1. Treat reading as a major life event as early as possible
The biggest reason for reading is to get rid of mediocrity. If a person begins to be mediocre in his youth, it will be very difficult to get rid of mediocrity in the future.
Only books can pour vast space and long time into you, can convey to you the signals that all noble lives have long since dispersed, and can present countless wisdom and beauty together with ignorance and ugliness. for you. A mere five-foot body, in just a few decades, can travel through the past and present, across the world. At least half of this miracle can be attributed to reading.
It would be a pity to wait until adulthood to make up for such a good thing. It is best to enter it when you are young.
2. Extend the scope of reading beyond the major.
Of course it is necessary to read professional books, mainly for future career needs. Lu Xun said: "This kind of reading is no different from a carpenter's grinding an ax or a tailor's sewing. It is not necessarily noble. Sometimes it is very painful and pitiful." ("Reading Miscellaneous Talk")
The vitality of life lies in its elasticity. The flexibility of life in college, in addition to sports and entertainment, is more importantly reflected in the free acceptance and independent response to the world as a whole, which of course transcends majors.
Nowadays, many universities have discovered the shortcomings of students only focusing on their majors and have opened general education courses. This is a good way. But as a course, even general education retains a certain narrowness and passivity that is difficult to overcome. Therefore, no matter how heavy the homework is or how tight the time is, free extracurricular reading is indispensable.
What's more, the development of the times has caused great changes in the internal structure and external boundaries of each major. Without a sufficient overall vision, it is difficult to learn even a major.
3. First find some classics to make the base.
College students’ extracurricular reading is the starting point for spiritual maturity, so they must do some base work first.
What kind of foundation is used will determine what kind of building is built, so try to make the foundation as strong as possible. When you have little time, find a way to save money. The most frugal way is to read classics.
Famous books have been read repeatedly by many people and have become the prerequisite material for vocabulary in contemporary society. If one does not understand the classics, serious obstacles will arise in cultural communication. Masterpieces and other works are unequal in terms of cultural orientation. They are like military commanding heights. If you occupy them, a large area of ??land will not be covered. For cultural territory outside of our majors, we don’t have time to occupy it inch by inch. We just need to collect a few commanding heights.
4. If you can’t finish reading classics, you can put them down temporarily
Even if a familiar teacher has prescribed a must-read list for us, the classics in the list There are times when I can’t read anymore.
Put it down if you can’t finish reading it, don’t read it hard. This is the coolness of non-professional reading.
Putting down such a famous book? Yes, let it go. Because you have no fate with it, or maybe you have no fate for the time being.
No matter how targeted the book list is, it only takes into account the necessity of your acceptance, but cannot take into account the possibility of your acceptance. The so-called possibility does not refer to reading ability, but to the excitement system, which is the secret of your life. No one else will know.
5. Having one or two cultural icons is not a bad thing
In the process of choosing and reading classics, you will eventually come across a few classics and a few famous figures that are most likeable to you. You become fascinated and not only read it over and over again, but you also seek out the author's other works, collect their biographies, and become their admirer. A friend of mine said that he would blush when he heard Xin Qiji's name, and I had a similar experience with the French writer Victor Hugo when I was in college. This is what is commonly called an idol.
The emergence of idols is the beginning of a new stage of reading. It is really a great happiness to be able to communicate with a world-class or national-level cultural celebrity. But the more profound question is: why are you so close to him? It is not entirely due to his knowledge, art, and reputation, because there are many people who are more knowledgeable, artistic, and famous than him, but they do not have such a strong feeling in your heart. The fundamental reason may be: your life has a certain isomorphic relationship with his life, and he is your spiritual ancestor-in-law. It will do you good to secretly acknowledge this kinship.
6. Young people should focus on personal quiet reading
After young people read books, they like to discuss with each other. Mutual discussions can build a field of interest and information, and individual feelings can flow.
But in general, reading is a personal matter. Every word must be felt silently by one's own heart, and many of the most important feelings cannot be expressed in words. The reading process is mainly connected by one's own life clues, and the life clues as thin as a gossamer must be carefully taken care of and maintained. All of this may be ruined by the excitement. What's more, we are still students, and even our superficial feelings have no value in spreading to the outside world. Talking loudly among classmates can easily lead to business aggravation, but as soon as one becomes energetic, one-sidedness and superficiality become even more superficial.
Just like watching a deeply touching movie, an audience who is good at absorbing always likes to walk quietly alone for a while, slowly savoring each shot, each line, and chewing the movie. The artist has hidden his good intentions, and will not start talking about it enthusiastically before leaving the cinema like some young people do. In many cases, young people's competitive discussions are likely to be a kind of dissipation, and this is more likely to be the case with more profound and elegant works.
7. It is not advisable to make too many reading cards.
There is a method that is often taught, and that is to make reading cards diligently. When you read ideas and information that you are interested in, copy them down on cards immediately. After a few months, sort out a lot of cards and store them in categories. When you need to use them in the future, you just need to pull out the relevant pile and you will be ready. You can gain a kind of calmness with well-founded arguments and extensive quotations.
This method is useful for professional research and paper writing, but it is not suitable for young students’ extracurricular reading. Technically speaking, extracurricular reading has a large scope and does not target a specific issue. There is no way to start with flashcards. Even if you do, it will not be of much use, and a lot of reading time is wasted. If you want to excerpt interesting quotes, it is better to buy a ready-made "Famous Quotations" and keep it at hand.
But the technical problems are still minor. The most troublesome thing is that the method of making cards is likely to replace the overall feeling with the storage of chapters and sentences, which is not worth the gain. A good work is an indivisible organic whole. Even if its features are captured, its soul has been lost.
I do not advocate making a lot of cards during extracurricular reading, but I do support writing some reading notes to summarize the spirit and context of the book and record your own understanding and feelings. This kind of reading notes not only describes the book, but also describes yourself. Each article should not be too long, so as to refine the immediate feelings and distill the feelings into insights.
8. Go to the bookstore when you have time
The reading resources for college students mainly come from libraries. However, I hope everyone can visit the bookstore when you have time. The bookstore is of course much smaller than the library, but it is an interesting cultural frontier. What is the direction of contemporary people’s spiritual work? What is the relationship between these trends and social trends? To what extent is it accepted by the public? The best place to answer these questions is in a bookstore.
Brand-new pages, bright covers, exaggerated publicity, and busy sales make you feel the steamy creative state of book civilization, and creation always gives people a pleasant power. This kind of power is an inexplicable nourishment for readers, allowing you to stretch your muscles and bones and feel smooth after a long period of quiet reading.
You can pay attention to the bestseller list, judge the people who buy books, and then prepare to choose a few books for yourself. Selecting books in a bookstore is different from that in a library. For important books, you will repeatedly consider the necessity of permanent possession, so you conduct a short self-examination in front of the bookshelf. You might be less hesitant to buy a few unimportant but interesting and cute new books, and you'll have some questions about your own strange relationship with books, and every answer to that question will make you happy.
Reading should be quantitative but not limited at the same time.
What is the appropriate amount and scope of reading during adolescence?
In May 2003, the Ministry of Education promulgated the "Chinese Curriculum Standards for Full-time Compulsory Education" and the "Chinese Curriculum Standards for Ordinary High Schools". The "New Curriculum Standards" have added reading and recommended books. The "New Curriculum Standards" have revised and adjusted the original Chinese teaching syllabus, placing the reading and appreciation of primary and secondary school students in a very prominent position. Content, quality and speed all set clear requirements.
For example, primary school students should read a total of no less than 1.45 million words; junior high school students should read a total of no less than 4.05 million words and recite 240 excellent poems; high school students should read a total of no less than 5.55 million words.
We believe that the “new curriculum standards” are more appropriate in defining the requirements and scope of reading. But if you like reading, don’t limit yourself.
From a pragmatic point of view, reading is the accumulation of cultural capital; from an idealistic point of view, reading is a process of spiritual sublimation. In any case, the more the better.
Some parents do not encourage their children to study more, thinking that the college entrance examination comes first. This idea is very one-sided. If a child doesn't like studying, what's the use of going to college? If children do not develop the habit of reading, will the source of knowledge continue to flow? Therefore, you should read more books and take a broad view of the scenery.
Yu Qiuyu’s reading suggestions -
1. Treat reading as a major life event as soon as possible
The biggest reason for reading is to get rid of mediocrity. If a person begins to be mediocre in his youth, it will be very difficult to get rid of mediocrity in the future.
Only books can pour vast space and long time into you, can convey to you the signals that all noble lives have long since dispersed, and can present countless wisdom and beauty together with ignorance and ugliness. for you. A mere five-foot body, in just a few decades, can travel through the past and present, across the world. At least half of this miracle can be attributed to reading.
It would be a pity to wait until adulthood to make up for such a good thing. It is best to enter it when you are young.
2. Extend the scope of reading beyond the major.
Of course it is necessary to read professional books, mainly for future career needs. Lu Xun said: "This kind of reading is no different from a carpenter's grinding an ax or a tailor's sewing. It is not necessarily noble. Sometimes it is very painful and pitiful." ("Reading Miscellaneous Talk")
The vitality of life lies in its elasticity. The flexibility of life in college, in addition to sports and entertainment, is more importantly reflected in the free acceptance and independent response to the world as a whole, which of course transcends majors.
Nowadays, many universities have discovered the shortcomings of students only focusing on their majors and have opened general education courses. This is a good way. But as a course, even general education retains a certain narrowness and passivity that is difficult to overcome. Therefore, no matter how heavy the homework is or how tight the time is, free extracurricular reading is indispensable.
What’s more, the development of the times has caused great changes in the internal structure and external boundaries of each major. Without a sufficient overall vision, it is difficult to learn even a major well.
3. First find some classics to make the base.
College students’ extracurricular reading is the starting point for spiritual maturity, so they need to do some base work first.
The kind of building you build will depend on the kind of foundation you put on it, so try to make the foundation as strong as possible. When you have less time, find a way to save money. The most frugal way is to read classics.
Famous books have been read repeatedly by many people and have become the prerequisite material for vocabulary in contemporary society. If one does not understand the classics, serious obstacles will arise in cultural communication. Masterpieces and other works are unequal in terms of cultural orientation. They are like military commanding heights. If you occupy them, a large area of ??land will be lost. For cultural territory outside of our majors, we don’t have time to occupy it inch by inch. We just need to collect a few commanding heights.
4. If you can’t finish reading classics, you can put them down temporarily
Even if a familiar teacher has specifically prescribed a must-read list for us, the classics in the list There are times when I can’t read anymore.
Put it down if you can’t finish reading it, don’t read it hard. This is the coolness of non-professional reading.
Putting down such a famous book? Yes, let it go. Because you have no fate with it, or maybe you have no fate for the time being.
No matter how targeted the book list is, it only takes into account the necessity of your acceptance, but cannot take into account the possibility of your acceptance. The so-called possibility does not refer to reading ability, but to the excitement system, which is the secret of your life. No one else will know.
5. Having one or two cultural icons is not a bad thing
In the process of choosing and reading classics, you will eventually come across a few classics and a few famous figures that are most likeable to you.
You become fascinated and not only read it over and over again, but you also seek out the author's other works, collect their biographies, and become their admirer. A friend of mine said that when he heard Xin Qiji's name, he would blush and his heart would beat. I had a similar scene with the French writer Victor Hugo when I was in college. This is what is commonly called an idol.
The emergence of idols is the beginning of a new stage of reading. It is really a great happiness to be able to communicate with a world-class or national-level cultural celebrity. But the more profound question is: Why are you so close to him? It is not entirely due to his knowledge, art, and reputation, because there are many people who are more knowledgeable, more refined in art, and more famous than him, but they do not have such a strong feeling in your heart. The fundamental reason may be: your life has a certain isomorphic relationship with his, and he is your spiritual ancestor-in-law. It will do you good to secretly acknowledge this kinship.
6. Young people should focus on personal quiet reading
After young people read books, they like to discuss with each other. Mutual discussions can build a field of interest and information, and individual feelings can flow.
But in general, reading is a personal matter. Every word must be felt silently by one's own heart, and many of the most important feelings cannot be expressed in words. The reading process is mainly connected by one's own life clues, and the life clues as thin as a gossamer must be carefully taken care of and maintained. All of this may be ruined by the excitement. What's more, we are still students, and even our superficial feelings have no value in spreading to the outside world. Talking loudly among classmates can easily lead to business aggravation, but as soon as one becomes energetic, one-sidedness and superficiality become even more superficial.
Just like watching a deeply touching movie, an audience who is good at absorbing always likes to walk quietly alone for a while, slowly savoring each shot, each line, and chewing the movie. The artist has hidden his good intentions, and will not start talking about it enthusiastically before leaving the cinema like some young people do. In many cases, young people's competitive discussions are likely to be a kind of dissipation, and this is more likely to be the case with more profound and elegant works.
7. It is not advisable to make too many reading cards.
There is a method that is often taught, and that is to make reading cards diligently. When you read ideas and information that you are interested in, copy them down on cards immediately. After a few months, sort out a lot of cards and store them in categories. When you need to use them in the future, you just need to pull out the relevant pile and you will be ready. You can gain a kind of calmness with well-founded arguments and extensive quotations.
This method is useful for professional research and paper writing, but it is not suitable for young students’ extracurricular reading. Technically speaking, extracurricular reading has a large scope and does not target a specific issue. There is no way to start with flashcards. Even if you do, it will not be of much use, and a lot of reading time is wasted. If you want to excerpt interesting quotes, it is better to buy a ready-made "Famous Quotations" and keep it at hand.
But the technical problems are still minor. The most troublesome thing is that the method of making cards is likely to replace the overall feeling with the storage of chapters and sentences, which is not worth the gain. A good work is an inseparable organic whole. Even if its features are captured, its soul has been lost.
I do not advocate making a lot of cards during extracurricular reading, but I do support writing some reading notes to summarize the spirit and context of the book and record your own understanding and feelings. This kind of reading notes not only describes the book, but also describes yourself. Each article should not be too long, so as to refine the immediate feelings and refine the feelings into insights.
8. Go to the bookstore when you have time
The reading resources for college students mainly come from libraries. However, I hope everyone can visit the bookstore when you have time. The bookstore is of course much smaller than the library, but it is an interesting cultural frontier. What is the direction of contemporary people’s spiritual work? What is the relationship between these trends and social trends? To what extent is it accepted by the public? The best place to answer these questions is in a bookstore.
Brand-new pages, bright covers, exaggerated publicity, and busy sales make you feel the steamy creative state of book civilization, and creation always gives people a pleasant power. This kind of power is an inexplicable nourishment for readers, allowing you to stretch your muscles and bones and feel smooth after a long period of quiet reading.
You can pay attention to the bestseller list, judge the people who buy books, and then prepare to choose a few books for yourself.
Selecting books in a bookstore is different from that in a library. For important books, you will repeatedly consider the necessity of permanent possession, so you conduct a short self-examination in front of the bookshelf. You might be less hesitant to buy a few unimportant but interesting and cute new books, and you'll have some questions about your own strange relationship with books, and every answer to that question will make you happy.
Reading should be quantitative but not limited at the same time.
What is the appropriate amount and scope of reading during adolescence?
In May 2003, the Ministry of Education promulgated the "Chinese Curriculum Standards for Full-time Compulsory Education" and the "Chinese Curriculum Standards for Ordinary High Schools". The "New Curriculum Standards" have added reading and recommended books. The "New Curriculum Standards" have revised and adjusted the original Chinese teaching syllabus, placing the reading and appreciation of primary and secondary school students in a very prominent position. Content, quality and speed all set clear requirements. For example, primary school students should read a total of no less than 1.45 million words; junior high school students should read a total of no less than 4.05 million words and recite 240 excellent poems; high school students should read a total of no less than 5.55 million words.
We believe that the “new curriculum standards” are more appropriate in defining the requirements and scope of reading. But if you like reading, don’t limit yourself.
From a pragmatic point of view, reading is the accumulation of cultural capital; from an idealistic point of view, reading is a process of spiritual sublimation. In any case, the more the better.
Some parents do not encourage their children to study more, thinking that the college entrance examination comes first. This idea is very one-sided. If a child doesn't like studying, what's the use of going to college? If children do not develop the habit of reading, will the source of knowledge continue to flow? Therefore, you should read more books and take a broad view of the scenery.