双语：你的阅读有效吗？

I know you can read. You’re reading this, aren’t you? (If you’re not reading this, never mind.)
你会阅读。你正在读，不是吗？（如果你说你没在读……当我什么也没说过。）
But are you productivelyliterate? That is, when you read, do you learn anything that you canapply immediately to your life, or do the words and ideas justbounce around your brain’spleasure areas for a while before disappearing like so many wisps of morning fog?
但是你的阅读富有成效吗？你读书中学到的东西，是不是可以马上在生活中运用？还是那些词语、点子让你的大脑兴奋一阵子，然后就像早晨的雾气一样过一会儿就消散无踪？
Not that there’s anything wrong with reading just forpleasure now and again — by all means, grab a novel andhit the beach. But too often we read important stuff — how-tomanuals, business and personal development guides, science and current affairstreatises, and yes, even personalproductivity blogs with the same mindset. We read to make us feel good, about what we’ve done or what we could do or what others have done — even about what a smart person we look like reading such a smart book on the subway — and not as anexercise in personal growth.
不是说我们不该在阅读中寻找乐子。找一本小说，怎么高兴怎么读。但是有很多时候我们要读的是非常重要的东西，比如操作手册、商业发展、个人规划、科学时事论著等等。读那些关于产出率的个人博客也是一样。我们已完成的事情、我们可以做的事情、别人完成了的事情……阅读中我们感到愉悦，有时候只是因为拿着本书坐在地铁里看起来像个聪明人。我们却忽略了重要的一点，读书，是个人成长中的一种训练。
This post isinspired by Seth Godin’s post, How to read a business book, which I linked to earlier this week in our link round-up. Godin — the author of quite a few business books — offers these three tips for readingproductively:
我之前在一次链接汇总的时候提到过Seth Godin的《怎样阅读商业书籍》，我这篇文章也是受到了它的启发。Seth Godin本人也写过一些商业书籍，他在提高阅读成效方面提出了三点建议：
Commit to making at least three changes in your life as aresult of your reading.
让阅读至少改变你生活的三个方面
Create todo lists as you read, instead of notes.
阅读中，不做注解，列出你要做的事情。
When you’re done, give the book away, so someone else can learn from it.
读完一本书，把它送给别人，让别人也从阅读中受益。
Godin’s advice applies to more than just business books, I think —imagine committing yourself to making at least one change a week based on your reading at Lifehack, for instance.
我想Godin的建议远远超出商业书籍这个范畴。阅读lifehack上面的文章，一个星期至少会在一个地方给你的生活带来变化。
Here are a few moretips about reading productively:
关于阅读成效，这里我再提一些建议：
Use anindex card as your bookmark.That way you always have something to write on while you’re reading. Go ahead and stick a few post-its to the back for marking significant passages, too.
用一张索引卡做书签。这样阅读中你总能记下些东西。在卡片的背面贴上一些便签纸，用来标注重要的段落。
Haveexpectations. Not about quality, but aboutcontent. Before you start, ask yourself, “What do I expect to gain from reading this?”
对阅读内容（而非阅读质量）有所预期。读书前问自己，我在书中能获得些什么？
Keep a readingjournal. When you finish a book, write down a quicksummary of the book, any quotes youhighlighted or flagged, and what you learned from it. Or keep a collection of chapter-by-chapter notes — maybe on a blog or wiki. Thursday Bram has some tips on journaling in one of herLifehack posts.
做读书记录。读完一本书，简要总结书中标出的段落，以及你的一些收获。也可以在读书过程中每一章节都做好笔记，写在博客或者维基上都可以。Thursday Bram曾在她的博客中列出过一些记笔记的方法。
Talk about it. Tell you boss about the new workingstrategy you just read about. Tell your friends about the interesting history you’re reading. We labor under themisconception that we learn by reading; we don’t. We learn by using what we’ve read.
谈论你读到的内容。跟你的老板谈谈你刚读到的工作策略，向你的朋友复述你读过的有趣的历史故事。我们因为阅读误解而吃尽苦头，我们也在阅读中总结经验教训。我阅读，所以我收获。
Teach it. You don’t have to be a formal teacher to share yourknowledge with those around you who might need it. When you can, take the opportunity to present the information you’vegleaned: set up aseminar at work, organize a workshop at the local library, etc. This may not be for everyone, but let me tell you: nothing will help you make better sense of a topic than teaching it to others.
教给别人。不是说，你要像位老师那样去教会你周围的人他们需要的知识。你需要做的只是有机会的话把你收集到的信息传达给别人。你可以在办公室或者图书馆开个小会讨论一下。也许并非每个人都能做到这点，不过通过教来学确实是个非常有效的方法。
Pay attention to structure. You can often learn as much from the way the author has organized their information as from the text itself.
(Let me give you an example: for several years, I taughtanthropology from a textbook that promoted a view of humanity as defined by a group’s relationship with the natural environment. The central part of the book had a chapter onforagers, one on horticulture (small scale farming), one on animalherding, one on agriculture, and finally one on industrialist societies. Then I switched to a textbook that saw politicalorganization as the key element in understanding human behavior. This book devoted its central chapters to the different kinds of political structure: bands,tribes,chiefdoms, and states.)
注意文章结构。了解作者串连信息的思路也能帮助你提高阅读成效。在这里我举一例说明。有几年的时间我按照一本教材学习人类学。那本书把人类定义为和自然环境存在一定关联的一种群体。书的中心章节分别讲原始人采集果子、小规模农业、动物饲养、农业，最后降到工业社会。读完这本书，我又读了另外一本以政治组织形式为主线来研究人类行为的书。书中主要介绍了家族群、种族、酋长制、国家等不同的政治构成。