Preface
There's a question on Knowledge: why is it that the same book can be read by someone else who reads it? Why do you feel like you haven't read it? Essentially, this is the wrong way to read.
Previously, I was also like this, like to aimlessly read books, what college students must read 100 books, Douban top250, recommended by the big names, I was down to the Kindle in the cantonment. But after a while I realized that half of the books were not read at all, and the rest, either turned a few pages and could not go on, or could not be remembered after reading.
Later on, I realized that I didn't find the right reading method, so I spent all my effort on "useless work".
This article will share some of my own understanding of reading, and I hope it will inspire you.
1. Clear purpose of reading
Before reading a book, you should first determine your purpose of reading. If the purpose of reading is not clear, it will inevitably lead to the book can not grasp the focus of knowledge, after reading that is forgotten.
Generally speaking, the purpose of reading a book can be divided into two kinds:
(1)Usefulness
According to the viewpoint of the modern knowledge management theory, usefulness is an important feature of knowledge. We can get the knowledge we need from the book to solve the tricky problems in reality, which is the purpose of reading for most people. For example, in order to fitness to read professional books on nutrition, in order to chase a girl who likes the history of the Republic of China to catch up on history, in order to cultivate core competitiveness in the process of career development, to learn the industry knowledge, to build their own knowledge map, all belong to this category.
(2) Interesting
This type of reading mainly focuses on fun, in the process of reading the information ingested, it is likely that it can not be used, or can not be used immediately. It is compared with the former, one is result-oriented, one is process-oriented, reading for different purposes, bringing different experiences. Simply put, it's good to read books that make me happy. Because of the interest in philosophy and go through Nietzsche Kant, because reading online articles can make me cool and go to see the moon off the cat, because I want to pass the time and go to buy a few books of storytelling, are in this list.
It is important to note that practicality and fun do not have to be split, there are books that make approaching a small goal rewarding, but also allows you to feel the pleasure of reading. But at the very least, there has to be one or the other, otherwise believe me, you'll have a book on your hands that's basically unreadable, or hard to read for nothing.
The question of which books are practical and interesting to you is actually a very personal thing. Because people have different temperaments and interests, different fields of specialization, and different tastes in reading. Some popular book lists on the Internet may not be applicable to everyone. Whenever a netizen asks me what books you can recommend, I have a hard time because I don't know your knowledge base, hobby attributes, and I can't blindly memorize book titles for you.
Because of this, it is especially important to determine your own reading purpose and reading needs. Clearly what they read books for, want to read books to improve their ability in what areas (specific), and then choose books to read, in order to take a detour.
2. Develop a reading strategy
(1) mentality
Many people have the habit of "buying books like a mountain of reading like a silk", whenever you see a wide range of books on the shelves did not read the books, will be born with a sense of guilt. Even when reading a book, will not stop suggesting themselves, this time must finish. But it is painful to have to do something you don't like, and in the long run, you will be resistant to reading. French writer Danièle Penac in his book "just like a novel" put forward "the rights of the reader ten" [1], including the right not to read and the right to skip reading. Books are for readers, and it is foolish to read any book word for word.
(2) The Difference
There are many popular methods of reading books on the market, but it is certain that there is no one-size-fits-all method of reading books. How you read a book depends on the purpose for which you are reading it, and the attributes of the book. Different methods are needed for different categories of books. Review reading[2] allows us to quickly understand the content of a book, and business-type books can be read using the rule of two or eight because they are more comprehensive and logical. Such as philosophical and economic fields of specialization, it is suitable for analytical reading If you want to quickly understand a completely new field, or a strong interest in a certain topic, you can carry out the theme of reading, if just to pass the time for fun, then you can read casually.
(3) Example
In the above, I mentioned that we should hold the reading demand to read, take the novel "Water Margin" as an example, if you are purely to pass the time on the high-speed railroad, then you don't need to do the reading notes, how to have fun how to read. If you want to understand the story of Wu Sung, then Li Kui Lin Chong and other good man's resume basically has nothing to do with you, you just need to read the chapter about Wu Sung, for the other characters for the main Wu Sung occasional appearance of the bridge, you can choose to skim or not read. If you want to understand the part of the book about Taoism, then the key words are: Gongsun Sheng, Jiu Tian Xuan Nü, Zhang Tian Shi, Luo Zhenren, etc., around these key words to retrieve can.
(4) Notes
Different subjects take notes in different ways, and so does reading. What you take notes on depends a lot on why you are reading the book. For example, if you read Jin Yong's martial arts novels and want to learn how to tell a good story, then your notes should focus on the advancement and development of the plot, for example, if you feel that your language is dry and poorly written, and you want to improve your ability to express yourself, then the subtle metaphors appearing in the book are worthwhile to be included, for example, if you're a commentator, then historical facts and insightful ideas are your cup of tea.
3. In-depth reading method of the above is a macro discussion and generalization
The following specific introduction of a more complete in-depth reading process:
1 clear reading purpose, looking for the right book
First of all, clear want to read to gain what. I want to read, to understand the "efficient learning" as an example, I found through the network search "deliberate practice", "how to efficiently memorize", "energy management" and other related books, but I do not know what I am interested in reading, so I came to the physical bookstore to find these books, and ultimately determined that five of the books I am interested in, and finally bought these five books and decided to read them thematically.
2Extract the thematic framework and think with questions
Browse through the table of contents and preface to understand the content framework of each book and the core ideas of each chapter. Think with questions around your purpose for reading. For example, what does the book say as a whole? What structure does the author use to develop ideas? What does each chapter of the book say? Do I agree with the author's ideas? Are there intellectual concepts that emerge from this book that can be related to another book within the same topic? You can use Excel to keep track of this; the more questions you ask means the more mature your thinking skills are. Identifying these steps will allow time to be spent more efficiently on effective intellectual information.
3 Refined content outline, good reading notes
Good memory is not as good as a bad pen, reading notes, the importance of reading is self-evident. Elementary reading notes many people will, is to excerpt sentences, but in essence, this practice for the mastery of book knowledge, the effect is minimal. A competent book notes should contain at least three steps: summarize - follow up - connection.
3.1 Summarize: as the name suggests, it is to streamline the content in your own words. Learning to read, grasp its theme and core, grasp the overall structure of the book - it can be divided into several major parts, each major part can be divided into what small parts, organize it on paper is a mind map. From a macro point of view, that is, to be able to summarize the central idea of each chapter of a book, you can use your own words to express what the book is talking about. From a micro point of view, that is, the book appears in the center of the statement and concluding statements, to make an explanation.
3.2 Follow-up questions: all books are better than none, when we see the views appearing in the book, may as well ask yourself, what is your point of view? Are you in favor of the author's point of view? If so, what are your reasons for favoring it? Do you associate it with other knowledge, and can it be combined with what you have previously learned to make connections? If against, what are your reasons? Follow-up questions are not just satisfied with knowing what the author is saying, but also explore why the author is saying what he is saying, and whether or not his point applies to me? Is his logic rigorous and how does it inspire me? The process of thinking about these questions is also the process of deduction and generalization of your thinking about knowledge.
3.3 Association: When knowledge is fragmented, it has little value and is not easy to grasp. Therefore, establishing links between new knowledge and old knowledge is the key to building a knowledge map. Generally speaking, there are only two kinds of association, horizontal and vertical. Taking Baudelaire's poems as an example, the horizontal association can be - what do you think of his overall style of poetry? Who are other European poets with a similar style? What are the ****ing commonalities and differences between their works? Vertically, the idea is to explore Baudelaire's poems in depth - are there any biographies of Baudelaire? Or critiques of him by other figures of the same period? What do later poets say about him? .... And so on. The more skillful you are at using associations, the clearer the threads between knowledge will become in your mind.
4 regular review notes, test reading results
Notes recorded to this point, does not mean that you can read the book "at your fingertips." Because Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve tells us that if the recorded content is not reviewed in a timely manner, it will become short-term memory, and will soon be forgotten. Therefore, have done the reading notes must be timely to see, repeatedly. And not just read, but more importantly, consciously shape a book for my thinking. There are two specific methodologies: one is to write a book review, and the other is to retell.
4.1 book review: the above 3 mentioned in the generalization-question-association, specific to the relevant issues to extend the development of supporting information into a text, can be a book review. For different topics, the book review can also have different directions, if you are strong in the overall application of knowledge, you can even be the same theme of the book review of multiple books, draft an article.
4.2 Repetition: close the book, you can carry out the overall structure of the book in your own words, to the book mentioned in the key words and core concepts have their own understanding, but also the book appeared in the knowledge and your previous knowledge of the combination of the old, (such as time management and concentration knowledge associated with the sociology and economics of the content of the combination of the) to do the three steps, you basically will be able to Do these three steps, you can basically do, the so-called book "at your fingertips". Of course, this is not an easy task, and requires repeated practice and thought.
Summary
1 clear reading purpose, from their own immediate needs to start, looking for useful books, or from the beginning of interest, looking for interesting books.
2 Develop a reading strategy, according to the purpose of reading, reading in different ways, reading notes for the purpose of reading.
3In-depth reading methods: finding suitable books - extracting thematic frameworks - thinking with questions - taking good reading notes - examining the results of reading.
After completing the notes, review and browse at regular intervals, learn to write book reviews and retellings, deepen the impression of knowledge, and make use of what you have learned.
The purpose of reading is not to make yourself more of a talking point for pretending to be a bully, nor is it to sunshine the book list and reading notes to reap the praise of the circle of friends, it is for you to find something that really belongs to you in the vast sea of books.
Left Bank Note: A good way to read a book is to interact with it as much as possible. The more you interact, the more knowledge you gain, the deeper your understanding, the deeper your impression, and the more comfortable you are in applying it.
Note:
[1]Ten Rights of Readers: I. The right to read; II. The right to skip pages; III. The right not to finish; IV. The right to reread; V. The right to read anything; VI. The right to amusement; VII. The right to read anywhere; VIII. The right to browse; IX. The right to read out loud; X. The right to read out loud without having to defend your taste.