On Reading

Reading is originally for entertainment and acquiring knowledge; when experience, understanding, and insight are added during the process, it becomes wisdom. “Must-read” is a very bad term: “must” carries a coercive ring and is far too utilitarian. Steve Jobs cited his study of typography at Reed College as evidence for “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” The same applies to reading: many things deemed “necessary” may, years later, look overrated in their necessity; while something read casually, without preset premises, may one day become a very important dot for you.

For these two reasons, I will not compile a must-read list. But I will discuss the kinds of books I read, my criteria for choosing books, my reading methods, and the books I have read over the past two or three years. Many books will hardly make your life better, but they will certainly make you fuller, and may help you find some motivation and goals.

The books I’ve read fall into categories like these:

(1) Classical literature

(2) Philosophy

(3) History

(4) Psychology

(5) Biography

(6) Fiction

(7) Technology-related

(8) Miscellaneous

Allow me to share a little about each.

Classical Literature

Chinese civilization is vast and profound; even if I read only the works of our ancestors, I could not finish in this lifetime. So what I know and have read is merely a smattering. Here, by “classical literature,” I first exclude the “classics,” “histories,” and “philosophical works” from the traditional “classics, histories, philosophical works, and belles-lettres”; those go under other categories. Thus I will discuss only belles-lettres.

Last year I reread Journey to the West. The following passage comes from one of my blog posts:

I had read Journey to the West several times before, but the last time was still in high school. After reading Wu Xianyun’s Interpreting Journey to the West and Revisiting Journey to the West, I felt his views were novel but had many holes and were rather jocular. Then I happened upon Interpreting Journey to the West Through the Mind, which reads the novel through Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, the I Ching, medicine, and shamanism—it was delicious. Reading Interpreting Journey to the West Through the Mind while gnawing through the original text bit by bit was full of flavor. I must say, it was Interpreting Journey to the West Through the Mind that prompted me to pick up this masterpiece again after more than ten years.

A person’s state of mind and maturity have a great deal to do with reading. After experiencing entrepreneurship, returning to the workplace, and gaining some understanding, my angle on Journey to the West was somewhat different. I saw much more, and perhaps more deeply (of course, much of this is thanks to Interpreting Journey to the West Through the Mind). So I think many classical works, such as the Four Great Classical Novels, can be read at a different time and in a different situation and yield a different flavor.

For my child’s sake, over the past year I have been cramming all sorts of poetry and ci, so I’ve encountered many books in this area. I think several of Yu Dan’s books on Tang poetry have good arguments and themes. There are also some books related to Tang poetry and Song ci, including Jiang Xun on Tang Poetry, which I recently read; I think they are good (perhaps because my own cultivation in poetry is too low). They can also serve as after-dinner or toilet-side entertainment.

In addition, Guwen Guanzhi is suitable for flipping through at random, reading one or two pieces in fragmented time.

Of course, there are many, many excellent classical novels and collected works that I have not yet touched, so I have nothing to say about them. :)

Philosophy

Someone once said that if you keep pursuing many questions, they all become philosophical questions. Philosophy helps us improve self-knowledge, so there is no harm in reading philosophy.

First, Chinese classics.

The books I flip through almost every year are Laozi, The Analects, and Zhuangzi. There are many other excellent classical philosophical works in the “classics” and “philosophical works” categories, but these three taste best to me. I used to supplement them with books by Qian Mu and Nan Huaijin (each has his strengths); now I more often just play with the original text. Of course, given my level of cultivation, much of the text is just read for pleasure, and I have not been able to understand the original well enough to form my own interpretation. But isn’t this also the state of “I love reading but do not seek exhaustive understanding; whenever I grasp something, I am so delighted I forget to eat”?

There are many other excellent classical philosophical works—such as The Art of War, The Book of Su, The Six Secret Teachings, and Fan Jing—that are very nourishing to read. I like reading such books partly for their profound principles and partly for their language. For example, in The Six Secret Teachings, which I read recently, Jiang Taigong explains principles in a profound yet simple way, advancing layer by layer; it is very comfortable to read.

Mr. Hu Shi wrote An Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy. With “the method of proof, concise means, an egalitarian eye, and systematic research,” he evaluates the Hundred Schools one by one, which is very helpful for understanding the history of ancient Chinese philosophy. I recommend it.

Actually, if you have time, you should read Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, because these three are inseparable components of classical Chinese philosophy. But I have not yet touched Buddhist classics, so I cannot comment.

I read some Western philosophy long ago—Plato’s dialogues and one or two books by Nietzsche—but the impression was not deep. In recent years I have read little Western philosophy; instead I have returned to basics and become fascinated by the old ancestors’ stuff.

History

History is my favorite book category, bar none. Every aspect of human society advances in a spiral; though the wheel of history keeps rolling forward, history also keeps repeating itself. Emperor Taizong of Tang said: “With bronze as a mirror, one can straighten one’s clothes and cap; with people as a mirror, one can know gain and loss; with history as a mirror, one can know rise and fall.” This is the importance of reading history.

I think that for any field of learning, it is very important first to understand its history. Hu Shi said that the history of philosophy has three purposes: to clarify change, to seek causes, and to evaluate. I think this can be generalized as the purpose of reading other history books. For example, to learn computer science, reading the history of computer systems—especially the history of Silicon Valley after the Fairchild era—is greatly beneficial.

When reading history, our own five thousand years are very important. It is said that whenever Deng Xiaoping suffered setbacks in officialdom, he would read the Twenty-Four Histories, so he deeply understood advance and retreat. To my shame, of the Twenty-Four Histories I have read only Records of the Grand Historian, and each time I skipped the “tables” and “treatises.”

Records of the Grand Historian is very story-driven; in many chapters, just a few lines bring a conflict vividly to life, and profound truths are embedded within. Take the chapter on Zhang Yi: Zhang Yi was falsely accused of stealing the King of Chu’s white jade and was beaten half to death. His wife, exasperated at his failure to meet expectations, said: “You study and go about persuading rulers—how did you end up like this?” Zhang Yi said: “Is my tongue still there?” His wife said: “It is.” Zhang Yi smiled: “That’s enough.” Reading this, you feel that even if you have suffered immense injustice and pain, you can dissolve it. Think about it—because of a baseless accusation, the man not only lost his job but nearly lost his life; somehow he survived and came home only to be mocked by his wife, yet he could calmly make fun of himself: as long as the tool for making a living is still there, someday he will achieve his ideal.

If a single book combines storytelling, moral reasoning, and literary quality, it must be Records of the Grand Historian (of course, Mr. Hu Shi also criticized it). Records of the Grand Historian is also a book I often pull out and reread.

Qian Mu’s The Gains and Losses of Chinese Politics Through the Ages is a classic, but I find it rather laborious to read and do not understand it very deeply.

Several of Ray Huang’s history books are good; I quite like his “macro history” view woven with economics (China: A Macro History).

For reading Chinese history, several masters—Qian Mu, Chen Yinke (I have read almost none of his books), Yan Gengwang (Three Books on Studying History), Ray Huang, and others—are all worth reading.

Recently I have been reading The Puritan Gift; I’m a quarter through and find it good. It can be seen as a social history of America, or a history of management culture. Just as one should eat a variety of grains, it is very beneficial to read more such not-strictly-rigorous “history” books (in many directions rigorous history books are impossible), such as Mr. Wu Jun’s The Top of the Wave.

Psychology

Psychology should count as a branch of philosophy, I’m not sure. But the importance of psychology-related books is self-evident. If you want to influence others, Influence is essential. If you want a more motivated life, you can read Positive Psychology. If you want more self-knowledge and want to know about behavior, feeling, cognition, motivation, emotion, stress, and motivation, you can read Psychology and Life.

I read these books several years ago and have not read much recently. Last year I flipped through Occupational Psychology, but it seems to have left no impression.

Biography

Biography is, after history, my favorite. In fact, biography and history are inseparable and to some extent complement each other. Last year I read Biography of Guanzi, Biography of Wang Anshi, Biography of Li Hongzhang, and Biography of Yuan Chonghuan—all from Liang Qichao’s hand (Five Biographies by Liang Qichao)—and they were excellent.

Last year, on a colleague’s recommendation, I read Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and found it wonderful. Following that thread, I bought The Feynman Lectures—to some extent Feynman’s personal wisdom. For people with a science and engineering background who like scientists, both books are recommended.

I have also read many biographies and autobiographies before, such as The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Carnegie’s biography of Lincoln. For autobiographies, generally choose a famous person you’re interested in (but the person should have at least some substance); for biographies, pay attention to the author—first, choose a master; second, choose a reliable biographer. For the same biography of Steve Jobs, a certain domestic author is very likely to have relied on hearsay, so the writing can only be superficial and not very nourishing.

Fiction

I don’t read much fiction; basically I follow chance and fashion. Following the fashion, I read Life of Pi; by chance I bought The Remains of the Day and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—all very good novels.

My favorite novel of the past two or three years is Fortress Besieged (ha, it has nothing to do with a midlife crisis). I have read Fortress Besieged three times; the most recent was last year (very likely I’ll read it a fourth time this year). I like Fortress Besieged entirely for its literary quality; its story and meaning are secondary. Let me casually give two excerpts I copied:

Beneath long eyelashes, a pair of large eyes, sleepy as if drunk, smiling, dreamy; the full upper lip seemed to pout as if sulking at a lover.

Early in the sky black clouds had risen, leaking a few sparse stars; the wind and waves sounded like a glutton devouring, and the daytime ocean was now entirely digested in the vaster dark night. Against this background, a person’s physical and mental turmoil also shrank to nothing; only a hope for tomorrow in the heart had not yet fallen into the vague distance, self-illuminating like a firefly in the vast, surging depths of darkness.

If you want to learn to write beautiful prose, you might read more of Mr. Qian’s book.

But overall, I don’t read much fiction. In middle school and college I was rather fond of world classics; now I am not so attached.

Technology-Related

The technology book I most enjoyed last year was Joe Armstrong’s Programming Erlang. I think if you study a language and have the chance to read a book by its creator, so much the better. Programming Erlang is by Erlang’s author, and it is very nourishing to read.

Computers also have their inner philosophy, and those who grasp this philosophy are often the masters you admire. The Program World of Yukihiro Matsumoto is a book I read two years ago; whether or not you are into Ruby, it is well worth reading (I flipped through Matsumoto’s new book The Future of Code, but didn’t feel much). I have recommended Hackers & Painters on different occasions, and I continue to strongly recommend it.

Of course, there are some thoughtful technical books in China, such as Colon Classroom; unfortunately it seems this book is no longer published, and it can only be read in libraries. Readers in Beijing can read it in the reading room of the National Library (I happened to see it there). A technical book that unfolds in dialogue and speaks gently and engagingly shows the author’s skill.

For technical books I have only one suggestion: if conditions permit, read the original. Or at least read books by translators who are themselves competent and conscientious, such as Ruan Yifeng (Hackers & Painters is truly well translated by Mr. Ruan, as is Joel on Software). Anyway, his name is a guarantee of quality for me; his books won’t be bad. There are a few other translators (one of them at ThoughtWorks) whose names I can’t recall for the moment—forgive me.

Miscellaneous

There are many books that don’t fit the above categories, so I have to call them miscellaneous. The Innovator’s Dilemma was one of the better books I read last year. Also, on a business trip to India I reread The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy; this book is rather dry, but rereading it yielded some new things.

Also, Mr. Liang Qichao’s Introduction to Composition: although the author set the reader level at middle school and above, adults reading it also have a special feeling: the Chinese language we learned in school was truly spoiled.

In a word, no matter what you read, first read the masters—that is always right.

Reading Methods

Finally, let me talk about my reading methods. Generally, when I get a book (paper or electronic), I speed-read it at ten lines at a glance. This has an advantage: if some books become unreadable as I go, I can toss them aside (for example, CITIC Press’s Antifragile, which is atrociously translated). If something feels electrifying, I can slow down (even start from the beginning), cross-check back and forth, and savor it carefully.

For many books that feel great after one read, by all means take them out and revisit them after some time (the longer the better). The wisdom you get from a book has a lot to do with your current state. Zhao Pu “governed the empire with half the Analects”; I believe that at different periods of his life, the Analects he read was different.

Another important point: when you explore a certain direction, by all means read both books that “praise” and books that “criticize.” When I was keen on management consulting, I read The Myth of Management Consulting, which criticized several giants of management studies and the management consulting industry; this gave me a completely different perspective. Another example is Fan Jing: after reading too much open stratagem reflected in official histories and orthodox “classics,” it is very beneficial to read some covert stratagem.

Of course, the most important thing in reading is still to combine what the book says with your own thinking and turn it into personal wisdom—this is what I have always pursued.

In the process of reading paper books, I like to write and underline. Several conventional symbols—underlines, wavy lines, and square brackets—I use all of them, marking directly in the original text. In the gaps between paragraphs, or in the headers and footers, I write some words recording my feelings or summarizing the content. I like to splash ink on books—this sense of arbitrary possession may be different from many book lovers. So if I have really read a book, its condition will become quite bad (of course, I will not write or underline in library books); if it is still neat, then I certainly have not read it deeply. Everyone has their own reading habits; there is no good or bad, as long as it is handy and agreeable. In addition, I will copy out good writing, sometimes in a notebook, sometimes in Evernote.

For e-books I give priority to reading on Kindle (the software). Although Kindle software’s functions are far inferior to GoodReader, its quick purchasing, automatic downloading, and synchronization of progress and annotations across devices still make it my first choice. GoodReader is a sharp tool for reading PDFs, but unfortunately its network functions are too weak. In e-books I basically only use annotations; if I want to write something, I write it in Evernote.

When I used to read, I liked first to make a mind map of the book’s overall structure, then read bit by bit, improving the mind map as I went. When the whole book was finished, the mind map was complete, and looking at the dense content, my heart was full of accomplishment. Making a mind map while reading is a very good method: first you have a global view, then you advance layer by layer, and after finishing the overall impression is much deeper. Now I rarely do this. First, my reading time has gradually become fragmented; I read whatever is at hand. Second, I always feel that reading that way is a bit too ceremonial, lacking composure and calm—like reading to complete a task.

For many people, the golden time for reading each day is on the subway. Last year for a period I squeezed onto the subway every day, riding half a loop on Line 10. I generally carry a pen in my bag; if I happen to get a seat, I can take notes; otherwise I can only read dryly. On the subway, it is suitable to read books that let you immerse yourself; otherwise there is not much difference between reading and not reading (actually, I think given the subway’s clamor, it might be better to take an iPad and watch shows with earphones).

Some people read English books to learn English; I read them purely because the translations are too bad and I have no choice. For technical books I now basically read English e-books (because when reading technical books I must have a laptop at hand to try things out while reading—otherwise why read?), and I rarely buy paper editions. Most translated books now are crowdsourced; if the editor does not gatekeep overall quality, there will appear amateur translations as hard on the eyes as those in Antifragile (which I was recommended by Yicai): “football mom fragile pusher,” “a quite happy chaotic family.” So if conditions permit, read the original.

When choosing books, then, if you don’t want a bad book to waste your time, the best way is first to check Douban. A high score on Douban does not necessarily mean good (Antifragile is a pit; I bought it only because its Douban score was quite high), but a low score definitely means bad. After the initial filter, you can use speed-reading to see whether you can get into the book.