How to Read Novels, a la Shmoop. Reading a novel can be a daunting task.
Some stories are hard to follow…
…some books are huge…
…and some novels contain a cast of characters so large that we’d need a spreadsheet to
keep track of who’s who.
But just because a novel is difficult to read doesn’t mean we shouldn’t read it, especially
as there are some simple steps we can follow to improve our novel-reading experience.
Let’s take it from the top. The first step on our “How to Read Novels” checklist
is to pick a novel…
…or have our English teacher pick it for us.
Let’s face it. Sometimes, we get no say in what we read. If the curriculum calls for
us to read The Brothers Karamazov <>, then it’s The Brothers Karamazov we’re
going to have to slog through.
However, if we get to choose a novel to read for class, or even if we’re just looking
for something to peruse in our spare time…
…we can improve our chances of enjoying the story if we put a little thought in first.
Um, that didn’t really require any thought, did it?
We should ask ourselves: Who’s our favorite author? What’s our favorite genre? Have
we read a book review or heard a recommendation that caught our attention?
If we’re looking to get away from the familiar and expand our horizons by reading fiction
that’s new to us…
…we can refer to various lists, like those containing the titles that have won the Man
Booker Prize or the Hugo Award, for inspiration. Okay, second item on the checklist: Respect
the reading experience.
Reading is fun, but it can be a lot of work, too, especially if someone is expecting us
to produce a paper about what we’ve read.
So, give the novel and the task of reading it some respect. Read the novel well in advance
of when the assignment is due…
…because we might have to read that sucker twice.
Also, while some people have no trouble reading on a plane or on the train…
…or in a house with a mouse…
…others need a set block of time in a quiet place with no distractions to get needed reading done.
Furthermore, when we read, we should ditch the laptop…
…and the phone…
…and any other technical devices that might interfere with our concentration.
The third item on our “How to Read Novels” checklist is to be prepared.
This doesn’t mean we need to have a survival kit with us when we read in case the world
comes to a sudden end…
…but rather that there are some tools we should have close to hand, in case we need
to mark a passage or take notes as we read. Pencils and highlighters are our friends.
While underlining sentences and scribbling in the novel’s margins work great…
…we should have some paper and/or notecards nearby, in case we come across something in
the novel that inspires more extensive note-taking.
Depending on the novel, we might also want to have a dictionary…
…of the paper variety…
…handy. Yes, we can always Google a definition, but
Googling while reading leads to surfing the Internet…
…and surfing the Internet leads to the dark side.
So, we’ve got our novel. We’ve settled into our favorite armchair with a bowl of
popcorn and a caffeinated beverage. We’ve got our pencils at the ready.
Time to crack this baby open and get reading.
This leads us to the next item on our checklist: Read first, analyze later.
Say we’re expected to write a five-page paper on the development of a particular character
in a novel.
We might be tempted to mark anything and everything about that character that we come across…
…which means we’d have a lot of irrelevant nonsense to plow through when it actually
comes time to write our paper. Resist temptation! Read a chapter at a time.
Re-read a chapter if necessary. Think about the chapter’s content. Then, go back and
underline what’s important or put a quick note or quote on paper.
If we read and actually think about what we’re reading…
…rather than getting trigger-happy with a highlighter…
…we won’t just have a better understanding of the novel and our paper topic, but we’ll
have an easier time actually writing the paper. The fifth item on our “How to Read Novels”
checklist is to look for the meaty stuff as we read…
…the kind of items we can whip out during a classroom discussion so we look totally
awesome.
For example, we might see something that appeals to us in a novel about a particular character
or setting.
We might like how the author uses imagery in a scene…
…or the author’s syntax throughout the story.
We might identify an overarching theme to the novel.
In other words, look for things in the story that set the novel apart from other novels…
…and the author apart from other authors. The sixth item on our checklist is to remember
how we feel when we finish a novel.
Some of us may bawl hysterically at the end of a book…
…or thank our lucky stars that we survived reading that pile of horse apples.
Our emotions can be key to identifying an important aspect of the book, one we feel
strongly enough about to produce a really compelling paper.
Here’s the seventh item on our “How to Read Novels” checklist: There is no right
way to read a novel.
Some people can read a novel once and be done. Others need to read the novel two or three
times to make sense of it.
Some people can dog-ear ten or twelve pages and produce amazing papers. Others need to
produce copious and detailed notes on a book before they can write a single sentence.
In other words, there is no one way to read and process a novel. We all have different
methods that work for us because, duh: we’re all different people.
This brings us to the last item on our checklist: Practice, practice, practice.
The more novels we read, the more likely we are to find an analytical process that works
for us.
We’ll be able to more quickly identify the important components of a novel.
Also, the more novels we read, the more books we’ll have to compare and contrast against
whatever story we’re reading…
…and that kind of information can often come in handy on an English assignment.
Now…go forth and read.
What a novel idea.