April 23 is World Book Day, which was established to encourage more people to read and write. Rapid changes in the medium seem to fundamentally change the way we access information. People from the way of reading physical books, gradually dispersed into more diversified and fragmented choices, "efficiency first" has become the criterion of everyone's pursuit, but there are still many people choose to slow down in the "double speed" era, choose to enter the sea of books, from reading to feel the truth of life, social miscellaneous, logical beauty, purity of the heart, the power of speculation.
Reading a book is like communicating with the author in front of you;
To read a book is to experience the life described in the book in the simplest way.
Today we have a conversation with Zhou Gongdu about books, through which we will see the meaning of reading in their lives.
Zhou Gongdu, poet and writer. He is the author of the poetry collection "Summer Magazine", "Food Bowl and Star Universe", the essay collection "The History of the Robot Cat", the novel collection "From the Age of Eight", "Letters from Whales" and so on. His translations include The Collected Poems of Bob Dylan (co-translation), The Spinning Moon.B. Yeats's Poems and Fairy Tales, and The Book of Haiku : Selected Poems of Jack Kerouac.
1) Hermann Hesse said, "No book in the world can bring you good luck, but they can make you quietly yourself." How do you think this sentence should be understood?
Zhou Gongdu: Can't agree. If reading a book can make a person become themselves, it is simply the greatest luck in the world.
2. What books have you been reading recently? Why choose it?
Zhou Gongdu: The Book of Rites. In recent years, I have been writing a book on the Book of Poetry, which has a deep relationship with the Book of Rites. Previous related writings have rarely been covered.
3. What is your study like, and how much time do you spend reading in the study every day? How many books do you buy in a year? Can you sum up in one sentence why you like to read?
Zhou Gongdu: The current study is the living room. Read about three or four hours a day. The annual purchase of books is in five or six hundred volumes, perhaps more, and there is no specific statistics.
I haven't really thought about why I like to read, and if a leopard thinks about why he is lying on a tree one day, he may scare himself, right? What often comes to mind is "reading ruined me." But people who like to read should be full of expectations for the future, and have a deep dissatisfaction with themselves, and use reading to improve themselves.
Zhou Gongdu's study.
4. If you have the opportunity to make friends with the characters in the book, who are you most looking forward to meeting?
Zhou Gongdu: Confucius. Following Confucius around the world is a bitter and happy thing. At that time, I will persuade my classmate Zilu not to force the master to swear.
5, fast food culture prevailed in the era of big data, there is a good habit of reading is precious, so when did you start to read as a daily habit?
Zhou Gongdu: Should be the second grade of primary school. The first book I read was "The Yang Family Will Perform Righteousness". This had a devastating effect on my view of love.
6. Nowadays, the way people obtain information is becoming more and more convenient, all kinds of fresh information are presented in our lives in an all-pervasive manner, and we have more and more ways to acquire knowledge and see the world, but at what moment do you think that reading is still irreplaceable?
Zhou Gongdu: No matter how the world changes, I feel that reading is irreplaceable at all times.
E-books are also books, but the medium has changed. WeChat and Weibo are also a kind of book, and the WeChat and Weibo of outstanding scholars are ancient sketch notes. The resistance of many contemporary scholars to electronic reading is very deep and conservative, which is very incredible. What is the logical difference between this and the difference between bamboo and printing? The test for everyone is whether you are really reading when you apply mobile phones and IPads. Don't change your attitude towards reading because of a change in the medium.
7. "There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand readers." Whether a book is good or bad usually has no clear boundaries, and the key to choosing what book to read lies in self-awareness and judgment. What kind of books do you prefer to read in your daily life?
Zhou Gongdu: The type of daily reading will change over time. In recent years, I have read a lot about physics and Zen. There is also a collection of ancient jokes.
8, some people think that reading should be large and complete, some people think that it should be small and specialized; some people think that reading should pursue speed and focus; some people think that books should be read slowly and carefully. How do you see these things? What is your reading habit?
Zhou Gongdu: Reading habits also vary from person to person. What is big and complete is either entertaining reading or ambitious reading. Small and specialized in line with the habits of professional scholars in many fields. People who read quickly, if they have the ability to outline and lead, it is the best, otherwise it is a waste of time and increases vanity. People who are slow to read, it is best to have a premise, is to specialize in a topic or project, rather than always. Otherwise, it is easy to fall into the dilemma of reading dead books, and most nerds belong to this category.
My reading habits are heavily influenced by writing. At a certain stage, if you write a certain book, you will collect and read all the relevant materials. In the summer of 2018, a friend invited to write a script about Xin Abandoned Disease, including Xin Abandoned Disease's collection of words, anthologies, chronology, and biographies, I bought about 300 kinds of materials on the culture of the Two Song Dynasties, and last month I finished reading the last book about the Lin'an Palace of the Southern Song Dynasty, during which I also followed the traces of Xin Abandoned Disease and went to several places. I guess my friends don't want to take care of me.
9, some people say that after reading a book, they feel that they can't absorb any knowledge, and they don't know how to read it. Do you have any reading tips to share?
Zhou Gongdu: That should be reading the wrong book, or not reading it at all. Besides, to read a book, do we have to have the mind to absorb knowledge? Does knowledge have to be practical? Even a collection of jokes can make people happy. How can it be said that there is no harvest?
Reading books is just listening to the inner voice, and you can do it. If you want to read a biography of a musician, you open a biography of Hitler and then deny the biography of the musician. Isn't this just a goose in a kennel, asking for trouble for yourself, and having nothing to do?
10. Now many people are aware of the importance of reading books, but they lament that they can't always read in, what do you think is the reason?
Zhou Gongdu: The heart is impetuous. When you are angry, it is only suitable for quarrels. But even if it is a quarrel, it is the most determined person to win. Buddhism sees this very thoroughly. The so-called precepts are fixed, and the wisdom is fixed. It's about a mind-cultivation kung fu. Before the "University" talks about the qualities and things, "first be sincere in their intentions", sincere in their intentions, but also on correcting their minds.
11, improve the amount of reading is very important, but the reading content is more worthy of attention. And the number of books is huge, how do we choose the right book for ourselves?
Zhou Gongdu: Early extensive reading is very important, such as the pre-Qin Zhuzi, if you read them one by one, of course, it is good. However, if you are in a hurry, first read several ancient Chinese intellectual histories, and then find a suitable temperament in them, or suitable for expanding your own heart.
12, the rapid development of the Internet is changing people's reading habits, many people are more inclined to read e-books, and dilute the reading demand for paper books, what do you think about this problem? What other advantages do you think paper books have?
Zhou Gongdu: Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Paper books have their irreplaceability. There is only one IPad in the study, which is completely different from the book line up on the wall, which is completely different from the driving force for people's reading. Sometimes you hit mosquitoes with books in the summer, and you may put radiators on them in the winter, but these IPads can't do it. In contrast, the advantage of e-books is that they are convenient and more suitable for speed reading, or to carry them on a bad trip.
13. The full name of World Book Day is "World Book and Copyright Day", in other words, not only to read more, but also to protect copyright. Regarding the protection of copyright, what do you think we can do in our daily lives?
Zhou Gongdu: I'm ashamed, this is the first time I've seen this full name. It's also very inspiring. I think it should be that the more people respect intellectual copyright and do not buy those pirated books, the more precious the value of the book. The identity of the author will also be more and more respected. Even if you are a reader, when you get a book at a higher price, you will cherish it more. It's a weakness of human nature, people like free stuff, but generally look down on it.
14. The book represents the author's thought activity and emotional outpouring, what is the book that has the greatest impact on you in your reading process? What's the story behind it?
Zhou Gongdu: It is the Classic of Mountains and Seas. This book is full of youthful spirit, "One hundred and seventy miles north, yuezhu mountain", "three hundred miles north, the mountain of Weilong." There is jasper on it, and its yang has gold. Its yin has iron. "Nineteen mountains, three thousand six hundred and eighty miles." Ah, I like that description. The author's perspective is fascinating, he may have flown over the mountains on a roc, or swam across the ocean with whales.
The greatest value of the Classic of Mountains and Seas is the world consciousness behind this youthful spirit.
15. With World Book Day approaching, can you recommend a few books to us?
Zhou Gongdu: Since it is World Book Day, it is the day when the largest number of people in the world read books at the same time. Such a lovely day, I recommend everyone to read "Laughing Forest Guangji" (Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House). It's so funny!
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