extracurricular books

My nephew has been struggling with reading extracurricular books recently.

I was puzzled at first. I just thought that the summer homework assigned by the teacher, including reading, can help children make good use of their spare time, which is always a good thing.

Of course my nephew understands this. But the reason she was distressed was that the designated reading was too difficult. It was Qian Zhongshu's "Fortress Besieged". She asked me if I had read this masterpiece and wanted to know the theme of the novel.

To be honest, I was a little surprised at the time. I recalled that I only read this book when I was in college, and it was not easy to read, and it took me a long time to read it. Can today's junior high school students really understand the complex interpersonal relationships and the indistinguishable story background in the book?

However, since it was the teacher's arrangement, I can't say anything more. I can only honestly share my specific impression of this classic novel, but after all, my memory is already very vague, and I believe that I can't relieve my nephew. I can only encourage her to ignore the assessment for now and enjoy reading in a relaxed mood. Only in this way can she read the novel for fun. If you always think about how the teacher will compose the questions and how to spot check the progress, you will not read extracurricular books but memorize textbooks by rote.

In my impression, I came into contact with Qian Zhongshu's works in high school. The textbook at that time selected his "Reading "Aesop's Fables" as a sample essay. I liked the discussion style of this article very much. Later, I went to the bookstore to find Tiandi Books. Published a collection of "Writing on the Edge of Life/People, Beasts and Ghosts", I remember reading the first book "The Devil Visits Mr. Qian Zhongshu at Night" at the Starlight Bookstore in White Horse Travel. I was very impressed and decided to I want to buy a book, but because I have no money at hand, the price of the book is 30 yuan, which is not a small amount for me, a middle school student. I saved pocket money for a few weeks before going back to the bookstore to buy it. I’m willing to throw it away, and without realizing it, this little book has been with me for almost 30 years. Many articles in the book, such as "On Happiness", "Talking about Lessons", "One Prejudice", "Explaining Illiteracy", "The Essay on People", "Inspiration", and "God's Dream", I have read with great interest, and I still think they are A masterpiece, and re-reading every few years, this book is far more endearing to me than the world-famous Siege. Despite this, I rarely mention to people that I like Qian Zhongshu's articles, probably out of a guilty conscience, and the main reason is probably that I have never been able to read "Tan Yi Lu" and "Pipe Cone", so although I admire his achievements in writing prose very much, but I dare not say that I know a lot about his works.

Because of this personal memory, I suddenly thought, if I was a middle school teacher and wanted to recommend Mr. Qian's works to my students, I would first introduce the children to read "Writing on the Edge of Life", which is as clear as water and as bright as a mirror The wonderful and good texts of the book will help them lay a solid foundation, and the most important thing is to leave a good impression on the great writers. In the future, they will take the initiative to read "Fortress Besieged" based on their interest and book affinity, and even extend to Yang Jiang's "Bath", "The Cadre School" "Six Records", "The Three of Us", and "Walking to the Edge of Life", the language must have improved a lot, and the mind will definitely be clearer than others. But if the children feel very boring and difficult to understand from the beginning, they may turn around and leave when they see the author's name in the future, which will reduce the effect of spreading knowledge.

Of course, there will be some geniuses who have read "Besieged City" in junior high school, and some people have even read "A Dream of Red Mansions" in elementary school, but these are special cases after all. Ordinary people, it is better to follow the steps step by step.