Veeky Forums, how do you recommend someone majoring outside of the humanities learns how to read critically? I often find myself finishing a book and realising that while I enjoyed it, I didn't really glean anything of value from it, and couldn't discuss it much beyond outlining the basics of the plot and making comments like "the prose was good".
My hope is to achieve a level of competency that allows me to write book reviews of good quality. Not necessarily as a career, but as a metric for gauging my own understanding of a work. I just ordered "How to read literature like a professor" and would be open to any other advice literature students or self taught people may have for me.
you read more. all those "how to read" books just outline what regular readers pick up through practice.
Jeremiah Bailey
All you actually need to do is stop and think for a second while reading. All that book will do is give questions to ask yourself while reading and some tips on general symbolism that won't work for hard literature, I guarantee you.
Cameron Gonzalez
If it really is just a matter of "stopping and thinking" then what are literature graduates being taught? Is there not some sort of theoretical framework that allows you to analyse books in greater depth?
Josiah Fisher
They're just wasting time there tbqhwyf. If you really want to go beyond stopping and thinking you can get some stupid ideology like structuralism or whatever and roll with it, but it won't change much.
Cameron Mitchell
Start with an ideology and consciously view each work you read as exegesis and/or criticism of it. Allow your views to evolve through this process and ultimately transcend the ideology.
Joshua Cook
What exactly is your process when reading a book? This question goes out to anyone else reading this also.
Xavier Kelly
Do you all read criticism of something like Shakespeare before or after a play? If I read before then parts of the play are spoiled but I have a better understanding while reading. But if I read after I will miss a lot while reading, and will probably realistic lay not retread to get everything.
Chase Lewis
>realistic lay how the fuck do you even manage to make that typo
Ethan Collins
I actually did this unconsciously but with political and social criticism as well. By being in turn a Marxist and then transcending it through its own dialectic I have reached a power level beyond most people
Justin Gutierrez
Read criticism and theory. Work out an ethos of criticism that works for you. Practice close readings of individual chapters/poems. Read carefully. Take notes. Write reviews.
>I've published a few reviews of novels and a collection of poetry
Henry Campbell
>Read criticism and theory do you have any advice where to get started with this sort of thing? Are there websites containing various criticisms I can download? What sort of theory am I supposed to be reading?
Hudson Harris
Well, criticism and theory are really just things that should inform the way you read, if that makes any sense. There's no set theory that you're supposed to be reading, it's just that reading theorists can make you a better, more engaged reader. Just look look into getting a secondary introductory text (the only one that I can think of off hand is Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory: An Introduction) that will help you understand how theory relates to the reading of texts, and how it can be used as a tool to help you become a better a critic. From there, you can look into various schools of criticism that interest you and particular theorists and their work, or just get something general like the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.
This is all, of course, only useful if you want to write serious book reviews & analyses that you're interested in submitting to Journals and such.
However, I should probably back up and say that when you're first learning how to be an active, serious reader, the first thing you're probably going to want to do is just start gradually reading more challenging literature, which can be done using some of the charts and stuff you can get off lit. Once you understand what literatures you're interested in, you'll naturally start to learn to read them better. Annotate. Take notes. Write out your thoughts and responses even outside of formal reviews. Make it a habit while reading. Start out this way, then move into theory and criticism. Also read lots of lay-criticism, which are the types of reviews you can get from major magazines that still publish book reviews.
Also, if you intend to publish reviews of contemporary works, I would recommend subscribing to at least one or two literary journals, as that will allow you to keep tabs on what's considered the most current trends in literature.
Sebastian Kelly
This is great stuff user, it's exactly the sort of advice I was looking for when I started this thread. While I may not necessarily want to pursue it as a full time career, maybe getting some sort of review published would be a good long term goal to work towards. Thank you.
Joseph Collins
No problem, I hope it helps. The only writing I still do now is criticism, so I take it pretty seriously, but it's also not something I pursue full time either. Just a hobby.
Enjoy the rabbit hole.
John Morales
This is a good post. I like this post, this one right here.
Lucas Jackson
I've had this same question too, not for anything particular but more for personal enjoyment and the ability to "read better".
Like other anons have said though I sometimes stop and think while I'm reading and ask myself questions or see if a certain paragraph or sentence has some sort of symbolic meaning. Then I'll try and reference it with something else I've picked up from another source and see if I agree with what the author was trying to say.
Something like that.
Wyatt Ward
Don't read "how to read literature like a professor". That's for fucking faggots who want to be told how to think.
Read "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer Adler (nonfiction) and "The Art of Fiction" by David Lodge (fiction). These two books will help you get accustomed to reading as a practice and as a means of communication. You seem to want habits, and these two can give your the basics.
Then read this shit if you want to go down the academic wormhole: . Otherwise, just start reading books on your own time, and develop your own note-taking system.
Samuel Wilson
See if you can find some discussion of the book you're reading online. Either lectures or even just some douchebag with a podcast. I find that being exposed to other opinions about a book will stimulate me to better articulate my own opinions.
t. STEM autist who reads
Sebastian Edwards
literary criticism is a post-facto falsification of the authentic reaction the reader has during the act of reading
Austin Martinez
Phone autocorrect senpai
Ryder Williams
Yale has a free course on the theory of literature.
