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How to Take Your Reading Skills to the Next Level

Techniques I have learned as a literature student in a top-rated university.

By Mel PaczkaPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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How to Take Your Reading Skills to the Next Level
Photo by Alfons Morales on Unsplash

We all have that book that rests near our bed. The one we take to every trip or come back to now and then just to read that scenes that remind us of our love for the characters or the writer's words. We might even feel that we could be discovering new authors and worlds but that one just keeps coming to our mind as one that has no match… The book meant just for us.

When something like this happens, we might wonder what is it exactly that make that book so special for us: Is it the ambience? The characters? Some specific scenes that push the right buttons of our sensibility? It might seem just the perfect combination of all those things that make it just perfect to come back over and over again.

Despite of how many times you might have read it you can still find new things when you know how a literature student is taught to read. Is it really that different from a regular reading? Well, in my experience as an avid, - and somewhat obsessed - , reader, and later an undergraduate in a top university in my country, I can tell you it does. The way we approach a book can change everything about it and even give us just the key of why we love it so much, then we might use just that to make our own stories or have a deeper knowledge of what is it exactly that makes it special.

The levels of reading.

  • Text surface

One of the first things I came across back when I started university is that there are different levels to read in a story. Yes, we can read the very same story in more than one layer, so to speak. In fact, it is almost certain that without knowing you have already done some of these steps.

Think of your favourite book, how does the story go? What happens to the characters or which are the main scenes? If you can point those out, then you already have done the first part of this.

Once you understand this, then you are ready to go in a deeper level of the text mine, so grab your pencil and paper to explore the depths of your favourite book.

  • The not-so-obvious behind the scenes

You just know by heart the book. You know exactly what scene goes first and what happens next. If you are like me, you might even dream now and then with the fantasy world you love so much. So, is it really a better understanding of this book? It may seem hard to believe but there is so much more you can understand about it…

To start with this second level, you can ask yourself: What is this book about? Of course, you know is a love story, or a revenge story, but what lies deeper in the text? Take for example Jane Austen´s Pride and Prejudice, it is a love story well enough, but there are many things going on. Elizabeth is a prejudiced lady, just as Mr. Darcy´s pride can make him somewhat unpleasant at the beginning. But then (and I'm sure I´m not spoiling the story for anyone) these flaws can be seen changing places, Elizabeth has just a bit too much pride, and Mr. Darcy´s prejudice has led him to make a bad decision.

This is part is the structure of the story. How does your favourite author play with the concepts of the story? Is the main character´s mistakes what push the story even further? Or maybe it is their flaws what trigger the terrible incident that now they have to fix? All varies according to the kind of book you are reading, and understanding this might help you understand what kind of conflict underlies in your favourite story.

  • Reaching the gold levels of your book

Now that we know how our story goes and what is it about beyond the obvious, what is there to understand that is even less obvious? Every book is written in a specific time and place. Once you have an understanding of the story it's time to have a look to the book´s background.

To keep the example we have already used, in Jane Austen´s novels we have a picture of the society in the early XIX century; that is the interaction of the wealthy aristocratic classes and a family that has money from their land (and in the Bennet´s case) just until the cousin inherits the land and leave them with nothing.

These underlying things can tell you a whole new story from your book. If it is a recent novel, you might ask yourself how do the characters interact? Is there any conscience of technology? Maybe even subjects that have a major impact in our thought today like feminism, LGBTQ+ inclusion, race, etc. These things bring you a deeper look to history being written, either by a classical piece of literature you want to understand further or by being able to pinpoint what is your author doing different from previous authors.

  • A peek at the abyss of the text.

The last step we will approach in this article (Not because of want of more levels but in order to let you run to your book and apply your new knowledge) is the close reading. Unlike the first three levels here we meet a more abstract one that could be divided further, and we may in other entries of the blog.

If you already know the exact theme you love in the story, maybe how the author builds the flow of the structure that makes it so interesting to you, and still there is that Je ne sais quoi that keeps you wondering how they do it… then close reading is for you.

The literary Academy has come up with a very detailed analysis of the text that we call close reading. And no, this does not mean to go finding your magnifying glass. What they mean by close reading is to pay attention on how does the author makes every sentence.

Why does Jane Austen first line is so unforgettable? "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" (Jane Austen). Many English Literature students know this sentence by heart, along with some Shakespeare, the reason is how they work with words.

If you are a book lover you might have noticed that words have a certain rhythm, the combinations are endless, and to come up with a sentence that stays with your readers is no mere chance, but craft. So, if you are not a grammar genius, or have difficulties identifying the matching sounds, fear not… close reading is about noticing the specific words that let through details, not precisely naming every function in the sentence.

For this you might take your favourite passage of the book. That sentence or paragraph that makes your heart go in a race, and then ask yourself: What makes it special? Is it the tone? Serious and romantic, maybe tragic, funny… Or maybe it is how the author builds the emotion little by little until it reaches that point where you want to read everything again?

Jane Austen, - yes, we will keep going back to it - , uses no less than a philosophical argument: a truth universally acknowledged (a general assumption), that a man un possession of good fortune, must be in want of a wife (the particular position). Thus, we have a glance of what the novel is about and an idea of the tone the novel will have, kind of formal and funny, working with wide assumptions; which we later get to know is a major problem in the plot (she is foreshadowing since sentence one… a genius).

This is just a glance of how you might have a deeper understanding of your favourite book. The last step is, let's say, the more professional one, it might even take a couple of times reading the book again doing each step to be able to point out exactly. I promise though that your efforts will have a reward. Understanding your favourite book to the deepest levels can only teach you more of it and even of yourself.

Also, if you train yourself little by little to read these levels in every book you pick up, you will soon be able to distinguish what is it exactly that you love in those books and find out even more. This is something that takes practice, the more you do it, the better you will become pointing out the less obvious themes and maybe even guessing the literary movement of a book by them. (This is how we distinguish romanticism, realism, modernism, etc.) and not be just a book lover, but a book conoisseur.

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