Readable.What is this means? Apparently, it means easy to understand. You may say, Oh I get it--magazine is readable, newspaper is readable, sixth-grade textbook is readable.
It is true that these books are easy to read because ithe language they use is simple and straighforward. They convey idea and information that are easy to catch. They call for little effort to understand.
But this is not truely readable, as far as I am concerned, they are just simple to read. The readable ones should have logical sense with little gramma mistakes. What the books are trying to say should be well structured and has no or little ambiguous expression and can be understood by readers who have make reasonable effort to read.
One clue to see whether the book is readable is to find its "bone". If you can briefly state what the book is trying to say and what is the important words or sentences in the book and what the author is trying to argue, the book might be readable one.
The great books are readable in this sense. Why the great books can pass from long time ago to nowadays is because they are readable, well written and can convey knowledge to the readers.
2010-01-30
How to Read a Book--by Mortimer J. Adler (Discussion 1--Active learning)
Only those who learn actively can benefit from reading books. That is the reason why I prefer self-study to being taught by school. When I engage in learning process either by reading or writing, I am actively exploring new knowledge on my own.
Most of students hate reading books because they are trained to swallow content in the books, they are directed to the wrong way of learning, they are spoon-fed by teachers and thus they lack of actively learning enthusiam. That is the failure of today's education--we are trained to be taught not are taught to learn by ourselves.
One of my friends said that every time he tried to read a book, he would quickly fall into asleep. He blamed his unsuccessful reading attempt for lacking interest and talent. While I think the cause of the failure is due to the fact that he had not prepared for active learning and not fully realise the hardship in the process.
Actively learning needs huge amount of effort, relative skills, determination,awake mind and so forth. It sounds terrible and difficult to most people and that is why some people never try to learn actively. While like any other kind of arts, reading can be improved by practising skills. At the very beginning, we would feel painful to read and interpret words, sentences and paragraghs,let alone criticising author's views. But we will get better after we try several times and only the practice day by day can make our reading skills come near to "perfect".
Self-learning is not a mission impossible. But you should start it as soon as possible and try to develop the reading practices into life-long habit. Sooner or later, you will see the benefits of it.
Most of students hate reading books because they are trained to swallow content in the books, they are directed to the wrong way of learning, they are spoon-fed by teachers and thus they lack of actively learning enthusiam. That is the failure of today's education--we are trained to be taught not are taught to learn by ourselves.
One of my friends said that every time he tried to read a book, he would quickly fall into asleep. He blamed his unsuccessful reading attempt for lacking interest and talent. While I think the cause of the failure is due to the fact that he had not prepared for active learning and not fully realise the hardship in the process.
Actively learning needs huge amount of effort, relative skills, determination,awake mind and so forth. It sounds terrible and difficult to most people and that is why some people never try to learn actively. While like any other kind of arts, reading can be improved by practising skills. At the very beginning, we would feel painful to read and interpret words, sentences and paragraghs,let alone criticising author's views. But we will get better after we try several times and only the practice day by day can make our reading skills come near to "perfect".
Self-learning is not a mission impossible. But you should start it as soon as possible and try to develop the reading practices into life-long habit. Sooner or later, you will see the benefits of it.
2010-01-15
google would quit the game of censorship
I feel glad when I heard the new that google,one of the largest searching engine, would quit Chinese growing market because it does not wanna apply the rule of censorship.
Every foreign company that wants to build up business in China is forced to apply China's censorship rule. Ebay, Apple, yahoo, and google, all of them have to do so by self-blocking any sensitive words from websites read by Chinese users. For example, Chinese users are forbidened to write and see the words "human right", "Tibet", "June 4" and other political sensitive words.So what Chinese users would see in the internet may totally different from what others see outside China. What is worse, most of the users are not awared of the censorship.
Baidu, the other searching giant, is willing to follow the rule of censorship, thus can win in this uneven game, constitutes 70% market shares. While google is trying to flight against censorship, as a result, it lacks support from Chinese government.
Not like China, the rest of the world has no intent to prevent people from reading what they want to know about. Why China tries every effort to take away freedom of speech and read? If China has not done anything wrong to its people, why the government afraids to let people know the true and why they not allow people to express their views and complains?
After google showed its intent of leaving China, US commercial and defence systems are attacked by Chinese hackers. The only response from Chinese spockwoman is that China has applied the laws and laws not allow hackers to do such thing. She talks nothing! We are not fool and we should not be fool like that. We are Chinese and we have the very right to speech and know the true.
I am very disappointed with my country and the party. China has developed quickly in terms of economy while nothing has been improved in human right. We complain and critise not because we do not love our country but we hope China gets better.
But still we haven't see any sign of trend that China will abandon its censorship, at least in the coming decades.
Every foreign company that wants to build up business in China is forced to apply China's censorship rule. Ebay, Apple, yahoo, and google, all of them have to do so by self-blocking any sensitive words from websites read by Chinese users. For example, Chinese users are forbidened to write and see the words "human right", "Tibet", "June 4" and other political sensitive words.So what Chinese users would see in the internet may totally different from what others see outside China. What is worse, most of the users are not awared of the censorship.
Baidu, the other searching giant, is willing to follow the rule of censorship, thus can win in this uneven game, constitutes 70% market shares. While google is trying to flight against censorship, as a result, it lacks support from Chinese government.
Not like China, the rest of the world has no intent to prevent people from reading what they want to know about. Why China tries every effort to take away freedom of speech and read? If China has not done anything wrong to its people, why the government afraids to let people know the true and why they not allow people to express their views and complains?
After google showed its intent of leaving China, US commercial and defence systems are attacked by Chinese hackers. The only response from Chinese spockwoman is that China has applied the laws and laws not allow hackers to do such thing. She talks nothing! We are not fool and we should not be fool like that. We are Chinese and we have the very right to speech and know the true.
I am very disappointed with my country and the party. China has developed quickly in terms of economy while nothing has been improved in human right. We complain and critise not because we do not love our country but we hope China gets better.
But still we haven't see any sign of trend that China will abandon its censorship, at least in the coming decades.
2010-01-14
why we need books
I enjoy reading and I love books due to many reasons--for pleasure, for learning, for enlightening and any other reasons.I grew up with lots of books which are regarded as my friends and mentors. And I feel that I learn more from books instead of being taught by schooling,
I love books wheras others may not be interested in them.One of my former classmates had discussed the need of reading with me. When I asked why he doesn't read books except textbooks, he answered in a self-important manner that he doesn't need to read other books because he knows every thing even without reading books and besides he can learn from his experience. His answer was a real shock to me. Even the wisest man in the world won't say that. How can a 20 something say like that?
As we learn more, we know more about our limitation and feel humble. On the contrary, if we know less, we thought we are the best and thus have no bother to gain more knowledge or improve ourselves.
So, does that means reading can help us find out our limitation? Yes, it is and more than that.
First, it is quite important to understand our disadvantages. As a result of that, we can then look for ways to improve ourselves. Through reading, which is a good way of learning, we talk with a wiser man who can give us fresh insight and inspirations.For example, if we are weak in arguing, we can improve our communicate and logic skill by reading Francis Bacon.But we should bear in mind that we should only learn from the best books that have primary knowledge. What is meant by that is those popularizations and textbooks do little help to our understanding and learning because they are merely repetition and digestion of other sources. We should read those generated from authors who discover wisdom themselves.Always learn from those who are better than you.
Enlightenment is the other fruit of reading. What we gain from great books is not only information which can be obtained from other activities such as schooling and discovery, but also enlightment. Thus, we read by connecting with our lives, by refleting our past, by relating all current knowledge rather than remembering the facts and stories told by books. Only by doing this can we apply what we learnt from books in our daily life.
Believe it or not, reading can be a lifestyle which would benefit you in such a long run.
I love books wheras others may not be interested in them.One of my former classmates had discussed the need of reading with me. When I asked why he doesn't read books except textbooks, he answered in a self-important manner that he doesn't need to read other books because he knows every thing even without reading books and besides he can learn from his experience. His answer was a real shock to me. Even the wisest man in the world won't say that. How can a 20 something say like that?
As we learn more, we know more about our limitation and feel humble. On the contrary, if we know less, we thought we are the best and thus have no bother to gain more knowledge or improve ourselves.
So, does that means reading can help us find out our limitation? Yes, it is and more than that.
First, it is quite important to understand our disadvantages. As a result of that, we can then look for ways to improve ourselves. Through reading, which is a good way of learning, we talk with a wiser man who can give us fresh insight and inspirations.For example, if we are weak in arguing, we can improve our communicate and logic skill by reading Francis Bacon.But we should bear in mind that we should only learn from the best books that have primary knowledge. What is meant by that is those popularizations and textbooks do little help to our understanding and learning because they are merely repetition and digestion of other sources. We should read those generated from authors who discover wisdom themselves.Always learn from those who are better than you.
Enlightenment is the other fruit of reading. What we gain from great books is not only information which can be obtained from other activities such as schooling and discovery, but also enlightment. Thus, we read by connecting with our lives, by refleting our past, by relating all current knowledge rather than remembering the facts and stories told by books. Only by doing this can we apply what we learnt from books in our daily life.
Believe it or not, reading can be a lifestyle which would benefit you in such a long run.
2010-01-13
No freedom
China has recently blocked numerous website in the name of "Ensuring a healthy and regulated virtual world".
My another blog which was signed in one of the popular Chinese website has been blocked as well. It is already 2 weeks, but we still don't know when we can access to our blogs. What's worse, no one has given us any reason--we like a group of poor people, abandoned in the street without explaination. A lot of us feel the possibility to lose all our information in the blog(some have already writen for more than 5 years).
We all know there is not much freedom to speak and to complain in China, but I never expect the situation would be such worse. China has develped quickly in economic sense while not much progress can we see in terms of huam right.
It might be good to regulate the Virtual environment, as far as I am concerned. However, it is not acceptable for China to act in this way whereby no reasons, no communication and no solutions are provided.
My another blog which was signed in one of the popular Chinese website has been blocked as well. It is already 2 weeks, but we still don't know when we can access to our blogs. What's worse, no one has given us any reason--we like a group of poor people, abandoned in the street without explaination. A lot of us feel the possibility to lose all our information in the blog(some have already writen for more than 5 years).
We all know there is not much freedom to speak and to complain in China, but I never expect the situation would be such worse. China has develped quickly in economic sense while not much progress can we see in terms of huam right.
It might be good to regulate the Virtual environment, as far as I am concerned. However, it is not acceptable for China to act in this way whereby no reasons, no communication and no solutions are provided.
2010-01-12
Resolution--Books that I plan to read in 2009
1,The Warden
2,The Return of the Native (Reread)
3,John Christopher (Reread)
4,The Wind in the Willows
5,How to Read a Book
6,Stories of Belonging
7,Living in Australia (If I can find it)
List to be continued if I find more books worth reading. And I will spend more time on reading Classic and other great books--what I am concern is quality insteading of quantity and speed.
2,The Return of the Native (Reread)
3,John Christopher (Reread)
4,The Wind in the Willows
5,How to Read a Book
6,Stories of Belonging
7,Living in Australia (If I can find it)
List to be continued if I find more books worth reading. And I will spend more time on reading Classic and other great books--what I am concern is quality insteading of quantity and speed.
2010-01-08
Digging to Amercia--by Anne Tyler
The story begins when 2 Korean baby girls--Jin-Ho and Susan arrive in America and be delivered to 2 different Baltimore families. Jin-Ho comes to Bitsy and Brad's family--a typical white American family while Suan goes to Ziba and Sami--an Iranian immigrated family.
It seems that story mainly tells how 2 Korean girl take roots and become American.But it is not. It talks about how Ziba, Sami and Sami's mother, Maryam and more Iranian characters adapt to American life as well as how American try to accept foreign people and foreign culture. The core character--Maryam, is an elegent widow who has moved to America 30 years ago to marry her husband. Maryam takes pride in her foreigness and always stays away from American people and their way of life. Even though she falls in love with Dave, Bitsy's father, she afraids that she would lose her "Independence". Therefore, she escapes from her love.
But the ending of the story is warm, out of my expectation (cause I thought the 2 families would seperate and never meet again for their otherness, pride and prejudice). All of Bitsy and Brad's family members leave the "Arrival party" to look for Maryam. They say to Maryam that they can't enjoy the party without her, they want her, they need her friendship. Maryam finally takes off her pride and joins them. Two cultural different families come to one.
Actually I am really appreciate Maryam's pride and independent. Her choice that not to marry again and keep her peace is a rational one. You know,though love is amazing, it also brings harm, hate and sadness. Love takes away freedom, private desire and independence which women should treasure with great care.
Generally, it is a book easy to read and it can be a good holiday book.
订阅：
博文 (Atom)
博文
