October 2024
    M T W T F S S
     123456
    78910111213
    14151617181920
    21222324252627
    28293031  

    I just started my first foray through Dostoyevsky, done chronologically, and as such I’m concerned with reading his works as mindfully and analytically as I can because I want to learn from him.

    I keep seeing advice in regards to reading analytically that the best way to do it is to do a first read quickly, with minimal notes on the parts that jump out at you, and to then go back later and reread more deeply, focusing on those areas from before and the bird’s eye view you have of the book to better piece together and interpret the text. I feel like this is mostly applicable to nonfiction but would work for novels as well.

    I don’t really take notes when I read; I leave tabs at key passages or on quotes that I want to put into a commonplace book later, I don’t underline because the tabs show me where the passage is (and I have some books I wouldn’t write in), and I’ve found notes/blurbs in the margins to be a pointless waste of time. I rarely will journal on what I read if I want to gather my thoughts, but rarely. I’d be willing to more for analytical purposes.

    Is two reads really necessary to capture the full depth of a novel? If I live for another six decades (best case scenario) then I won’t read every book ever written – I won’t even read every book I want to. Do I really have to halve that number so that I can reread everything? Is there not a better, more efficient way to appreciate a text?

    by BrennusRex

    1 Comment

    Leave A Reply