Reading Books about Reading Books
Reading Books about Reading Books.
That sounds a bit redundant, doesn't it? I assure it that it isn't. If you have any of my other book related posts, you may have picked up on the fact that I love books. If you haven't ready any of my blog posts before, now you know, I love books! I love reading books, collecting books, analyzing literature, talking to others about books and reviewing books. Even so I want to continue to learn more and more about literature.
Back in October 2023 I came across the book How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids by Thomas C. Foster. We spent the next few weeks reading a chapter every few days or so, so what we were learning could really sink in. My children and I learned so much from this book that I bought the adult version, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, and I absolutely consumed it!
The major differences between the children's version of the book and the adult version are mostly that the children's version contains less chapters; sections such as "..More Than It's Going to Hurt You: Concerning Violence," "It's All About Sex..." and "...Except Sex," are omitted from the kid's book, for obvious reasons. While many of the same subjects are covered, they are not covered in such great detail in the kid's book.
This may sound silly to some readers, but I actually cried when I read How to Read Literature Like Professor. What, in a book about reading literature, could bring me to tears you ask? It was the preface. That's right, the preface. The one part of the book that I rarely, if ever read. It wasn't the whole preface, but this one specific part where Thomas C. Foster describes the type of person he was writing this book for. Picture this if you will. There I was sitting at the laundry mat on a dreary winter afternoon. My kids are at home with my husband, and it's just me sitting there quietly in a busy laundry mat and I'm reading a book with silent tears streaming down my face. The people around me at the must have thought I was nuts but when I read about the type of person Foster was writing this book for, I cried. Why? Because he was describing me.
This is the tear provoking quote written by Foster:
"A dozen or so years ago when I was drafting the original, I was pretty clear on the audience for my book. She was a thirty-seven-year-old returning student, probably divorced, probably a nurse forced back into coursework by changed in the licensure rules of the profession. Faced with the prospect of obtaining a bachelor's degree, she chose to follower her heart this time around and pursue a degree in English. She had always been a serious reader, but she had felt that she was missing something in her experience of literature, some deep secret her teachers had known but not imparted on her. You think I'm kidding, right? I'm not."
While I'm not divorced, and I'm not a nurse, I am a thirty-seven-year-old student returning student going back to school and working towards a bachelor's degree in English.
Have you ever experienced a book you felt was written just for you?! I'd love to hear your story if you have!
Ok, enough about me and onto the contents of the book itself.
The book covers so many ways of looking at literature and Thomas C. Foster explains how to analyze literature by using examples from well-known bits of works most people have at least heard of before. Thomas C. Foster's easy to follow writing style that is highly engaging, which makes learning how to analyze famous (and not so famous) written works super easy to understand. It's so easy, it's almost as if you are having a conversation with him.
Check out what I mean. I've circled some italicized text, can you read what it says? It says...
"Okay, so there are a lot of ways the Bible shows up. But isn't that a problem for any who isn't exactly...."
The italicized text is what a student would most likely say in response to what Foster has just explained, it's like he is anticipating what you are thinking and then he goes on to address that potential question. This is a technique he uses throughout the book which will keep you both engrossed in the text and wanting to learn more.
The best thing about this book is that it's not that the reader is only learning how to analyze specific texts, it's that that you will walk away with the skills or tools to dig deeper into the meanings of the literature you spend your time reading.
For me specifically, since I've read this book, I have such a greater understanding of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. If you've read my previous posts about books I hated or didn't read from high school. This was one of them. I couldn't understand the big deal about this book, to me it was just a roughly 200-page book about a guy holding a fishing line with a huge fish attached to it. I would have LOVED to have read How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kid's before reading, The Old Man and the Sea, I know I would have understood it and connected to it so much more if I had.
Note: I've provided links to some of the items mentioned in this post and these are things, (or similar items) that I have used and enjoyed. If you choose to purchase these items from Amazon, that's great, but just know that I do not expect you do. I buy most of my items second-hand and I hope you can do the same. I've included links to certain items so you can gather more information about the products I'm referring to or you may purchase them new if you wish. Rest assured; I do not earn any commission from your purchases on Amazon for the items I've provided links to.
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