双语美文：时间再少，也要挤出来读书
Reading is not just about learning a certain skill.
读书，不光是去学习一门特定的技能。
Nor is it just about learning how to create prettier combination of words.
也不只是为了学习怎样让文字的组合更优美。
Reading is a form of communication which is in a higher rank than mere conversation.
读书，其实是一种比对话更高级的交流方式。
Many successful people have shared the same kind of wisdom that if you want to become a kind of person you should try your best to spend time with this kind of people.
很多成功人士都曾分享这样一个经验：如果你想成为怎样的人，就尽量多和这样的人呆在一起。
If you want to become someone with good manner, you should try to make friends with people who have good manner.
如果你想成为一个有涵养的人，就尽力去交一些有涵养的朋友。
If you want to become someone learned, you should try to stay in touch with learned people.
如果你想成为一个博学的人，就应该去和博学的人交流。
If you want to become someone successful, you surely should communicate with those who are actually successful.
如果你想成为一个成功人士，那当然应该多和真正成功的人交流。
But unfortunately, outstanding people are usually far away from us. If you yourself are not outstanding enough, it's almost impossible for you to reach them.
但遗憾的是，优秀的人通常都很遥远，如果你自己不够优秀，那你几乎不可能触及他们。
And this is what reading is for. A book is the embodiment of a great mind. Through reading you can communicate with those great minds. And this kind of communication is beyond time and space.
这就是读书的意义了，书是优秀灵魂的凝聚，通过读书，你能和这些伟大灵魂进行跨时空的交流。
Reading can bring you out of the cage of your daily life. It shows you new opportunities that you've never seen.
读书能让你跳出生活的桎梏，为你打开前所未有的可能。
For a lot of people, this may be the only method to change their lives.
对于很多人来说，这可能是他们唯一能改变人生的手段。
No matter how busy you are, don't forget to spare some time to do it.
不管你多么忙碌，都别忘了挤出时间来做这件事。
If you don't find yourself time to read, you'll eventually find yourself without any time to live the life that you want to live.
如果你不花时间读书，那你最终将没有时间过你自己的生活。
参考2：
Francis Bacon - Of Studies 汉译
Of Studies——论读书
Francis Bacon——弗兰西斯.培根
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores [Studies pass into and influence manners]. Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores [splitters of hairs]（(吹毛求疵之人)）. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.
谈读书
读书足以怡情，足以傅彩，足以长才。其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其傅彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处世判事之际。练达之士虽能分别处理细事或一一判别枝节，然纵观统筹、全局策划，则舍好学深思者莫属。读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰太盛则矫，全凭条文断事乃学究故态。读书补天然之不足，经验又补读书之不足，盖天生才干犹如自然花草，读书然后知如何修剪移接；而书中所示，如不以经验范之，则又大而无当。有一技之长者鄙读书，无知者羡读书，唯明智之士用读书，然书并不以用处告人，用书之智不在书中，而在书外，全凭观察得之。读书时不可存心诘难作者，不可尽信书上所言，亦不可只为寻章摘句，而应推敲细思。书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。换言之，有只须读其部分者，有只须大体涉猎者，少数则须全读，读时须全神贯注，孜孜不倦。书亦可请人代读，取其所作摘要，但只限题材较次或价值不高者，否则书经提炼犹如水经蒸馏，淡而无味矣。
读书使人充实，讨论使人机智，笔记使人准确。因此不常做笔记者须记忆特强，不常讨论者须天生聪颖，不常读书者须欺世有术，始能无知而显有知。读史使人明智，读诗使人灵秀，数学使人周密，科学使人深刻，伦理学使人庄重，逻辑修辞之学使人善辨：凡有所学，皆成性格。人之才智但有滞碍，无不可读适当之书使之顺畅，一如身体百病，皆可借相宜之运动除之。滚球利睾肾，射箭利胸肺，漫步利肠胃，骑术利头脑，诸如此类。如智力不集中，可令读数学，盖演算须全神贯注，稍有分散即须重演；如不能辨异，可令读经院哲学，盖是辈皆吹毛求疵之人；如不善求同，不善以一物阐证另一物，可令读律师之案卷。如此头脑中凡有缺陷，皆有特药可医。
（王佐良 译）