# Reading

Source (中文): [阅读篇](#/threads/part-1/4-reading.md)

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## Intensive vs. Extensive Reading

### Intensive reading

Short but dense writing is great for intensive reading—*The Economist* is a classic example.

If you skim an Economist-style article, you’ll only get the surface. The structure, subtext, and sharp opinions are where the value is.

Treat intensive reading like tasting: look things up, reread, and try to figure out why the author chose those words.

### Extensive reading

Beautiful novels are perfect for extensive reading—*Animal Farm*, for example.

This is more about enjoyment. Sometimes the first few lines hook you so hard you can’t stop.

Don’t turn it into homework:

- no strict plan
- no rushing to “finish the book”
- go with your mood and enjoy it

Also: start with something manageable. Jumping straight into *A Song of Ice and Fire* is a fast way to get crushed by unknown words and quit.

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## Recommended English Books

To help you get started, here are a few books across different difficulty levels (inspired by various English-learning YouTube channels):

- [Animal Farm (动物庄园) — George Orwell](https://book.douban.com/subject/10956502/)

  A famous political allegory and dystopian fable. Widely translated and adapted, and often recognized as one of the great political satires of the 20th century.

- [The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time — Mark Haddon](https://book.douban.com/subject/23546652/)

  One of its best parts is the narrative voice. The protagonist’s logic is consistently mathematical, and that reasoning style drives the story forward.

- [The Diary of a Young Girl — Anne Frank](https://book.douban.com/subject/1341074/)

  There are many WWII stories, but Anne Frank’s diary remains one of the most moving. Her writing ability is genuinely impressive and makes this a great step-up read.

- [Harry Potter series (哈利波特系列) — J. K. Rowling](https://book.douban.com/subject/1340758/)

  Needs no introduction. Don’t be allergic to popular fiction—this series has helped a lot of learners build reading stamina.

- [The Kite Runner (追风筝的人) — Khaled Hosseini](https://book.douban.com/subject/1772158/)

  Emotionally powerful and hard to forget. It’s the kind of novel that can make everything else you read afterward feel a bit pale for a while.

- [On Writing Well — William Zinsser](https://book.douban.com/subject/4740002/)

  It’s a book about writing, but also an excellent reading resource. The author teaches writing like a craft—clear, honest, and structured. This one is worth intensive reading, so it’s listed last.

> If you’ve already read the Chinese translation of a book, it often helps a lot before you read the original English version.

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## WeChat Official Accounts

I rarely use WeChat, so I’ll only recommend two that I’ve actually read:

- 英文悦读
- 独霸上海的妖怪

If you have good recommendations, open an issue and I’ll consider adding them after reading.

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## How to Read English Documentation

When reading docs, you’ll inevitably hit new words. If you’re seeing more than ~5 unknown words in a small section, pause.

- write the words down
- look them up one by one
- try to remember them before continuing

For technical terms, be extra careful:

- read definitions and examples
- if you still don’t get it, search for good explanations (including Chinese blogs when useful)

If you use tools to pre-extract unknown words from a document and learn them first, reading becomes much smoother.

> Kindle isn’t great for technical PDFs: fonts are often too small and it’s tiring for your eyes. An iPad usually works better.

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## Medium, Quora, Reddit, Hacker News, Stack Overflow

- [Medium](https://www.medium.com): great articles on tech, design, and life. Good for broadening your mind and improving execution.
- [Quora](https://www.quora.com): global Q&A. Top stories often have surprisingly moving answers.
- [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com): the “front page of the internet”. News and gossip included.
- [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/): a must for people in tech.
- [Stack Overflow](https://www.stackoverflow.com/): the place to solve technical problems.

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## Reference Book

[![英语阅读参考手册](https://img3.doubanio.com/lpic/s4241556.jpg)](https://book.douban.com/subject/4720475/)

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Prev: [Listening](3-listening.md)  
Next: [Speaking](5-speaking.md)
