How to read a book?

This is a note on How to Read a Book, but from my current perspective and understanding, it has certain limitations. In addition, the reading method to be described next is not completely copied from the book, but a mixture of my own experience.

I didn't finish this book, but only read Chapter 15 "Some Suggestions for Reading Stories, Dramas and Poems". I will not read the rest for the time being. Some guidance cannot be implemented immediately, and I will study it carefully when I encounter it.

As far as the first fifteen chapters are concerned, the author has already laid out the method of reading books in general. Aside from basic reading (literacy and hyphenation), reading can be roughly divided into three stages:

1. View Reading

2. Analytical reading

3. Comment reading

In the three stages, inspection reading is a prerequisite. Before the reader can understand the book in depth, he must first understand the type of the book, the quality of the book, and the general content of the book, and then decide whether to continue.

This is the same as a blind date. You must first ask the matchmaker to understand the other party's family background and personal basic situation, and then decide whether to continue.

The benefit of this is that silence costs can be avoided.

How to do inspection reading? First of all, the reader must understand that what he wants to understand is the author's idea and not the hearsay of others (this is different from a blind date). So, don't read book reviews or other people's testimonials until you judge for yourself.

If the author has a self-preface, read the self-preface first; generally, the self-preface will include the reason for writing the book and a general introduction to the content. Then look at the table of contents to understand what aspects of knowledge this book mainly includes, and what kind of structure the author uses to structure the whole book. Then look at the last chapter. A brilliant author can't help but wrap up the full text at the last chapter.

The following steps allow readers to have a general understanding of the content of the book. Then you can flip through a few chapters at will, look at the writing of the book, and the logical chain of the discussion. If in the pages that you accidentally turn to, you find that the writing is procrastinating, the thinking is empty, and the discussion is far-fetched, then don't hesitate and give up decisively.

Books that have passed the inspection stage should be carefully studied. Reading is essentially learning without feedback, where the author feeds the TA's ideas and the reader struggles to figure it out. To read well, the author must be at a higher level than the reader, otherwise the reader will not be able to gain new knowledge.

If readers regard reading as learning, then they should know that reading is not for pleasure and relaxation, nor for competition and show. Reading requires effort, even scratching, from the reader.

In modern education, learning exists in a structured way. Take one thing and we'll disassemble it. A thing is made up of a and b, and a is made up of 1 and 2, and such disassembly can be endless, depending on the context.

Since the essence of reading is learning, reading also follows a structured routine. When readers get a book, they must first figure out, what is the framework of the book?

For example, a book that explores a theme and is divided into three chapters, the first on the origins; the second on the status quo; and the third on the response. This is the big structure of the whole book.

Of course, it's not enough to just have a big structure, the reader has to figure out the structure of each chapter itself. Origins can be divided chronologically or by cause, depending on the author's line of thinking. If it is divided according to reasons, the source and proof of each reason also need to be clarified by the author.

Large structures are supported by small structures, and small structures are supported by smaller structures, nested in layers, up to the first stable cornerstone of the argument. Most books do not have such a perfect structure, which does not matter. As readers, our purpose is not only the book itself, but also the set of thinking that we deconstruct the book.

In "How to Read This Book", in addition to dismantling the structure of the book, it also mentions paying attention to specific content and details, such as paying attention to key words, key sentences and rearranging them according to their own logic . But from my personal understanding, these can still be grouped into structures, just those smaller structures.

A very important principle for readers to analyze and read is not to just look at it, and almost no one can complete the structure of the entire book purely with their minds. Mind maps are very important tools, and of course I am more accustomed to expressing them directly with multi-level lists.

Analytical reading is followed by critical reading, at which point I deviate from the original book. At this stage, "How to Read a Book" is more inclined to warn readers that only when they fully understand the structure of a book can they be qualified and able to judge the books they read.

When readers understand everything, they can comment on books from two aspects:

1. The knowledge in the book is wrong;

2. The logic in the book is wrong;

Knowledge and logic are the basic materials that make up a discourse. When knowledge is wrong, be careful with the logic on which it is constructed. The opposite is not true.

However, for a utilitarian reader like me, the essence of critical reading is that the author uses his own knowledge and experience to collide with the author. In fact, the structural notes sorted out in the analytical reading phase are only the author's ideas, and now, readers need to incorporate their own ideas into it.

For example, for some concepts mentioned in the structure notes, whether the reader can prove it with other examples, if the reader can only express things with the concepts learned from the book, it is still just parroting. Analysis just presents things, but understanding depends on the reader's own confirmation.

When the reader truly understands the author's ideological structure, he can correct his mistakes. Regarding the above two points, the knowledge that the author has is not wrong now, such as Aristotle. The author's argument is not wrong, the logic is not appropriate.

If these errors are not related to the overall structure, then no harm is done. If the error is related to the structure, then it is necessary to correct the error and reorganize the local structure.

By this stage, the reader is already proficient in this book alone. Going a step further, the reader stands on the shoulders of the author and looks at the distant scenery.

When writing, the author is limited by the times, his own knowledge background and experience, and ultimately cannot achieve a perfect state. And readers can extend and expand on this basis and ask new questions. For example, on a moral issue, Spinoza put forward a view, is this view the only one? What do other people think?

When the reader asks these questions, the TA goes beyond the author's structure to some extent. Of course, a responsible reader (also a learner) not only asks questions, but also seeks answers. To this end, TA must open the path of thematic reading, read Kant, and read Hume.

And when all of this comes to an end, for readers, TA also ushered in a new beginning: practice. There is no author who does not want his own thoughts, and the knowledge he has acquired affects his readers, and the effect will ultimately be reflected in practice.

Although a person can make a lot of notes, if the TA has never put it into practice, then the TA is still not a qualified reader, because the TA has lived up to the author's expectations and the time and energy that he has invested.

The unity of knowledge and action is not only a requirement for saints, but also the goal that every reader should strive for.

End.