In my experience, there are two types of bad readers: those who read the text and misunderstand the basic meaning of the words, and those who read the text and misunderstand the themes and points the book is making. Both of these can be solved by critical reading.
What do I mean by that? I don’t mean trying to tear the book to pieces and criticizing it. I mean criticizing the way you yourself are reading.
My English teacher taught us a method coming from Jewish learning of religious texts. This method is called PaRDeS, and goes as follows:
P’shat (פְּשָׁט) – “surface” (“straight”) or the literal (direct) meaning: What it literally says in the text.
Remez (רֶמֶז) – “hints” or the deep (allegoric: hidden or symbolic) meaning beyond just the literal sense: What you infer from the literal text.
Derash (דְּרַשׁ) – from Hebrew darash: “inquire” (“seek”) – the comparative: Analysis of the literal and inferred.
Sod (סוֹד) (pronounced with a long O as in ‘lore’) – the “secret” meaning (“mystery”): The philosophical and ethical questions or messages in the text.
And the best way to practice this? Asking questions.
Don’t just sit there passively reading. Instead, engage with the text. Read every word, and ask yourself, did I understand that? What just happened? Why did it happen? What does it mean for the characters, what does it mean for the story, and what does it mean to us?
Now, I won’t go as far as to say that you have to understand the philosophical implications of everything you ever read, or even that every book you read will have a deeper meaning. But the only way to truly understand what you are reading is to ask questions. Ask other people questions. In this day and age, you can ask the author questions on twitter or tumblr. But most importantly, ask yourself questions. Reading is a dialogue with the self, with the text as a mediator. The best way to hold the conversation is to - surprise, surprise - constantly. Ask. Questions.
Sometimes the questions will have a good answer; sometimes a bad answer; sometimes no answer. But I find that when I read this way, I remember more, I understand more, and I have a firmer ground on which to base my opinions of a book.
(Also, it’s fucking obnoxious to read reviews from people who clearly didn’t understand the p’shat of the text.)
Some sample questions to ask yourself:
What kind of story is this? Is it a love story? An adventure? A horror story?Is it a character driven plot, or are outside influences affecting the characters? (Think romance vs. horror, for example, as it’s often a matter of genre.)
Who are the main characters, and what do they think about each other? How does the POV affect the way you see these characters and relationships (especially relevant in first person, but also relevant in third person limited, and at least twice in my reading history, still relevant in third person omniscient)? Is the narrator reliable, and if not, what limits the narrator’s reliability?
Are the main characters heroes, antiheroes, villains, anti-villains, or something else? What makes them heroic/villainous?
What do the characters believe in most strongly? Are you supposed to agree with them? Do you agree with them?
What kind of morality is presented in this world? Is it a black and white morality, or are there shades of gray? (Especially in scifi and fantasy) is the morality comparable to your own understanding of good and bad, or is it foreign to me? Can I learn to relate to this type of thinking?
What is the context in which this text is written? How much does the society and station of the author affect the text?
Every once in a while, make predictions about what will happen next.
And most importantly, always ask why. Why does a character behave this way; why does the author choose to take the plot in this direction; why are we supposed to feel sympathetic for this character but not this character; etc, etc. Why is the most important question you can ask, and you should ask it constantly.
This is one of the reasons I prefer reading on Kindle to physical books at times - there’s a taboo, which I partially agree with, on writing notes on physical books, but the best way to do this is to write stuff down and mark parts of the text that seem important to you. Keeping an eye out for foreshadowing, for example, means often that I mark a part of the text that I think might be foreshadowing. If I have a prediction, I write it down right then and there. If the text made me think about something in my own life, I’ll write down the philosophical implications I think have relevance to the situation. And of course, since I’ve connected my Goodreads account to my Kindle, I can later look through those comments and form my review based on the actual thoughts I had during reading, instead of the impression the end left on me, which often overshadows everything that came before, positively or negatively.
