do your research
before reading the book, it’s always a good idea to look up the author and when the book was written and published. by looking that up, you can learn about the historical context of the book and get a deeper understanding of the plot, characters, and the author’s purpose behind reading the book.read the intro and summary of the book before beginning
if there’s an introduction to the book, be sure to read that for any relevant information that may help you analyze the book. find a summary of the book online to prepare yourself for a good reading. i know, i know, it feels like a bit of a letdown if you know the ending beforehand, but without it, you may get caught up in the plot and lose the important thematic details of the book. it’ll allow you to read the book with an open mind.figure out what you need to do
do you have a list of vocabulary for the book? find out each definition. do you need to analyze a character? get a sheet of paper and get ready to take notes on the characters. do you need to write about the theme? get post-it notes and mark the quotes that you think are relevant to the plot.
either way, just be prepared for what you have to do with the book.don’t highlight; write
oftentimes, people will simply highlight pretty much anything in the book. i’m not a huge fan of the highlighting – annotating method because you may want to sell the book later on or reread it without bombarding your eyes with bright color. the highlighter ink may even bleed to the other side of the paper. i think that it just ruins the reading experience and future potential. it also encourages passive reading.
instead, use sticky notes or sticky tabs to write down notes and place them in the book. keep a piece of paper by your side to take note of every character’s name and important plot points. using a color key with sticky notes may be helpful as well.
if you must, i would suggest underlining with a pencil so that you can erase it after you’re done with the whole process.take copious notes
write down the words that you don’t know in the story and look them up. write down characters and their changes over the course of the book. write down times / settings when they show up. write down important quotes and passages + page numbers. write down every single thought that you have about the book because it may become relevant later on.make a summary of the chapter after you finish one
i personally like doing the summaries on index cards and then put them in order after i finish the entire book. i can then look through them to see the plot progression and character growth over the course of the story without hunting through the book or my notes.wait until you finish the entire paragraph / passage before writing notes
if you stop halfway, you may miss important information that’s revealed at the end of the passage. besides, you may develop new thoughts after reading the entire passage / paragraph.look for literary devices
you know, your metaphors, allusions, similes, personifications, etc etc etc. it’s good to be familiar with literary devices because they will often give an insight to the story and frequently become relevant to questions on the test / writing things. here’s a good site on literary devices.hope this helped and good luck! if you’d like to request a post, go here and if you’d like to see more helpful posts, go here !! thanks 🙂
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