How to Read Literature Like a Professor Revised: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines

by Thomas C. Foster

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of Thomas C. Foster's classic guide—a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes, and contexts—that shows you how to make your everyday reading experience more rewarding and enjoyable.

While many books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings interwoven in these texts. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the eyes—and the literary codes—of the ultimate professional reader: the college professor.

What does it mean when a literary hero travels along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he's drenched in a sudden rain shower? Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, Thomas C. Foster provides us with a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower—and shows us how to make our reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.

This revised edition includes new chapters, a new preface, and a new epilogue, and incorporates updated teaching points that Foster has developed over the past decade.

Genres: Nonfiction, School, Books About Books, Writing, Education, Literature, Read For School

366 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 18, 2003

About the author

Thomas C. Foster is Professor of English at the University of Michigan, Flint, where he teaches classes in contemporary fiction, drama, and poetry as well as creative writing and composition. Foster has been teaching literature and writing since 1975, the last twenty-one years at the University of Michigan-Flint. He lives in East Lansing, Michigan.

In addition to How to Read Novels Like a Professor (Summer 2008) and How to Read Literature Like a Professor (2003), both from HarperCollins, Foster is the author of Form and Society in Modern Literature (Northern Illinois University Press, 1988), Seamus Heaney (Twayne, 1989), and Understanding John Fowles(University of South Carolina Press, 1994). His novel The Professor's Daughter, is in progress.

Foster studied English at Dartmouth College and then Michigan State University, moving forward from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the twentieth in the process. His academic writing has concentrated on twentieth-century British, American, and Irish figures and movements—James Joyce, William Faulkner, Seamus Heaney, John Fowles, Derek Mahon, Eavan Boland, modernism and postmodernism. But he reads and teaches lots of other writers and periods: Shakespeare, Sophocles, Homer, Dickens, Hardy, Poe, Ibsen, Twain.

Author photograph courtesy of HarperCollins.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas C. Foster - image from his site

I have read more than a few books of this sort. This one stands above the crowd. While the material may not be particularly novel, it does pull together core truths about how literature can be understood, and communicates that information in a very accessible manner. It has made a world of difference in my approach to reviewing. I made my teenagers read this, back when they were actually teenagers. Particularly for anyone who reviews books, this is a MUST READ!!!


First posted in 2008?


Foster's personal site

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read literature like a Pro: A Cheat-Sheet

Foster comes across for the most part of the book as Captain Obvious, or rather Prof. Obvious and maybe even as Dr. Condescending, M.A., Ph.D., etc.

But no matter how frustrated with the book I was at times, Foster does have a language that reminded me constantly of all my english professors and since I have always loved my literature classes and the teachers, it was easier to swallow.

The book treats only very obvious and surface level things like 'if he almost drowns then he is symbolically reborn' etc. He takes us through a variety of such things ‘hidden’ in literature that we should be on the lookout for to truly enjoy any reading. The only problem is that he never goes deep enough to let help a reader think analytically of what can be considered challenging literature.

But sometimes obvious things are worth restating too and sometimes they help us develop a pattern of thinking that will eventually evolve by itself into what is really required. And that in the end might be the real goal of the book. In that sense Foster can consider it a reasonable success.

So here is a quick list of easy things to watch out for when you read literature:


1) Every time a character in the book takes any journey/trip of any sort, start looking for tropes like gatekeepers, dragons, treasures etc. Chances are high that it is a mythic Quest of some sort.

2) If you come across a scene involving the characters eating together, especially if a whole chapter is dedicated to it, possibly it is being used to explore their relations and it is an act of Communion with all that the word implies.

3) Vampires exist, even when they don't. If it is not Twilight, chances are that it has literary significance. And if it does, the vampire figure is probably being used to hide a lot of sexual and societal undertones about chastity and selfishness. And even when a book has nothing to do with vampires, it would serve you well to identify vampires who suck others' blood to survive.

4) Sonnet is the most used type of poetry? - Frankly I am not sure why this chapter came in and how it helps the readers in anyway except to recognize when they meet a sonnet - they look square.

5) You will meet historical figures like Napoleon, Caesar and Gandhi in many guises even when the situation does not seem to indicate it. If you do recognize this hidden historical aspect of the character, then the story will acquire a new dimension

6) References and quotations from Shakespeare and Bible, including situations and entire plots abound in literature. (Duh)

7) Fairy tales form an important part of literature too and you might want to have a look-out for Hansel and Gretel's witch anytime people get lost in unfamiliar territory.

8) Greek symbolism and myths crop up everywhere and be ready for your author being a Homer in disguise trying to tell a modern version. And most of western literature taps this well-spring

9) Weather is always symbolic and Rain, Spring, etc. have deep rooted meaning which authors exploit consistently. If it is raining and things look gloomy, that might be irony or they might have heard of London (Foster doesn't seem to have).

10) When violence is used in a text, it is probably a plot device. So start thinking about why did he have to hit him with a baseball bat and not with a table lamp and why the character had to climb that mountain to die.

11) Almost everything that is repeated can be symbolic, even events and actions. There is no way to list them out so get in the habit of being paranoid.

12) Politics of the day inevitably seeps into any work and knowing that helps in understanding any prejudices which might not be acceptable today and also in understanding the real motivations. Who can read and understand Hemingway without knowing of his history?

13) Christ figures are everywhere and anytime anyone is even slightly noble be on the lookout for christ archetypes like disciples and sacrifice and betrayal.

14) If anyone flies or falls for too long, Icarus and his imaginary cousins are probably being invoked.

15) Lot of things can stand for sex and it is important to understand the meaning of tall buildings. If they write about sex when they mean strictly sex, we have another word for that - pornography.

16) If anyone gets wet in a book, they might change their life after that. They might be baptized into another life in short

17) Geography is probably the most important part of any novel. Geography and Season - think about why the author used that setting and the motifs of the novel will become clearer.

18) There is only One Story - whatever that means.

19) If any character has a scar (lightening?), it usually is a means to set him/her apart and the nature of the scar is symbolic. It could be scar/defect or ever a mild skin coloration - but it is a device to set up for greater things.

20) If a character is blind, ask what he is blind to or what others are blind to. It certainly is not just about physical sight.

21) Whenever any sort of illness comes in, it is usually a metaphor - especially if it is heart disease, TB (consumption), AIDS, Cancer or mysterious in some way. In literature disease is never caused by microscopic mundane things - it is caused by society and character.

22) Read any work from the time frame in which it was written.

23) Irony trumps everything else. If the author defeats your expectation with any symbol, he is so ironing you. This can work at many levels of course, he might defeat your expectation of being subject to irony by using the actual meaning and so on.

So. Long list? Not if you read a lot. You can see all this in three days of light reading. In fact I am tending to be lenient in this review mostly due to that wonderful last chapter where he gives an example short story and analyses it. That one chapter makes the whole book worth reading. The reading list at the end is also useful and I have reproduced it here.

But getting back to the means of analyses listed above.

Were they too obvious? Or are you not confident that you will start spotting them from tomorrow? Either way, it might help us get into the habit as I said earlier and that is what really matters.

The only way to catch on to all these devices and symbols is to be familiar with them. And the only way to do that? Read, of course. Read a hell lot.

So you can see that you need to have read a lot. I mean a lot. And be very conversant with all the tropes and history of literature and myth to fully enjoy or critique serious works - that is, you need to have had a life dedicated to reading to enjoy reading.

In other words, to read literature like a professor you need to be a professor of literature. Bingo. Insight




PS. Of course the iterative growth in the pleasure of reading is known to every bookworm - we are addicted to books as it keeps getting better with every new book we read - the connections, the intertextuality and the by-lanes all become clearer and more and more FUN.

PPS. Susan Sontag makes another arbitrary appearance, haunting my reading list.

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.




How to Read Literature Like a Professor offers an extensive introduction to literary analysis for the purpose of finding deeper meaning in one's everyday reading.

One of the central precepts of the book is that there is a universal grammar of figurative imagery, that in fact images and symbols gain much of their power from repetition and reinterpretation.

Memory. Symbol. Pattern. These are the three items that, more than any other, separate the professorial reader from the rest of the crowd.

Chapters are divided into relatively similar page counts and, while each chapter explores a topic and provides helpful examples from literary works, the length of each chapter allows for digestion of information in small bites.

Citing folklore, religious dogmas, and Greek mythology, the author delicately introduces varied or contrasting belief systems for interpretation of literature in an unoffensive and unbiased manner.

Every reader's experience of every work is unique, largely because each person will experience various elements to differing degrees, and those differences will cause certain features of the text to become more or less pronounced.

While this book provides a thorough examination of theme, symbols, and contexts, the author freely admits that it is by no means a complete compilation; one could hardly fit all elements of literary assessment, all interpretations of symbols, or all references to venerable lore into just one book. The writing is consistently comprehensive and entertaining, occasionally infused with Foster's personal quips and moments of charming self-deprecation. His points, whether serious or silly, are stated with eloquence.

The author's examination of various classic works are liable to tantalize readers to pick up new reads, and a long list of recommended reads at the back of the book further encourage the accumulation of TBR books.

Before the book reaches its end, the author tackles a difficult question: should we really give so much credit to writers by interpreting their works in such a special and meaningful way, especially when he/she hasn't been proven to be a good writer? His answer is illuminating and his conclusions ultimately encourage the examination of literature and the sharing of books and conversation such that we might all bring new perspectives to our shared experience.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor is a highly recommended resource for unearthing the hidden meaning interwoven in books (and film).

[Cecily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading for pleasure

I was fortunate to be born to booklovers and attend schools with many like-minded pupils, where excellent teachers nurtured our enthusiasm. English literature was my favourite subject, and one I did well in, but when it was time for us, aged 16, to pick only three subjects for the two years before applying to university, I chose not to study English. I wanted to read purely for pleasure: what and when I liked, without dissecting every word and punctuation mark and risk literally losing the plot, and without having to worry about the opinion of an unseen examiner.

I resisted gentle persuasion from parents and teachers, and still think it was the right decision. Nevertheless, I gradually became a less analytical reader, until I joined GoodReads in 2008.

Better than it sounds!

Ignore the book’s clickbait title, which I assume was picked by the publisher’s sales team. Nevertheless, if you want to read like a prof, this book may help, especially if you skim the chapter titles every time you read a novel (but where's the joy in that?). It might also be useful for budding writers (for plot and character ideas, rather than crafting prose).

I read this to refresh my critical and analytical abilities. Foster clearly wants people to enjoy stories: he explores “a grammar of literature” so readers acquire pattern recognition to better understand and appreciate what they read.

There are 27 short, chatty chapters, with one issue in each: “Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not)”, for example. Throughout, he cites examples from the western literary canon, plus ancient Greece and a bit of China, with a skew to US classics. That’s fair enough as Foster is a professor of English at the University of Michigan-Flint. Even books I’m unfamiliar with are given enough context that the point is clear.

It has a good reading list (including a handful of movies to “read”), with a sentence or two about each, as well as an index.


Image: Grant Snider’s eight-cell comic, “Literary Devices” (Source.)

The reader’s relationship with a book

The core message is enjoyment, enhanced by deeper understanding and awareness of connections and intertextuality (the dialogue between old and new texts). Most important is the story’s journey from author, through their characters, to the reader, filtered by personal experience. I wouldn’t call this collaboration, because it’s invariably a one-way process (“choose your own adventure” books notwithstanding), inescapably so if the author is dead. In the near future, that may change: it’s increasingly true for journalists, and even novelists and poets have far more interaction with their readers than they used to, on personal blogs, but especially on social media.

I think it’s hyperbole to claim that “Every work teaches us how to read it as we go along”, but Foster urges readers to trust their experience and their interpretation: “Use what you know” and “Own the books you read”.

There is no single, definitive interpretation of a symbol, character, or novel, not even Foster’s. Discussion and disagreement are part of the pleasure of literary scholarship - and GoodReads.

Symbolism

Discussing symbolism is obviously an important element of a book like this, and Foster asserts that everything is potentially symbolic: not just objects, but actions and events too. Symbols are often culturally dependent, but can be useful short-cuts (or clichés). He gives many examples, including: surviving disaster as rebirth, rivers for change or baptism, rock for stasis, the heart for love and disease, and a shared meal being a form of communion. Whereas, in real life, violence is violence, in literature, it can be symbolic, literal, or both, and “accidents” are rarely accidental.

Irony is also a major theme: another case of things not being quite what they first seem. Even a story that isn’t overly humorous may be full of irony, especially where potential symbols don’t have the expected meaning. He cites one of Oscar Wilde’s contrarian witticisms: Lady Bracknell’s observation that Lady Harbury’s “hair has turned quite gold from grief” after her husband’s death, though the whole play is clearly and deliberately comic, so I think it’s rather different.

Important as they are, don’t let symbols become a distraction from the story itself.


Image: “The curtains were blue.” What the author meant versus what your English teacher thinks the author meant. (Source.)


Time and place - and character

A story must have a setting, so assume the location, culture, people, and period may be significant.

A very ordinary meal might be lavish for the circumstances, and thus laden with messages of sacrifice and generosity.

Until the twentieth century, the causes of disease were largely mysterious and the ailments characters had were often symbolic (consumption was beautiful and blameless, syphilis the opposite, and heart trouble often mirrored twisted or failed romance).

Just as Hollywood had the self-censoring Hays Code, abstractions and euphemism were long necessary in literature, giving plausible deniability for the author (any offence is inferred by the reader) - though that didn’t work for DH Lawrence.

Paraphrasing Aristotle, Foster says “Plot is character revealed in action” and that most literature (with a capital L?) is character-based. Don’t get so involved in an exciting plot that you overlook the most important thing a character can do - to change.


Image: “The Treachery of Images” aka “This is not a pipe” by René Magritte. See also what Freud probably didn’t say, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”. (Source.)

How many stories?

Foster asserts, more than once, that “There’s only one story”, which is quite a claim.
“It’s not about anything. It’s about everything… What the one story, the ur-story, is about is ourselves, about what it means to be human.”
Hmmmm. I’m not convinced that’s helpful, but I really must read, Christopher Booker’s The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, and maybe Foster should as well.

On firmer ground, he says:
“We want strangeness in our stories, but we want familiarity too.”
The more we read, and think about what we read, the more familiarity we find, even in works that seem startlingly original.

“The writer we know better than any other… even if we haven’t read him, is Shakespeare.”
If a “story resonates with the richness of distant antecedents, with the power of accumulated myth” consider “allusions to older and bigger texts”, especially the Bard, the Bible, and fairytales, which are:
“Stories that are deeply ingrained in our group memory, that shape our culture and are in turn shaped by it.”


Image: Homer saw four great conflicts: with nature, the divine, other humans, and ourselves. Grant Snider expands that to nine to accommodate PoMo, but how will he incorporate a future where technology means the relationship between authors and readers can be truly collaborative, rather than conflicting? (Source.)

Envoi

This book reminded me to be a little more conscious of how stories are constructed and how they connect with other stories, while ensuring that’s not at the expense of the joy that reading should bring.

Ultimately, there were not many “aha” moments, but enough “ah, yes” ones that I’m glad I read it.

[Daria · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Lively and Entertaining" it is not. I think I fell asleep a grand total of three times trying to get through these meager 281 pages. Foster attempts to be all hip and conversational, but I think he does a pretty bad job of it, and ends up being even more condescending instead. All in all, it's not really a "guide" to reading between the lines (although we can all probably agree that it's hard to create a "guide" for anything literature-related). It's more like a bunch of examples about symbolism here and weather-means-something there, pulled from the same body of work: "In Toni Morrison's Beloved, we see examples of baptism... in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, there are excellent examples of communion..."

If you ever need to write a thesis on Toni Morrison, call up this guy. He has it all down.

I only admired one line in the whole book: "(Shakespeare's) quotes are like members of the opposite sex; all the good ones are taken."

Corny, but at least it forced a chuckle out of me.

[Meagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome. Simply awesome. I'd recommend it for any student who has ever asked the eternal question after being assigned some obscure piece of literature in an English class - "why the HELL DO I HAVE TO READ THIS?!" Trust me. Thomas C. Foster is your friend. He feels your pain. And he's here to help.

As an English major, I have an intense love for books, obviously, even the classic texts that even I find a little hopeless and empty at times. But these essays help you to find the deeper meaning behind the words and point out the little hints and signs that you can look for in order to make Oroonoko or Mrs. Dalloway seem a little less pointless.

Furthermore, even as an English major with an intense love for literature, I am also a teenager, and I am fully aware that not every student in the world particularly wants to spend time reading a book about...books. But the thing with Foster is that he's funny, and he explains things with a rather dry sense of humor that I find simply wonderful. It is a rare thing to find a scholar with a sense of humor about their discipline. Especially those scholars that are passionate enough to write books.

Informal, light, and truly fun to read. I read it in the span of one evening, so for a normal person (read: non-bibliophile. I call them "puggles." Like "Muggles," you know?) it would take about...a week? How do puggles measure time?

How did I get to this point in my review? Anyway. Read it. You won't regret it.

[Antigone · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you read more than five books a year, you've already learned what Professor Foster has to teach. And if you're like me, about halfway through you'll start asking yourself: Who wants to read literature like a professor? Why would anyone want to read literature like a professor? Isn't that a bit akin to learning how to have sex like the local prostitute? ("The main thing you have to remember here, Kiki, is to distance yourself from the act.") Perhaps we should all go to watchmakers with our questions about Time. Coroners with our questions about Death?

If you plan on dating, living with or marrying an English Lit professor, this book would be a fine primer on what he does with his day. If you plan on being graded by an English Lit professor, this book would be a fine overview of her critical standard. Barring these two eventualities?

Read like yourself.

[Margitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is pure joy to read. While learning a few new secrets of writing, it was exciting to explore all the book titles mentioned in the book.

The author uses a casual tone to introduce the magic of serious reading to the reader. Some of it is old news, others, instinct and common sense, such as recognizing patterns and story elements, but new information, for me at least, was also added. For instance, that many works attributed to Shakespeare might not have been his at all.

Although I would love to share my views on the content of the book, since that is the most exciting part of it, I would restrict myself to the book itself.

The chapter headings says it all:
1. Every trip is a Quest;
2. Nice to eat with you: Acts od Communion;
3. Nice to eat you: Acts of Vampires;
4. If it's square, it's a sonnet;
5. Now, where have I seen her before?
6. When in Doubt, it's from Shakespeare ...;
7. ... or the Bible;
8. Hanseldee and Greteldum;
9. It's Greek to me;
10. More than just rain or snow.

... and more of the same.

And suddenly I am more excited than ever before, although I figured out some of these issues in the book already, like for instance, the borrowing from Greek mythology. In Light Between The Oceans by M.L. Stedman, the Greek god Janus formed the backbone of the story, and that characters such as Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, inspired many others in romance novels.

We find Dracula in more than one storyline, and Shakespeare in a multitude of other contemporary novels - long before the Hogarth project was launched in 2016. Of course my recent favorite in this regard is Ian McEwan's Nutshell in which 'Fetus Cairncross' as I dubbed him, became Hamlet in utero, and the author was not even part of the Hogarth Project.

The author highlights other books which royally borrowed from the greatest author of all times:

QUICK QUIZ: What do John Cleese, Cole Porter, Moonlighting, and Death Valley Days have in common? No, they’re not part of some Communist plot. All were involved with some version of The Taming of the Shrew...

If you look at any literary period between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries, you’ll be amazed by the dominance of the Bard. He’s everywhere, in every literary form you can think of. And he’s never the same: every age and every writer reinvents its own Shakespeare. All this from a man who we’re still not sure actually wrote the plays that bear his name.

Try this. In 1982 Paul Mazursky directed an interesting modern version of The Tempest. It had an Ariel figure (Susan Sarandon), a comic but monstrous Caliban (Raul Julia), and a Prospero (famed director John Cassavetes), an island, and magic of a sort. The film’s title? Tempest. Woody Allen reworked A Midsummer Night’s Dream as his film A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy.

West Side Story famously reworks Romeo and which resurfaces again in the 1990s, in a movie featuring contemporary teen culture and automatic pistols. And that’s a century or so after Tchaikovsky’s ballet based on the same play.

The BBC series Masterpiece Theatre has recast Othello as a contemporary story of black police commissioner John Othello, his lovely white wife Dessie, and his friend Ben Jago, deeply resentful at being passed over for promotion. The action will surprise no one familiar with the original.

Nor is the Shakespeare adaptation phenomenon restricted to the stage and screen. Jane Smiley rethinks King Lear in her novel A Thousand Acres.

I'm insanely thrilled with this book. For many of us it is impossible to attend literature lectures and have forgotten most of the ones we did honor with our presence, many years ago. So this is it. Read the book and become wiser. The information might not be unfamiliar to many of us, but it certainly deepens our experience of serious books.

Then there is the many references to Bible stories, and once again, Ian McEwan, uses the wisdom of Solomon in his book The Children's Act to solve a serious situation when the Jehova's Witnesses and The State have to compromise on a minor child's life.

So yes, I'm jumping up and down. Nothing is new, says the Bible, psychologists and sociologists. Remember the Pavlov experiments with dogs and mice? It is still used today to solve behavioural problems. No story is therefor new. It is just told differently as time goes on.

The book made me think again. About a letter my mom once wrote me to warn me against a unsavory character trying to enter my life. She said nothing was new, the rules would always remain the same, only time and setting changed. The story line would not change, only the characters in it will have different names. She changed my life. I was nineteen years old and needed to know that when I did not recognize the difference between a he-hussy and a perfumed skunk.

I was wondering if a person who never read Shakespeare, told his story, if it can be regarded as a Shakespearean 'borrow' if some elements to it was similar? Would it be fair? And someone who don't know the Bible could have a similar experience as a Bible character? Human behaviour patterns, different personality types, cultures, social mores and values play the most important role in how characters in a story will act or react. So yes, all stories happened before, it could be in real life or literature, but nothing is really new. It's only seasoned authors who might borrow from other stories, but real people in real life repeat behaviour based on genetic indicators and circumstantial impulses. Then there's human instinct to predict outcome.

So, while the cognoscenti sleuth through a great novel, ordinary lay readers like yours truly do not have to do it. However, it might add a wonderful new dimension to the experience if we are experienced enough to know when it happens in the shaping and sustaining power of a story and the symbolism behind it.

The author is passionate about his subject. He has a serious issue with the programmatic nature of political novels, just a certain type though, and and shares his views with the reader, no matter what.

I hate “political” writing—novels, plays, poems. They don’t travel well, don’t age well, and generally aren’t much good in their own time and place, however sincere they may be. I speak here of literature whose primary intent is to influence the body politic—for instance, those works of socialist realism (one of the great misnomers of all time) of the Soviet era in which the plucky hero figures out a way to increase production and thereby meet the goals of the five-year plan on the collective farm—what I once heard the great Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes characterize as the love affair between a boy, and girl, and a tractor. Overtly political writing can be one-dimensional, simplistic, reductionist, preachy, dull.

Don't we find those preachy dullness in too many novels nowadays? I like the idea of calling it programmatic. Word-dumping or information dumping were my favorite two concepts in addressing it. But I have something new to call it. :-))

There are too many authors, such as Edgar Alan Poe, Washington Irvine, D. H. Lawrence, Charles Dickens, Gabriel García Márquez, Virginia Wolfe, Toni Morrison, George Bernard Shaw, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lord and so many more who masterfully incorporate politics into their prose. It is how it is done which matters. State of Fear by Michael Crichton comes to mind. My word, how this author rattled a few cages, right? And what about The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver; The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Yes, we have our exciting moments in prose! Oh yes, and The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See, which had me a bit miffed-so programmized, Eoowwww! :-)) And don't ever forget Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Now talk about ruffled feathers, folks. Some authors know how to do it. Others don't.

That reminds me to ask the question if chick lit is also so obviously programmatic? Not literature by any means, but still prose of some kind with often deeper undertones. Mmm... think about it, shall we?

The difference between a murder/death in a murder mystery and a literary book was good to learn, even though, once again, common sense, although we seldom take the time to think about the symbolism in it.

In getting hyped up about the content of How to Read Literature Like a Professor I quickly made a list of all my favorite characters in books. After many hours, I stopped when I realized how impossible it is to recall them all. I've read a few thousand books long before I joined GR, to begin with. And who will want to know anyway? I could just sat back in amazement though. How many authors introduced so much magic into my life by presenting amazing characters in their stories.

It took a long time to read this book. Probably three weeks. More or less a chapter each day, with a few rereads in between. Not because it was boring or tedious. No, it was just so inspiring. I was constantly lured into exploring old books and new titles.

Allow me to sneak in two of my favorite book endings:
Rhet Butler - in Gone With The Wind author Margaret Mitchell:
----- "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn"

Professor Higgins - in the play My Fair Lady(Pygmalion) author George Bernard Shaw:
-----Where the devil is my slippers, Elyze?" (Of course you realize that this play was named after a Greek mythological figure, Pygmalion who fell in love with his statue Galatea. Read the inspiring love story here: https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology...

For young readers this is undoubtedly a wonderful introduction to literature, in so many ways. For all readers it is a rejoicing in excellent prose and the authors behind it. It strengthens the bond between the reader and the writer. Imagine having Thomas C. Foster as a house guest in your own library! Oh how short life would be at that very moment! Pity we will not be able to order another lifetime right that minute :-))

Well, before your eyes glaze over and your mind wander, let me stop.

Enjoy this chatty, informative, entertaining read. It's worth your while.

And then consider reading the book How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And then tell me who your favorite characters in novels were. I'm simply dying to know! :-)

[Terri Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a very friendly book and I suspect the author is one of those feel-good professors who attract a lot of students to his classes because they are what is known as "easy A" classes. Sort of like an academic finger-painting class. He presumes that you an idiot and rather stupid. He's still chummy with you while thinking that and gives you plenty of pats on the head little boys and girls but this was supposed to be for college students. I went to an excellent elementary school in the 1960's and we learned all of this there. The bottom line is that this book will NOT teach you to read literature like a professor. A professor has a PhD and this is very elementary. If you hope to read literature like a 5th grader, this is for you. Otherwise, I'd pass if you are serious about literature.

[Lijana · Rating 3 out of 5]

- Na, ką jūs, humanitarai, būsimi bedarbiai? Dešimtoj klasėj per biologijos pamoką.

Kai įstojau, apsižliumbiau. Pasaulio pabaiga! Tragedija! Durne tu durne, kam dar įrašei pirmoj eilutėj beduonių profesiją...

Per pirmą sesiją 00.30 žliumbiu į ragelį tėčiui. Durne tu durne, velniop visus egzaminus, velniop sostinę, lovą, kurią dalinuos su butoke. Perskaityt per naktį penkias storas! Viršeliai net negražūs!

Mečiau skaityt. Pradėjau gert alų prie Vilnelės. Vis dėl to lankiau seminarus, triniausi koridoriuose, per paskaitas margindavau paraštes vijokliais, zigzagais, kartais širdelėm. Priklausė viskas nuo mėnulio.

Velniop visą akcentologiją, sintaksę ir kalbos kultūrą! Einu dirbt. Rašau tiems patiems bedarbiams ketvirtakursiams už skatikus darbus. Tenka skaityt. Tenka kartais nueit iki litmenio.

Lipu darbe laiptais aukštyn, nusiperku batus, geriu alų nebe tik literatuos ir vis dėl to kartais lankau paskaitas, gaunu padidintą. PADIDINTĄ!

Darbe visas kolektyvas spausdina kartu su manim paskutiniuosius. Lekiam per raudoną įrišti. Uždusus maunu į dekanatą. Tai ką, durnele, gausi bedarbių diplomą?

Velniop šitą darbą, visas tas derybas prie stalo, nemiegotas naktis, skaičius ir excelius, velniop visas tas 9 muges (oh, kaip pragaro ratai!), visus rašančius, perkančius ir skaitančius. Velniop!

Vakarais žliumbu, kai į topus nepatenka tikrai rašantys.

[Christy Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fellow English teacher introduced me to this book quite a few years ago. I used it as our conversation text in my creative writing class. My students and I really enjoyed reading the sections and then discussing how we could see the ideas applied in books and movies. Symbolism in serious pieces of work is one of my favorite things to discuss. Sometimes symbolism is so clearly drawn that there is no mistaking an author’s purpose. Sometimes symbolism is like beauty - found in the beholder. Reading Literature Like a Professor would help someone not trained as an English teacher to find more depth and meaning in a piece. The chapters are easily digested but a reader who thinks about all the ways that you’ve seen a topic in a book, movie or TV show will give pause between chapters. I also love the quirky sense of humor and snarky comments from the author. If you love to study literature, then this is a book that can help with digging deeper.

[Caitlin Repose · Rating 1 out of 5]

blah blah blah SHUT UP!!!! DIE!!!!! SHUT UP!!!! WE GET IT!!!!! I HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

EVERYTHING IS A SYMBOL.

Okay, not really. But more things than not, at least when it comes to literature. I was hesitant to read How to Read Literature Like a Professor because I felt that I had not read enough classics to understand what Thomas Foster would be talking about - but then I realized that maybe it was a good idea to read the book before embarking on my literature quest, so I would have some background knowledge heading in. After all, knowledge is power.

And I was right. Though a myriad of the book titles went over my head and some of the examples were consequently confusing, for the most part I feel like I've learned a lot from reading this book. Granted, I'm a high school student, so I didn't know much to begin with, but I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves English, literature, or is interested in reading a book about books. As a bibliophile and self-proclaimed future English major, I loved learning about irony, allusions, and everything else Foster shared using his casual yet sophisticated writing style.

Not a bad book to start out 2012 with. Now to move on to an actual novel...

*review cross-posted on my blog, the quiet voice.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish this book but I read enough and spent enough time on it to count it as read in my opinion. If I spend over 4 hours reading something, I think I have a good idea what it is like.

I can summarize this entire book in one sentence:
Know the Bible, know Greek myths, read Homer, and read Shakespeare, then understand common sense and you will figure out what the symbols of things stand for in literature.

I thought this was going to give me some new information but it was things I learned in high school or it is so obvious. The main thing this book did for me was spoil a bunch of classic literature.

[Patricija || book.duo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Ar po šios knygos pradėsite literatūrą skaityti kaip profesorius? Na, gražu aišku apie save gerai galvoti, bet gal nereikia persistengti. Ar bus įdomu ir naudinga? Tikriausiai ne viskas. Ypač dalys, kurios ne amerikiečių mokykloje augintam nėra suprantamos. Ar juokinga? Vietomis. Bet angliškai būtų juokingiau, kad ir koks puikus ir profesionalus Laimanto Jonušio vertimas. Tikiu, kad knygą būtų kur kas įdomiau klausyti įskaitytą autoriaus, ar pateiktą video paskaitų forma. Skaitant, visgi, gerokai prailgsta, o ir toli gražu ne visi skyriai vienodai įdomūs. Na ir aišku, kaip smagu išgirsti mylimą dainą per radiją, taip ir čia įdomiausia skaityti analizes tų knygų, kurias ir pats esi skaitęs. O apie kitas skaitant jausmas kaip žiūrint foto vestuvių, kuriose nebuvai.

Visgi, kad ne visi čia aprašomi kūriniai man yra skaityti ar girdėti – mano išsilavinimo ir laiko stokos problema, ne autoriaus bėdos. Reikia pripažinti: jo pateikiami pavyzdžiai pakankamai aiškūs - belieka vietoj neskaitytosios knygos įlipinti tą, su kuria esi susipažinęs. Žinoma, jei pajėgsi. Na, pavyzdžiui, skyriuje „Taip, ji irgi Kristaus figūra" (beje, skyrių pavadinimai puikūs, tik bajerius reikia pagauti – dažnai tai aliuzijos į Amerikos pop kultūrą) pati save džiugiai nustebinau, vietoje naudoto pavyzdžio įdėjusi Coetzee „Nešlovę". Buvo gera į mėgstamą kūrinį pažvelgti iš šios netikėtos perspektyvos. Tačiau dažnai pavyzdžiai prailgsta – net autoriui suteikiant šiokį tokį siužetinį ir kultūrinį kontekstą, įdomiausiai ši knyga skaitosi tik tuo atveju, jei esi skaitęs kertinius jos kūrinius, ypač tuos, prie kurių T.C.Fosteris vis sugrįžta. Tai, jog gana didelė dalis jų Lietuvoje nepastebėti (pelnytai ar ne – jau kitas klausimas, neatmetant ir autoriaus susikoncentravimo į Amerikos švietimo sistemos privalomąjį literatūros sąrašą) byloja jų neegzistavimas lietuvių kalba – nemažai tokių, kurie vertimo į lietuvių kalbą nesusilaukė, net būdami žanro klasikos atstovais.

Atsivertusi knygą nustebau, pamačiusi juokingai mažą 300 vnt.tiražą – ką, tik tiek??? Bet perskaičiusi suprantu – tikriausiai maždaug tiek ir yra Lietuvoje tų, kurie iš tiesų šią knygą gali pilnavertiškai perskaityti. Norėčiau tikėti, kad jų daugiau, bet optimizmas niekada nebuvo kertine mano charakterio savybe, o pasisukus leidybos virtuvėje sąraše smuko dar žemiau. Ar knyga man atvėrė akis? Nelabai – bet už tai esu dėkinga savo literatūros dėstytojams, kurių turėjau ne vieną ir ne du. O tiems, kuriems ne taip pasisekė, visgi atsiversti linkiu – nebūtina skaityti ištisai, o ir pati savo lentynoje nepasiliksiu, bet įdomių vietų buvo ne viena ir ne dvi. To pakako, kad nesikamuočiau, bet nėra gana, kad likčiau amžiams sužavėta.

[sarah jackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

foster just wanted to brag about all the obscure classic novels hes read

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a non-fiction guide by a professor at the University of Michigan-Flint on how to approach literary reading with a goal of better understanding. It is primarily focused on literature (loosely defined as works related to the human condition or what it means to be human) from the mid-twentieth century and prior. Foster provides insight to help the reader recognize memory, symbol, and pattern, citing examples from notable works. He provides “a broad introduction to the codes and patterns that inform our readings.”

The author desires to help readers decipher hidden meanings. He also admits that we can never know for sure what the author intended. Examples of topics include common themes, archetypes, metaphors, allegory, irony and more. A few specific content areas are examined in depth with supporting cases to show how to delve into the deeper meaning being conveyed, such as violence, sex, seasonality, weather, geography, markings, journeys, meals, and diseases. The author covers the widespread influences of Shakespeare, The Bible, fables, and Greek mythology. With a few exceptions, examples are derived primarily from British and American literature. Spoilers for these works are included to make his points.

One area I found particularly enjoyable was the discussion of how the works in the literary canon are inter-connected, and that authors are influenced by what they have read, known as “intertextuality.” I also appreciated the idea of a reader’s imagination engaging the imagination of the author, who may have lived many years ago, thus giving the reader an idea of his or her world and a sense of historical perspective. Near the end, a short story written by Karen Mansfield is included, and the reader is invited to practice interpretation of the text using the principles previously provided.

This book is written with humor, wit, and self-deprecation. The author does not claim to have all the answers and encourages readers to draw upon their own experiences. If a perspective is supportable in the work, it is valid. I appreciated the inclusion of a suggested reading list at the end. Recommended to people who enjoy analyzing what they read, students that need to read literature for classes, and life-long learners.

Memorable Quote:
“A reader’s imagination is the act of one creative intelligence engaging another.”

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have multiple university degrees (Honours in French and German language and literature, as well as both a Masters and a PhD in German literature). And indeed, particularly for my PhD requirements, in order successfully enough manage my Comprehensive Exams (with the second one featuring a simply humongous reading list of German literature from the 1500s to the late 20th century) and indeed to also do sufficiently well in the various literature classes I took during my so-called university career, I have had to indeed teach myself how to approach and peruse literature (any kind of literature, not just German literature, of course) pretty much like a professor. And while doing this has certainly allowed me to obtain quite decent marks in general and also to really ace my comps, well and in retrospect, teaching myself how to read like a professor has also made me a hugely hyper critical reader, has also made it very much difficult for me to just crack open a novel (or whatever else kind of literary genre) and simply be able to enjoy a given text without meticulously analysing, without looking for errors, without perusing in order to find fault and always or at least usually expecting to, needing to find some big time philosophical education and enlightenment in whatever I am reading (but especially in books geared towards adult audiences). And yes, this does at times rather majorly bother me (sometimes so much so that I even very occasionally kind of regret my graduate literature degrees and that I am more often than simply unable to now read just for pleasure and with no academic or intellectual ulterior reading motives).

Now I have not in fact read Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. But sorry, just the book title in and of itself kind of already rubs me the wrong proverbial way (since I really do seem to actively resent any kind of book, any piece of writing that attempts to tell and show me HOW to read, which books are worth reading, which books are to be taken as being literary classics). And considering the former (the above mentioned) and that there will likely also not be anything of either much academic interest or of much academic use for me personally contained within Foster’s printed words (and that I most probably am already going to be sufficiently familiar with and aware of all or at least most of the reading advice being given), yes, I have decided to not bother even attempting to begin with How to Read Literature Like a Professor (but to also leave a general three star rating, as I do not think that I should be ranking How to Read Literature Like a Professor with one or with two stars if I have not in fact read Thomas C. Foster’s featured text, as that would be rude and disrespectful).

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this.

Don't get me wrong. It's not one of those books you could, or would want to, read in one sitting. It's really more of a reference book, though an enjoyable one, written in a light and breezy style. I'm not sure someone who wasn't already interested in reading literature on multiple levels would be particularly interested. But if you do have an interest to read literature in a more sophisticated, insightful way (as I imagine many goodreaders do), you may enjoy this book as much as I did. You'll never look at weather, heart disease, blindness, geography, or fiction altogether the same way again.

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I avoided reading this book for a couple of years because I thought it would be everything I hate about higher education. That it would act like there was a secret handshake for reading. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by the light tone and enjoyable discussion of themes and tropes, although I did catch the prof in a few mistakes like claiming Henry V eventually had to hang Falstaff in Shakespeare, I believe it was either Pistol or another member of the old gang not Falstaff. The last chapter analyzing a short story was fun and left me with much food for thought.

[Leo Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

About a year ago, I took a MOOC (a Massively Open Online Course) on the site Coursera on fantasy literature. MOOC's grade via peer evaluations of your work. One of my papers traced the Garden of Eden symbolism in the opening of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. It is in the text, which made sense, since Carroll was a clergy member telling a coming of age story. And having taken university level upper-division lit courses, I knew the paper was well thought-out, supported by the text and creative.

Solid A-, maybe an A. Or a B+ if the teacher was having a bad day or was a hard grader.

I got a B- from a peer, with a comment (not exact, but close) -- "Clear writing, but I don't like this sort of literary criticism. It's the same BS my high school English teacher tried to teach." The grader offered no argument from the text, highlighting passages contradicting my argument (if there were any, which I doubt). Nor did they offer a different interpretation of the Eden story.

Instead, I did a classic bit of literary analysis and was graded by a person either ignorant of or hostile to classical literary analysis. And, despite the professor's video lectures, which employed the same classical literary analytical techniques I did, the student objected to the enterprise of literary critique.

I was flummoxed. It seemed an odd statement and a petty reason for an average grade in a literature class, but it goes to the point that Thomas C. Foster makes in his well-written How to Read Literature Like and English Professor is trying to make. Which is that reading closely and writing about literature thoughtfully is an art. It takes experience, and intention. What's more, it often takes a classical education that few have these days. Since literary authors often steal from Greek myths, the bible, fairy tales, Shakespeare... in fact, they can take from anything ever written.

This was a refresher for me, and I enjoyed it. Foster's style is informal and chatty, and while this can come across as patronizing, it made for easy reading. What's more, it reinforced the knowledge that I thought maybe was no longer taught in high school and college. At least as evinced by the comment I received from an anonymous person on my Through the Looking Glass analysis.

Foster breezes through a ton of material here. From myth to baptism to biblical references. He also presents a cheeky, but honest answer to his students when they ask "is this a symbol?" Which is, "If you think it's a symbol, then it probably is." He then moves on to sex in literature, Freud and Jung's influence on both novels and literary criticism, and a healthy discussion of irony.

But Foster uses two central ideas that bind the book together. The first is the idea of intertextuality, that every author is in conversation with writers in the past. Since I was first introduced to this idea in high school, it has continued to fascinate me. The second idea is mind-blowing, if maybe a little over-the-top for me: there's only one story, and all authors are writing different parts of it. Not sure if that's true, and it seems like cock and bull on one hand, but it's also intriguing.

So, since I'm pretty sure I'd have gotten an A or an A- on my Through the Looking Glass paper were I to have submitted said paper to Foster, I'll rate How To Read Literature Like a Professor four stars...

Just kidding.

I'm giving it four-stars since it feels like the discussions that go on in undergrad lit classes. And because of that, it is important because it introduces readers to "why" literature professors often take such left-field interpretations on the books they cover in class.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

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. ;->

[Darka · Rating 5 out of 5]

чудова книжка від американського професора, яка допоможе упорядкувати вже знайомі способи читати + зверне увагу на нові і несподівані штуки. мені було трошки важко через те, що пан Томас К. Фостер спеціалізується на американській літературі ХХ ст., тож більшість творів, які він згадував, аби проілюструвати ту чи іншу тезу, були мені незнайомими. на щастя, він переказував сюжети, але мені було б точно цікавіше, аби я прочитала їх раніше. загалом у мене лишилися дуже приємні враження від книги.

[Ari D · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I decided to take upper level English this year, resulting in a mandatory assignment to read this book and create chapter summaries for it. When I began reading this, I thought it wouldn't be that bad. The condescending title and forewarning in the introduction that this was meant for college students couldn't have seemed more inviting. I read through the first chapters with feelings of mostly boredom and occasionally surprise. I thought to myself early on, "I can do this. I once read a 660 page book for English. How hard could this be?" Apparently, much worse than I could have imagined. After about half way through, I began losing my motivation to read. The book became tedious and was more akin to a workout for my eyes than an experience that would open my mind to a new perspective. I learned how to over analyze in the first few chapters, but what follows those chapters is complete overkill. The author beats his points like a dead horse, belaboring his messages so much that I had to take several breaks from reading to maintain my sanity. Overall, I would give this a 0/10 pineapples, but since I'm being generous, I give it a 2/5 stars.

[Dovydas Pancerovas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pamačiau knygyne ir nusipirkau, nes išleido „Kitos knygos“, o vertė Laimantas Jonušys. Bet pradėjęs skaityti išsigandau, ar tik nebus čia iš serijos „Dešimt lengvų būtų skaityti knygas“ :) Nes stiliuxas toks jau labai labai žaismingiuxas.

Bet knyga tikrai vertinga, netgi sakyčiau apie giluminius dalykus, nors ir parašyta paprastai. Labai rekomenduoju visiems, kurie norėtų literatūrą suprasti giliau. Nesigailėsite.

Kas nepatiko, tai ir vėl tas Shakespeare'as. Turbūt po Haroldo Bloomo „Vakarų kanono“ liko alergija tam anglosaksiškam įsivaizdavimui, esą visa pasaulio literatūra turi vieną vienintelę prasmę – interpretuoti arba maištauti prieš Shakespeare'ą. Šito nacionalizmo (ar kaip tai pavadinti) kupina ir Fosterio knyga.

Rekomenduoju, jeigu literatūros nestudijavote, tai tikrai praplėsite akiratį.

[CF · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth a read. Also the reading list at the end is legit.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first, I kind of enjoyed this book and then I didn’t read it for over two months, got back into it, and didn’t like it. But it was also for a summer assignment, so I probably wouldn’t have read this voluntarily anyway. Also the author really talks down to the reader and I hate that. I get that he’s a professor trying to teach the reader something, but he made me feel dumb even though a lot of his tips were things I already knew. I think he threw too many examples in each chapter as well and sometimes his main idea would get a bit drawn out and confusing. Maybe this is because I’m impatient, but I think overall, the author was just too excited when he went to write this book. Overall, I don’t really feel like I’ve learned anything except for how awful my attention span is because I couldn’t go ten pages without going on my phone.

[Wiebke (1book1review) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally finished this. It was waiting a long time for me to pick it up, and it was by no means related to the book not being good.

I got this as a refresher mainly, since I left uni 10 years ago and sometimes a little reminder is nice.
And I got exactly what I wanted in an easy to read and follow way.

I think this book can function as an introduction to literary analysis as well as a fresh up. There are many examples given and everything is explained in everyday language, without complicated terms.

The only thing I should warn about is that it contains a lot of spoilers for literary works. I had read a fair amount of the books but not all of them. So if that is a problem for you, check out the appendix where there is a list of works he used.

[Makmild · Rating 4 out of 5]

เวลาอ่านงานวรรณกรรมยากๆ ได้แต่สงสัยว่ามันยากจริงๆ หรือคนอ่านอย่างเรามันโง่ที่ไม่เข้าใจวะ 55555555 อ้อ แต่หนังสือเล่มนี้ไม่ได้ตอบคำถามที่ว่านั้นหรอกนะ 55555555555 แค่จะมาอธิบายให้ฟังอย่างย่อย่อว่าเวลา "อาจารย์" หรือ "คนที่อ่านเข้าใจ" เขาทำความเข้าใจได้ยังไง วัตถุดิบติดไม้ติดมืออะไรที่เขามีเพื่อใช้ต่อสู้กับตัวอักษรระหว่างบรรทัด หรือแม้กระทั่งเบื้องหลังเรื่องราวที่ไม่ได้กล่าวถึงแต่จะช่วยให้เราเข้าใจว่าวรรณกรรมเล่มหนึ่งมันกลายเป็นเรื่องราวที่จะอาจจะเข้าใจได้มากขึ้นได้อย่างไร

ใช้คำว่า "อาจจะ" เพราะมันไม่ได้มีตายตัว วิธีการอ่านก็เหมือนวิธีการกินข้าว ตรงๆ เลยคือมันก็แค่ใส่เข้าปาก คือไม่มีวิธีการอื่นที่จะทำให้รู้ว่าอาหารอร่อยนอกจากยัดเข้าปากแล้วเคี้ยว การอ่านให้สนุกก็เหมือนกัน แค่อ่าน แต่หลังจากนั้นละ? อาหารอร่อยไม่อร่อยนั้นขึ้นอยู่กับหลายอย่าง ไม่ว่าจะเป็นคนทำกับข้าว (คนเขียน) หรือลักษณะ ภูมิหลังของคนกิน (คนอ่านมีประสบการณ์อะไรมา) ทุกอย่างจะถูกเขย่ารวมกันกลายเป็นรสชาติอร่อยที่ไม่เหมือนกัน เราทุกคนมีความอร่อยไม่เหมือนกัน แต่เราสามารถขยายขอบเขตความอร่อยได้มากขึ้นด้วยการทำความรู้จักว่าพ่อครัวเขาเติบโตมาอย่างไร ภูมิหลังที่ทำให้เขาหล่อหลอมประสบการณ์มาทั้งชีวิตกลายเป็นอาหารจานนี้ได้อย่างไร อาหารจานนี้ใช้วิธีแบบไหนในการรังสรรค์ขึ้นมา ไปจนถึงวิธีการละเลียดกินด้วย

นี่ก็สงสัยนะว่า ทำไมต้องเขียนการอ่านวรรณกรรมกับอาหาร พูดตรงๆ ไม่ได้หรอ 5555555 ซึ่งนั่นก็หมายถึงว่าเรากำลังซ่อนสัญญะอะไรบางอย่างในรีวิวนี้ด้วยหรือเปล่า? หรือมันแค่ไม่มีอะไร? (จริงๆ แค่หิวข้าว) แล้วการอ่านวรรณกรรมก็ไม่มีเฉลย มีแค่เราคิดเหมือนกันเราบีหนึ่งบีสอง แค่นั้นเอง

อ่านแล้วก็ได้แต่ตระหนักรู้ว่า หนึ่ง แกเขียนรีวิวได้แค่ปฐมภูมิ กระจอกมาก เขียนได้แค่บอกว่าเรารู้สึกอย่างไรกับหนังสือเล่มนี้ (แหง) แต่ไม่ได้เขียนไปถึงว่าคนเขียนใช้วิธีแบบไหนในการเขียน เขาต้องการจะสื่ออะไร ยุคสมัยมีผลกระทบกับลักษณะหนังสือเล่มนี้หรือไม่ อ้อ ไม่ทำหรอกนะ ไม่ได้เขียนส่งอาจารย์ 5555555 แต่เวลาได้อ่านงานยากๆ เราจะรู้สึกว่า อ่อ มันมีการอ่านแบบนี้ด้วยนะ และมันทำให้เราอ่านหนังสือสนุกขึ้นจริงๆ

หนังสือเล่มนี้เปรียบเหมือนซอสที่ช่วยทำให้หนังสือบางเล่มที่เราว่าจืดหรือขมหรือไม่ถูกรสนั้นอร่อยขึ้นมากค่ะ

เสียอย่างเดียว มีแต่วรรณกรรมตะวันตก จบ

[Maya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never have I read something so pompous, so irritating, and so utterly useless.