THE ART OF READING – LIN YUTANG

UNIT – I

LESSON – 1.  THE ART OF READING – LIN YUTANG

INTRODUCTION:

Art of Reading is an essay extracted from Yutang’s book where he express the importance of living. This essay also tries to express the influence of reading the books and how reading will bring change and flavor in one’s life. Yutang make us understand the compare the difference between the life of a person who does not read and that of who does. He shays that if a person doesn’t have reading habit he has imprisoned himself in his immediate world in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine and will be limited to contact and conversation with a few friends. He is see’s only what happens in the immediate neighborhood. But, as soon as he starts reading books he enters in to a different world and becomes the best orator.

CONTENT:    

Lin Yutang says that a readers is always carried away into a world of thoughts and reflections and thus they become a detected spectator of the events mentioned by the Author in that book. Yutang agrees up on the opinion of the Huang Shanku that a scholar who hasn’t read anything for 3 days feels that his talks has no flavor and his own face becomes hateful to look at in the mirror. A person doesn’t read to improve one’s mind but for pleasure. Once he thinks of reading with a sense of obligation does not understand the Art of Reading.

Yutang further moves on to express the opinion of Huang that ugly face that have a fascinating charm and beautiful faces that are insipid to look at and gives an example of a Chinese friends whose head was shaped like a bomb, yet, always a pleasure to see. Thus he says that a beautiful face will not make impact in the minds of others but the flavors in his conversation and flavor in his writing will make a great influence as he gets the flavors in his personality by reading books.

A person will get the flavor in his writing and speaking based on the selective books which he reads. Selections of books to read are based on their own taste as an individual has the taste for food. One cannot be forced to read the book which they don’t like. If a reader has no taste for what he reads, all the time is wasted. Yutang gives an example of growth of a tree and flow of a river and compare it with the personality of a person. He says that the intellectual interest of reading books grows like a tree or flow of a river. If a person has an interest in reading a book he will read it and gain knowledge about it in the same way when the sap is strong it will definitely turn into a big tree as is the same with the flow of water from the river to the sea. It travels from pleasant valley then to mountains and reaches the sea,   overcoming all the hurdles as it had a determined aim of reaching its destination.

Yutang includes, Confucius saying in his essay about the Analects; that a person cannot understand and cannot appreciate a book if he doesn’t have a mature wisdom. If one read a book of changes at 45 he will not be able to get the thoughts and experience which a masterpiece is trying to convey to a 50 years reader. A reader reading the same book at different periods, get a different flavor out of it. Thus the author tries to say that all good books can be read with profit and renewed pleasure a second time. Then he went on to say that it is very difficult to find one’s favorite author. It completely depend on one’s intellectual dev elopement and reaching an author where spirit is akin with his own.

CONCLUSION:

Yutang essay “Art of Reading” stats that reading is an art it should be done based on one’s interest, age and the type of book been selected. Reading plays a vital role in making one proficient, efficient and knowledgeable person. He will become a person who is liked and called for giving suggestions/advice for any situation. The thoughts, conversations and writings of Bibliophile (Bookworm) will be appreciated by everyone around him as he has flavor and charm. Reading has to be done with interest and one has to scan the content of what he reads so as to develop his intellect.