Nowadays, there are many forms of reading, such as internet, TV and other media. Reading is the interaction of communication and acceptance. No matter what form it takes, reading is almost an instinct. Since mankind entered the history of faith or civilization, it is still an instinct. Old, but not old In today's colorful world, reading is still a basic life skill.
I have studied for many years. Do I really know how to read? I don't think so. At least now, when I am reading, I still feel sleepy. Sometimes I look around, look around, and there are often books that I haven't finished reading. What's more, I really finished watching them. I don't remember at all. So while having tea with Mr. Gao today (the income of a full-time self-media person is more than ten times that of my job), I want to ask him for advice.
Teacher Gao said: "Great writers are often great readers, but that doesn't mean they have read all the books. Just reading is indispensable in our life. In many cases, they read fewer books than we did in college, but they read well. Because they are proficient in the books they read, they can compete with the authors. They have the right to be an excellent writer. In this case, good students usually become teachers and good readers become writers. "
Teacher Gao recommended a great book How to Read, which lit a fire in my heart: to be a great reader. When I got home, I looked for this book. The author of this book is mortimer adler (1902-200 1), which enjoys a high reputation in education, scholars and editors. In addition to editing German classics in the western world, he also served as the editorial director of the Encyclopedia Britannica 15 in 1974. After reading the author's background and combining with Mr. Gao's words, I think it is necessary to buy a book and read it well. The following is my experience from reading this book. If you think it is valuable, click "Read it again" and then summarize my experience into a short paragraph to share.
The author of How to Read a Book divides reading into four levels: basic reading, investigation reading, analytical reading and thematic reading.
The first level of reading-basic reading
The core of basic reading is to recognize words and sentences, which can make simple reading comprehension. Basic reading can be roughly divided into four stages.
The first stage, reading preparation stage, is equivalent to preschool education or kindergarten learning experience.
The second stage, literacy, is equivalent to a first-year student. As a result of this stage, children have learned what we call the second stage of reading skills, or the reading ability of the first grade, or the most basic reading and writing ability.
In the third stage, vocabulary growth and text application are usually a learning method at the end of the fourth grade (but not comprehensive, even for normal children). The achievement of this stage can be called "fourth grade literacy" or "functional literacy", that is, you can easily read traffic signs, picture descriptions, fill in simple government-related forms and so on.
In the fourth and final stage, students will graduate from primary school or junior high school. This stage is sometimes called eighth grade, ninth grade or tenth grade literacy. To some extent, the child has become a "mature" reader. He can read almost all books, but he is not sophisticated enough. In short, his maturity prepared him for high school courses. Anyway, he is not a mature reader. But he has mastered the first level of reading, that's all. He can read by himself and is ready to learn more reading skills. But he still doesn't know how to go beyond basic reading and do further reading. Generally speaking, in the four stages of basic reading, there are teachers to guide, answer questions and eliminate problems that will occur at this stage. Only by mastering the four stages of basic reading can children be prepared to enter a higher reading level. Only when he can read by himself can he begin to teach himself. Only in this way can he become a truly excellent reader.
The Second Level of Reading —— Examining Reading
Examining reading, on the basis of basic reading, has certain requirements for improving reading level. Investigation reading can be divided into systematic rough reading and shallow reading.
(A) the systematic method of rough reading
First of all, you don't know if you want to read this book. You don't know whether this book is valuable or not. But you think, or as long as you can dig out valuable information, these information and opinions will be useful to you; Secondly, let's assume-usually, you want to explore everything, but time is limited-that you have actually read the whole book, or some people call it skimming. Skimming or skimming is the first layer of reading. Your goal in mind is to find out whether this book is worth spending more time reading carefully. Third, even if you decide not to spend more time reading this book carefully, skimming can tell you a lot. When you browse, you may find that this book is only useful for you at present. The value of this book is nothing more than that. But at least you know what the author's important ideas are, or what kind of books he wrote. Therefore, your time skimming this book is definitely not wasted.
For reviewing reading, the author's suggestions are:
(1) Look at the title
Pay special attention to the subtitle, or other relevant explanations or purposes, or the author's special angle in writing this book. Before completing this step, you have an idea of the theme of this book. If you like, you will stop and classify the book into a specific type in your mind. Such as economics, sociology, management, psychology, fiction, fiction or practicality. What books are included in this category and whether they are similar to this book.
(2) research catalogue
Have a general understanding of the basic structure of this book. It's like looking at a map before a trip.
(3) Read the preface
Through the preface, we can quickly evaluate the scope of topics involved in the book and find keywords, key sentences and key paragraphs, which are related to the author's intention and attitude and are likely to be the key points.
(4) Packaging introduction
If it is a new book wrapped in a book cover, you may wish to see the introduction of the publishing house.
Many people's impression of advertising copy is nothing more than boasting and exaggerating. But this is often biased, especially for some argumentative papers. Generally speaking, the propaganda drafts of many books are written by the author with the assistance of the corporate propaganda department of the publishing company. These authors tried their best to sum up the main idea of the book correctly. These important general paragraphs should not be ignored, it is the most effective and simple place for us to understand the core idea of this book. Of course, if the promotional materials don't mention any key points and just brag, you can easily see through them. However, it will also help you learn more about this book. Maybe there is nothing important to talk about in the book-that's why they can't find any publicity materials.
After completing these four steps, you will have enough information about a book to judge whether you want to read the book more carefully. In either case, you can put this book aside for the time being. If not, now you are ready to actually browse a book.
(5) Start and end
From your general impression, even vague impression, of a book catalogue, start to pick some chapters that seem to be closely related to the theme. If there are summaries at the beginning or end of these chapters (many chapters have them), please read them carefully.
(6) The last step is to open the book and read a paragraph or two at will.
Sometimes I read several pages in a row, but don't read too much. Read the whole book in this way, randomly find the position of the main argument, and pay attention to the basic context of the theme. Above all, don't ignore the last two or three pages. Even if there is a postscript at the end, the last two or three pages of a book can't be ignored. Few writers can resist the temptation to rearrange what they think is new and important in the last few pages. Although sometimes the author's own views are not necessarily correct, you should not miss this part.
Now you have browsed a book systematically. You have finished the first stage of reading. Now, in a few minutes, not more than an hour, you have learned the book. In particular, you need to know whether this book contains what you want to continue exploring and whether it is worth your time and energy. You should also know more clearly than before that this book should be classified in your mind so that you can refer to it when you need it in the future.
By the way, this is a very active reading. If a person is not flexible enough to concentrate on reading, he cannot observe reading. When reading a good book, I turn over a few pages, but my mind is in a daydream state. When you wake up, you don't understand what the page you just read is saying. If you follow our steps, this will never happen-because you always have a systematic way to explore the author's ideas. I suddenly understood why I had read a lot of books before, but I didn't have any impression after reading them. Just like when we are studying at school, we always absorb more knowledge by previewing lectures. Without preview, the effect is far from perfect. The reason is the same. The brain needs a cognitive process for new knowledge.
You can imagine yourself as a detective, looking for clues about the theme or idea of a book. Be sensitive at all times to make everything clear. The author's advice will help you keep this attitude. You will be surprised to find that you have saved more time. I'm glad that you have mastered more points, and then it's easy to find that reading is easier than you think.
I think this kind of reading is the process of discovering a book: in short, it is to read the contents of the book by using all the information provided in the book, including the table of contents, preface, index, book advertisements, and even the main paragraphs and conclusions of the book. In this way, the basic outline and structure of the book are in your own hands. Here, I think we can also add some book reviews to let others finish the process of reading and chewing by themselves. Even if you skim, you should stick to good reading habits, so that you can catch the whole fish, not a fragment in the usual sense.
(2) Shallow reading
As long as you find the right direction, no matter how difficult the book is, don't be discouraged as long as you want to write it to the public. What is the right direction? The answer is a simple but important and useful reading rule: when you first face a difficult book, read it from beginning to end, and don't stop to ask or think about what you don't understand.
If you bind yourself to a difficult passage, you will fail. In most cases, once involved, it is difficult to get out of trouble. When you read this book for the second time, you may know more about this place, but before that, you must read this book at least from beginning to end.
Here, I found that the education circles in China and the United States are the same: when you encounter something you don't understand, you must look up the information, ask the teacher and understand. However, this book on how to read points out a very important discussion: if we do these things in advance, it will only hinder our reading and will not help our brain build an information framework. And this torture process will deprive you of the pleasure of reading. If you pay too much attention to details, you will miss some clear principles. In that case, books at any level can't be read well.
At this level, we need to pay attention to the following issues:
1, reading speed
People can read faster, but for reading, the speed will change according to needs, just like driving a car. An experienced driver will control the speed according to the road and surrounding conditions, and rarely step on the brakes, because he knows when to be fast and when to be slow.
2. Stay and go backwards
It affects speed and wastes brain power, which is why it is not recommended to take notes and refer to unfamiliar words when reading, and read a paragraph repeatedly.
Step 3 understand the problem
Reading is for learning, and learning is for solving problems. When reading, you should ask yourself what this book is about, what is the core point of view, what problems you have encountered in reading and how to solve them.
4. Be a self-demanding reader.
It's easy to get sleepy when reading. But many people can read by candlelight at night, which should not be simply explained because they are not ordinary people. If you want to stay awake or fall asleep during reading, it mainly depends on your reading goal. If your reading goal is to gain benefits-whether spiritual or spiritual growth-you must stay awake. This also means being as active as possible while reading and making some efforts. Reading is not entertainment, but benefit from it. Remember, lying down or lying down is easy to give feedback. I like to sit and stand, my eyes are more comfortable.
As long as it goes beyond the reading level of basic reading, the art of reading is to ask the right questions in the right order. You must ask four main questions about a book.
(1) Generally speaking, what is this book about?
You must try to find out the theme of this book, how the author expands the theme in turn, and how to gradually decompose the secondary key themes from the core theme.
(2) What did the author say in detail and how did he say it?
You must try to find out the main points, statements and arguments. These information are combined into special information that the author wants to convey.
(3) Is this book meaningful? Is all this meaningful or is it partially meaningful?
You can't answer this question unless you can answer the first two questions. Before you judge whether this book is meaningful, you must know what the whole book is saying. However, when you understand a book, if you read it carefully, you will feel responsible to make your own judgment on it. It is not enough to know the author's thoughts.
(4) What does this book have to do with you?
If this book gives you some information, you must ask what the information means. Why does the author think it is important to know this? Do you really need to know? If this book not only provides information, but also inspires you, then you need to find other relevant and deeper meanings or suggestions to get more enlightenment.
I think the key to these four questions is to build a communication bridge between you and the author on the basis of understanding the author. The author of How to Use Books mentioned that when he was reading, he basically didn't take notes. He will treat the book as an adult, as a sincere communication between himself and the author, listen wholeheartedly, and remember the general content even if he doesn't take notes. Treat the book as an adult and immerse yourself in it with sincerity, so that you can better absorb the essence of the book.
5. How to make a book truly belong to you?
The library seal only represents paper property, not intellectual property. If you have the habit of asking questions while reading, you can become a better reader. However, as we emphasized, it is not enough to just ask questions. You must try to answer this question. The process of answering questions may be done in the brain, but it would be better if it could be done by writing-I am doing it now. So how to read and write these words, can we really turn the book into a part of ourselves and truly complete the ownership of the book?
Taking notes and writing is the best study, because: First of all, it will keep you awake-not only not sleepy, but also very awake. Secondly, if reading is active, then it is a kind of thinking, and thinking is often expressed in language-whether oral or written. If a person says he knows what he is thinking, but he can't say it, usually he doesn't know what he is thinking. Third, writing down your feelings can help you remember the author's thoughts.
Here are some simple and effective ways to take notes:
(1) underline
Draw a line under the main points or important and powerful sentences.
(2) marking
Draw another line outside the underlined column-emphasize again what you have drawn, or a paragraph is important, but if the underlined line is too long, you can put brackets around the whole paragraph.
(3) Key symbols
Use asterisks or other symbols in the blank space-use carefully and emphasize the ten most important statements or paragraphs in the book. You might as well fold a corner at the marked place on each page, or put a bookmark, so that you can pick up the book from the shelf at any time, open the marked place and wake up your memory. There is also a card reading method similar to this, which will be shared later.
(4) quantity
Numbers in the blank-when the author's argument develops a series of important statements, it can be numbered in sequence.
(5) correlation
Write other page numbers in the blank-emphasize that the author has put forward the same point of view in other parts of the book, or related points of view, or put forward different points here. This will bring together the ideas of spreading the book. Many readers will use the symbol CF to express the meaning of comparison or reference.
(6) Circle keywords or sentences
This is the same function as drawing the bottom line. I am used to using rectangular or oval wireframes as keywords, which is due to the experience gained in each exam. Many liberal arts exams always have some answers to nouns, which is the easiest point to score if you master this method.
Take notes in the margin-when reading a chapter, you may write some questions (or answers) in the margin, which will help you remember your questions or answers. You can also simplify complex parameters in blank areas of the book. Or you can write down the development order of all the main arguments in the book. The last page of the book can be used as a personal index page to write down the author's main points in order.
Three different types of note-taking methods:
(1) structural comments
When studying reading, the questions that need to be answered are: First, what kind of book is this? Second, what is the whole book talking about? Third, what general framework does the author use to develop his views or state his understanding of the theme? You should take notes and write down the answers to these questions. These notes mainly focus on the structure of the book, not the content-at least not the details.
(2) Concept description
When you read it analytically, you will give an answer to the accuracy and importance of this book. At this reading level, your notes are no longer related to structure, but to concepts. These concepts are the author's opinions. The deeper and wider you read, the more opinions you will have.
(3) Dialectical notes
For a professional reader who is proficient in reading several books on the same subject at the same time, there is a higher level of note-taking method. This is a discussion in which many authors participate, but not all authors have to really participate.
This is extracted from many books, not just one book, so it usually needs to be recorded on a piece of paper alone. For a single topic, list all relevant statements and questions in order.
Step 6 Develop reading habits
The so-called art or skill belongs only to those who can form habits and operate according to the rules. This is also the difference between artists or craftsmen in any field. There is no other way to form a habit except to keep practicing.
Knowing the rules of an art is different from forming a habit. When we say a skilled person, we don't mean that he knows how to do it, but that he has formed the habit of doing it. Of course, whether you clearly understand the rules is the key to your skills. If you don't know what the rules are, you can't follow them. If you can't follow the rules, you can't cultivate art or any skill habit. Art, like other things with rules, can be learned and operated. Just like forming a habit of other things, you can form a habit as long as you practice according to the rules.
Form habits from many rules
For reading, just like any other complicated exercise, it is necessary to decompose the movements one by one-from cognition to practice, to repeated practice, to achieve proficiency, and then to unify the rules into a whole to form a complete and fluent reading habit.
The third level: analytical reading.
The first stage of analytical reading: find out the four laws of a book;
Rule 1: When classifying books, you must know what kind of books you are reading. The sooner you know, the better. It's best to know before you start reading-although the first law of analytical reading applies to all books, it is especially suitable for reading non-fiction and debate books.
Book classification method:
Classification methods are mainly practical categories such as fiction or knowledge transfer. In the debate, we can further distinguish between history and philosophy, and also distinguish them from science and mathematics.
A basic classification principle is applicable to all debating works. This is the principle used to distinguish theory from practice.
First, you must learn to doubt everything. You should doubt the classification of books. We have emphasized that economic books are generally practical books, but there are still some economic books that are purely theoretical. Similarly, although books on understanding are generally theoretical, there are still some books (mostly scary) that teach you how to think. You will also find that many writers can't tell theory from practice, just as novelists can't tell what is a novel and what is sociology. You will also find that part of a book is this kind, and the other part is another kind. However, such is Spinoza's ethics. This reminds you of your advantages as a reader. Through this advantage, you can understand how the author faces the problems he has to deal with.
Classification of theoretical works
According to the traditional classification, theoretical works can be divided into history, science, philosophy and so on. Everyone knows the difference. However, if you want to make a more detailed division and a more accurate division, the difficulty will come.
We believe that judgment has an effective basis, but you may have to read enough books to apply it. If a theory book is beyond your daily life, daily life and normal life experience, it is a science book. Otherwise, this is a philosophy book. Remember, this only applies to science or philosophy books, not to other types of books. )
The role of classification:
Books will convey different knowledge to us and guide us in different ways. If we want to follow the guidance of these books, we should learn to read different books with an appropriate attitude.
The second rule of analytical reading is to describe the whole book in one sentence, or at most one paragraph.
First of all, a writer, especially a good writer, often wants to help you sort out the main points in his book. However, when you ask readers to choose the main points of a book, most people will feel at a loss. One reason is that people nowadays usually don't express themselves in concise language. Another reason is that they ignore the reading rules. Of course, this also shows that too many readers simply don't pay attention to the author's preface or title.
Second, be careful. This book may have more than one important abstract, and there is usually no absolutely unique description. The overall spirit of a book can be interpreted in many ways, but none of them is correct. Of course, some explanations are better than others because they are concise, accurate and easy to understand. However, there are also some different explanations, which are either equally accurate or absurd.
However, this does not mean that you can say what you like. Although the readers are different, the book itself is the same. No matter who makes the summary, there is an objective standard to test its correctness and authenticity.
The third rule can be said to be: list the important chapters in the book and explain how they form a whole structure in order.
The most readable work is that the author has reached the most complete overall structure. The best books have the most ingenious structure. Although they are usually more complicated than some bad books, their complexity is also simple, because their various parts are better organized and more unified.
Simple formula: The outline is as follows: (1) The author divides the book into five parts. What is the first part, the second part, the third part, the fourth part and the fifth part. (2) The first main part is divided into three sections. The first paragraph is X, the second paragraph is Y, and the third paragraph is z. (3) In the first stage of the first part, the author has four focuses, the first focus is A, the second focus is B, the third focus is C, the fourth focus is D, and so on.
Even if you master reading skills, you don't have to spend the same effort to read every book. You will find it a waste to use these skills in some books. Even the best readers will only select a few related books and make a general outline according to the requirements of this law.
The fourth rule can be said to be: find out the author's intentions and find out the questions the author wants to ask. When the author of a book begins to write, he always has one or a series of questions, and the content of the book is one or more answers.
You know, the first four rules are holistic and have the same goal. Together, these four rules can help readers understand the structure of a book. When you use these four rules to read a book or any long and difficult book, you have completed the first stage of analytical reading.
The second stage of analytical reading: find out the laws mentioned in the book (explain the contents of the book);
The first rule is called "find out the meaning of * * *".
In short, you must master the important words in the book and understand how the author uses them. But we can say it more accurately and elegantly: find important words and reach an understanding with the author through them. It should be noted that this rule is divided into two parts. The first part is to find out keywords and keywords. The second part is to confirm the most accurate meaning of these words.
According to the rules, the goal is not to outline the framework of a book, but to explain the content and information.
The ambiguity of word meaning hinders communication, and it is impossible to realize the ideological interaction between the author and the reader in reading. It is this rule that removes these obstacles.
Rule 2: Choose the author's important topic from the most important sentences.
Rule 3: Find out the author's statements and reconstruct the cause and effect of these statements, so as to understand the author's point of view.
Rule 4: Determine which problems the author has solved and which ones have not. Among the unsolved problems, find out what the author thinks he can't solve.
The third stage of analytical reading: it explains the conditions of critical reading. At this stage, readers should be able to "argue" with the author.
First, ask readers to have a comprehensive understanding of a book first, and don't rush to start criticizing.
Second: Please don't argue or object blindly.
Third, different views of knowledge are regarded as generally solvable problems. If this law goes further, readers are required to find theoretical basis for their different views, so that this topic can be not only said, but also explained clearly. Only in this way can we hope to solve this problem.
The fourth level, which is also the highest level of reading, is theme reading.
Read the theme, collect related books on the same theme, find the core chapters, understand the author's core views, and then analyze the similarities and differences between different authors. The highest level is subject reading, which is based on active learning. If you want to solve a specific problem in reality, such as improving your learning ability, you need to find books related to learning. Theme reading does not require that every book should be read in detail word by word. After all, solving your own problems is more purposeful. Therefore, you should first make a list of books, find the right books through summary reading, then find relevant chapters for in-depth reading, and finally integrate, cross and relate all the knowledge related to books to form your own problem-solving ideas. It is called a scheme because the acquired knowledge must be applied in the end.