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Read for pleasure

Read for pleasure

By claudia camposPublished 10 months ago 5 min read
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First of all, I will insist that reading should be a kind of enjoyment.

It won't help you earn a degree or make a living; Can't teach you to sail a boat, can't tell you how to start a broken down car. But they will make your life richer and fuller and happier, if you can enjoy them.

Many of the most important works in literary history are now not read by everyone except those who specialize in them. Living in the busy modern age, few people have time to read extensively unless they are directly concerned with books. No matter what scholars say about a book, even if they are unanimous in their praise, if it does not really interest you, it is of no use to you. Don't forget that critics make mistakes, and many of the blunders in the history of criticism have been made by famous critics.

You alone are the best judge of what you mean by the book you are reading.

No one sees things exactly the same as anyone else, only to a certain extent. It makes no sense to suppose that the books that meant so much to me should mean the same to you. Though reading these books has enriched me, and I certainly would not be the man I am today without reading them, we ask you: if you read them and find them unappetizing, then put them away, for they are of no use unless you enjoy them.

No one is obliged to read poetry, novels, or other literary works that can be classified as pure literature. He read only for pleasure, and who can claim that what makes one man happy must also make another happy?

Reading doesn't have to be dirty or sensual to be happy. The wise men of yere thought that the pleasures of knowledge alone were the most satisfying and lasting. There are few sports in which the habit of reading can satisfy you well into your prime; With the exception of card games, chess, crossword puzzles, there are few games in which one can play alone without a companion. Reading is free of such inconveniences. There is hardly any work like reading -- except needlework, but sewing and knitting only with one's fingers, and the restless spirit unrestrained -- which can be started at any moment, and put down at once when something urgent has to be done.

To get into the habit of reading is to build yourself a refuge from almost all the disasters in life.

I say "almost," because I cannot argue that reading soothes the pangs of hunger or the sorrows of lost love. But five or six good detective stories, and a hot water bottle, can make anyone care less about the worst cold. How can we get into the habit of reading for reading's sake if we are forced to read books that are tiresome?

The best way to read is to follow your own interests.

I don't advise you to read one book and then switch to another. Personally, I find it more reasonable to read five or six books at once. Because we cannot keep the same mood from day to day, and even in a day can not have the same enthusiasm for a book. ... As for me, of course, I choose the plan that suits me best. Early in the morning, before I start work, I always read a book, either science or philosophy, because it requires a fresh and focused mind to get my day started.

I read history, essays, criticism, and biographies, when the day's work was done and I was relaxed and no longer wanted to engage in intense mental activity; I read novels in the evening. Besides, I always have a book of poems at hand, ready to read when I am in the mood to read them, and by my bed I keep a book which I can take at any time, and which I can stop at any passage, and which will not affect my mood at all. Unfortunately, there are very few such books.

The shift in enjoyment has made parts of many great masterpieces dull. Today we need not bother with the favourite moralisms of the eighteenth century, nor with the long descriptions of landscapes popular in the nineteenth. To know how to skip is to know how to read in a way that is both useful and enjoyable. But I can't tell you how to learn skip reading, because I never learned the technique myself.

I was a poor skip reader, and I was afraid that I might miss something that might be useful to me, so I had to read a lot of parts that only made me tired, and every time I started skipping, I couldn't stop until the end of the book, feeling very resentful because I didn't think I was being fair. I can't help but think: It's like I haven't even read this book.

Literary self-righteousness, in all its forms, is the most detestable.

A certain kind of fool who looks down on his fellows just because they disagree about a certain book is unforgivable. In addition, ostentatious displays of literary appreciation are so repugnant that you should not be ashamed to disapprove of a book that all the best critics have praised highly. But it's best not to criticize a book you've never read yourself.

Please don't think that happiness is immoral. All pleasures are good in themselves, and their consequences often make sensitive people want to escape. Happiness doesn't have to be nasty or sensual. The wise men of yore thought that only intellectual pleasures were the most satisfying and lasting. "Genius" is often used carelessly, but I would never myself call a writer who has written three or four successful plays, or two or three successful novels. Genius is a very precious quality in my mind, and I do not think my conscience would be safe if I had called any of the writers I shall now mention that word. It is enough to say that they have talent. Some of them had great talents; Some are less. But most of them have insurmountable difficulties that they have to work hard to overcome. Whether they realized it or not, in order to create a nation's literature, they had to forge new paths through their own obstacles of foreign influence.

Poetry is the spring flower and crown of literature, it can not become ordinary.

Many poets write many poems in their lifetime, but often leave only two or three really good poems, I think that is enough to judge them, but I don't want to read that many, but the harvest is so least.

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