ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Literary Topics Videos 221 videos
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Dr. Seuss was a failure to start, but he soon learned to follow his heart. He wrote books about things that he knew, and soon enough, his book sale...
Sure, Edgar Allan Poe was dark and moody and filled with teenage angst, but what else does he have in common with the Twilight series?
How to Read Novels 250 Views
Share It!
Description:
Well, you start with the first word, then the second, then the third… until you finish an entire sentence. Next comes the second sentence… Okay, so you know it's more complicated than that. This video would be a complete waste of time otherwise.
Transcript
- 00:00
Thank you We sneak how to read novels allah shmoop
- 00:07
breeding a novel can be a daunting task Some stories
- 00:10
are hard to follow some books are huge and some
- 00:13
novels contain a cast of characters so large that we
- 00:16
need a spreadsheet to keep track of who's who but
Full Transcript
- 00:19
just because the novel is difficult to read doesn't mean
- 00:21
we shouldn't read it especially is there are some simple
- 00:24
steps we can follow to improve our novel reading experience
- 00:27
like reading shmoop well let's take it from the top
- 00:31
The first step on our how to read novels checklist
- 00:34
is to pick a novel or have our english teacher
- 00:37
picket forest let's face it Sometimes we get no say
- 00:40
in what we read if the curriculum calls for us
- 00:43
to read the brothers karamazov well then it's the brothers
- 00:45
karamazov we're gonna have to slog through However if we
- 00:49
get to choose a novel to read for class or
- 00:51
even if we're just looking for something to peruse in
- 00:53
our spare time we can improve our chances of enjoying
- 00:56
the story If we put a little thought in first
- 00:59
that didn't really require any thought did it Well we
- 01:02
should ask ourselves who's our favorite author what's our favorite
- 01:05
genre Have we read a book reviewer Heard a recommendation
- 01:09
that caught our attention If we're looking to get away
- 01:11
from the familiar and expand our horizons by reading fiction
- 01:15
that's new to us waken refer to various list like
- 01:18
those containing the titles that have won the man booker
- 01:20
prize or the hugo award for inspiration Okay second item
- 01:25
on the checklist respect the reading experience reading is fun
- 01:30
but it could be a lot of work to especially
- 01:31
if someone is expecting us to produce a paper about
- 01:34
what we've read so give the novel and the task
- 01:37
of reading at some respect Read the novel well in
- 01:39
advance of when the assignment is due because we might
- 01:42
have to read that sucker twice And while some people
- 01:46
have no trouble reading on a plane or on a
- 01:48
train or in a house with a mouth others need
- 01:52
to set a block of time in a quiet place
- 01:54
with no distractions to get needed reading done Furthermore when
- 01:58
we read we should reach the laptop and the phone
- 02:02
and any other technical devices that might interfere with our
- 02:05
concentration third item on our how to read novels checklist
- 02:09
is to be prepared this doesn't mean we need to
- 02:12
have a survival kit with us when we read in
- 02:14
the case the world comes to a sudden end but
- 02:17
rather that there are some tools we should have close
- 02:20
toe hand in case we need to mark a passage
- 02:22
or take notes as we read pencils and highlighters are
- 02:25
our friends While underlining senses and scribbling in the novels
- 02:28
margins were great We should have some paper and or
- 02:31
no cars nearby in case we come across something in
- 02:33
the novel that inspires more extensive note taking depending on
- 02:37
the novel we might also want to have a dictionary
- 02:40
of the paper variety Andy Well yes we can always
- 02:43
google a definition but googling while reading leads to surfing
- 02:47
the internet and surfing the internet leads to the dark
- 02:50
side Yeah so good so we've got our novel We've
- 02:54
settled into our favorite armchair with a bowl of popcorn
- 02:56
and a caffeinated beverage We've got our pencils at the
- 02:59
ready time to crack this baby open and get reading
- 03:02
Well this leads us to the next item on our
- 03:04
checklist reid first analyse later they were expected to write
- 03:08
a five page paper on the development of a particular
- 03:11
character in a novel way might be tempted to mark
- 03:13
anything and everything about that character that we come across
- 03:17
which means we'd have a lot of irrelevant nonsense The
- 03:19
plow through when it actually comes time to write our
- 03:22
paper resist temptation read a chapter at a time re
- 03:27
read a chapter of necessary think about chapters content then
- 03:30
go back and underlined what's important or put a quick
- 03:33
note or quote on the paper i eat be efficient
- 03:36
if we read and actually think about what we're reading
- 03:39
rather than get trigger happy with a highlighter way won't
- 03:41
just have a better understanding of the novel and our
- 03:43
paper topic but we'll have an easier time actually writing
- 03:47
the paper The fifth item on our how to read
- 03:50
novels checklist is to look for them meaty stuff as
- 03:53
we read kind of items we could whip out during
- 03:55
a classroom discussion so he looked totally awesome For example
- 03:59
we might see something that appeals to us in a
- 04:01
novel about a particular character or setting we might like
- 04:04
How the author uses imagery in a scene or the
- 04:08
author's syntax throughout the story we might identify an overarching
- 04:12
theme to the novel In other words look for things
- 04:15
in her story that set the novel apart from other
- 04:18
novels and the author apart from other authors Okay six
- 04:22
item on our checklist it's to remember how we feel
- 04:26
when we finish a novel Some of us may ball
- 04:28
hysterically at the end of the book or thank our
- 04:30
lucky stars that we survived reading that pile of horse
- 04:34
apples Our emotions can be key to identify an important
- 04:38
aspect of the book when we feel strongly enough about
- 04:40
to produce a really compelling paper All right here's The
- 04:44
seventh item on our how to read a novel checklist
- 04:47
There is no right way to read a novel Some
- 04:50
people can read a novel once and be done Others
- 04:52
need to read the novel two or three times to
- 04:54
make sense of it Some people can dog your ten
- 04:57
or twelve pages and produce amazing papers Others need to
- 05:00
produce copious and detailed notes on a book before they
- 05:02
can write a single cent In other words there is
- 05:05
No one way to read in process a novel way
- 05:07
All have different methods that work for us because we're
- 05:09
all different people This brings us to the last item
- 05:12
on the checklist Practice practice practice The more novels we
- 05:16
read the more likely we are to find an analytical
- 05:18
process that works for us We'll be able to more
- 05:20
quickly identify the important components of a novel Also the
- 05:23
more novels we read the more books will have to
- 05:25
compare and contrast against Well whatever story were reading and
- 05:29
that kind of information can often come in handy on
- 05:31
an english assignment Go now go forth and read What 00:05:37.022 --> [endTime] a novel idea
Related Videos
When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy...
Here at Shmoop, we work for kids, not just the bottom line. Founded by David Siminoff and his wife Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop was originally conceived...
ACT Math: Elementary Algebra Drill 4, Problem 5. What is the solution to the problem shown?
AP® English Literature and Composition Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which literary device is used in lines 31 to 37?
AP® English Literature and Composition Passage Drill 2, Problem 1. What claim does Bacon make that contradicts the maxim "Whatsoever is delig...