I have been thinking about myself as a reader lately and I thought I might talk about it in a post. I really want to be a better reader but there seems to be so much I need to learn or get into a habit of doing. So below is a list of those things and I would love it if people can give me some hints or tips to help improve myself as a reader.
Note taking
I really struggle with this; I want to learn to write down thoughts and interesting quotes but never seem to work out a good way to do this. I don’t often have a notepad with me so I don’t know how to get into a habit or what will help. I thought about using Tumblr or Goodreads progress updates to do that but I’m not sure if they will help. I just have to somehow train myself into doing this.
Reading Critically
I want to be able to pick out symbolism, motifs and themes throughout the book. If you have been a reader of my blog for a while you probably can see that my reviewing seems to have improved and has more of a focus on critical understanding but I still think I’m a long way off to where I want to be. This might mean I need to read slower and reread books.
Understanding Literary Theory
I think part of reading critically would be to learn literary theory and that can be tricky. I started a BA in English Lit to learn this stuff but feel like I haven’t got into literary theory yet which is probably not true, I’m just impatient. I would love if there were a podcast or something that will slowly go through basic literary concepts and explain them in a practical, easy to understand manner. If I was smarter I would write my own but I still need to learn and probably need help to bounce my autodidactic learning off to make sure I’m on the right track.
Better Reviews
I struggle with synopsis’s and often fill tempted to use a book blurb or Goodreads synopsis instead. This is just one element of a book review that I want to improve, I know I’m getting better but I would love to write ten pages analysing a book without any effort. I know people won’t want to read a review that long but if I learn to write something like that, then I can work out a way to incorporate that into my blog.
There is a lot to learn here and I think I will eventually get to a place where all these points will be incorporated into my regular reading life. When that day comes I am sure I will have a new goal, I’m just inpatient and I want to have a better understanding in literature than I do now. I feel this will come with practise and continually pushing myself to be better and I hope that my blog is a reflection in this progress.
I’m with you on every point! Except the synopsis. I think the goodreads synopsis is fine, I skim those anyway to find out what the individual THOUGHT of the book.
I know for me… and this no lie… it is not wanting to slow down to take notes, or to re-read part of book when I’m starting to ‘get’ a thematic element because I’m afraid I’ll look bad if I don’t read X number of books per year. and I’m a low number reader anyway! Silly I know.
I don’t want to stop reading to take notes or go back and reread sections. I really need to train myself out of that.
Sticky notes & page flags are indispensable for note taking. You can just slap them on the relevant page and draw an arrow to the quote, passage, or whatever, and write your response in keywords that you can flesh out later. That’s a bit hard to do with eBooks, but a Kindle makes note taking easy.
I don’t believe there is any shortcut to learning about literary theory. Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory is a good overview, but it’s a complex field of academic study and I don’t think it’s necessary to know a lot about theory in order to read and review books. Critical thinking, on the other hand, is an important skill which revolves around reading with your mind open and asking questions of the text, and this is something you do already. Slow reading and engaging with a text is equally important, but I think that being a book blogger causes many people to read too quickly in order to try and keep up their book and post tallies, and I think this sense of urgency is detrimental to both comprehension and critical thinking. Skating along the surface of a text is relatively easy, but that leads to superficial engagement. The best way for us to become better readers is to engage with books that stretch our abilities and take us out of our comfort zone, and to always read with our minds wide open.
Sticky notes isn’t a bad idea, I should try that. It might not be as disruptive as writing in a note book.
I think Beginning Theory is all I really need, just to get a a basic idea of literary theory. I don’t need to get to complex but a deeper understanding would be very useful. I do try to question the text and I think I’m improving on this; I need to do this more but I’m on the right track there.
One of the reasons I love writing blog posts like this is so I don’t have to read faster. I do read a lot of books a year but that is because I can have an audiobook and sometimes an ebook open at work while I’m doing what needs to be done. I still feel like I’m a slow reader but I think if I slow down a little more and take the time with the text I might do better.
I like your idea of reading out of our comfort zone, this is something I try to do but most of the time I pick a safe book that interests me rather than a challenge.
Regarding book reviews, check this out: http://themanilareview.com/the-good-book-review/
You might also want to consider John Updike’s formula. This can be found at his Wikipedia page. 🙂
I’m not looking for a formula, just looking to improve
I am not a fan of John Updike, but his tips, his formula, is very helpful. It was just a suggestion anyway. It’s still up to you to choose the ways on how to improve.
I think I used to be a better reader, that is, a more critical reader. In recent years I’ve been reading purely for escapism and pleasure. Like you, I want to up my reading skills. Right now I’m listening to How To Read Literature LIke a Professor. Truthfully, I think I already know everything he’s saying, but it is good to be reminded of it.
is How To Read Literature LIke a Professor worth reading? I might already know it but as you said being reminded is what I might need
I go through phases – post-its, writing notes as soon as I’ve done…forgetting to do this at all and then ultimately having to labour over my reviews…you’re not the only one 🙂 Although I don’t Kindle, the rare occasion I’ve been forced to it has been invaluable to simply double click a word or passage and write a little note. At the moment I have a backlog of books to review from my hols, which is a completely hopeless situation!
I find the writing of the review completely depends on the book. If I’m uninspired then how can I hope to write something constructive?
I really want to write a review for everything I read but I know how you feel.
I have much to learn and improve on thats for sure
But you still have an awesome blog full of weird books
Thanks 🙂
you’re welcome