Reading, here is not a general reference to the act of learning, just talking about the act of reading, and only talking about non-fiction literature. It should have been more than twenty years since I started reading, but there are still many problems with the technique and effectiveness of reading. Every time I finish reading a book, I seem to have never read it. I just flipped through a reading record I wrote last year, but I can't remember a single thing from the book.
How to read is the most talked about in Chinese and English classes. But what we face are all textbooks and articles, and almost every one of them emphasizes careful and slow reading. But reading often focuses on "three minutes of enthusiasm", and after a week, it is difficult to pick up the book again. Classic literary works, except for novels, are relatively dry. I remember reading "How Steel Is Made" twice with patience, and since then, Paul Kachat has become a frequent visitor in my compositions; those big and heavy classic masterpieces are not even dared to be opened, let alone bought. Let me ask how many unopened classic masterpieces are on everyone's bookshelf?
After reading Yang Zhiping's book "Smart Readers" and participating in the reading camp, I discovered many problems that existed in my previous reading.
First of all, before reading, there is the task of selecting books. I have paid attention to the quality of books, but the criteria for selection are debatable. For example, I used to look for bestsellers or books that are currently popular or at the top of major rankings. It's not that these books are not good, but they are mixed with too much commercialism, and the true value of books is not the focus anymore. Looking back at the books I have read in the past, I can't say that they are all of low value, but the proportion is not low either. Yang Zhiping mentioned in the book the criteria for selecting books in a minimal book list: books by the greatest contemporary intellectuals in the field, books that provide a systematic inventory of the field, and books that are at the source of the field. Following this criteria, take a look at the books I have read, how many of them are first-hand information?
Furthermore, when the book is in hand, especially a carefully selected "book". I can't help but treat it like a treasure, hoping to read it from cover to cover without missing a single word, in order to live up to the careful selection and the money spent on the book. But as mentioned above, reading relies on this "three minutes of enthusiasm". Once the enthusiasm fades, no matter how expensive or exquisite the book is, it may be ignored like a concubine banished to the cold palace. I have had books sitting by my pillow for months without being opened, I don't know about others. Yang Zhiping mentioned the method of "sampling reading" in the book "Smart Readers", which really resonated with me. It is a tool specially designed for this situation. Sampling is widely used in statistics. Reading a few chapters from a book can give you an overview. Pick up a book, look at the table of contents and preface, and start reading the parts that interest you; or simply sample the book by dividing it into sections and reading corresponding chapters. There is no need to make reading too serious, nor worry about missing the main points. Just like the water I'm pouring into this article, the moisture in the book also needs to be squeezed out. If you become interested while reading, or if you come across something you don't understand, go back and read the preceding chapters. The efficiency of reading will naturally be different. And if you can't continue reading from start to finish, it is most likely that you will miss the content that is truly valuable to you.
After that, finding the story synopsis and arguments in the book is naturally a long-standing focus of everyone's reading training. I won't talk much about it.
Finally, let's talk about the way of taking reading notes. Card notes - this is a note-taking method used by many writers and scholars, such as Nabokov, Luhmann, Lu Xun, Qian Zhongshu, etc. The first time I learned about this note-taking method was from the book "The Card Note Writing Method", which recorded Luhmann, a contemporary important sociologist in Germany, who used card notes to complete his doctoral degree and obtain a teaching position in one year, and published 58 books and hundreds of papers in his lifetime. At that time, I thought it was a revolution in "content productivity". I also want to learn and use it. Card notes made me start to enjoy writing. As someone who graduated from a science and engineering background, Chinese has always been a nightmare for me, and I never thought that I would have to write articles after graduating from elementary school. But card notes changed my perception. Cards greatly reduce the psychological burden of output, and writing can be so "casual". Yang Zhiping divides cards into nine types in the book, which are easier to apply and organize in the process of reading compared to the flash notes, literature notes, and permanent notes in "The Card Note Writing Method". Card notes are truly a revolution in "content productivity" for me. The word count has never been so simple, haha.
Looking back, I haven't spent much time in libraries and bookstores. Why suddenly do I like reading? Is it for show? Not necessarily. Faced with the difficulties of life and work, no one can show the way. I can only silently search for answers in books. The wheels of history roll on, as if history repeats itself. Everything that happens today has naturally been encountered by those who came before. When I am confused, books are the best consolation.
I highly recommend Yang Zhiping's book "Smart Readers", not an advertisement, not an advertisement, not an advertisement.