Surely you come across books that you want to throw in a few pages, because nothing is clear about them. These are exactly what you need to read in order to develop. Think of your brain as a muscle that can be pumped. To do this, “lift weights” - read complex books.

1. Before reading

Get rid of school thinking

At school, we read to answer teacher questions. The results of the control confirm that we have read the material, and nothing more. Get rid of this approach to reading. Remember that now you are reading not for the teacher, but for yourself.

Suppose you are reading a book about the Peloponnesian War. It is not so important to remember that there was once a conflict between Corinth and Corsica. Pay attention to the strategies of the warring parties. Both cities fought for the support of Athens. But some arrogantly declared that Athens owed them, while others listed all the advantages of working with them. Guess who won?

Places, names, dates - all this is not so important. Lessons are important.

Peek at the end

The reader’s goal is to understand why something happened. AND what exactly happened, not so important. Therefore, it is useful to know in advance the final book or the main opinions of the author. Then in time you will focus on two questions:

• What does it mean?
• Do I agree with that?

Usually the first 50 pages we only understand what the author wants to say. Knowing this in advance, you will immediately proceed to a more important stage - attempts to understand whether the author is right and how to apply the knowledge gained to your advantage. In addition, from the first reading you will notice the main clues that you would miss without prior knowledge of the book.

See what this book seemed important to other readers. Determine the cultural value of the reviews. Think about how it mattered to other people. Give feedback on key topics.

2. In the process of reading

Read the introduction

You just want to miss it, but don’t do it. Otherwise, miss a lot of important things and you have to re-read everything again. Be sure to read the introductory articles, translator comments, notes and footnotes. All this will help to understand the author’s ideas and prepare for the perception of the book.

Do not refuse such help. You will need it when you read something complicated.

Specify incomprehensible

Do not pretend that everything is clear to you. Look for information about what you do not understand. For example, when you read about military history, it is important to represent the battlefield. Look at the maps of the area, read more information. Just don’t get hung up on the details. Do not forget that first of all you need to learn the basic lessons.

Mark interesting places

Select all the places that interest you and make you think. If you don’t have bookmarks or a marker at hand, bend the corners of the pages.

Record in the margins the thoughts, feelings and associations caused by some passage. Do it right away while you remember and while there is inspiration. Don't be afraid to ruin the book. With such marks, it will bring you more benefit.

3. After reading

Make statements

A week or two after reading, return to the book. Scroll it and all the marked places on the cards. Lay out these cards by topic. This is a very convenient system for storing important thoughts. You can contact them in any situation: when you write an article, solve a working problem or have life difficulties.

If you don’t want to mess with paper cards, save your notes digitally.

Choose the next book from the bibliography of the previous

Browse the footnotes and bibliography at the end of the book to find the next. So you strengthen your knowledge in one area.

Practice what you read.

You have not in vain tagged interesting phrases. Use them in conversations and. Use them at work and in everyday life. Turn to them for comfort and inspiration.

Do not forget why you read - to draw moral and practical lessons from the book. But reading alone is not enough. To develop, apply what you have read in practice.

The more satisfaction you get from applying the acquired knowledge, the more you will want to develop further.

Music section publications

“The most difficult thing is to earn the trust of musicians”

Culture.RF publishes an exclusive interview with six conductors - Peter Gladysh and Dmitry Matvienko, Arif Dadashev and Arsenty Tkachenko, Alexander Khumala and Sergey Akimov. They told readers of the portal about their vocation, about the qualities that the orchestra leader should have, and about the difficulties of the profession.

Peter Gladysh

As a cellist, I worked in various orchestras with many conductors of different levels, different ages and nationalities. But there was one conductor quality, which always immediately attracted to itself. With its manifestation, I always wanted to meet one another and give everything 100%. This quality is solidarity. This is when the conductor feels himself part of the team, understands the specifics of the instruments and the technical difficulties that may be associated with them, empathizes with the musicians, worries about their physical condition, does not exhaust the orchestra during rehearsals and at the right time gives the musicians the opportunity to save themselves in order to preserve strength to speak. When he does not formally, but sincerely sympathizes, that someone has a toothache, and someone has a sick child, and understands that we are all living people and all are “in the same boat”. Such a conductor will be accepted in any team. Such an attitude cannot be portrayed or attempted to be copied: the musicians feel very good hypocrisy and immediately figure it out.

I’m happy, I’m really lucky in life: I work with such a conductor who does not divide the orchestra into superiors and subordinates and treats each orchestra with sincere respect and interest. And the support that the orchestra in turn provides is really worth a lot. Such a feeling of the elbow is a rarity both in the musical collective and in any other.

In those pleasant moments when you conduct such pearls of classical music as, for example, Adagietto from Mahler’s fifth symphony, or the third part of Tchaikovsky’s string serenade, or the third part from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade, you begin to feel this inexpressibly beautiful sound. It is tangible, you feel how the soft and warm sound of the orchestra flows under your fingers, and physically you feel its density. At such moments, the stick is automatically sent to the remote control.

The third part of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony.

The difficulty for a novice conductor, in my opinion, is as follows. Education in an educational institution is homework with a score in front of a mirror and conducting in a classroom with two accompanists. And so, it means that you have been engaged for so long, achieved the “perfect gesture”, and finally, for the first time in your life, eagerly went to the orchestra! And ... you understand that the strings pizzicato you didn’t play together, the winds didn’t come together always, but the brilliant accelerandos that were so convincing in the imagination of the house in front of the mirror are generally reluctant to perform and cost you a lot of effort . That is, for more coordinated actions in a large team, the conductor needs some other means.

As one great conductor said, “Conducting is experience”. Education consists of sleepless nights with scores in front of a mirror, classroom lessons with a professor and accompanists, conducting a string orchestra, and, finally, working with a large symphony orchestra. The difficulty is that there is an abyss between these steps - and the novice conductor should be ready to step there.

Of course, everyone goes through this stage. The main thing - at the right time not to succumb to excessive reflection and step by step to approach the heights in this very difficult, but insanely interesting profession.

Dmitry Matvienko

- What qualities should a conductor have?

There are obvious qualities that any person leading a group of people should possess - will, charisma, diplomacy. In the case of the conducting profession, it is difficult to list everything.

In order to better understand music, a conductor must be a fanatic of his own business, have a broad outlook, and know foreign languages. And another essential component is luck. Over the past decade, competition has grown significantly, which can be judged even by the number of applications for conducting contests. It is very important to get to the right place at the right time and prove yourself to the maximum.

- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a wand?

I think that there is not much difference between controlling a wand and without it. It doesn’t matter how and by what means you influence the musicians. It is important that they feel you, breathe with you, then you can not conduct at all. A special relationship should arise, that invisible contact that happens to the closest people, when you do not need to say anything, but everything is clear.

- The most difficult piece to perform with the orchestra, in your opinion?

There is no division into simple and complex works in this profession. However, many conductors consider the most difficult work to be the one that they now have in their work. And I understand them. You can play the symphonies of Viennese classics as endlessly as the works of composers of any style, be it Bruckner, Debussy or Stockhausen.

If we are talking about the technical side of the issue, then there will also be no division as such: the beginning of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is no more simple than the beginning of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony or Britten’s Military Requiem.

- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conducting profession?

In the profession of any musician, and in particular the conductor, the most difficult task is the realization of their ambitions and ideas.

Now is the time when it is extremely difficult to follow the path of a true artist. They try to squeeze out as many concerts and performances as possible from the orchestras of the season, so even conductors of the first magnitude rarely give more than three or four rehearsals for the program. Although orchestra musicians can quickly learn musical material, this is not enough for deep immersion in music. And often you have to ask yourself a question that a professor at the Moscow Conservatory Gennady Rozhdestvensky asks applicants: “Why do you want to do this?”

Arif Dadashev

- What qualities should a conductor have?

Musical taste, decency, will, objectivity, sense of humor.

- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a wand?

It seems to me that hands as a whole are a more expressive tool for contact with the orchestra.

- The most difficult piece to perform with the orchestra, in your opinion?

I can not answer this question unequivocally. Each piece of music is complex in its own way. The performance of any composition is a joint creative search for the conductor and musicians of the orchestra.

- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conducting profession?

The most difficult thing is to earn the professional confidence of the musicians, because in the process of performing the conductor and the orchestra must be one. It is at this moment that a miracle occurs - the birth of music.

Arsenty Tkachenko

- What qualities should a conductor have?

Of course, you need to be a leader and possess charisma in order to interest the artists of the orchestra. And of course, you need to know a lot - it is very important to win the respect and professional trust of musicians.

- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a wand?

In any case, the wand is an extension of the hand - they can be said to be one. However, conducting with a wand makes gestures more diverse and clear, especially at a moving pace.

- The most difficult piece to perform with the orchestra, in your opinion?

It all depends on the class of the orchestra and the conductor. I think that with the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the most complex piece will turn into an interesting preparation for the concert. And the result will be brilliant.

- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conducting profession?

My motto is to convey to the public our musical ideas and emotions associated with the orchestra. Listeners in the hall should not remain indifferent. In this case, a miracle happens called Music - when without words we can experience the deepest feelings.

Alexander Humala

Patience, hard work, hardness of character.

- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a wand?

I think that the presence or absence of a stick from the conductor is not important for the musicians of the orchestra. But if he conducts without a head - without a clue about what he is doing - for musicians it is quite difficult. So I choose the head.

- The most difficult piece to perform with the orchestra, in your opinion?

For me, the hardest part to conduct is Mozart’s music. And Stravinsky's “Rite of Spring” is a technically difficult piece.

- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conducting profession?

Probably the most difficult part in the profession of conducting is to understand that it is impossible to perform a work exactly as the composer intended. And at the same time strive for this ideal at the cost of his whole life.

Sergey Akimov

- What personal qualities should a conductor have?

The ability to love and an impeccable sense of rhythm.

- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a wand?

I perfectly understand people who prefer to conduct without a wand. However, for me, the wand is not only an extension of the hand, but also a “magic pen” with which I illustrate the works.

- The most difficult piece to perform with the orchestra, in your opinion?

It has not been written yet.

- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conducting profession?

To be youreself.

Photos provided by the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic.

Living without books is impossible. But not all of them are easy to read and understand. We offer you a list of books that are difficult to read due to the plot, style of writing or originality of the author of the work.

L. Tolstoy “War and Peace”

Many people and literary scholars consider this book the best book of all time. But at the same time, most people did not read it at all. Also, some people read it just to say that they did it.

The complexity of the novel lies in the fact that it does not have a distinct protagonist and the main storyline. As a result, the reader wanders around the storylines, which could be separate books, and after that the reader seems that instead of reading one story, he read many of these stories. And, of course, this is the kilky pages of the book. Not everyone can read more than 1,200 pages.

A. Rand “Atlas Shrugged”

This is an anti-utopian novel in which the authorities are trying to control production more and more (General Motors, AIG, etc.), to use the labor of workers for the “public good”. In other words, it is trying to build socialism.

But there are many people who disagree with this situation and decide to unite under the leadership of an unknown ideological leader, John Balt. They are trying to convey to the authorities, the economy and society will collapse without a motive for profit and the efforts of rational and productive representatives. The book closely reflects the philosophy of objectivism, which emphasizes that governments do not need to intervene in economic affairs.

G. Melville "Moby Dick"

Therefore, some Melville fans advise reading this book in an abridged version. And the majority who read this book say that this book could have been made much shorter (no more than 200 pages) and still this book would be one of the most outstanding books in the world.

A. Solzhenitsyn “The Gulag Archipelago”

The persecution, imprisonment, and torture of dissidents described by Solzhenitsyn in the Gulag labor camp evokes deep sympathy for those who have experienced this in their own skin.

This is not to say that this is an objective historical book or memoirs. This is the endless web of stories that the author weaves. And in this web, as in the usual, it is very easy to get caught and confused by an unprepared reader. Yes, it makes many readers seem to have never finished reading.

W. Eco "The Foucault Pendulum"

Umberto Eco is a very educated and well-read author who spent a lot of time in the library. This he demonstrates to his readers in his works, and he demands the same from them. The author admits that he deliberately and consciously saturates his books with a multitude of historical facts. Fans of the writer's work are advised to read his works with a dictionary in his hand.

In the book “Foucault's Pendulum,” the author seems to mock the reader, making you feel like a real ignorant fool. In the middle of the book, U. Eco, realizing that you have already suffered enough, adds to the plot exactly what you, thanks to perseverance, can feel and understand.

N. Hawthorne “The Scarlet Letter”

Hawthorne's masterpiece unfolds in the 17th century Puritan Boston. It tells about the married woman Esther, who lives herself, because the man was absent for several years. Everything would be fine with a woman, but Esther has an illegitimate child. Once she was caught by the priests of the church, while the sinners were forced to wear the large bright red letter “A” on their clothes, as a sign of sinfulness.

Even fans of this book admit that reading might require a dictionary, because you can easily get lost in numerous and complex digressions from the main plot.

T. Eliot Badlands

Badlands is a modernist poem that consists of 5 parts, during which the author jumps from one hero to another very sharply, travels to different places, moves in time and uses 5 languages: English, Latin, Greek, German and Sanskrit . And to understand this, the reader needs to rely only on his ingenuity and intelligence.

Eliot is a very well-read author and he will not compromise with himself in order to convey his thoughts somehow easier. Often, the author uses literary allusions to authors such as Homer, Sophocles, Dante Alighieri, Shakespeare and others. There are many books and sites dedicated to this book that try to understand and describe everything that the author had in mind, but they don’t really it turns out.

W. Burroughs “Naked Breakfast”

The story of how this book was published is much more interesting than the book itself. Burroughs (a member of the so-called bit generation) lived in Tangier and became addicted to heroin. So he printed the story. Then he cut the resulting book into pieces and assembled it again in pieces, but in random order. Burroughs sent the result to his friend Allen Ginzburg. Oddly enough - the book was published.

However, it is very difficult to read, because sometimes offers simply end without warning, and new ones start all of a sudden. This is a book that needs to be read from beginning to end in order to finally get the big picture. Although it will be one of the most difficult books you have ever read, however, it is really worth the effort and time.

V. Faulkner “Noise and Fury”

The book tells about a family from the south who is trying to survive after the reformation that took place after the civil war.

The book is difficult for perception by the fact that in the post-war period, writers always try to pay more attention not to the plot line, but to the experience, thoughts of the characters, as they see and perceive the surrounding reality. So, the author, for a greater transfer of the randomness of the thoughts of heroes, practically does not use punctuation marks.

Also in this novel, Faulkner uses italics to indicate a transition to particularly significant moments from the past.

J. Joyce Finnegan Wake

Finnegan Wake is considered the most difficult book to understand and read. And Joyce himself is considered one of the authors difficult to perceive. Joyce pays a lot of attention to the form of the story and language - the book is full of neologisms, metaphors, puns and old slang expressions.

Some scholars believe that the book was written as an unsolvable deception, there are even many books and websites to help readers make out incomprehensible text, but this is still a very difficult task.

February 2, 1882 the maestro of modernism was born - the Irish writer and poet James Joycewhose pen belonged to such cult things as "Ulysses", "Dubliners" and "Portrait of the artist in his youth." Like any controversial author, he has a sea of \u200b\u200bfans, and the same sea of \u200b\u200bopponents. Someone reads his books excitedly (as much as possible) and assures that an educated person who has not read Ulysses is nonsense. Someone leaves the novel without reading even a hundred pages, and affirms the opinion: complete nonsense.

In any case, in honor of the birthday - five books that are also difficult to conquer, like Everest.

Without it, any similar list does not make sense by default. Although some readers believe that this whole huge, almost unbearable book also does not shine with meaning. This, of course, is not so. But it is difficult to argue with the fact that not everyone is able to master the Ulysses, not to mention the Finnegan Wake. Yes, this literature is not for everyone. Yes, it sounds like we're all snobs here, but you can't argue with the facts. Bloomsday - this is how you can briefly characterize the plot of the novel "Ulysses". Although, of course, one day in the life of Bloom is still not the most important thing in the book. And what is really important is that everyone has to decide for himself. As a last resort, you can always refer to the detailed comments that accompany many publications.

Enemies often claim that Umberto Eco is haunted by the glory of James Joyce. Like, this is what caused the desire to use the richest metaphors, complex designs, non-linear forms and original style in their works. Really, this is absurdity. Although Eco books really possess all of the above. The Foucault Pendulum is based on detailed research on topics such as conspiracy theories, esotericism, religion, and so on and so forth. To properly deal with all this, you must either have the intelligence of Senor Eco, or constantly keep Google on hand to make inquiries about unfamiliar concepts and hypotheses.

Jelinek is a very peculiar writer. For her originality, she even received the Nobel Prize in literature. But if most of her books are still quite successfully readable, then “Children of the Dead” is something with something. Neither “The Pianist” nor “Lust” are distinguished by such a dense and complex text as this conceptual novel. The plot in it always flickers somewhere on the periphery, nothing more. And the semantic canvas a la a very large and polythematic essay invariably comes to the fore. It is here that Elfrida Jelinek mercilessly juggles with innovative stylistic finds, creating a lace canvas without dialogs, pauses and smooth plot transitions. A magic language that is not so easy to master.

One of the best novels of his time mercilessly violates the boundaries of the genre, for which he falls into this list. Of course, it is still not so difficult to read as Ulysses or The Children of the Dead. The novel has a distinct and even exciting plot, several completely transparent ideas that are accessible even to inexperienced readers who decided to immediately take on something powerful and large-scale. The pursuit of the White Whale is already a common noun in the world of literature. Familiar even to those who have never read the novel. Its complexity lies in the fact that the book has many branches from the main plot - both the “whale encyclopedia”, and reasoning, and semi-fantastic facts disorient the reader. But if you tune in to thoughtful thoughtful work, the pleasure of reading will not be long in coming.

We say: "postmodernism" - we think about Hesse. We say: "The game of beads" - we think about postmodernism. The times in the novel are mixed up, but in short, we are talking about some future and some order of intellectuals from a fictional province, which then becomes a country. The essence of the very “bead game” that the heroes are engaged in and which is put into the title of the novel is universal art. Creation of a meta text synthesizing all branches of the art world into one whole witch brew. Explaining the idea and plot of the novel in a few words is also not easy, as well as reading it without having sufficient reader experience behind. Of course, this is not a book that is worth taking in a playful mood or nothing to do. But in itself it is from the category of must read.

If you read one or more books from this list - share your impressions in the comments!