Chapter 23 Chapter 21 Reading and Mental Growth

We have completed the outline presented at the beginning of this book.We have made it clear that the foundation of good reading lies in active reading.The more active you are while reading, the better you will be at reading. The so-called active reading means being able to ask questions.We also point out what questions to ask when reading any book, and how different kinds of books must answer these questions in different ways. We also distinguish and discuss four levels of reading, and show that these four levels are cumulative and progressive, with content at earlier or lower levels being included in later, higher-level reading.Next, we deliberately emphasize the later higher-level reading, while less emphasizing the earlier lower-level reading.Therefore, we place special emphasis on analytical reading and thematic reading.Because analytical reading is probably the least familiar form of reading for most readers, we have devoted a considerable amount of time to discussing it, laying down the rules and explaining how to apply them.But all the rules of analytical reading apply to the following thematic readings as well, with slight adjustments from what was said in the last chapter.

We did our job, but you may not have done yours.We need not remind you that this is a practical book, or that the reader of such a book has any special obligations.We believe that if a reader has read a practical book and accepts the author's point of view that his advice is appropriate and valid, then the reader must act on that advice.You may not accept the main goal we advocate—that you should be able to read more thoroughly—and the methods we suggest to achieve that goal—namely, the rules of inspectional, analytical, and thematic reading. (But if so, you probably won't be reading this page either.) But if you accept the goal, and agree that these methods are appropriate, then you must try in ways you may not have experienced before read it.

This is your job and obligation.Is there anything we can do to help? We think it should.The primary responsibility for this job rests with you—you do all of this (and reap all of the benefits).But there are a few things about ends and means that haven't been said yet.Let's talk about the latter for now! ※ How can a good book help us The word "means" can be interpreted in two senses.In the preceding chapters we have considered means to be rules of reading, means of making you a better reader.But means can also be interpreted as what you read.It is as useless to have a method without a material to use, as it is to have a material without a method to use.

In the latter sense of "means," the means to improve your reading ability in the future are actually the books you will read.We said that this approach to reading applies to any book, and any kind of book you read—fiction or nonfiction, imaginative or expository, practical or theoretical.But in fact, at least as we have shown in our discussion of analytical and thematic reading, this approach does not apply to all books.The reason is that some books do not require such reading at all. We've mentioned this before, but we want to mention it again because it's relevant to the work you're about to do. ．If your purpose in reading is to become a better reader, you can't just read any book or article you can get your hands on.You can't improve your reading skills if all the books you read are within your ability.You must be able to manipulate books that are beyond your powers, or as we say, read books that are beyond your mind.Only books like that can help your mind grow -- you can't learn unless you grow your mind.

Therefore, it is most important for you not only to be able to read well, but also to be able to distinguish which books will help you improve your reading ability.A pastime or entertainment book may give you a moment's pleasure, but you can't expect anything more than pleasure.We are not against entertaining works, we want to emphasize that such books will not allow you to improve your reading skills.The same is true of books that simply report facts you don't know, but do nothing to improve your understanding of these facts.Reading for information will not help your mental growth any more than reading for entertainment.It may seem like you've grown up, but that's just because you've got some information in your head that you didn't have before reading this book.However, your mind is basically the same as it used to be, only the amount of reading has changed, but the skill has not improved.

We have said many times that a good reader is also a very demanding reader.He was active and diligent in his reading.Now we are going to talk about some other ideas.The book you want to use to practice your reading skills, especially analytical reading skills, must demand something of you too.The books have to look beyond your abilities.You needn't worry that's true, as long as you use what we call reading skills, no book will escape your grasp.Of course, this is not to say that all tricks can magically get you to your goal all at once.No matter how hard you try, there will always be some books ahead of you.In fact, these are the books you're looking for, because they can make you a more skilled reader.

Some readers have the false notion that books—books that continually challenge the reader's reading skills—are books in unfamiliar territory.The result is a general belief that, for most readers, only works of science, or works of philosophy, are such books.But that is not the case.We have already said that great scientific works are easier to read than some non-scientific books, because these scientific authors are careful to reach a consensus with you, help you find the key ideas, and at the same time make the argument clear.In literature there is no such help to be found, and so in the long run those books are the most demanding and the most difficult to read.For example, Homer's book is harder to read than Newton's book in many ways-although you may experience Homer more when you read it for the first time.Homer is difficult to read because the subjects he deals with are difficult things to write well about.

The difficulty we are talking about here is not the same as the difficulty of reading a bad book.It's also hard to read a bad book because it negates your analytical reading efforts and slips away just when you think you've got something.In fact, a bad book isn't worth your time, effort, or even the attempt.You work hard for a long time and still get nothing. Reading a good book will pay off for your hard work.The best books give you the most back.Of course, such feedback is divided into two types: First, when you have successfully read a good book that is difficult to read, your reading skills will definitely improve.Second—and this is more important in the long run—a good book can teach you about the world and about yourself.Not only do you know more about how to read better, but you also know more about life.You become wiser, not just more knowledgeable—like a book that only gives information.You will become a wise man with a deeper understanding of eternal truths in human life.

After all, there are many problems in the world for which there are no solutions.No one can draw conclusions about the relationship between some people, or between people and the non-human world.This is not only true in the field of science and philosophy, because no one has yet and will never be able to reach the ultimate understanding of nature and its laws, existence and evolution, even in some everyday things we are familiar with, such as men and women, So it is with the relationship between parent and child, or between God and man.You can't think too much about this, and you can't think well.The great classics are here to help you think about these issues a little more clearly, because the authors of these books are people who think deeper than ordinary people.

※ Pyramid of books Ninety-nine percent of the millions of books written in the Western tradition will not help you with your reading skills.This may seem like a troubling fact, but even that percentage seems overestimated.However, considering the number of books, this estimate is still correct.There are many books that can only be used for entertainment or information.There are many ways to be entertained, and there are tons of interesting information, but you can't expect to learn anything important from it.In fact, you don't need to do analytical reading of these books at all.One scan is enough.

The second type of books are books that allow you to learn—how to read, how to live.Only one percent, one thousandth, or even one ten thousandth of a book meets this standard.These books are carefully crafted masterpieces of authors who deal with subjects of perpetual human interest and special insight.These books, which may not exceed a few thousand, are demanding on the reader, and deserve an analytical reading—one at a time.If you're skilled enough to read it once, you'll have all the major concepts you need.You read the book once and put it back on the shelf.You know you won't have to re-read it, but you may want to flip through it often to find some specific highlights, or to revisit some ideas or passages. (Some notes you make in the margins of such books will be especially helpful.) How did you know you didn't have to read that book again?Because when you are reading, your mental reaction has become one with the experience in the book.Such a book will grow your mind and improve your understanding.Just as your mind grows and your understanding increases, you realize—and this is a somewhat mystical experience—that this book will no longer help you in your later mental growth.You know you've got the meat of the book.You have fully absorbed the essence.You are grateful for what this book has done to you, but you know it can give only so much. Among the thousands of such books, there are even fewer books—probably less than a hundred—that you can't read as well as you can.How do you tell which books fall into this category?It's a bit of a mystery again, but when you put the book back on the shelf after reading it analytically to the best of your ability, there's a little bit of confusion in your mind, as if there's something you haven't figured out .We say "doubt" because at this stage it may be the only state.If you know for sure that you missed something, it is your duty as an analytical reader to reopen the book immediately and figure out what your problem is.In fact, you can't pinpoint where the problem is right away, but you know where it is.You'll find yourself stuck with the book, thinking about its content and your own reactions.Finally, you rewatch it again.Then something very special happened. If this book belongs to the second type of book we mentioned above, when you reread it, you will find that the content in the book seems to be much less than what you remember.The reason, of course, is that your mind grows a lot during this phase.Your mind is filled and your comprehension grows.The book itself has not changed, what has changed is you.Such rereading is undoubtedly disappointing. But if the book is a book of a higher order—a book that is only a small part of the vast universe—you will find that the book seems to grow with you when you reread it.You see new things in it—a whole new set of things—that you haven't seen before.Your previous understanding of this book is not worthless (assuming you read it carefully the first time), the truth is still the truth, it just used to be a certain aspect, but now it presents a different aspect. How can a book grow with you?Of course this is impossible.Once a book is written and published, it does not change.It's only then that you begin to understand that the book was way above you when you first read it, and it's still ahead of you when you reread it, and probably always will be in the future.Because it's a really good book—a great book, we might say—it can be adapted to different levels of needs.It's not a lie that you felt mentally grown when you read it earlier.That book does lift you up.But now, even if you have become wiser and more knowledgeable, such books will still elevate you, and until the end of your life. Apparently there aren't many books that can do this for us.We estimate that such books should be less than a hundred.But for any given reader, the number will be even less.Human beings differ in many other ways besides mental powers.They have different tastes, and the same thing means more to one person than another.You probably never felt about Newton the way you felt about Shakespeare, perhaps because you can read Newton so well that you don't need to read it again, perhaps because the world of mathematical systems was never close to you field.If you like mathematics - like Darwin, for example - Newton and a few other books are great works for you, not Shakespeare. We do not wish to tell you authoritatively which books are great works for you.In our first appendix, though, we include some lists because, in our experience, these books are valuable books for many readers.Our point is that you should find out for yourself which books are of special value to you.A book like this can teach you a lot about reading and life.It's the kind of book you'll want to read over and over again.This is also the book that will help you grow. ※ Growth of life and mind There's an old quiz—a popular one from the last century—that's designed to help you find the books that mean the most to you.Here's how the quiz goes: If you're warned that you're going to spend the rest of your life on an uninhabited island, or at least a very long time, and assuming you have time to make some preparations and bring some actually useful items to the island, If you could take ten books with you, which ten would you choose? Trying to make a list like this is instructive, and not just because it helps you discover which books you most want to read and reread.In fact, this one is probably trivial compared to the other.That thing is: when you imagine yourself cut off in a world with no entertainment, no information, no general things to understand, do you know a little bit more about yourself than you do?Remember, there is no TV or radio on the island, let alone a library, just you and ten books. When you start thinking about it, the situation you're imagining in this way feels a little weird and unreal.Really?We don't think so.In a way, we're all like people ostracized on a desert island.We all face the same challenge—the challenge of finding out the resources within us to live a better human life. There is something very strange about the human mind, mainly because it separates our mind from our body.Our bodies are limited, but our minds are not.One of the signs is that the body cannot grow without limit in terms of strength and technique.People reach their peak physical condition around the age of 30, and as time changes, the physical condition only gets worse and worse, while our minds can grow and develop indefinitely.Our minds don't stop growing just because we die at a certain age. It is only when the brain loses vitality and becomes rigid that it loses the power to increase skill and understanding. This is the most obvious characteristic of human beings, and it is also the main difference between Animi and other animals.Other animals seem to reach a certain level of development where they cease to develop mentally.However, the unique characteristics of human beings also hide huge dangers.The mind, like a muscle, atrophies if it is not used often.Mental atrophy punishes us for not using our brains often.This is a terrible punishment, because the evidence shows that mental atrophy can also kill people.Besides, there seems to be no explanation why many busy people die as soon as they retire.They live because their work requires something mentally, which is an artificial support force, that is, an external force.Once the power of external demands disappears, and they have no inner mental activity, they stop thinking, and death follows. Television, radio, and other entertainment or information that surround us every day are also artificial supports.They make us feel like we're using our brains as we respond to external stimuli.But these external forces to stimulate us are limited after all.Like medicine, once you get used to it, you need more and more of it.In the end, these forces are little or even useless.At this time, if we do not have the inner life force, our intellectual, moral and spiritual growth will stop.When we stop growing, we are dying. Good reading, that is, active reading, is not only useful for reading itself, not only for our work or career, but also for our minds to maintain vitality and growth.