Today, what we are going to finish is the third part of how to read effectively: finding the correct book list.
1. general book selection strategy
How should I choose a book that suits me? We know that the first step in reading is to choose a book you want to read. However, it is also common to be at a loss in the face of a wide variety of books. It's not a question of ability. Just like the paradox of choice, choice is a very energy-consuming and costly thing, so is book selection.
Below, I will provide you with several general and simple methods to choose books.
Usually, we are attracted by the cover of the book first, then we see the title of the book, then we pick it up and read it, and get the overall information of the book from the preface, catalogue and text, and then we decide whether to buy it.
Of course, you can also choose books to read in other ways, such as writer mode, interest mode, publishing house mode, media recommendation mode, list mode, word-of-mouth mode and so on.
To put it simply, if someone prefers Zhang Ailing's writing style, they can read Zhang Ailing's works one by one, which is the writer mode; If someone is interested in some knowledge, such as psychology, management, emotionalism and history, then they can read in depth according to the classification of topics, which is the interest mode.
Others read a lot of books published by a publishing house and gave them a good evaluation, so they established trust with the publishing house. By default, most of the books published by this publishing house are standard, so I especially like this publishing house. For example, people who are engaged in the later stage of film and television often buy reference books published by Houlang Publishing Company, so once there is such a demand, they will buy them directly from this publishing house.
Media recommendation mode is also quite common. We can see all kinds of books on various reading platforms on the official WeChat account, including Douban and WeChat. There are annual book lists and special book lists ... These book lists are summarized through media editing or expert advice, which is very convenient for readers to choose books.
The list mode is to sort books according to the sales volume and the number of awards in that year, and provide data support for readers.
Word-of-mouth model is more likely to appear in our lives. You know, in daily life, through casual conversation, everyone will mention about 60 brands every day, which is a kind of word-of-mouth communication. At present, the names and contents of the hottest books have formed word-of-mouth communication through discussion.
There are many ways to choose books, and everyone can choose the mode that suits them and meet the good books in their hearts.
2. Is a bestseller necessarily good?
Can bestsellers be equated with good books? Should we read bestsellers?
I believe this problem has troubled many people. Some people think that bestsellers are just a marketing tool, and most of them exist in name only. I even have a contemptuous attitude towards bestsellers. I think that if you want to study, you should stay away from those bestsellers and read only classic works.
In fact, this understanding is somewhat biased. There must be a reason why bestsellers sell well. Although bestsellers and good books can't be equated completely, a large part of them will overlap, that is to say, most bestsellers are actually very readable, and some even become classics.
For example, on Amazon official website, Mao Mu's classic "The Moon and Sixpence" and Japanese writer Keigo Higashino's "Worry-Free Grocery Store" both made bestseller lists.
At first, many people took a look at it, but after reading it, they all shouted amazing. With the passage of time, many people have changed their environment, leading to changes in their mood. When they read these books again, their way of understanding has also changed, which has produced the magical feeling that "every time they read, they will have new feelings".
After the publication of these two books, with their profound implication and universal value, they have brought people long-term thinking and enlightenment. Later, it won many awards, and with the passage of time, it still received rave reviews and became a classic.
More importantly, bestsellers themselves have triggered some hot topics about books, and these discussions have prompted more people to join in reading them. Such an impulse and opportunity to read is also one of the unique values of bestsellers.
Therefore, we don't need to stop reading because of other people's negative comments on bestsellers.
When we read bestsellers, we can learn from the "fragments of consciousness" of the trend of the times to a great extent. For example, from the recent popular books, we can learn the most popular thinking improvement methods, the most adaptive management methods and even the most fashionable clothes. So, let yourself keep up with the trend of the times and avoid being out of touch.
Perhaps, you will want a way of 100% meeting good books, but I want to tell you that the author and Bo themselves have read 3000 books. His feeling is that there are not many books that can change his values, so it seems that the probability of reading good books is very low.
Moreover, everyone has a different definition of a good book, just as Lin Yutang mentioned in the article "The Art of Reading": reading is the same as eating, "what you eat is tonic, and what others eat is poison". You may not like books that others like and recommend, but you may not be able to judge them before reading them.
Therefore, there is only one best way to meet a good book, and that is to read widely and extensively, and win by quantity. By constantly accumulating their "feelings" about books, temper their methods of choosing good books.
3. Throw away the book before reading it.
"If you want to read more books, you have to throw them away first." This sentence seems unreasonable, but the author tells us from personal experience that if there are more 100 books on the shelf, it is better to put three books you want to read.
As a principal, Fujiwara Hiroshi hoped that students could read more books in the library, but he found that 5,000 of the 9,000 books in the library were not suitable for students to read.
So he threw away these 5,000 books, and there was a little more space on the bookshelf, so that the remaining books suitable for students could be better displayed and other books suitable for children could be exposed on the cover. In this way, students can have a general understanding of the contents of the book through its appearance, and the possibility of reading is greatly increased.
In fact, the reason is very simple. For example, when three or five fruits we like to eat are hidden in a basket of fruits we don't like, we may stay away from this basket of fruits because we can't see the fruits we like.
By dealing with unnecessary books, you can expose the books you want to read. Once you see a book you like, you will have the idea of picking it up and reading it. It's like seeing the decoration of a bookstore or a video store is very distinctive, and we can't help but go in and have a look.
This is why if you want to read more books, you should throw them away first.
So how do you choose the books to discard? Before you tidy up your bookshelf, here are two guidelines for reference.
First of all, we should clean up those worthless books. For example, the Interview Guide published many years ago, because of the changes of the times, the interview process, content and skills are rapidly updated and iterated. If you are in the present, you are still learning outdated methods, which is obviously stupid.
It's like when everyone says "hello" every day, we can't practice the etiquette of the Qing Dynasty with the past etiquette norms.
Secondly, we should clean up those books that we don't know are valuable. For example, specialized or artistic books donated by others, such as books that teach a certain musical instrument, or books that appreciate paintings and antiques.
These books, for those who have not received professional training and are not very interested in these contents, may not be of high value, so you can choose to give them to those in need through secondary sale or gift to realize your own value.
-Conclusion-
Today, we learned how to find the right book list together. Firstly, several conventional methods of book selection are introduced, then whether to read bestsellers or not is discussed, which shows that you should learn to clean up unnecessary books regularly according to your own needs. Tomorrow we will continue reading How to Read Effectively Part IV: The first week of reading training.
-Today's topic-
Have you ever been "planted" by others and bought a bestseller? What experience did that book give you? What do you think of bestsellers? Welcome to share your story in the comments section.
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