Reading is the pleasure of the mind, which means that it is a little like a sport. 【小题1】 Reading is fun, not because the author is telling you something, but because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works along with the author’s or even goes beyond his. 【小题2】 And your ideas develop as you understand his.

Every book stands by itself, like a one-family house. 【小题3】 Although they are separate, together they all add up to something; they are connected with each other and with other cities. Books influence each other. 【小题4】 Wherever you start reading, you connect yourself with one of the families of ideas, and in the long run, you can find out about not only the world and the people in it but also yourself in it.

【小题5】 If you concentrate on books somebody tells you ought to read, you probably won’t have fun. But if you put down a book you don’t like and try another till you find one that means something to you, and then relax with it, you will certainly have a good time. If you become, as a result of reading, better, wiser, kinder or gentler, you won’t have suffered during the process.