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怎么选英文读物

How to Choose English Books
　　
　　To cultivate one’s taste in English prose, the most effective wayis to read English books extensively. Yet one may be at a loss to choose the appropriate books, especially as a beginner. I would like to share some of my experience.
　　
　　My first English novel was Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,recommended by many English teachers and professors as an ideal book for English learners. But my experience was somewhat disastrous.Stumbling along the lines, I had great difficulty in understanding the novel, let alone enjoying it. It’s not the vocabulary that troubled me,but rather the way Austen constructs sentences, and her way of thinking, which seemed too remote to me at that time. My fadingen thusiasm was much recovered after reading Hemingway’s novel Farewellto Arms. No long and complicated sentences. And I particularly liked his concise and straightforward style. So my first suggestion is, as a beginner, you’d better choose contemporary novels instead of classical ones. You can easily engage yourself in reading, get fun out of it, and gradually build up your confidence. I do not mean to exclude classical novels for ever. Actually, the second reading of Pride and Prejudice greatly pleased me (probably the result of my improved English  comprehension). It is only that classical novels are less accessible to beginners due to their language styles and social background. I’d like to recommend three contemporary novelists to you－Ursula Le Guin, Ernest Hemingway, and Doris Lessing.
　　
　　However, reading novels is not the only way to improve your English. In fact, if you restrict yourself to novels you will miss a lot of treasures. English essays can at once inform you, entertain you,and refine your taste in English. The best example is Bertrand Russell’s work. Its language is plain, yet you cannot help feeling the elegance and the peculiar sense of humor. His simple language enables his philosophy within the reach of ordinary people. The same is true of George Orwell’s work. Here comes my second suggestion－essays are  indispensable.
　　
　　My last advice is never follow others’ recommendations and opinions blindly, however famous or influential the person might be.Some days ago, I listened to the audiobook of Somerset Maugham’s autobiography The Summing Up. In a chapter he regards Edward Gibbon and Samuel Johnson’s style as pompous. Though I admire Maugham’s prose, Icannot agree with his view. Probably one can label Johnson’s work as pretentious, but definitely not Gibbon’s. In fact, his lucid style makes his works highly readable, and you can hardly believe they were written over 200 years ago. Therefore, we should be open to various ideas, but always think and determine for ourselves. As a saying goes,one man’s meat is another man’s poison. With that in mind, we are boundto find out our favorite writers through reading and develop our fine taste in English.

[[i] 本帖最后由 matrim 于 2008-8-2 12:08 PM 编辑 [/i]]

第一次就读Jane Austen的书会很头痛。。。我是读了两次才真正的懂。。。
我现在也很少读classics，还是现代小说比较吸引人。。。

不错的建议哦~~~

嗯， 写这个因为听人一推荐英文书就是Austen的P&P，有亲身经历，怀疑这些人第一次看就能看进去。别说学英语的，就是amazon上看英美人书评，也有说difficult read。Austen的语言风格往好听说是高雅风趣，往难听说有点pretentious，不是很自然。而且我怀疑，如果没有相关大量的影视作品，她的小说是否还能有那么大的读者群。

点头，最后一句话很对。我是看了最新的P&P以后才想看看原著是什么样子。
都说她的结局很虎头蛇尾，不像现代人喜欢的那种梦幻的感觉。读的时候也这样感觉，看到他们俩在一起以后就不再想读下去了。。。