Masterpost: How to read a book
No. Nop. Absolutely not. This is the title of this masterpost. I know you’re probably shrugging your shoulders or rolling your eyes while reading this masterpost. Reading a book in high school, college, university is more than just skimming through the book. You’re asked to analyse, you’re asked to make some research. But don’t worry (be happy!!), I’m here to give you my best piece of advice. ✿
• When you get the book list, START READING !!!!
Okay I’m not asking you to read them all at once. What I’m saying is that it would be better to start with a book you like on the list. You can read a chapter per day or more if you feel like it! I usually download the pdf/ebook version and start reading it on my computer or my tablet. Here’s a list of website I use to find ebooks/pdf:
All of them are great and cost nothing, which is pretty good knowing what student life is! If you absolutely need a copy, old books on amazon are usually cheap!
• Revision cards are your best friend
Some piece of paper, revision cards, take whatever you want and make different cards. Each card is a chapter. You need to make a detailed summary of the chapter. Don’t miss the essential points. In addition to this, I usually write down the lexical fields I found as well as the main theme of the chapter (love, revenge, madness, etc…). Take your time while reading, don’t rush it. One chapter or two pages are better than nothing. The point of that is to help you to remember specific chapters when you will be studying the book with your teacher. The main themes will be helpfull when you’ll need to write an essay because it will give you the outline.
• The more you know, the better you’ll be
Isn’t it obvious? This masterpost isn’t just made to tell you to read your books, my goal is to help you to get the best grades you can because it worked for me! So you’ve read a chapter, you made your card about the chapter, etc..until you finish the book. Once you’re done the best thing to do is to make a card about : the writer, the history background and the genre of the book. I know it takes time but it’s totally worth it. History backgrounds can be the reason why the book was written, the author may have had a hard life that inspired him to write the book, you see every little detail matter!!!
• Internet is also your friend
What would be the point of a masterpost without the Internet? I know sometimes literature can be hard to understand. Here’s my tip: once you’ve finished a chapter, write down what you understood. Before starting your revision card on the chapter, check online (on the list of websites bellow) to make sure you got all the main ideas. Your life-savers are:
LitCharts, SparkNotes, Shmoop, CliffsNotes…
You also have youtube videos that can help; I don’t watch a lot of videos but I know CrashCourse is great for literature: Here’s the two sections: 1 & 2
I hope you guys enjoyed this masterpost, if you have anything to add, feel free to comment I’m sure it will help the others as well! Don’t forget to reblog if you thought it was helpfull!
