如何讀書（雙語）
摘要：書既然有小說，傳記，詩歌之分，就應區別對待，從各類書中取其應該給及我們的東西。這話說來很簡單。
How Should One Read a Book? 如何讀書?
By Virginia Woolf
It is simple enough to say that since books have classes——fiction，biography，poetry——we should separate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us.
書既然有小說，傳記，詩歌之分，就應區別對待，從各類書中取其應該給及我們的東西。這話說來很簡單。
Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds，asking of fiction that it shall be true，of poetry that it shall be false，of biography that it shall be flattering，of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read，that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author;Try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back，and reserve and criticize at first，you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible，the signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness，from the twist and turn of the first sentences，will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this，acquaint yourself with this，and soon you will find that your author is giving you，or attempting to give you，something far more definite.
然而很少有人向書索取它能給我們的東西，我們拿起書來往往懷着模糊而又雜亂的想法，要求小說是真是的，詩歌是虛假的，傳記要吹捧，史書能加強我們自己的偏見。讀書時如能拋開這些先入爲主之見，便是極好的開端。不要對作者指手畫腳，而要盡力與作者融爲一體，共同創作，共同策劃。如果你不參與，不投入，而且一開始就百般挑剔，那你就無緣從書中獲得最大的益處。你若敞開心扉，虛懷若谷，那麼，書中精細入微的寓意和暗示便會把你從一開頭就碰上的那些像是山回水轉般的句子中帶出來，走到一個獨特的人物面前。鑽進去熟悉它，你很快就會發現，作者展示給你的或想要展示給你的是一些比原先要明確得多的東西。不妨閒來談談如何讀小說吧。
The thirty-two chapters of a novel—if we consider how to read a novel first——are an attempt to make something as formed and controlled as a building：but words are more impalpable than bricks;Reading is a longer and more complicated process than seeing. Perhaps the quickest way to understand the elements of what a novelist is doing is not to read，but to write;To make your own experiment with the dangers and difficulties of words. Recall，then，some event that has left a distinct impression on you—how at the corner of the street，perhaps，you passed two people talking. A tree shook;an electric light danced;the tone of the talk was comic，but also tragic;a whole vision;an entire conception，seemed contained in that moment.
一部長篇小說分成三十二章，是作者的苦心經營，想把它建構得如同一座錯落有致的佈局合理的大廈。可是詞語比磚塊更難捉摸，閱讀比觀看更費時、更復雜。瞭解作家創作的箇中滋味。最有效的途徑恐怕不是讀而是寫，通過寫親自體驗一下文字工作的艱難險阻。回想一件你記憶憂新的事吧。比方說，在街道的拐彎處遇到兩個人正在談話，樹影婆娑，燈光搖曳，談話的調子喜中有悲。這一瞬間似乎包含了一種完善的意境，全面的構思。
