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

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

3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 · rating details · 4,875 ratings · 706 reviews

What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey? Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface -- a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character -- and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps esc...more

Paperback, 314 pages

Published February 18th 2003 by Harper Perennial

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Jun 30, 2012 Riku Sayuj rated it 3 of 5 stars

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...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Stephanie "Jedigal" rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Literature fans wanting to go more in-depth

Shelves: to-reread-someday

Ever wonder what it means when a character steps in a puddle? Why an author suddenly goes into great detail about some otherwise unimportant event? Well, why didn't you? If you read this book, you will.

An avid reader (of both pulp and literature, in roughly equal measure) who never took a college literature class, I've always known I was not getting all I could from my reading. After reading this book, I know I am much better equipped. Just finished my second read of Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go"...more

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Jan 14, 2008 Meagan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone taking any kind of English class. Anyone.

Shelves: 5stars

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 behi...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Cathy DuPont rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All readers who want more understanding

Feeling like I needed to discover more insight and depth to my reading, I mentioned that fact to Goodreads friend Will Byrnes who suggested this book. (By the way, Will's reviews are very, very thoughful, popular and readable.) So I'm glad he did recommend it because it was such a great and painless way for me to understand the underlying thoughts and references of books I read.

Broken into short chapters, it covers all areas that I could possibly think of although author and Professor Thomas C....more

5 likes · like · see review

Mar 07, 2013 Terri Lynn rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

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...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Cheryl in CC NV rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ok, I'm done. There's a lot I could talk about here, but I'm tired. It's been difficult to decide how much I'm 1. benefiting from this and 2. enjoying it and 3. enthusiastic about recommending it. It is easy to read, and to learn from. Foster did a good job of doing *exactly* what the title promises.

But the thing is, he also revealed, to me, that I don't actually *want* to read that kind of Literature. Nor do I *want* to read 'like a professor.' Yes, I want to enjoy the classics more. But this...more

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Dec 13, 2008 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: required-for-high-school, 2008-reads, textbook

My chief complaint, although more my fault than the “non textbook, with How to Read Literature Like a Professor is that most of the novel, plays, and poems Foster discusses I have not read. In fact, I only recognized three of the works he mentioned; Animal Farm, Hamlet, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Therefore, I found it hard to understand exactly what Foster was trying to say through his examples and his connections from one example to another.

And I feel like, since this was required...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Jocey rated it 3 of 5 stars

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines, is a book that literally tells you how to analyze books that you read like a philosopher. While I do understand the point and appreciate the effort. It was kind of confusing at times. There were a few chapters were I really did not understand what was going. Though this occurred, I actually did learn from the book. I learned that even the things that seems like the littlest things actually hav...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Vipula rated it 4 of 5 stars

have loved reading ever since I can remember. If it had been possible for me at all I would have studied and taught literature. Since I did something entirely different in my life it was always a desire to study literature. I always feel that when read I am missing stuff – the in-between the lines, the symbolism. I kinda , sorta grasp the larger and deeper meanings but not entirely. So I am always on the lookout for articles or books that help me read better. When I saw ‘How to Read Novels like...more have loved reading ever since I can remember. If it had been possible for me at all I would have studied and taught literature. Since I did something entirely different in my life it was always a desire to study literature. I always feel that when read I am missing stuff – the in-between the lines, the symbolism. I kinda , sorta grasp the larger and deeper meanings but not entirely. So I am always on the lookout for articles or books that help me read better. When I saw ‘How to Read Novels like a Professor’ in my library, I took it in a wink.
I really really enjoyed reading it. Thomas Foster writes in a completely engaging style not once sounding like a professor or a textbook. I learned quite a few things – elements to recognize as you read, relationship of the writer and reader, the influences on a narrative, the changes in the form of the novel in the last three to four hundred years. I am huge fan of the victorian novels which I now realize are serialized novels with tidy endings.Foster does not seem to be fond of tidy complete endings and I almost felt defensive of Dickens ( who I believe was a genius with a masterful command of English language) whose work was proabably the most traditional victorian style of it all. However,I admit that when I read 20th century literature , more than the story itself, I am always looking for unique form and structure. Because at the end of the day – its all one large human story. Novels are all about presentation. That is the reason I loved David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red. Its challenging and fun to keep up with writers whose narratives surprise you from chapter to chapter. I also learned something very basic – there is no right way or wrong way to read the book.
This books acts as a very good guide to anyone wanting to be a big fiction writer. Yes, its more about how to write a novel rather than how to read a novel.For me apart from the learning elements, the most fun part of the book was the references to novels while explaining his point. As Foster puts it – the books is ‘ a giant reading list’. I loved to see so many familiar names, but was also disheartened to know that I have read so few pieces of good literature.(less)

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Jul 29, 2012 Samantha rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is a very interesting book to read and it would definitely be appealing to English professors. It separates chapters by what to look for in books and it takes you on a whole journey on how to find the meanings behind a book. It taught me a lot about how stories have so many illusions, symbolism, and deep themes that lie behind each and every one of them. I've learned that it is highly important to read past literary works in order to be more knowledge and to make connections. The more...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had to read this as a summer book for my Advanced Literature class and I expected it to be quite boring, however with the author's comedic writing style, I found myself thoroughly entertained. Some parts were more interesting than others, but that goes with any informational book. This book has helped me read more closely and I'm able to figure out what an author means when he says something like "Joe walked out into the rain."

At first I thought that Foster was going too in-depth with the book...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Lilian Cheng rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you're going to read a book on literature analysis, it might as fell be an insightful and enjoyable one instead of one that wants you make to gouge your eyes out. How to Read Literature Like a Professor is an insightful introduction to the secret meanings behind literature, how to uncover them, and what makes great literature, while teaching us to read between the lines--because nothing can be taken at surface value. This book may not convince you to like reading literature, but it will defin...more If you're going to read a book on literature analysis, it might as fell be an insightful and enjoyable one instead of one that wants you make to gouge your eyes out. How to Read Literature Like a Professor is an insightful introduction to the secret meanings behind literature, how to uncover them, and what makes great literature, while teaching us to read between the lines--because nothing can be taken at surface value. This book may not convince you to like reading literature, but it will definitely make you aware--if not more appreciative of it.

The only major qualm I haven't read much of the examples used and it left me very much confused--although Foster often does give a story summary. I couldn't "get" the modern references either--which made me feel like I need to read a lot more. The book is also targeted towards people who are familiar with the Bible for a great chunk of it is about biblical references, communion, baptism, and Christ figures. I would rather touch upon universal themes that will assist in read literature with a different religious backgrounds--although arguably, English literature is riddled with biblical references.

From other "reviews" I've read, some see Foster's conversational tone and as "unprofessional," "condescending," "trying too hard." While I didn't get the notion of unprofessionalism, if you are looking for a serious, extremely detailed textbook--this isn't your book. I can see Foster trying to appeal to the younger generation, the students who are only beginning to grasp the literature, which explains why he may come off as "condescending." I found the humor refreshing, and I admit to smiling a few times, but may come off as "unprofessional." And as for the "Trying too hard" part, this guy is a middle-age dude trying to speak to the younger generation here, it's like me trying to see why kids like Justin Bieber--I just can't "get" it, but you should still give me kudos for trying.

Even though I've had quite a few English classes and I've grudgingly written quite a few essays (and I only foresee more in the future)--even if I was convinced I couldn't find anything profound to say. Then, like many others, I wonder if we're all taking just making stuff up to sound intelligent (and to meet page counts), and if the author did intend for his work to make taken this way or he just had a great publicist. And Foster makes a convincing argument that it is all intentional: writers don't slave over manuscripts for years for nothing; literature isn't simply about unraveling the writer's hidden agenda, as much as it is to fuel our own interpretations.

Now I wish I'd read this before my American Literature exam--I would've had a whole lot more to say (especially since I was asked to write about religion--after reading this I am convinced I can tie anything with the Bible.)
(less)

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Dec 30, 2011 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I read this mostly out of curiosity -- with my BA behind me and my MA in progress, I didn't have much to learn from Foster. To me it's obvious that a garden will conjure up Eden, that the sharing of food is a kind of communion, that a lot of things are metaphors for sex. It doesn't seem to require professorial level training to me, though I went to university in the UK and this book is very explicitly aimed at people from the US. So maybe the expectations for the skill set for a graduate are dif...more

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Nov 27, 2011 Jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Why didn't I read this before high school? Now I have to go back and re-read everything.

Quotes:

One of the old French philosophers and wits, Blaise Pascal, apologized for writing a long letter, saying, “I had not time to write a short one.” Sonnets are like that, short poems that take far more time, because everything has to be perfect, than long ones.

The more we become aware of the possibility that our text is speaking to other texts, the more similarities and correspondences we begin to notice,...more

Why didn't I read this before high school? Now I have to go back and re-read everything.

Quotes:

One of the old French philosophers and wits, Blaise Pascal, apologized for writing a long letter, saying, “I had not time to write a short one.” Sonnets are like that, short poems that take far more time, because everything has to be perfect, than long ones.

The more we become aware of the possibility that our text is speaking to other texts, the more similarities and correspondences we begin to notice, and the more alive the text becomes.

This depth is what the biblical dimension adds to the story of Sonny and his brother. We no longer see merely the sad and sordid modern story of a jazz musician and his algebra-teacher brother. Instead the story resonates with the richness of distant antecedents, with the power of accumulated myth. The story ceases to be locked in the middle of the twentieth century and becomes timeless and archetypal, speaking of the tensions and difficulties that exist always and everywhere between brothers, with all their caring and pain and guilt and pride and love. And that story never grows old.

We want strangeness in our stories, but we want familiarity, too. We want a new novel to be not quite like anything we’ve read before. At the same time, we look for it to be sufficiently like other things we’ve read so that we can use those to make sense of it. If it manages both things at once, strangeness and familiarity, it sets up vibrations, harmonies to go with the melody of the main story line. And those harmonies are where a sense of depth, solidity, resonance comes from. Those harmonies may come from the Bible, from Shakespeare, from Dante or Milton, but also from humbler, more familiar texts.

What we mean in speaking of “myth” in general is story, the ability of story to explain ourselves to ourselves in ways that physics, philosophy, mathematics, chemistry—all very highly useful and informative in their own right—can’t. That explanation takes the shape of stories that are deeply ingrained in our group memory, that shape our culture and are in turn shaped by it, that constitute a way of seeing by which we read the world and, ultimately, ourselves. Let’s say it this way: myth is a body of story that matters.

Every reader’s experience of every work is unique, largely because each person will emphasize various elements to differing degrees, and those differences will cause certain features of the text to become more or less pronounced. We bring an individual history to our reading, a mix of previous readings, to be sure, but also a history that includes, but is not limited to, educational attainment, gender, race, class, faith, social involvement, and philosophical inclination. These factors will inevitably influence what we understand in our reading, and nowhere is this individuality clearer than in the matter of symbolism.

What this book represents is not a database of all the cultural codes by which writers create and readers understand the products of that creation, but a template, a pattern, a grammar of sorts from which you can learn to look for those codes on your own.(less)

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Aug 12, 2011 Daria rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: school-assigned

"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 symbolis...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Richard added it

My son was assigned this book to read over the summer (he will be in the 10th grade). He loves to read but when I saw the title of this book I thought, He will never get through it. I read the books he is assigned and never had an issue with any of them until now. I did read it from cover to index.

This is not a book any child should read! For many reasons. Foget about the big words that I didn't even know because I would encourage him to look them up. This book is full of things I don't want my...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Foster's guide is an accessible introduction to common literary motifs. The book should resonate with serious readers as a neat explication of the often unconscious leaps we make as we read. As a teacher, I recognize that my English students need to be introduced to the "language" we use when we think and talk about literature, as well as the assumptions on which we base many of our conclusions. This book is an excellent novice's guide to reading, and it makes reading like a professor seem easy....more

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Jun 09, 2011 Taylor Moore rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: English majors, Those who want to get more out of novels

Shelves: books-everyone-should-read, books-for-english-majors

I picked this up randomly off of a display table at the bookstore, and it's actually a pretty good read. It might seem a little dry to read about the hidden meanings inside of a book, but truthfully it's a fun read. The professor writes it humorously, going over what a dinner means in a book, what the weather or seasons can mean, how having something about the character like a disability or an illness can deepen the meaning of the story. He also tells and shows how stories can be traced back to...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Kyle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lively and Entertaining? Yeah, it is...and I do think Foster does a pretty good job fleshing out his ideas in each section--he provides substantive explanations, useful examples and covers all the territory I would expect from a book like this. So, it's a good read and a helpful guide. I say it's helpful because it details some of the more conventional ways professors might approach texts and literary criticism. This being said, do we really need to reinforce the conventional through a "How to"...more

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Aug 27, 2010 Manel rated it 4 of 5 stars

All I have to say is that I wish I knew that this book existed earlier. Foster does a wonderful job on making reading literature seem so easy. Foster, being a COLLEGE professor, I expected to have written a 400+ jigantor book on how to read literature, but when I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble found it to be a regular sized book (regular as in managable.) Foster really gets to the core of reading. There is no skipping or dragging around, he simply makes it to the point while throwing in...more

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Aug 10, 2010 Annie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Annie by: Catherine

Shelves: non-fiction

My Goodreads reviews may just get a bit lengthier, after finishing this book, I may be able to provide more insight into the literary works I read. Collective sigh from all my friends. This book reads like you are sitting in on a class with the author, who is a professor of literature at the University of Michigan. His writing style is very conversational. He argues that there is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature. He also asks readers not to read with their own eyes, but read...more

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May 27, 2010 Jenny rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

So I was pretty excited upon starting this book. There's been a lot of good reviews about this, both on here and from people I know.

It started out pretty good, but by the second chapter, I was getting irritated with the author. I continued on, since I have to read this for school, and it annoyingly got worse, then a little better in the middle, and finished okay at the end.

I had three main problems with the Mr. Foster:

1) He was very condescending to his readers. There were a lot of moments in...more

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Jan 12, 2010 Glen Engel-Cox rated it 4 of 5 stars

A better subtitle to this book might be "Understanding Symbology," but then you would miss the "lively" and "entertaining" part of the current subtitle, and that shouldn't be thrown away. This is probably the best book I've ever read about the ugly task of decoding literature, and I would highly recommend it as a graduation present for any high school student who plans to attend college. It's that good. Foster is no dry academic, although his taste still runs to the rather mundane type of litera...more

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Jan 06, 2010 Nate rated it 4 of 5 stars

As someone who hasn't taken an English class in years, this book was a nice refresher on thinking below the surface when reading literature. Some of the material was obvious, such as interpreting a rainstorm based off the context. Is it a life-giving rain or a cold and deadly rain and what does that tell you about the story? Other material reminded me about how much I have lost over the years. For instance, many stories draw parallels to classical mythology or Shakespeare, which I hardly remembe...more

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Jul 25, 2009 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 fro...more

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Jun 27, 2008 Jean rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Wonderful! I wish I had read this book before I embarked on the dreadful critical literary analysis course, which made me wonder why on earth I was getting a degree in literature. (AND I love that Foster feels the same way about the deconstructionist approach as I do). This book is for anyone who loves to read and wants the most from the experience. "Your reading should be fun," Foster exhorts. Yes, Yes, Yes! I can't wait to dig into the reading list included at the end of the book.

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Aug 23, 2011 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I consider myself a casual reader. I'm not a literary scholar nor an English lit major. I've had a handful of literary criticism, critical and creative writing, and film analysis classes, but not much more than what your average humanities undergrad would go through in college. In other words, I read for fun.

Oh sure, I hope to gather other things along the way: exposure to arts and culture, exploring life's lessons and what it means to be human, looking at things from different perspectives to g...more I consider myself a casual reader. I'm not a literary scholar nor an English lit major. I've had a handful of literary criticism, critical and creative writing, and film analysis classes, but not much more than what your average humanities undergrad would go through in college. In other words, I read for fun.

Oh sure, I hope to gather other things along the way: exposure to arts and culture, exploring life's lessons and what it means to be human, looking at things from different perspectives to gain a better understanding of the world around me etc . . . but at the end of the day it mostly comes down to enjoyment. I simply love to read.

With that being said I have recently been visiting some old classics that are part of the unwritten pantheon of classical literature: books that supposedly add to the status of being well-read. I was having problems with some of these seemingly out-dated books scratching my head wondering what gives?

I know enough about critical analysis to understand that there must be symbolic gestures lurking beneath the surface that I just couldn't see. I knew they had to be there I just didn't know how to find them. What I needed, and what I was looking for in this book, was a crash course in literary symbolism help bring back my critical eye: and that's exactly what I found.

I found Thomas' writing energetic, passionate, and insightful written in a non-patronizing accessible way. Sure, I suppose one could say he didn't point out anything more than the obvious: yeah yeah, I know, weather, seasons, roads, rivers, food, illness, geography, time, sex and violence all mean something. Books are stuffed full with their Christ figures and Oedipal complexes . . . what's so special about this book that doesn't point out more than what an undergrad doesn't already know ad nauseam?

Well, for me at least I haven't ever been given a proper break-down of what might cause a writer to encode messages into the text. (Or maybe I have, but for some reason the way Thomas writes some things just hit home.) By associating allusions and correlations to other stories, situations, metaphorical symbols the writer is able to say a lot more about whatever it is she is trying to say that would be possible otherwise. This extra layer adds deeper meaning and hopefully enhances our understanding and enjoyment of the story.

Sure, every lit teacher I studied with talked about symbolism and looking beyond the words to find the deeper meaning, but I have never been given in one place a more clear, broken-down, bear bones explanation of all the various mechanisms a writer could use to enhance symbolic meaning into her work. By stripping things down into their fundamentals so clearly allows me to strengthen my spidey-sense and once again make it tingle.

On a personal level this book will change how I approach and experience every story I'll read for the rest of my life: even if it's only the smallest infinitesimal change it is still palpable, and for that alone it deserves my five emphatic stars.(less)

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Aug 03, 2010 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Let me start off by saying that I am a student and I read this book in hopes that it would give me a little insight as to what my professors are looking for. With that being said, I would not recommend this book to any student trying to do the same. The book contained much more "fluff" than I would have preferred. It did teach me a few new techniques, but, for the most part, only restated ideas that I had either already learned or were introduced earlier in the book. Foster could have easily wri...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Kathryn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

I must admit to being very literal in my reading of fiction literature, so this fun non-fiction book was very informative for me, as the author notes that, in a good novel, poem, or play, everything is there for a reason, and that if one reads analytically, one can discern deeper layers in the work in question.

The book is made of several short chapters, of which all but the last few deal with various elements in fiction writing that usually (but not always; one can never say “always” or “never”...more

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Aug 05, 2010 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I assigned this to my Honors American Lit class, so I'm looking forward to student reactions again, here, but I think Foster does a pretty solid job introducing the idea of reading for deeper meaning, mostly by using some pretty clear examples on how archetypes, symbols, etc. can be found in literature. Some of the later chapters may get murky for some readers, in part because he relies on modernist literature so much, but overall I found it accessible and direct. I especially liked his answers...more

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YA Reads for Teac...: January 2013 - Professional Development - How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster	25	40	Feb 02, 2013 10:39am
FHS AP Literature...: Chapters 25-27	16	18	Aug 21, 2012 10:18pm
FHS AP Literature...: Chapters 22-24	17	20	Aug 21, 2012 09:40pm
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About Thomas C. Foster

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.

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“Education is mostly about institutions and getting tickets stamped; learning is what we do for ourselves. When we're lucky, they go together. If I had to choose, I'd take learning.” — 7 people liked it

“Always" and "never" are not words that have much meaning in literary study. For one thing, as soon as something seems to always be true, some wise guy will come along and write something to prove that it's not.” — 6 people liked it

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