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Why is marking up a book indispensable to reading? First, it keeps you awake.(And I don'tmean merely conscious; I mean wide awake.) In the second place, reading, if it is active, isthinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed. Let me develop these three points.
为什么在书上做记号对阅读是必不可少的呢？首先，它会使你保持清醒。（我不是仅仅指它让你神志清醒；我的意思是它能使你全神贯注。）其次，如果阅读是一种能动的行为，那么它就是思考，而思考常常须借助口头的或书面的语言来表达。作了记号的书，通常是读者认真思考过的书。最后，写可以帮助你记住你阅读时的思想，或作者所表达的思想。让我进一步就这三点谈一谈。
If reading is to accomplish anything more than passing time, it must be active.
如果阅读的目的不仅仅是消磨时间，那就应该是一种积极的思维活动。
You can't let your eyes glide across the lines of a book and come up with an understanding of what you have read. Now an ordinary piece of light fiction, like, say, "Gone with the Wind," doesn't require the most active kind of reading. The books you read for pleasure can be read in a state of relaxation, and nothing is lost. But a great book, rich in ideas and beauty, a book that raises and tries to answer great fundamental questions, demands the most active reading of which you are capable. You don't absorb the ideas of John Deweythe way you absorb the crooning of Mr. Vallee. You have to reach for them. That you cannotdo while you're asleep.
仅仅让你的眼睛在书上扫视一遍，你就不可能对所读的内容有所理解。当然，一部普通的消遣小说，譬如说《飘》，并不需要那种最积极的思维式的阅读。作为消遣的书，可以轻松地读而不会有所失。但一本思想丰富、文字华美，试图提出带根本性的重大问题并加以回答的伟大著作，则要求你尽可能地进行最积极的阅读。你不能像欣赏瓦利先生的低声吟唱那样，学到约翰·杜威的思想。你得花费气力方可获得。漫不经心，是做不到这一点的。
If, when you've finished reading a book, the pages are filled with your notes, you know that you read actively. The most famous active reader of great books I know is President Hutchins, of the University of Chicago. He also has the hardest schedule of business activitiesof any man I know. He invariably reads with a pencil, and sometimes, when he picks up a book and pencil in the evening, he finds himself, instead of making intelligent notes, drawing what he calls "caviar factories" on the margins. When that happens, he puts the book down. He knows he's too tired to read, and he's just wasting time.
如果当你读完一本书的时候，书页上写满了你的批注，你就知道你的阅读是积极的了。我所知道的最有名的采用积极方式阅读伟大著作的人，是芝加哥大学的校长哈钦斯。他也是我所知道的公务最繁忙的人。他读书时总是拿着铅笔。有时，当他在晚上拿起书和铅笔的时候，发觉自己不是在作有意义的笔记，而是在页边空白处画些他称之为"鱼子酱工厂"的东西，一出现这种情况，他就放下书本。他知道自己太累，读不下去了，完全是在浪费时间。
