In the first place, I want to emphasize the note of interrogation at the end of my title. Even if I could answer the question for myself, the answer would apply only to me and not to you. The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. If this is agreed between us, then I feel at liberty to put forward a few ideas and suggestions because you will not allow them to fetter that independence which is the most important quality that a reader can possess.
After all, what laws can be laid down about books? The battle of Waterloo was certainly fought on a certain day; but is Hamlet a better play than Lear? Nobody can say. Each must decide that question of himself. To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. Everywhere else we may be bound by laws and conventions-there we have none. But to enjoy freedom, if the platitude is pardonable, we have of course to control ourselves. We must not squander our powers, helplessly and ignorantly, squirting half the house in order to water a single rose-bush.
Virginia Woolf
話說雖然台長英文不好，但對寫的好的文章不論中英都還是一樣激賞的。文學嘛，原本就不分中外，如果一篇文章能夠帶給讀者精闢思想和愉悅的閱讀，那這篇文章就有流傳的價值。
然而我們在學習過程中常被考試愚化，雖然我念高中時英文是舊教材，但說實話裡頭文章亦是萬中選一，不但用詞優美，傳達的觀念更是令人受用無窮。只是，學生們為了考試，早已習慣將其拆解研究，於是乎除了重點單字我們會背外，此篇文章剩餘的價值便是哪些介係詞用法是特殊的，是要背的，是需要會的，只因它是會考的…
所以除了少數幾篇「不小心」認真用心瞭解，其實我也對絕大部分文章內容也沒啥印象…
這種學習模式除了應付考試外其實沒啥用途吧，而且考完記憶也會很快淡忘。
要讓所學內容變的有趣學生才容易學得好，也才不容易忘記。重點是將來還會願意持續不斷學習。當然，在英文這科我沒做到，所以也是汗顏。然而最近兩年當我重拾國文的詩詞曲和一些美到不行的散文重新閱讀時，感到十分不賴。可是對照英文沒學好就深感失去許多可以直接接觸第一手原創作品的機會。
英文是項工具，精通是應該的，因為它可以帶領你走入另一個文化發展和東方大異其趣的西方社會…
沒什麼藉口可以拒絕學習這語言，於是重新來過吧！即使緩慢亦可亦步亦趨重達大學聯考那一天的顛峰狀態…
於是買了兩本散文選來讀，邊讀也邊抄，順便練練英打將其數位化，也放在站台上讓大家一起欣賞啦。
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