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如何选择更适合你的英文读物

However, reading novels is not the only way to improve your English. In fact, if you restrict yourself to novels you will miss a lot of treasures. English essays can at once inform you, entertain you, and refine your taste in English. The best example is Bertrand Russell's work. Its language is plain, yet you cannot help feeling the elegance4 and the peculiar5 sense of humor. His simple language enables his philosophy within the reach of ordinary people. The same is true of George Orwell's work. Here comes my second suggestion-essays are indispensable.

My last advice is never follow others' recommendations and opinions blindly, however famous orinfluential6 the person might be. Some days ago, I listened to the audiobook of Somerset Maugham's autobiography7 The Summing Up. In a chapter he regards Edward Gibbon and Samuel Johnson's style as pompous8. Though I admire Maugham's prose, I cannot agree with his view. Probably one can label Johnson's work as pretentious9, but definitely not Gibbon's. In fact, his lucid10 style makes his works highly readable, and you can hardly believe they were written over 200 years ago. Therefore, we should be open to various ideas, but always think and determine for ourselves. As a saying goes, one man's meat is another man's poison. With that in mind, we are bound to find out our favorite writers through reading and develop our fine taste in English.