he first thing I want to insist on is that reading should be enjoyable. Of course, there are many books that we all have to road, either to pass examinations or to acquire information,from which it is impossible to extract enjoyment. We aro reading them for instruction, and the best we can hope is that our need for it will enable us to get through them without todium. Such books wo read with resignation rather than with alacrity. But that is not the sort of roading I have in mind. The books I shall mention in due course will help you neither to get a degree nor to earn your living, they will not teach you to sail a boat or get a stalled motor to run, but they will help you to live more fully. That, however, they cannot do unless you enjoy reading them.
Every man is his own best critic. Whatever the learned say about a book, however unanimous they are in their praise of it,unless it interests you, it is no business of yours. And you who read are the final judge of the value to you of the book you are reading. We are none of us exactly like everyone else, only rather like, and it would be unreasonable to suppose that the books that have meant a great deal to me should be precisely those that will mean a great deal to you. But they are books that I feel the richer for having read, and I think I should not be quite the man I am if I had not read them. No one is under an obligation to read poetry or fiction or the miscellaneous literature which is classed as belleslettres. He must read them for pleasure, and who can claim that what pleases one man must necessarily please another?
我想坚持的第一点是，阅读应当是愉悦的。 自然，我们每一个人都会为了通过考试，或是为了获取信息而阅读大量的书籍。从这样的阅读中我们无法获取快乐。我们读这些书是为了接受教育。我们最多只能希望自己对这些书籍的需要使得我们在读完之后不至于感到单调乏味。这样的书，我们读得无可奈何而不是轻松愉快。然而，我心目中的阅读不属于这一种。我在下面很快将要提到的那一类书既不能帮助你获取学位，也不能帮助你挣钱谋生，更不能教会你驾驶船只或修好出了故障的马达，然而，它们能够帮助你活得更加充实。而这一点，除非你喜欢阅读它们，否则是无法做到的。
每个人都是他自己最好的评论家。无论什么学者对某一本书说了些什么，无论他们如何众口一词地对它大加称赞，倘若它激不起你的兴趣，那么这本书就与你毫不相干。作为读者，你是你所读书籍价值的最终仲裁人。我们当中，没有一个人跟另外一个人完全相像，至多有点相像而已。想当然地认为对我来说很有价值的书恰恰对你也很有价值，这是不合情理的。但是这些书的特点是：在读完之后，我感到更加充实了，我觉得要是没有读它们，我就不会成为现在的我。没有什么人非要去阅读诗歌、小说以及其他归为“纯文学”的作品不可。读者阅读这些作品必然是为了获取快乐；而谁又能说，使一位读者感到愉悦的书一定会让另一位读者喜欢呢?
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