Time Saving Tips for Reading English Texts
Have you just received your book list for next year? Considering getting a head start and reading during the holidays? Here’s our advice for doing an analytical reading that won’t take forever.
Step 1: Read the Wikipedia Page
It’s easiest to come primed with a little bit of information about the author, the context and the reception. For books and authors you don’t know anything about, also click over to the author’s page and any literary movements from the time. Spend about 30 mins on this step.
Step 2: Watch a video
If there’s a CrashCourse video about your book or its author - watch it. When you’re prepped with the themes to look out for the relevant moments will be much easier to spot. If there’s no video, a look at the themes page on SparkNotes is a good substitute. This step should take 20 minutes.
Step 3: Read (and don’t aim for perfection!)
There’s no shortcut to avoid reading the book, it’s the best and only real way forward, but how you read the book matters. Read a physical, eBook or audiobook version, whatever’s easiest for you. Fast readers can complete a book in less time than it takes to listen to the audio book, but the audiobook can help you make progress while doing other activities like riding the train or cleaning your room. Here’s our real advice: tag, annotate and take notes minimally. The reason you’re reading the book is not to find all your quotes in one fell swoop. You’re reading the book to understand it. You don’t need to pay attention to every detail; if you zone out for a bit, you don’t need to go back; you don’t need to make reading exhausting by analysing every sentence as you go. Depending on the length of the book this step could take about 10 hours.
Step 4: Reflection
Some parts of the book - certain moments, a theme, a character - will stand out to you. These are the aspects that should inspire your work. Choosing something that excites you will allow you to write a uniquely engaging piece and stand out from your cohort. Even though you didn’t take many notes, you’ll remember the scenes where important things happened and you’ll be able to go back to them to analyse more closely and track down your quotes (we recommend utilising CTRL+F on a digital copy). Do this step when you get information about your assessment, it will be part of your planning phase. Spend 2-3 hours on this step.
And that’s it! 4 simple steps that don’t include agonizing over every page of the text. If you need more help, ask a tutor today!