How Should One Read a Book? 如何讀書?

By Virginia Woolf

It 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.

書既然有小說，傳記，詩歌之分，就應區別對待，從各類書中取其應該給及我們的東西。這話說來很簡單。

Yet few people ask from books what books can 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，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 widely 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 attempting to give you，something far more definite.

然而很少有人向書索取它能給我們的東西，我們拿起書來往往懷著模糊而又雜亂的想法，要求小說是真是的，詩歌是虛假的，傳記要吹捧，史書能加強我們自己的偏見。讀書時如能拋開這些先入為主之見，便是極好的開端。不要對作者指手畫腳，而要盡力與作者融為一體，共同創作，共同策劃。如果你不參與，不投入，而且一開始就百般挑剔，那你就無緣從書中獲得最大的益處。你若敞開心扉，虛懷若谷，那么，書中精細入微的寓意和暗示便會把你從一開頭就碰上的那些像是山回水轉般的句子中帶出來，走到一個獨特的人物面前。鉆進去熟悉它，你很快就會發現，作者展示給你的或想要展示給你的是一些比原先要明確得多的東西。不妨閑來談談如何讀小說吧。