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。
因此不常作笔记者须记忆特强，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，逻辑修辞使人善辩；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，慢步利肠胃，骑术利头脑，诸如此类。
如智力不集中，可令读数学，盖演题须全神贯注，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）Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. T heir chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for or nament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.For expert and execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one b y one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best form those that are learned.To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgement wholly b y their rules, is the humour of a scholar.They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning (pruning) by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in/ by experience.Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wis e 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 con sider.Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and som e 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 a re, like common distilled waters, flashy things.Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writi ng an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need ha ve 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 subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in morse. (Studeis go to make up a man’s character.Nay there is no stand or impediment in the w it, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of t he body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for t he stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle w alking for the stomach ; riding for the head; and the like.So if a man\'s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematic s; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so lit tle, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish o r find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are c ymini sectores. (Hair-splitters sim-mini sek-torr-es) 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 ever y defect of the mind may have a special receipt《谈读书》闪烁着一位哲人的真知灼见。
文章的第一部分重点谈到跟读书相关的一些基本问题：读书之目的、读书之作用、读书与运用，以及如何读书。
文章首先高度概括了古今之人读书之目的：读书可以“怡情”“傅彩”“长才”，并指出了这三种读书姿态在生活当中的具体表现。
其次，作用又指出了读书的作用，并洞明了读书与经验之间的关系。
在他看来，读书是可以“补天然之不足”，并形象地指出，读书之于天性，犹如修剪之于花草。
在这里，培根睿智地点明了“读书”“天然”与“经验”之间的辩证关系，即读书可以补天然之不足，经验又补读书之不足；其实用主义的哲学理念从字里行间见出。
文章第一部分中给读者印象最深的恐怕是培根谈读书方法的那几句：“书有可尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。
”这里，培根再次用形象的语言将几种不同的读书方式区别开来。
在信息爆炸的时代，更多情况下我们缺少的恐怕不是信息，而是如何处理信息；我们缺少的恐怕不是书籍，而是如何高效地去吸收书本知识、整合前人的知识。
从这个意义上看，培根的这种对各种书籍的区别对待的阅读方式，在今天仍然值得我们借鉴。
当然，这里有一点需要说明，培根认为，有的书“亦可请人代读”。
这里所说的“代读”，在培根那个时代的贵族当中是常见的，但在今天，作为普通读者则很难做到。
不过，今天有的人还是有请人“代读”的机会的；不过，硕导、博导们让自己的弟子代为收集整理资料，那是一般读者没法享受的福分。
现在的出版社所出的一些经典名作的简写本、提要也可算是为普通读者提供了一种代读。
可是，这种“代读”太多了自然也会养成一种浮躁的习气；作品毕竟还是原汁原味的好，正如培根所说，“书经提炼犹如水经蒸馏，淡而无味矣。
”《谈读书》的第一部分已简略地提到了读书之作用，认为读书可以补“天然之不足”。
文章的第二部分则重点就这一点展开讨论。
同时，这一部分也是这篇文章论述特别有力、逻辑特别严谨的一部分，也是显出作者作为伟大的哲学家和思想家的睿智的一部分。