Can anyone recommend a book or a guide that will help me get more out of what I read? I read How to Read Literature Like A Professor some years ago, but I'm hoping there are better guides out there.
>>8100551
What are you trying to get out of your reading? You can read for pleasure, or you can read for learning - maybe even both. But I've found that trying to find meaning in every little detail ruins my enjoyment of a story. Just because an author describes a room as being blue doesn't mean he's referring to the sadness of his childhood growing up in a ghetto. Maybe the room is just fucking blue.
If you want to analyze fiction and "get more out of it", then take some lit courses at your local university or CC. Some will let you audit them, meaning you don't have to pay, but you also don't get any credit. But it'll expose you to analytical theory and cute coeds with daddy issues.
>>8100573
I plan on literature being my minor anyways when I go back to school (hopefully in the fall), so I thought if I found a book that will help me be a bit more analytical in my reading it will give me a head start.
How and why to read, by Bloom? Why to read the classics, by Calvino? Just put those two into amazon search then look at the things it suggests
>>8100593
In that case, read Stephen King's "On Writing". While it doesn't necessarily teach literary theory, having an understanding of the writing process will help you to better understand what an author is trying to convey. Good luck with your studies, anon.
>>8100573
If the color of the room was irrelevant, why would the author put it in the book?
