets nourishment from the book is a good read.
The book talks about the four levels of reading: basic reading, examination reading, analytical reading, and thematic reading. The four levels are progressive in turn and are based on the previous level.
Basic reading is a stage of text reserve, and basic reading ability is required.
The second one is to read.
When we get a book, the first thing is skimming and rough reading, which is the first step for the reader to want to understand the content of the whole book, and if you want to judge that you are not interested in the book, you can also use this speed reading method.
Systematic skimming and rough reading can sort out the general content of the book and roughly understand the structure of the book.
How to do it?
First look at the title page and the preface, here will be a general introduction to the book.
Then study the table of contents pages to get a general understanding of the basic structure of the book.
We also need to take a look at the index and the introduction of the publisher, and the above points are basically enough to judge whether this book is worth reading carefully.
If we feel interested, we can then pick a key chapter related to the topic to take a look at, read it, especially pay attention to the last two or three pages, usually the author will re-sort out the important points later.
Usually reading with problems will help you digest the book better, and at the same time, don't forget to take notes, it will help you make a book better for yourself.
The third analysis reads.
At this stage, we are first asked to make an accurate positioning and classification of the books we read. Only by understanding the classification of this book can we better complete the following reading.
In this stage, we not only know what the author is talking about, but even express it in their own language, and according to the order and relationship of the content, disassemble the book, draw up the outline of the book, and also find out the questions that the author is asking, or the problems that he wants to solve.
Analysis of reading this stage, the author listed a total of fifteen rules about the analysis of reading comprehension, and the fifteen rules were explained in detail, fifteen rules, step by step, continuous deepening, can help us better understand the whole book, this process may be somewhat difficult and complicated, especially when we start how to apply these rules into our daily reading, which requires us to slowly understand in reading, to experience, but through such a process, We can better understand this book more thoroughly.
At the end of this section, the author also talks about the interaction between the reader and the author of a book. Readers should comment on a book as if they were communicating knowledge, not by criticizing it lightly, not arguing to the end, especially if you don't fully understand the book.
As Cervantes said, "No book is too bad to find the slightest benefit." ”
The fourth is topic reading.
This is the highest level of reading, and there are certain requirements for the reader's reading ability.
Topic reading is a way to read a large number of books on the same topic in a certain amount of time.
We need to take the questions to review the reading books, find the relevant chapters, find the parts related to the theme, and sort out the themes, arrange the problems according to the theme, define the topics and analyze the discussion.
The more active you read, the better you read, and the author believes that only this way is true reading, with the help of no external forces, with inner strength, playing with the words in front of you, to think, to deliberate, and slowly improve yourself, from only vague ideas to clearer understanding.
No matter what you do in the world, if you want to do better, you will always pay attention to some methods and skills, use the right method, do more with less, reading is no exception, I hope that you who love books can also read better.