“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

“If a man write little, he had need have a great memory. If he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not.”

I have not a gift of memorizing; neither have I cunning, so I’m for years in a habit of taking notes of what I read in English or Chinese. Impressed with Huckabee’s reading notes in DioEnglish blog, I was inspired to look over my own minutes. I’m pleased to share my study methods with you dear friends, though I can merely list a few English excerpts owing to the records’ randomness and my person’s laziness.

The first kind of notes is made for tasting and swallowing. As reading such light fiction as “The Catcher in the Rye”, Chicken Soup series, and Oxford Bookworm series, I first clear up vocabulary boulders and then get down on paper sentences graceful or meaningful in my eyes.

1.         My body may give up. But my soul will surely last.

2.         Real self-confidence comes from doing things that we are scared to do, from taking risks.

3.         It isn’t the end of the world, although it may seem that way at the time. No matter how hopeless things may seem, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

4.         Try to trust in the fact that the friendships that are meant to be will be and the ones that are not won’t.

5.         I found your note at dusk, just as the sun began to fade beneath the clouds in beautiful oblivion. The sunset that evening is something I will never forget. Its brilliance rests against the shock I endured while reading your letter.

6.         A writer makes order out of the anarchy of his heart; he submits himself to a more ruthless discipline than any critic dreamed of, and when he flirts with fame, he is taking time off from living with himself, from the search for what his world contains at its inmost point.

7.         We should live each day with a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come.

8.         It was the bitterest day of the winter, the bitterest day I could ever remember, the streets black rivers of ice, that sky full of the bitterness of snow which seemed as if it would never fall.

9.         No one is safe from slander. The best way is to pay no attention to it, but live in innocence and let the world talk.

10.     Never should a man stay closed-door room. You should explore the universe to see how men are coping with the event of changing time.

11.     Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

12.     Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it. Beyond a competence, it can afford no real satisfaction, as far as mere self is concerned.

The second sort of notes is made for chewing and digesting. On studying a serious theoretical tome, I’d underline and asterisk significant or forceful statements, ignoring alien words. Having finished the volume, I try to outline it on my notebook as an integrated structure, with a basic unity and an order of parts. In this way I’ve chewed one work about aesthetics, one about logic, one about literature artifice and one about language translation. If the book is interesting in particular, like “Faust” and “Tagore’s Poetry”, I’d write an essay (of course in mother tongue) of the sparkling thoughts the pages raised in my mind, for such sparkles tend to elapse with time if I don’t catch them with my pen.

There’s third type of notes—audio transcriptions. I tuned in to BBC Learning English radio with a ball-pen and paper in my hands everyday after supper for a half hour from 2004 to 2007. Although I never spoke with a foreigner, I devoured the programmes about culture, speaking, writing, teaching, etc. in English purely, while rushing down each piece of important knowledge with as many original words as possible. When the programme was replayed the next evening, I modified my transcription and managed to repeat aloud the elegant British English. Here are examples which enriched me most. Pardon for the simple and obscure English.

Speaking: To achieve a successful communication, use public and well-known words to explain unknown words, use body language, and stress your speech (where to stress depends on your goal; show emphasis in a sentence; learn to mark the word-stress with the help of dictionary and repeat the stress syllables loud).

Listening: As a listener, you should find a quiet place, listening to different accents and speeds. Listen for structures and key points, brushing aside unimportant descriptions. Important information is Why, To who, What you need and needn’t. Prepare your basic vocabulary and culture knowledge for the topic. Don’t get exhausted by the listening.

Reading: Widen reading taste, including serious as well as pleasant subjects. Read for the general ideas of a book. With the help of context clues or your knowledge, try to guess while reading. Recall words on the notebook; not use dictionary too oft. Be a “reader detective”, asking “Is the story short?” “When?” “Where?” “What’s the story?” “Who tells it—a main or linking character?” “How’re the characters?” “Why I like or dislike?” Have a clear straight aim: to build your own knowledge, fluency and vocabulary.

Writing: First ask what kind of story you want to write and which audience you want to focus? Read and copy various kinds of examples. A traditional tale begins with a situation, problem development in the middle, solution at the end. Rhythm should be quiet and exciting at the same time. Details constitute the setting. Think what you will do if you were in the setting. Even a tragedy needs funny and wonderful parts. Don’t let readers feel you are telling the story. Leave suspension--not describe or make characters talk too much at beginning.