He believes that reading can not only free people from the shackles of time and space, but also guide us to meditate on valuable things. Therefore, "reading is a recognized pleasure in civilized life, and those who enjoy it are extremely unfortunate and enviable."
But when it comes to the purpose of reading, Lin Yutang throws an amazing view-the purpose of reading is not to seek knowledge, but to seek taste!
Why do you say that? If you study only for spiritual progress, you will inevitably regard reading as a task, and the fun of reading will all disappear. Therefore, people who study with the goal of seeking knowledge are people who don't understand the art of reading.
What is seeking taste? Books written by different people, books written in different periods and books published in different countries all have different tastes. This is like different kinds of food, which will enter different stomachs according to different tastes of individuals. The purpose of reading is to "eat the food that suits your appetite." Therefore, Lin Yutang feels that there are no books that must be read in the world, and everything should be done according to his own interests.
Lin Yutang's remarks about the purpose of reading will really inspire us. From the time of Confucius, the slogan of "learning to be excellent is to be an official, and being an official to be excellent is to learn" was put forward. Especially after the establishment of the imperial examination system, people directly linked the purpose of studying with being an official. Even derived from the narrow idea that "everything is inferior, only reading is high."
Reading is to be an official, and being an official is the purpose of reading. Until today, this utilitarian view of reading has not changed with the progress of the times, but has become more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
According to last year's reading report, China people read nearly eight books every year on average. But I doubt the quality of your work. I have also asked several graduate students, and of course it is far beyond the number of 8. But there are really few people who finally suck out the smell.
They study to finish their papers, to do projects, to complete the tasks of tutors, and to pass various exams. According to Mr. Lin Yutang, almost none of them study for taste, but for themselves.
The wheel of the times turns faster and faster, and we seem to be getting busier and busier. Mastering fragmented knowledge in fragmented time has really become the standard to test a person's learning ability. In this context, we have thoroughly implemented the spirit of "applying what we have learned". We all study to be useful, to improve our skills and to pass all kinds of exams.
We don't even have time to read the whole book. We can only lie in bed at 10 every day, log on to the APP and spend more than ten minutes listening to a book to console ourselves. But we still feel that time is not enough, and sometimes we even want to shout at the announcer: "Don't talk so much nonsense, just say dry goods! I want dry goods! "
Reading is an art, a spiritual enjoyment and a wonderful journey of forgetting myself. However, nowadays, few people have such leisure. Tomorrow is still very busy, but I hope more and more people can slow down, taste the real taste of reading, and then tell us people with plain taste: the taste of books is really charming!