title: "一次阅读马拉松经历" categories: Miscellanea updated: comments: true
阅读马拉松是由 TELL 发起, 自身独立运营的阅读比赛, 旨在用简单有趣的方式推广阅读. 参与者需要在规定时间内读完一本书, 并达到一定的阅读质量, 其实就是做一些 "阅读理解" 选择题, 以阅读时间 + 错题罚时来判定成绩.
注: TELL 由 think, enjoy, live, link 首字母组合而成, 是一家致力于研究和传播故事讲述的艺术与技术的机构.
活动体验非常糟糕.
<!-- more -->我参加的是 2017/10/28 上图杯上海阅读马拉松秋季赛, 读到的是《每一种人生都值得为之梦想》, 光书名就一股鸡汤味扑面而来, 让人失去阅读兴趣. 实际读完的感受: 比想象中的还要垃圾.
实际上这本书只讲了一句话 -- just do it. Nothing more.
每章的结构是特别显眼的总分总 -- 首先提出他的观点 (比如 "你应该选个 pursuit, 然后去执行", 类似这种陈腔滥调), 然后叙述几个他听到的故事 "例证", 最后复读一遍观点. 且不说例证本身就不是一种有效的证明方法, 他举出的例子更是千奇百怪, 缺乏逻辑. To make matters worse, 作者甚至在书后列了故事的索引...
由于书是 2 年多前读的, 我记不得细节了 (虽然赛后书是送给参赛者的, 但我很快把它放在了属于它的地方 -- 垃圾桶), 就摘一段 goodreads 上的 review (by Rishav Mukherji).
This book seems like a ramble. It doesn't match the title and the author gives a bunch of random examples while trying to say how to choose a fulfilling life quest.
However even then, his views are haphazard. For example, he says that "lose weight this year" is not a good goal because it isn't specific enough. Totally agreed! However his example to show what an improved version would be is NOT:
- lose 12 lbs this year OR
- lose 1 lb each month of this year
- etc.
Instead his example of an improvement for a specific goal is "win a race against a kangaroo while riding an ostrich"
I guess that is specific but throughout the book he talks about fulfilling quests and how the quests should be meaningful and impactful others. Yet, as noted above, many of his examples are meaningless, without explanation and do not conform to his theories. This is not too say all examples in the book are terrible. Some of the quests mentioned are really cool but they are distanced enough that the book could easily be shortened to a blog post instead.
The authors journey to all countries sounds really interesting and I have not read other books by him but I wouldn't recommend this particular book to anyone.
2019/9/30 edit: 在知乎上看到了 瑞典女孩号召的「学生罢课对抗气候变化」弱智活动, 像极了书中举的例子.
我权当猎奇地一字不落地读完了这本书, 从上午到下午一两点没吃午饭没有休息. 作为阅马流程的压轴项, 需要做阅读理解以衡量 "阅读质量". 为了便于判分, 这个环节是通过手机线上做选择题的方式进行的. 题目大概是政治送分题那样, 问题都是书上原句, 大多不需要读那本书就可以直接选出答案, 因此阅马第一名用时可以很少很少.
末了, 需要写一个简短的读后感交给主办, 之后就可以走人了.
这样的书到底有什么价值呢? 它也许可以降低人们接触鸡汤的门槛, 毕竟对从未见过鸡汤的人而言这可能是个新鲜事物. 然而这本书的目标读者绝不应当是大学生, 在高校公众号宣传这样的活动我觉得是主办方的不负责任.
Grammarly 把写作的目标读者分为三类:
General: Easy for anyone to read with minimal effort.
Knowledgeable: Requires focus to read and understand.
Expert: May require rereading to understand.
第一类书信息密度低, 只要 one-pass 就够了, 可以在各种零碎的时间阅读, 这次的书可以划为这一类. 第二, 三类书才是需要像阅马一样花大块时间阅读的. 从活动的选书而言, 它的目标人群应当是根本没有阅读习惯的人, 希望让他们从零到一开始接受阅读, 获取信息, 从而 "推广阅读". 对其他的人群, 参加这样的阅马是不值的. TELL 举办的阅马更像是一个网红景点, 打了卡就该完事了, 缺乏任何深度.
事后我发现还有许许多多其他形式的阅马, 比如一个月每日若干小时读完某本经典书写总结等等. 这才叫阅马嘛.
几天后阅马回访问卷, 问我是否愿意向别人推荐阅马, 是否还会参加阅马. 当然, 我选了: 不, 不.