1、A thesis submitted toin partial fulfillment How Should One Read a Book?By Virginia WoolfIt is simple enough to say that since books have classes-fiction, biography, poetry-we should separate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us. Yet few people ask from books what books c
2、an give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read
3、, that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as wi
4、dely as possible, the signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or a
5、ttempting to give you, something far more definite. The thirty-two chapters of a novelif we consider how to read a novel first-are an attempt to make something as formed and controlled as a building: but words are more impalpable than bricks; reading is a longer and more complicated process than see
6、ing. Perhaps the quickest way to understand the elements of what a novelist is doing is not to read, but to write; to make your own experiment with the dangers and difficulties of words. Recall, then, some event that has left a distinct impression on youhow at the corner of the street, perhaps, you
7、passed two people talking. A tree shook; an electric light danced; the tone of the talk was comic, but also tragic; a whole vision; an entire conception, seemed contained in that moment.无庸讳言，书籍有类别之分，比如小说，传记，诗歌等等。我们应该从各种不同类别的图书中获取不同的营养。然而，事实上，只有少数人能正确对待书籍，从中吸 取其所能给予的一切。我们常常带着模糊而矛盾的观点来 ，要求小说该真实，诗歌应该不真
8、实，传记必须充满溢美之词，历史得强化我们固有的观念。阅读时，如果我们能摒弃这些偏见，便是一个好的开端。不要强作者所 难，而应与作者融为一体，作他的同路人和随行者。倘若你未开卷便先行犹豫退缩，说三道四，你绝不可能从阅读中最大限度地获取有用价值。但是，字里行间不易 察觉的精妙之处，就为你洞开了一个别人难以领略的天地。沉浸其中，仔细玩味，不久，你会发现，作者给予你的，或试图给予你的，绝非某个确定意义。一部小说 的三十二个章节-如果我们先来讨论怎么阅读小说的话-犹如建筑的构架，但词汇比砖头令人更难捉摸。阅读比之于观看，当然是个更 为长久而复杂的过程。也许，最为快界地领略小说家工作的原理的方法，不是读，而是写；去冒险与词汇打交道。回忆一下某个曾给你留下独特印象的事件：街角处 你碰到两个人正在交谈，当时周围的场景是，树在随风摆动；街灯灯光摇曳不定；说话人声调悲喜交集；那一刻你感受到的情景全然融合在一起。
