How to read a book_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

How to read a book

Take the word “hospitalization” for example. To some people, being confined to a sickbed in a hospital room surrounded by doctors in white clothes is comforting. To them, hospitalization is something soothing and reassuring. To others who have had bad experiences of one kind or another with doctors, the idea of hospitalization may bring back memories of a nightmare.

Me? I hold a still different point of view. I think doctors are something to respect but to steer clear from, as Confucius used to say.

The point is, we are full of perceived ideas about words and language to begin with, as we embark on the journey of reading a book. Because of it we often read a different story than what is intended by the author. We don't get what the author supposes to say, only what we suppose him to say.

As a result, readers don't get to feel the author and share his deeper feelings and emotions, which were really what the author intends us to do. I guess that is what is meant by “the signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness”.

Twist and turn?

Literature is not painting, which presents a wholesome image to the viewer from the first glance. The viewer sees the whole thing at the same moment. Telling a story with words on the other hand is a lineal process, and hence a lineal experience (Does this expression work?) for the reader. Reading a story through a line of words and sentences is like walking down a long narrow zigzagging road.