About this title: A fun and practical introduction to literature and literary basics--symbols, themes, and contexts--shows how to make everyday reading experiences more rewarding and enjoyable.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
"Having been reading for quite awhile now, I thought it was high time I learned to understand a little better what I was reading. This book is great for the casual reader who wants to step it up a notch. Funny and entertaining as well as informative, this book will open most readers' eyes to the origins of stories and common symbolism, insights that may have been learned in school but have been forgotten or ignored. Still, the reader isn't hit over the head with the necessity of reading more intellectually. It is perfectly okay if your interpretation of the symbolism doesn't match the author's, or if you don't dig deeply into everything you read. It's okay to read mysteries; not everything has to be intense and filled with great meaning. I will probably continue to read books the way I eat potato chips: too many, too fast. But now I can step back and look at the stories I read through a somewhat enlightened perspective."
"I really enjoyed this book. I wish I'd had it when I was getting my English degree!
The author does a great job of highlighting patterns, archetypes, and general literary techniques and themes. His examples are helpful even if you haven't read the piece to which he refers. I do think, however, that I enjoyed the book much more because I have read many of the works he uses as examples. (Although I really did not enjoy some of the pieces he favored, like Song of Solomon, and frankly I only have dim memories of others, like T.S. Eliot.)
Even when he used books that I did not enjoy as illustrations, it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. I liked the use of "reader questions", which were questions that were supposed to be a dialogue between him and an imaginary reader, used to highlight important points. I noticed other reviews found that irritating. Perhaps I enjoyed it because most of the time his "reader questions" were exactly what I was thinking.
I highly recommend this book, even--perhaps especially--for non-English majors. A light, informative, and even entertaining guide to understanding literature better. I will definitely be reading the author's other book about How to Read Novels Like a Professor."
"This book took me almost 2 years to read. And I have no one to blame, but myself. I was just stop and go with this book for awhile. It's is on no accounts a bad book! I actually really liked it and frequently found that many of the techniques were useful in my reading, especially in college. Although, I will say his writing got to be a little exhausting for me. I'm used to people getting to the point of their argument and I felt that he may have been beating a dead horse for some of the chapters. (Which could've added to my stop and go attitude.) But most of the time I found myself saying aloud,"Oh! I get that!" or "Yes, I understand that piece of literary criticism!" So, at least I was comforted that I'm not completely dim-witted when it comes to literature. I will definitely read his next book How to Read Novels... etc. Hopefully, this time, it won't take me another 2 years."
"Now that I've read this book, you may as well not bother trying to read my book reviews; yes, that's right, I will now be examining themes and motifs and character motivation and other things like that and I'll probably be writing such amazing stuff that no one else will be able to understand me. Like a professor, right? No, my days of "Uh, I liked it" or "Well, I don't know" are over; I'll be finding things like water imagery and mother archetypes and references to obscure lines from Ulysses. So if you want to try to understand even a glimmer of what I'm writing about, you may need to read this book, too. ;->"
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