How to Read Literature Like a Professor

This book is more or less ‘educational’, so spoilers aren’t necessarily a big deal here. But, if you still like the element of surprise, read the book first!

I read this book twice in the past 2 years and I have to say, it offered me with such amazing insight, information and knowledge about reading and writing that I would have never thought about. Let’s start by talking about the author; Thomas C. Foster. He is an English professor at the University of Michigan-Flint. He’s written multiple novels, all around similar topics. How to Read Literature like a Professor, How to read Novels like a Professor, How to read Poetry like a Professor, How to read Nonfiction like a Professor, and more. He has a sort of comical approach to reading literature in general. His writing is easy to read, much like a conversation. He uses references to common taboos and really connects with the reader.

In all honesty, the first time I read this novel was for a contemporary fiction course I was taking. I wasn’t thrilled to be reading it, but a few pages in and I was really enjoying it. Each chapter in this novel offers a different insight, which keeps the reader intrigued. It’s never the same and some of his thoughts are things I would have never thought of before. Foster makes claims throughout the novel such as “every book has a quest” and “every story is based off of either Shakespeare or the Bible”. He talks about the intertextuality between novels, because “there is only one story” and all stories are connected to our history. Foster also brings in anecdotes from Freud and uses his own classroom experiences in his writing.

One of my favorite topics that Foster touches on is in chapter 4. He talks about how wonderful it is to continue reading different novels and genres and recognize the “recurring characters and archetypes within literature”. He compares this to “meeting old friends”. The way Foster finds such heart in all of the characters, it truly feels like he is a friend of theirs.

One part of this novel that I found slightly difficult to comprehend was the amount of references that Foster makes to other authors or novels. I knew a handful of them, but absolutely not all of them. I suppose this is what makes him such an intelligent man; he’s clearly read an entire library’s worth of novels. But, after reading about the references, it made me intrigued. I have always had a list of books I want to read and I definitely added a few more after reading this one.

I recommend this book to people that are very intrigued by literature and have read or studied a lot of classics. Reading Foster’s insights is very interesting and offers a lot of good points for future reading.