[Life] The Gifts from Reading

This afternoon I proofread a thesis by one of my friends.
It took me about one hour to read through the abstract, introduction and conclusion. I found lots of grammar errors and absence of clarity. When I finished the reading of the introduction and marked almost all the lines with circles and crosses, I had no patience to continue chapter by chapter and simple jumped to the conclusion. With no surprise I easily found a lots of obstacles for understanding and some improper presentations. Instead of going back to the beginning of the thesis and continuing the proofreading, I was determined to stop the proofreading anyway and composed an email to the friend, asking for the opportunity to discuss the thesis face to face.

I'm happy with this kind of experience. I enjoy the ease of reading in English and the accomplishment of mastering English to some extend. Despite of knowing that I'm just at the right beginning of long journey, it is still a big reward and a genuine gift, which is invaluable and encouraging. I'm just talking to myself keep going.

This afternoon, before the proofreading, I collected several great books and their accompanying audios. Some of them are poets. Some of them are novels. Some of them are modern. Some of them are old. The most noticeable of them are probably the books by James Joyce, e.g. Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Dubliners. With special favor upon Irish writers, I'm determined to learn the art of storytelling from the great writers from Ireland. They are astonishingly special and powerful. My heart vibrates as always with the lines in their masterpieces.

With no restriction to Irish books, I want to exercise my mind in other style. I will read Jane Austen, Scott Fitzgerald, Franz Kafka, Edward Morgan Forster, Charles Dickens, Henry James, Jack London, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, and W. H. Hudson. The joy, excitement, knowledge, and deep thinking are all the rewards for an involved reading.