October 2005
Let’s start with the cover of a book.
I believe, it reflects the author’s attitude towards his work.
Even today when the modern books are enveloped in covers that can hardly survive two or three readers,
there are still some works of the writers who believe that their novels will be read by more than one generation of booklovers.
On the contrary, the look of a tattered book will please the next library shelves’ explorer who may think:”Oh, that one’s been read by lots of folks.
I should read it too”
The first impression may be deceptive!
Here are some suggestions for selecting the reading you look for.
1. Before you come to a library ( not a book-store):
a) Carefully identify the area of your interest. What exactly you want to read.
b) Know your purpose of reading: pleasure, research, etc.
c) Have a list of the authors who wrote or write about your subject. What aspects of the problem they are dealt with in their works. Spend time for the research.
d) Get a general orientation of the authors and/or their works you think may suit your interest.
e) Choose a day and hours when there are fewer visitors in the library.
f) Prepare some change for Xerox-copying.
2. In the library:
a) Find a librarian who works in the section where you suppose to find the materials you need.
b) In details explain to her what you need. Show her the list you have prepared (see 1c above)
c) Let her know how important these materials are for you.
d) Get all you are advised plus anything you may find on the shelves.
e) Sit at a quiet place, get ready to work. (Don’t forget to switch off a mobile phone :-)
3. How to work with the book/books you have on a library table.
a) Place a book in front of you. Feel it, touch it, guess what the book is about.
b) Read the title, think if the title matches your subject.
c) Open it and read all the information on the first page esp. where and when it was published/republished.
d) Read the back cover of the book where there’s information about the writer and the resume.
e) Go through the dedications and acknowledgements: you will know how the writer himself values his labor. (The same and deeper information you may get from a foreword) Try not to skip it.
f) Read the contents and make a general impression of the manual.
4. How to read the book.
Reading is a very serious process. Depending on the type of literature, you must vary the approach and attitude to the whole process of reading.
Some general observations before we get to the a, b, c points.
A book, any book, is an act of an individual or group men’s creative activity that may be compared to, say, delivering a baby, building a house, tailoring a suit or anything else that a human being may produce.It’s an act of passion, hard labor, doubts, long chain of successes and failures, physical and mental efforts, sleepless nights, nerves breakdowns and so on and so forth.
It’s, after all, an act of a high responsibility of the writer before the readers of today and the readers of tomorrow.
Nearly all authors rewrite their sentences, paragraphs, even whole chapters several times, before their final versions are ready to meet the first readers.
After these comments, you may look at a book with more respect.
So, back to the reading.
a) Start with what directly related to your topic: go to the topic that is the closest to your theme.
b) Always read with a pensile in your hand and tick the phrases, thoughts, ideas that attract your attention, shed the light on the subject from another POV and so on.
c) On the sheet of paper fix accurately your thoughts that come into your head while you are reading.
d) Pay a special attention to the author’s ideas you may use in your work. Put them in brackets and write down a page on your sheet with notes: you will easily find them later.
e) Compare your own thoughts with the writer’s. Place exclamation/question marks next to the writer’s text. You’ll come back to them later.
