大学英语精读第四册UNIT 6. How to Mark a Book
"Don't ever mark in a book!"
Thousands of teachers, librarians and parents have so advised. But
Mortimer Adler disagrees. He thinks so long as you own the book and
needn't preserve its physical appearance, marking it properly will
grant you the ownership of the book in the true sense of the word
and make it a part of yourself.
HOW TO MARK A BOOK
Mortimer J. Adler
You know you
have to read "between the lines" to get the most out of anything. I
want to persuade you to do something equally important in the
course of your reading. I want to persuade you to "write between
the lines." Unless you do, you are not likely to do the most
efficient kind of reading.
You
shouldn't mark up a book which isn't yours. Librarians (or your
friends) who lend you books expect you to keep them clean, and you
should. If you decide that I am right about the usefulness of
marking books, you will have to buy them.
There are
two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property
right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes
and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to
possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part
of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by
writing in it. An illustration may make the point clear. You buy a
beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher's icebox to your own.
But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until
you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am arguing that
books, too, must be absorbed in your bloodstream to do you any
good.
There are
three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standard sets and
best-sellers -- unread, untouched. (This individual owns wood-pulp
and ink, not books.) The second has a great many books -- a few of
them read through, most of them dipped into, but all of them as
clean and shiny as the day they were bought. (This person would
probably like to make books his own, but is restrained by a false
respect for their physical appearance.) The third has a few books
or many -- every one of them dog-eared and dilapidated, shaken and
loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled in from front to
back. (This man owns books.)
Is it false
respect, you may ask, to preserve intact a beautifully printed
book, an elegantly bound edition? Of course not. I'd no more
scribble all over a first edition of "Paradise Lost" than I'd give
my baby a set of crayons and an original Rembrandt! I wouldn't mark
up a painting or a statue. Its soul, so to speak, is inseparable
from its body. And the beauty of a rare edition or of a richly
manufactured volume is like that of painting or a statue. If your
respect for magnificent binding or printing gets in the way, buy
yourself a cheap edition and pay your respects to the author.
Why is
marking up a book indispensable to reading? First, it keeps you
awake. (And I don't mean merely conscious; I mean wide awake.) In
the second place, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and
thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The
marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing
helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author
expressed. Let me develop these three points.
If reading
is to accomplish anything more than passing time, it must be
active. you can't let your eyes glide across the lines of a book
and come up with an understanding of what you have read. Now an
ordinary piece of light fiction, like, say, "Gone with the Wind,"
doesn't require the most active kind of reading. The books you read
for pleasure can be read in a state of relaxation, and nothing is
lost. But a great book, rich in ideas and beauty, a book that
raises and tries to answer great fundamental questions, demands the
most active reading of which you are capable. You don't absorb the
ideas of John Dewey the way you absorb the crooning of Mr. Vallee.
You have to reach for them. That you cannot do while you're
asleep.
If, when
you've finished reading a book, the pages are filled with your
notes, you know that you read actively. The most famous active
reader of great books I know is President Hutchins, of the
University of Chicago. He also has the hardest schedule of business
activities of any man I know. He invariably read with pencil, and
sometimes, when he picks up a book and pencil in the evening, he
finds himself, instead of making intelligent notes, drawing what he
calls " caviar factories" on the margins. When that happens, he
puts the book down. He knows he's too tired to read, and he's just
wasting time.
But, you may
ask, why is writing necessary? Well, the physical act of writing,
with your own hand, brings words and sentences more sharply before
your mind and preserves them better in your memory. To set down
your reaction to important words and sentences you have read, and
the questions they have raised in your mind, is to preserve those
reactions and sharpen those questions. You can pick up the book the
following week or year, and there are all your points of agreement,
disagreement, doubt and inquiry. It's like resuming an interrupted
conversation with the advantage of being able to pick up where you
left off.
And that is
exactly what reading a book should be: a conversation between you
and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you
do; naturally you'll have the proper humility as you approach him.
But don't let anybody tell you that a reader is supposed to be
solely on the receiving end. Understanding is a two-way operation;
learning doesn't consist in being an empty receptacle. The learner
has to question himself and question the teacher. He even has to
argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is
saying. And marking a book is literally an expression of your
differences, or agreements of opinion, with the author.
There are
all kinds of devices for marking a book intelligently and
fruitfully. Here's the way I do it:
1. Underlining: of major points, of important or forceful
statements.
2. Vertical lines at the margin: to emphasize a statement already
underlined.
3. Star, asterisk, or other doo-dad at the margin: to be used
sparingly, to emphasize the ten or twenty most important statements
in the book.
4. Numbers in the margin: to indicate the sequence of points the
author makes in developing a single argument.
5. Number of other pages in the margin: to indicate where else in
the book the author made points relevant to the point marked; to
tie up the ideas in a book, which, though they may be separated by
many pages, belong together.
6. Circling of key words or phrases.
7. Writing in the margin, or at the top or bottom of the page, for
the sake of: recording questions (and perhaps answers) which a
passage raise in your mind; reducing a complicated discussion to a
simple statement; recording the sequence of major points right
through the book. I use the end-papers at the back of the book to
make a personal index of the author's points in the order of their
appearance.
The front
end-papers are, to me, the most important. Some people reserve them
for a fancy bookplate, I reserve them for fancy thinking. After I
have finished reading the book and making my personal index on the
back end-papers, I turn to the front and try to outline the book,
not page by page, or point by point (I've already done that at the
back), but as an integrated structure, with a basic unity and an
order of parts. This outline is, to me, the measure of my
understanding of the work.
New Words
persuade
vt. cause (sb.) to do sth. by reasoning, arguing, etc. 说服，劝服
librarian
n. 图书馆管理员
property
n. (collectively) things owned; possessions
财产
prelude
n. action, event, etc. that serves as an
introduction 序幕；前奏曲
possession
n. possessing; ownership; (pl.) property
拥有；所有权；财产
ownership
n. the possessing (of sth.); right of possessing
所有（权）
illustration
n. an example which explains the meaning of sth.;
an explanatory picture, diagram, etc. 例；图例；插图
beefsteak
n. 牛排
transfer
vt. had over the possession of (property, etc.); change officially
from one position, etc. to another 转移；调动
butcher
n. a person who kills, cuts up and sells animals
for food 屠夫
icebox
n. a box where food is kept cool with blocks of
ice; (AmE) refrigerator
bloodstream
n. the blood as it flows through the blood
vessels of the body 血流
absorb
vt. take or such in (liquids); take in (knowledge, ideas,
etc.)吸收
best-seller
n. book that is sold in very large numbers
畅销书
individual
n. any one human being ( contrasted with society
) 个人
woodpulp
n. 木（纸）浆
dip
v. plunge or be plunged quickly or briefly into a
liquid, esp. to wet or coat 浸；蘸
shiny
a. giving off light as if polished; bright
发亮的
restrain
vt. prevent; control; hold back 抑制；控制，约束
dogeared
a. (of a book) having he corners of the pages
bent down with use, like a dog's ears （书页）卷角的
dilapidated
a. (of things) broken and old; falling to pieces
破旧的；倾坍的
loosen
v. make or become loose or looser （使）松开
continual
a. repeated; frequent 不断的；频繁的
scribble
v. write hastily or carelessly; write meaningless
marks on paper, etc. 潦草书写；乱涂
preserve
vi. keep safe from harm of danger 保护；保存
intact
a. untouched; undamaged 完整无损的
elegantly
ad. beautifully; gracefully 优美地；雅致地
elegant
a.
bind
(bound)
vt. tie or fasten with a rope, etc.; fasten together sheets of (a
book) and enclose within a cover 捆，绑；装订（书）
edition
n. form in which a book is published; total
number of copies (of a book, newspaper, etc.) issued from the same
types （书等的）版本；版
paradise
n. the Garden of Eden; Heaven 伊甸园；天堂
crayon
n. 蜡笔； 颜色笔
original
a. of or relating to an origin or beginning;
being the first instance or source from which a cop can be made
最初的；原著的；原创作者的
painting
n. a painted picture; picture
statue
n. an image of a person or animal in wood, stone,
bronze, etc. 雕像
inseparable
a. impossible to separate from one another
manufacture
vt. make, produce on a large scale by machinery 制造；（大量）生产
magnificent
a. splendid; remarkable 华丽的；宏伟的
indispensable
a. absolutely essential or necessary 必不可少的
conscious
a. aware; able to feel and think 有意识的；神志清醒
understanding
n. knowledge of the nature of sth., based esp. on
learning or experience 理解
fiction
n. (branch of literature concerned with) stories,
novels and romances 小说
croon
vi. sing gently in a low soft voice, usu. with much feeling
低声吟唱
reader
n. person who reads
invariably
ad. unchangeable; constantly 不变地；始终如一地
intelligent
a. having or showing a high degree of powers of
reasoning or understanding 聪明的
caviar(e)
n. 鱼子酱
sharpen
v. become or make sharp(er)
disagreement
n. the fact or a case of disagreeing; lack of
similarity 分歧；不一致
disagree
vi
inquiry
n. question; asking 询问
resume
vt. go on after stopping for a time （中断后）重新开始
naturally
ad. of course; as one could have expected
humility
n. humble condition or state of mind 谦卑
solely
ad. not including anything else or any others; only
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