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.
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