Sunday Salon: How to Read, Use, and Abuse Beautiful and Pointless Novels Like a Professor

Problem Posed

I love to read, but I don’t know how to read well.

I read widely, but I don’t read deeply.

So what can a busy reader do to correct this?  

Read books, of course.

Read books that teach one how to read deeply.

Of course.

I nervously chose three books.

Three books that promised
to help me read more deeply.

Here were the three I tried:

 I read all three.

What did I find?

Am I now an erudite and cerebral literary pundit?

An au courant belletristic virtuoso?

Well, no.

The Bad News

Two of the books were grim reads.

I love books. You know that about me.

But what probably you don’t know is

 that there are some books that I don’t like,

some books I actually hate.

Yes, it’s true.

I hate textbooks.

I loathe textbooks.

I hate the pompous, condescending tone of textbooks.

I hate the know-it-all attitude of textbooks.

I hate the way textbooks don't care if they are well-written;

textbooks know people will read them anyway

because people are forced to read them.

I hate textbooks.

Sadly, I found The Use and Abuse of Literature to be a textbook.

 I felt used and abused while reading this book.

This book is a case of the abuse of literature, in my view.

Sadly, I also found How to Read Novels Like a Professor:

A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form
to be a textbook.

There is, sadly, nothing jaunty about this book.

I liked How to Read Literature Like a Professor,
this author’s previous book.

But maybe Foster used up all his jauntiness in that book.

In any case, I was bored to death reading these two books
and that’s a shame.

The Good News

I love poetry
but I know nothing about poetry.

Would I find anything of value in
Beautiful and Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry?

Yes, happily, I found Beautiful and Pointless
to be a useful and clever book about poetry.

The text of this book is poetry,

with lots of apt metaphors and similes.

It’s humorous, too, which I found a great relief.

How about you? 

What did you read this week?
Could you recommend anything to help me
on my quest to
become an erudite and cerebral literary pundit?
Preferably something jaunty....

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What is the Sunday Salon?

Imagine some university library's vast reading room.

It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in.

They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,

and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go.

Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and

compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual.

Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon

get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read.

And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs.

Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon,

an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities

 and fall into a good book. 

Click here to join the Salon.