Later, in the era of internet fragmentation, making a list of books became a routine action. There is a crazy list on Douban and a book list on Zhihu. Foucault, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Husserl ... However, I believe many people will feel illiterate when they read these classic lists of must-read.
Collect these classics you have to read and put them in your Kindle until it is full of 4G or 8G memory, which is about 8000 to 10000 books. Then you will find out what kind of frustration it is to never finish reading these books in your life.
However, what is even sadder is that when you make up your mind to eat some classic books, you find that they are either obscure or unable to read because of outdated concepts. There are some classic works in the field. After reading them, they found that unless you want to dig deep in this field, it is really a waste of time. It is better to collect new works and papers in this field as soon as possible and get a systematic understanding.
Therefore, after years of reading, I have formed a set of unnecessary reading purposes in my mind, so as to eliminate those unnecessary time-wasting classics from the vast pile of books (only representing my personal views):
An out-of-date and outdated bibliography
There is such a book, which was published long ago and suddenly became popular after a long time. Their popularity doesn't actually mean how classic the content itself is, but often just because of timing or official recommendation.
Chrysanthemums and knives;
This book is a fossil book written by American anthropologist ruth benedict and published in 1946. Aren't these two pieces of information enough to explain everything? This is a book written for Americans, which provides a window for Americans to understand oriental civilization. On the contrary, the Japanese nationality discussed in it has made countless people have a sense of identity with China and regard it as Japan's refusal to plead guilty.
Such a book written with the brush strokes of the western civilization center should have been resisted by the eastern civilization, but it has always been interpreted by us as a classic. Moreover, 60 or 70 years later, we still understand Japan according to the conclusion of this book.
The national character that Chrysanthemum and Knife tried to explore is a very outdated concept today. Today, no sociologist will assert the eternal characteristics of a society by analyzing the national characteristics of a person or an emotion in the history of the times. This way of inferring the reasons from the results is originally a wrong view of history, let alone talking about today's citizens.
If you have seen Chrysanthemum and Knife, you are deeply impressed by the judgment describing the Japanese character, and suggest detoxification as soon as possible. Today, with the development of information, documentary printed matter is a dime a dozen. Compared with finding clues in a pile of old paper, we can better understand this neighbor separated only by clothes and water.
Interpretation of dreams;
With the exposure of the Stanford prison experiment, psychology, as a science, is always in jeopardy because of its natural weakness in argumentation. And if this book is a must-read for introductory psychology classics, I'm afraid it's also a disaster.
The Interpretation of Dreams is a classic work of Freud, which was written very early and regarded as the beginning of understanding the psychological process of the subconscious. The book puts forward that "dreams are the satisfaction of unconscious desires", "Oedipus complex is everywhere" and "children's sexual consciousness and motivation" all provide quite meaningful ideas for psychological research.
But as a must-read classic, I'm afraid it will cause too many misunderstandings. The interpretation of dreams is full of Freud's personal subjective assumptions, too much of which cannot be falsified, let alone considered as reasonable scientific arguments. Therefore, if we can't reasonably collect pearls in this muddy book, it will inevitably directly affect people's cognition of psychology.
If you really want to know and understand psychology, you might as well start with theoretical books. Psychology and life, social psychology and saying no to pseudo psychology are all more suitable choices than dream interpretation.
Mob:
Gustav. Le Pen's Mob-A Study of Popular Psychology can be said to be the most familiar face among booklist maniacs, and it is very enjoyable to read. It's like a collection of gossip, which makes people feel a strong sense of intellectual rise. After reading the book, they seem to be outside the populist culture. Looking at this group of "rabble", they naturally have a sense of carefree when everyone is drunk and I wake up alone.
This book itself should not be regarded as a classic must-read. From the perspective of social psychology, this book lacks sufficient logical argument. What the whole article has is how to attract readers to applaud with more passionate tone and direct value judgment.
China's criticism of the national character of Latin nation in Mob is supplemented by his criticism of the national character of China. Many aphorisms and strikingly consistent examples really make China people feel carefree. Yes, no country in the world looks down on China people more than China people. These endless words, such as "your country's pills" and "your country's magical country", combined with this book, have played a role in self-denial.
I don't think I have to read it, not because this book is not good, but because I don't want to see such another form of populism, which will bring new divisions to culture.
Meditation:
This ancient and ancient book, recommended by the top, inexplicably became a classic and had to make people feel magical.
When the Analects of Confucius and Mencius were recommended, no one read them; When recommending Zi Tong Zhi Jian and Shi Shuo Xin Yu, no one read them. On the contrary, this translated and retranslated work from countries with different cultures and histories suddenly became an explosive product.
Because it is easy to read, take a few minutes to read a few famous sayings that are easy to understand and spread. Add a few slightly eye-catching nouns, such as "ancient Rome", "Marcus Aurelius" and "Stoicism", and you will always feel like a cultured person.
I don't think it's necessary to read it, because these translated three-handed characters are not deeper than our four books. If you just want to find some famous aphorisms, aphorisms are more appropriate.
An exciting philosophical work
Pretending to be forced is the characteristic of this era, and for young artists, talking about philosophy seems to be a means to reflect coercion. Looking at the top-ranked "A Brief History of Western Philosophy" and "Sophie's World" on the best-selling list, we can know that young artists are full of curiosity about the philosophical world, but stop at obscure philosophical works.
If someone doesn't graduate with a Ph.D., but often talks to you about Hegel, Husserl and Heidegger ... you can boldly tell them. If he talks to you about ethics, you can talk to him about body and mind. He talks to you about the relationship between the language system and the world, and you talk to him about the structure and logic of science itself; In short, you can't understand each other, and you can't see the depth of each other clearly. You only need to have a superficial understanding of the theoretical content of these philosophers, and you can probably talk to him for a few days and nights without showing your true colors.
In the philosophical contempt chain of literary youth, the more popular books should not appear on the recommendation list, and the more niche works are sought after. If you ask him to recommend some books about philosophy to you, he will definitely not recommend History of Western Philosophy and History of China Philosophy, but tell you to read Introduction to Logical Philosophy by Wittgenstein, Ethics by Spinoza and Existence and Time by Heidegger ... Then you will find that you can't even read the second chapter of these books.
Today's philosophical research is not thousands of years ago, when people stood under the colonnade and were impassioned. It has entered a more subdivided field, and the research is more obscure. At the same time, with the intervention of scientific development, many functions of philosophy in the past have been replaced by science.
How can you not be a student of philosophy? There is really no need to read those obscure philosophical works. Even if you read it, you probably don't understand it. Is it not good to have this time to enjoy life and watch a movie tour?
Conspiracy theories work
Conspiracy theories, a toxic category, are popular precisely because human nature is always willing to spy on secrets and prefers to cover up the original stories with darker explanations.
Currency War is a typical example, and it has been published in five editions so far. It is about the Rothschild family, a Jew who came to the United States from Europe and manipulated the world through financial conspiracy. Making waves in the financial sector, controlling the lifeblood of the global economy, and accumulating wealth of more than 500 trillion US dollars ... It doesn't sound like an economic work, but fantasy novel.
Apollo 1 1 moon landing conspiracy, American 91/conspiracy, American 5 1, Illuminati, etc. Conspiracy theories all tell sensational and fascinating stories.
This kind of story should be read as an interesting story. If you really want to take it seriously, it is really poisoned.
Biography of China
Domestic biographies of celebrities are most used to inferring reasons from results. Many words are written in spring and autumn, and the content is shoddy and selected everywhere, which eventually becomes a best seller in the airport bookstore.
Don't read such books. It is very simple and convenient to write the story of a popular and successful person. It has a very easy formula, how to grow, how to shape people's design, how to face life problems, how to meet life mentors, how to choose, how to act and how to face a successful life. ...
Success is a story that is difficult to identify and copy. Especially in business, there are more complicated reasons. Opportunity, environment, personality and choice all affect the final result. If you read these words collected everywhere, you can cultivate invincible magic, and then I'm afraid everyone is a business wizard.
Really meaningful words, the secret of success, will not be hidden in such bestsellers, but need to draw nutrients from more basic words and build a personal knowledge system at a lower level.
On this earth, hundreds of thousands of new books are published every year, and the information content on the Internet is infinitely expanding. Massive information impacts the eyes and mind, making people unable to think. At this time, if you waste time reading a bad book that is unnecessary, it feels like eating a fly.
Life is short and the sea of books is boundless. Don't waste your life on meaningless words. You can watch movies, travel and play games ... better than being trapped by a bad book and never believing that there will always be a good book.
There is no necessary reading list in life. A book that suits you, a book that you are willing to read and explore, whether elegant or vulgar, professional or ordinary, is a must-read as long as you like it.
Grandpa Martin said in Game of Thrones, "Reading can experience a thousand kinds of lives, and people who don't read can only live once. May each of us experience countless lives.