A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines

Uh, I think I was expecting something different, but maybe not since it turned out it's exactly what the title promises, which is basically how to suck out all the joy from reading a book for pleasure and capturing a book's insights from that pleasure and not because you're looking for ways to fulfill your own ideological agenda as someone lucky enough to have a job for life. It did sort of make me recall how a lot of professors rip al the fun out of a book when they start deconstructing it. And then of course the book really loses its meaning. Ironic, isn't it.

I read this book in adjunct to my textbook for AP English literature. This book was PHENOMENALLY helpful in that class. I have to admit that Foster's writing can be repetitive sometimes but it simple and straightforward, and entertaining. The book revolves around symbolism mostly, with an underemphasis on character development, plot devices etc... I actually disagree to some of his theories (e.g. there's only one story) but I find it interesting to look at it that way. I give the guy props--he knows his stuff, book, movies, and historical text. I would love to take his intro lit class!

This book is filled with GREAT book references. There is a gloss in back with books that you NEED TO READ!!

We had to read this book for AP English IV* (note later) and it was entertaining to say the least.

I highly recommend this book to any English major or any reader/writer who takes their work seriously.

As a matter of fact, the earlier you read this book for your high school/college career the more you can be prepared for literature in the future.

Some of the references in this book are "older" as in some of these books are classics. You may or may not have read them, so keep that in mind if you're a novice reader. At the same time, I'll give the author props for making an Animaniacs reference.

This was a noteworthy book. It gave me a knowledge base of how to read literature quickly and efficiently. Being that I am a college student at a prestigious university, I am expected to squeeze as much as I can in the limited time I have. So glad I bought this book.

Every reader or literature nerd will love this! I learned so much - more than I ever expected to. In addition, this book is fun to read so it's not a drag to pop it open. Definitely one of my favorites.

I recommend this to any book worm, honors English student, or anyone struggling to analyze literature. Wish I had found this book years ago. Foster has a witty, brilliant, and user-friendly instructions for interpreting what we read on a whole new level. I'm going into AP English 4, and this book will be an asset.

This is an interesting and informative read! The author's voice is witty and entertaining, and Foster actually makes the subject of literature seem really... manageable. If you're reading this as a requirement for an AP Literature course, don't sweat it! It's really a good read and as long as you keep an open mind about literature, you should be off to a good start for the school year.
~a junior in AP Lit

I had to get this for an english course and I actually really enjoyed it. Foster actually makes you want to read the book and gives you good info without boring you haha. Had to close read it but I still enjoyed it. Came in good condition and on time! :)

This book was really interesting to me. I'm not a person who loves to read or analyze and I only read this book for my AP Literature class but I have learned so much and I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants to learn to analyze books. It's easy to read and it just feels like an ongoing conversation with the author.

The author is an English professor at the University of Michigan and it becomes apparent quite quickly that he is one of those popular professors who is chatty and has lots of students signing up for his introductory courses on literature. The language is friendly and the examples are entertaining as well as informative. If I lived in Flint, I'd take his classes.

There have been many times I've read a book and just *known* the author is trying to impart more than I am taking away from the prose, and I hear about symbolism in literature, yet I have very little success finding it on my own. One time in high school I had a very good English teacher who would point out the symbolism in stories and novels, but he never told us how to do it, as this book does. With chapters on a wide range of topics (journeys, meals, poetry, Shakespeare, the Bible, mythology, fairy tales, weather, geography, violence, politics, sex and illness, among others) and a wide variety of examples, I found myself learning A LOT. Certainly this would not be of much value to a literature graduate student or professor, but for the rest of us this is a great introduction to getting more out of our reading (or viewing, as the author also touches on film, though to a lesser extent).

The book concludes with a test, in which you read a short story and interpret it using the principles put forth by Professor Foster, then interpretations by several students and Foster himself -- delightful and illuminating! Finally, the author gives a suggested reading/viewing list and an index.

Two problems with the book: first, as I mentioned, the style of the author is conversational, but sometimes to the point of being distracting; secondly, the topics covered are quite idiosyncratic, leaving out as many as are included, though the author addresses this. Still, I give the book 5 out of 5 because it was entertaining, accessible and it has improved my understanding and appreciation of subsequent books I've read and even films I've seen.

Update (06/12/16): Critical reviews seem to concentrate on two negatives -- that the author overgeneralizes ("Every meal is communion") and that the material is repetitive. Perhaps both elements can be explained by noting the intended audience -- college undergraduates. Critics want it known that "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". I agree wholeheartedly. It's been a while since I read this book (Can it really be over a decade?!) but I don't remember coming away thinking that symbolism was universal and nothing was ever meant literally. If the author actually made that statement I do disagree. Perhaps he qualified the universal within the text? Regardless, even if the author overstated his position in that instance I garnered so much benefit from the book that its ideas inform my reading to this day. No book is perfect, and I suppose the professor would enjoy that some readers do criticise his ideas!

As to the second perceived flaw, repetitiveness, if you've ever taught you know that you can't say something once and assume it's been internalized. Personally I found repeating concepts often helped me, and often the same idea is related in a different context, so it's not presented identically, if I remember correctly.

I do not know, but I suspect, that those readers who did not enjoy it were either too sophisticated for the material, or not ready for it. Personally, as someone with a background in the sciences and social sciences who reads a fair amount of fiction, and not someone who has heard these concepts discussed very much, I learned a lot from this book and believe it continues to add to my enjoyment and understanding of fiction in books and film.

I would still give it 5 stars. But man, do I feel old!

Was looking forward to getting this book because the reviews made it sound like it would explain some of the terms and vehicles used in literature and provide some good examples. I forced myself to read through about a hundred pages and then put it away. I'm sure it's my fault and not the author's. It would be a good book for you if you wanted to continually read how a character, topic, event, etc. in the book you're reading should bring up a similar character, topic, event, etc. in books written in years past.

I'll start off here by saying that I'm reading this for my AP English class, and I would never read this on my own.

I'm not a big fan of the literature community. I think they read too much into a story to find symbolism that may or not be there, and due to symbolism, they ignore bigger parts of the structure of a story to declare what's good or not. To me, A good story is one that captures it's audience, has good pacing, keeps it's audience thinking and engaged at all times, has good charecter development, has a great atmosphere and tries to do something new, rather than a straight adaptation of tried and true tropes. This book disagrees with that.

How to read lit like a professor believes a good book follows archeotypes to a T (tropes for the internet savvy), and the only enjoyment one will get out of a story is by nitpicking it and looking for symbolism that may or may not be there. Symbolism and Tropes is the name of the game for this book, and it spends the whole time describing them. Yes, it does cover the essential fact that every story is based on another, but my god, it does so in the worst way possible.

The biggest problem with this book is not what it tries to present, but how it presents it. Knowing the concept of tropes is a very important thing, and it can make a story very enjoyable; however, this presents it in a very hit or miss way, with cutesy and pretentious writing to explain the concept, referencing works that the target audience doesn't know (at this point, I'm tired of hearing about James Joyce...), Putting fake questions all over the place and thus successfully shoving words into people's mouths, and taking much too long to present a simple concept (ex: a whole chapter is dedicated to saying how weather makes the mood, it's there for a reason and it means specific things like purifying a charecter). It's a drag to read when you can sum up the chapters in a single sentence, and if his humor and writing style is not up your alley, be prepared to fall asleep. Alot.

This is very very basic. I can see how it might help high school students, but if you know literature terms at all ... say symbolism or metaphor then a quick read through is all one will need. I am glad I only paid I think $1.99 on my Kindle for it.

This book starts with some specific facts & examples. After about 30 pages it descends into a PhD-in-literature's account of what books he has read & prefers and assumes the reader has read through every text in the Library of Congress, twice. It is a long, pedantic, impractical screed perhaps useful to literary PhD candidates for its references. The NY Times best seller list? Is it a required university textbook?

I set out on my journey through this book with great trepidation and anticipation - trepidation that I would be forever lost in the mazes of literary notions heretofore only alluded to in the occasional book review, such that I might never be able to read fiction again for the crowds of overarching ideas that would envelop me. Anticipation that I would now be able to spot nuances that had previously flown right over my head like the birds and butterflies in the test case short story at the end of this book.
I needn't have worried my pretty little head. Foster belabors the obvious again and again throughout this book (Spring? Rebirth? Gasp!), while attempting to pepper it with humor that creaks like the bones of a Shakespearean ghost and evidently proud references to popular music from 30 years or more in the past that marks him as rather hopelessly out of date instead of with the coolness he seems to think it evinces. I had to keep referring to the title page to be absolutely certain he didn't write this book (more forgivebly) in 1974. It is to cringe.
This book was a waste of money, even at the used price.

I have the privaledge of working with inner city children. They needed this book for their summer reading program and had to write a long paper on the book. thank you very much! They did well. Even though they are inner city children one has a 1530 on the SAT and the other has a 1230.

The book arrives promptly and is in good condition. The boys had two weeks to read and write a paper on this book. Thanks again for a quick shipment.

COMPLETE ABSOLUTE BORE. WANTED TO CRY DURING THE ENTIRE BOOK. (required for school reading). Probably going to use a fuel for a bonfire, along with all the other irrelevant books I'm required to read in high school.

This book gave me some good tips on what to look for when I read literature, but while reading a book, I can't make the connections. The author gives a lot of examples from other novels, but the things he covered in the book, haven't helped me, yet, in my reading endevours.

The book is quite entertaining. It fills a gap and handles some really good points regarding the symbolism of the texts and the sub-meaning of the lines, so every literature-reader must take a look at it sometime, so that they can learn to look at the texts in a deeper way.

However, the book seems to be written for an American audience, which prevents the book from being universal.

Anyway I would recommend it to everybody, I believe anyone can gain knowledge from this book.

The book came in early, and didn't contain any tears, folds, or marks. So i appreciated that, but the price is something else. $10 for this! I could have bought something more useful, like a shirt or socks! And just saying people a
Ready dont want to buy this book as it is...hence the title... What a snore. This is possibly the worst book i have read. Anyway, the condition of the book was good, but price should have been cut in half.

I expected to love this book. I certainly like the subject matter and was looking for a fun refresher after years away from school. But try as I might, the book just bored me. Foster is no where near as funny as he think he is or wants to be. He seems a genial enough writer, and I think he truly wants readers to understand literature, but the writing of this book is just so boring. I am sorry to say I can't recommend it. My suggestion would be to keep looking.

The book purchased was on the summer required reading list. Although it was delivered in a timely fashion and in perfect condition, my child totally dislikes the content. She is a reader, and thought the first chapter was good. However, things went downhill from there. She is not finding it an easy read, not by a long shot.

(Reviewed by Gwen's 15-year-old son) "How to Read Literature Like a Professor," in many respects, is very much like literature as a whole: broad and encompassing, yet concise and comprehensible. To most people, at least. It is an agreeable, strongly opinionated guide to the things that every reader may be thinking, but is greatly pleased to see written down to reinforce their own opinions. In this respect, it is nothing short of a great piece of analytical literature: it's relevant (and most likely always will be), readable, and refreshing.

Many main ideas expressed throughout Thomas Foster's twenty-seven chapters are powerful, and communicate his ideas clearly. The ideas themselves are agreeable, as I found it hard to argue with his conjecture more than a few times. His statements about both the fruition and purpose of literary symbols and themes are insightful and well-read, and he gives many more examples than necessary to prove his point. The analytical nature of each individual chapter is invaluable for a great understanding of his arguments, while also helping the novice reader to find parallels within other works of literature. I myself experienced a few "aha moments" while doing nightly readings, and I cannot help but think of the biblical references or symbolic implications that Foster so aptly drilled into my skull whenever I watch T.V. or pick up a new book. So from the standpoint of the overall goal, Foster achieves it quite decisively.

What else HTRLLP does well is to draw thematic evidence from literary sources that span over much of written human history. Homer, Shakespeare, Poe, and J.K. Rowling are all a part of Foster's roster of famous writers, and they all contribute. This is what made reading the book enjoyable to me; knowing what he's referencing is pivotal to understanding.

However, I personally feel like there are a large number of disagreeable parts to this book that more than sap the potential in Foster's arguments. As stated earlier, Foster's arguments are well-read, with large, detailed anecdotes about novels with particular relevancy to each chapter. But that is just the issue. This book is a guide for a novice literary analyst and writer, but Foster expects the reader to know obscure novels that would not crop up in an average high school curriculum. Besides a quick detour on Shakespeare, almost every other reference in the entire book is a nod toward some random piece of literature. Granted, these random pieces of literature may be great ones, but it is hard to understand an argument when you have never read Going After Cacciato. And that book is referenced a lot. Although Foster does adequately to abridge the main points, a reader cannot connect on a deeper level with a novel if all they have to work with is the shallow summary of a book, and that is exactly what Foster intends for us, the reader, to do.

Also, Foster falls short in that he provides his reader with a very narrow concept of literature as a whole. The first chapter was absolutely repugnant, and hearing the phrase "there's only one story" drove me insane. Like language itself, literature is ripe with exceptions, and there is no instance where a situation is always or never true; it simply is not that black and white. On that same note, at any instance that Foster adds an infinitive like "always" or "never" into his bolded phrases, my mind would look for any example to prove him wrong. He himself stated that "`always' and `never' are not words that have much meaning in literary study" and his parallels to Jungian theory just beg for opposition. He may be saying it for the sake of clarity, which is necessary to any thesis, but using words as inflexible as "never" leads me to believe that Foster is making an opinion out of an unbiased analysis of literature.

Chapter two resonated with me because of a single line on Sigmund Freud, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." This idea, so simple, and yet pragmatic, could very well be applied to the remainder of Foster's novel. In some instances, Foster has some very profound moments, like describing the mechanics of intertextuality and the pervasiveness of Shakespearean quotation. However, he has some low moments as well. The deeper the reader goes into the book, the less comprehensible his ideas become. While the single, bolded line is still there in every chapter, the analysis that follows gets longer, and above all, more singular in viewpoint. It is here where Foster has run the risk of overanalyzing his ideas, to a point where these ideas blur into nothing more than pure personal conjecture. While he promotes the free flow of individual significance to symbol and theme, his own ideas saturate the page so heavily that the reader gets bogged down with thoughts that they are not their own.

And finally, the coup de grace is the "no duh" moment. For a 281 page guide to literature, you can expect it to cover quite a bit of ideas, archetypes, and popular allusions. But more often than not, this coverage is simply not the analysis one should expect from such an ambitious book. It has very casual, almost simple rhetorical questions like "Just what do up and down mean?" and "`Who ya gonna call?'" followed by similarly clichéd or skin deep analysis. When you remove all of the personal opinions Foster lets seep into his pages, as well as the content that is pure anecdote or ponderous questioning, you will usually end up with little more than that single bolded phrase that summarizes each chapter. While I praise Foster for his directness, I do not feel the same way about asserting author's intent and conversing as if his readers could not possibly understand cultural reference.

Overall, I feel as if "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" is an interesting mix of great accomplishment and crippling error. I learned, but I did not enjoy doing it. I put up with his banter and bad jokes and probably acquired a great tool for experiencing literature. But I cannot say that this book is a triumph or a nasty brown stain on the face of analytical literature. For all of its glaring faults and obvious ideas, what this book achieves will leave a more lasting impression than its pitfalls. Foster's highly mythological analysis of literature and its origins may be out of most people's capacity or patience, but it does have quite a bit to offer. But if I were to phrase all of this, I guess it would have to be as follows: you can't enjoy "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" unless you are one.

It came very quick and the book is in great quality. The only bad thing is the book . . . had to get it for school, can't really agree with a lot of it. But the seller gave me a book in good condition quickly so 5 stars for them.

Bought this for my daughter as it was assigned as summer reading for a high school class. She suffered through it but her constant complaints about its too simple read, lack of new information, and condescending tone compelled me to skim parts of it. Simply put, this is a book for people who are clueless regarding literary analysis. If you understand symbolism and inference, you do NOT need to read this book. This book might be helpful for younger kids, such as 5th or 6th graders, who have had limited exposure to the language arts. However, since it also includes an entire chapter over sexual symbolism, perhaps not. I would not recommend it unless you need a truly remedial guide to understanding literary works.

I bought this book to help me for my ap lit class. I swear I would have been completely lost without this book. You'd think since it's educational that it's boring but I kept on reading like it was any other novel.

Worst book i've ever read. Wanted to kill myself the whole time. Never read the books that were referenced but in a sense of the product since it is what i ordered it is great. The book is cute but ugly to read. Buy it but don't read it

when i received my book, this thing was all bent out of shape. its really hard to bend the spine of a book to make it deformed, but let me just tell you, my book looks like that big giant silver jelly bean sitting in the middle of Chicago. this this has a stain on it like someone spilt tea all over the corner. like did i order a used one? i don't think so. i think they could have provided better packaging to ensure the condition of my book was not thrown out of whack. not happy.

When I read How to Read Literature Like a Professor I expected to be enlightened in a way that would make reading more enjoyable. Instead of the author elaborating on how to analyse literature in a way that yields more fulfilling reads, Foster writes in a condescending tone which can make the book discouraging to read. I couldn't help but get the feeling that he is full of himself by the way he'd introduce a common reading strategy in a way that he is the only one to ever use it. As the book drags on Foster continues to refer to the reader as an incompetent reader who, thanks to him, will finally be able to get something from reading a book. His points are usually things such as "make note of the weather, when it storms something bad usually happens." That's a good point, but he addresses it as if the reader has no clue about anything and he's a genius. Don't read it unless you have to, or fear feeling undervalued and unintelligent

I hated this book. None of the chapters made any sense because the author uses references from several different out of date sources. They also jump around a lot. The only reason I had this is because it was required for English 099

Summer reading??
Jeez!! Why would any H.S. do such a thing to an entire Freshman class only to test them on the "other" book assigned. Parents--Plz don't "spend $$" on this book!
Check it out from your local library instead.

The book contained pages that were ordered incorrectly and it made preparing for the school assignment very difficult! I guess the problem was with the publisher but the seller should've known about it! Next time I will order from a reputable seller. Very disappointing to say the least!

Should be titled "How To Torture High School Students During Summer Vacation". I ordered this book because it is mandatory for my daughter for AP English Lit and Comp. I can't imagine a worse choice to encourage students to read and/or appreciate literature. Only reason I can think of for this being chosen is someone liked Mr. Foster's class when they took it in college in the 1970's.

This book may be good for teachers but certainly not students. I was assigned this as a summer reading project for 9th grade and I couldn't even get through the first few pages. I was about to fall asleep. Literally. I dread reading this its sooooo boring.

Not often, but sometimes, I get nostalgic about my days as an English major when literary analysis was a very important priority that spilled over from my academic life into the rest of my life and how it colored the way I viewed people around me. Being a full-time student and living rent free at the parents’ house without a job or the need to worry about paying bills enabled me to devote as much of my psychic energy toward literary matters as I cared to. Although I’ve been away from that setting for 40 years now, the training in literary reading that I received then is built into the way I read books, watch movies and listen to music today.

When I spotted ‘How to Read Literature Like a Professor’ in a summer reading list for students I decided to revisit that world of literature. I admire Thomas Foster’s intent and I share it in my own approach toward literary discussions with people that might be intimidated by “serious” literature.

Foster sets his audience at ease immediately by adopting a relaxed, humorous, conversational tone. Nothing to get stressed about here, he’s saying. This can actually be fun, or close to it, if you follow some of the tips I’m going to present to you.

He covers such topics as quests, disease and death, sex and the absence of sex, violence, allusions to Shakespeare and the Bible, mythology, weather, geography, Christian symbology and many of the key elements that reside in literary works, past and present.

He cites American and British novelists, short story writers and poets primarily, which disappoints me personally because he excludes much of the rest of the world’s literature. This is exactly what most of the syllabi in my university English courses did as well. When I see those kinds of omissions I recoil a bit but then I have to step back and look. How many high school students, much less undergraduate university students are ever assigned Flaubert or Balzac or Mann or Dostoevsky or Chekhov? Foster’s examples will probably be more useful to the student who has not read extensively in any literature and will be more likely to encounter these American and British works than if he had cited several European or Asian authors that they will probably never be exposed to. He even neglects to mention many great American and British authors but I realize that in a book of 300 pages he can’t mention every major author.

I recommend this book for teachers as well as students and their parents or anyone that might be curious about learning more about literature without necessarily reading the often long and arduous works themselves. I believe that internalizing many of the approaches Foster presents will provide the prospective reader with ammunition for tackling major stories, poems, plays and novels with more assurance and confidence of having an enlightening aesthetic experience.
I can’t really state the intent of this book any better than Foster does himself, so here he is:
“What this book represents is not a database of all the cultural codes by which writers create and readers understand the products of that creation, but a template, a pattern, a grammar of sorts from which you can learn to look for those codes on your own. No one would include them all, and no reader would want to plow through the resulting encyclopedia.”

Among the most terrifyingly horrible books that I have ever had the misery of laying my unfortunate eyes upon, this, "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" is one of the utter worst. If you have any spare time and are looking to read a quality book, do not read this. This book is like an internet scam or phone fraud - it claims to say one thing but throws salvoes of groundless claims at you and in the end just wastes your time and money.

In the decade since this book was published, it has become a favorite of college and even enlightened high school teachers of English and American literature. And that's fine, if you want to teach young readers to ignore the story and instead analyze the author's use of symbolism and codes. Yes, we all know there's "there's only one story" -- that all writing is connected, that there's no such thing as a truly original piece of fiction. Every novel, short story, stage play, film, and poem has its roots in earlier work. That's been the case since the second caveman heard the first one tell about hunting a mammoth and decided to work up his own version. And Foster does have a number of useful things to say about deliberate themes and sources by various authors -- and not just Dickens and Shakespeare and Twain and Lawrence and Faulkner, either, but Tim O'Brien and Toni Morrison and Anita Brookner. (And he could have mentioned the "Fisher King" trilogy by Tim Powers, among others, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't waste his time with mere SF.)

The problem is, though, that Foster maintains that *all* authors deliberately salt all their works with sly symbols referencing the great authors of an earlier day, and that identifying and explicating these references is the principal reason to read fiction. Plot and character are secondary considerations, much less simply enjoying the story. And if an author -- someone like Lawrence Block, say -- doesn't bother follow this regimen, he's clearly not worth spending your time on.

I spent a long career as a public librarian and I've likely read even more books than Professor Foster. I'm not naïve about what I read, nor am I exclusionary. I enjoy Dickens and Nabokov and Flaubert, but I also read contemporary novels, as well as tons of mysteries and science fiction. And I write reviews of all of them. I'm not particular concerned with ferreting out the hidden roots of a novel, only with whether I'm enjoying reading the story and (if it's Brookner or Murakami) marveling at the use of the language. I don't object to Foster's method. I only object to his contention that there are no alternatives.

In his introduction, the author describes that moment in literature class when "It may seem at times as if the professor is either inventing interpretations out of thin air or else performing parlor tricks, a sort of analytical slight of hand." In the best of the book, he attempts to dispel this perception by explaining the "grammar of reading" in a light, chatty fashion with plenty of examples.

He discusses how and why authors borrow from each other; myth and the fact that "there's only one story" (for an interesting theological take on this check out Epic: The Story God Is Telling by John Eldridge); common story elements like eating, weather, violence, Christ figures, sex, illness, geography, etc. and what they generally mean; reading through the eyes of the author's time period; and much more. Many of the general principles were familiar to me from past literature or Bible exegesis classes, but some of the more detailed discussion of symbols was very interesting and will definitely be helpful in future reading.

Of course, I still think that a lot of literature professors and scholars (including the author of this book) do "pull interpretations out of thin air or perform parlor tricks" by over-applying the generalizations found in this book without any regard for authorial intent. When an interpretation gets too clever it often shows more about the interpreter's ingenuity than anything the author actually intended (even subconsciously). Nevertheless, this was an interesting and helpful book.

I "borrowed" this book from my daughter, who is in high school. As a middle-aged literature buff, I liked the book because the author mentions all the hard to understand, depressing works I had read decades ago, that I had never had the opportunity to discuss with anyone, and I that I hadn't any intention of re-reading. The book refreshed my memory on authors like James Joyce or Toni Morrison and explained to me their thinking. It was a trip down memory lane. Foster also draws parallels (some interesting, some far-fetched) between these English modern literary works and Greek/Latin myths, or the Bible.

The problem is that high school students would have never read most of those books (fortunately) and would not have the background in ancient literature (and this is a pity) to understand what Foster is talking about. Foster writes in a folksy, humoristic manner, but the punch lines are totally lost if the reader is not already familiar with the books mentioned throughout.

My daughter, after trying to plow through the book, declared that once in college she will avoid English Lit. like the plague. Ironically, she was assigned this book on how to read literature, but was assigned no literature works to read. Fortunately I am taking English classes in college, and I assured my daughter that Foster's deconstructionist method is seldom used in modern teaching, if ever. College students pay attention to the text itself, and to the themes that have meaning in our modern lives.

The reader is given every professor cliche in one book. The author is clearly has never put any thought into other cultures. He breezes over other cultures with some of the most bizarre fashions taking for instance an African folk tale and making it about Icarus. Alluding the difference between western art and eastern art as the difference between the writing, but then NEVER covers any other writing but western writing. With the bravado of an idea that there isn't really any new type of characters or stories out there, he keeps of these shenanigans while ignoring many types of stories in the diversity of the human condition. So focused on never stepping out of his confort zone, the author instead brings up popular western movies to prove his point further that no story is any different in the west. It's embarrassing for people that actually want to read like a professor that they will only be perpetuating the stereotype that there is nothing new in writing, or teaching.

As a non-English major, I was looking for a basic guide that would help me read novels in a thoughtful and critical way. In the bulk of the book, Foster lays the groundwork for searching out common themes (like the Christ figure, Oedipal imagery, or fairy tale themes) then, in the latter part of the book, walks readers through an exercise in searching for and applying those themes. In the end, he ties everything together by pointing out that his list is not comprehensive and that we, as readers, should feel confident in searching for and applying themes on our own. Foster has the voice of a talented professor who cares about turning students into lifelong readers, and his engaging, colloquial tone makes this an excellent introduction to reading.

With How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster does a commendable job of introducing “surface readers” to a more fruitful type of reading. Foster is, surprise(!), an English professor and decades of student interaction inspired him to write this book.

What’s that? You have an MFA in English Literature, so you don’t need to read it? You’re right. There’s nothing new for you here. Foster’s book is for the amateurs or layfolk who want to dig deeper, because as they read, a hint of something beyond the superficial catches their eye. They sense a recurring pattern or theme that pops up in an otherwise straightforward story. Why do those birds keep appearing at the oddest moments? All that rain sure seems miserable, but it’s just weather, right?

Foster’s goal is to teach readers the “language of reading.” Like any language, some signs and terms can be ambiguous, but because of centuries of intertextuality, there is a commonly accepted grammar. He also points out that readers shouldn’t try to create meaning where none exists; that’s writing. As a reader, one has to come to terms with the writer and engage him or her in equal conversation. It’s important not to bring preconceived notions to a literary work. To fully understand a novel, readers need to place themselves in the context of the author’s time and surrounding culture.

Foster’s book contains gobs of categorical examples, though presented somewhat arbitrarily. He does include a short story at the end for practice. Readers can compare their interpretation with those of Foster’s students, as well as the professor’s own view.

All this isn’t to say reading deeply beyond the surface is required to enjoy a story, but it’s one way to get more enjoyment. Readers can also use it as a guidebook for what they should know before reading more deeply. There’s likely a nod to the Bible, Greek mythology, Shakespeare, fairy tales, or some combination of the above in most of the western novels we read. Again, intertextuality at work.

Foster’s writing is warm, making How to Read Literature Like a Professor a pleasure to read. Obviously, the less practiced you are at recognizing the undercurrents, the more you’ll get out of this book. But even if you count yourself among the literary astute, it’s worth reading if only to reconfirm your own interpretations of the symbols and patterns weaved into good writing.

Most of the information in this book is helpful for beginning literature students and it does a good job of explaining critical reading without reverting to simple explanations of metaphors and similes. It is a straightforward and clear read that stays away from jargon and makes the information easy to absorb. But beware, Thomas Foster has a personality and it very much comes through in his writing. Each chapter is littered with personal anecdotes, "dad" jokes, and mock dialogue. This tone may not be for everyone but I like it as it maintains a sense of reading for enjoyment over attaining some intellectual high ground. He enjoys reading and wants readers to enjoy reading for reading's sake.

For whatever reason, I kept coming across whiney Tweets from students who were being compelled to read Thomas C Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor over the summer in advance of a college lit class.

Now, I've been reading Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism for about a year now, and I'm probably about three-quarters of the way through that book, which I find interesting enough, although obviously I can't drink it all down in one gulp. So I read a little bit about Foster's book here and there online, and it sounded like something I'd like to check out. When by chance I came across it at a local used bookstore a few weeks back, I snapped it up.

This isn't the greatest book I've ever read (i.e., Ulysses), but for what it is, it's pretty excellent. In fact it's pretty simple reading, and very fast reading, but this is one of those very rare books that I couldn't put down. If you read through the whole book and pay attention to what you're reading, I don't see how you could ever look at a novel or a short story through the same eyes ever again. Foster peels back the superficial layer of the story that few ever penetrate and exposes the symbolic and mythological guts that inform the best stories our civilization has produced.

I wish that when I was a senior in high school I'd had an English teacher who had assigned this book as a reading assignment. Of course it hadn't been written yet then, but still . . . Anyone who is interested in reading literature, or in trying to write the same, really ought to read this book and then move on to Northrop Frye.

Though Foster writes in an entertaining and enthusiastic way, he is walking through the valley of interpretation, which is always a rocky road. He presents the classic model of interpreting literature, using symbolism, cultural references and myths, irony and other tools, to find the meaning behind the meaning. Though accurate, the book will not answer the skeptic’s questions of whether we are reading into a piece something that was never intended by the author. The best part of the book is that it will expose you to a wide variety of literature to check out, including a wonderful reading list at the end.

This book has to be taken for what it is (incidentally, a piece of advice the author gives within the text)- it's not intended to be a graduate level text or for someone who is well-read. This is a guide for high school students or even undergraduate students that need some assistance. As a high school IB teacher, I assigned this to my incoming juniors as summer work, given that they worked with primarily non-fiction texts their sophomore year. Here is what they will acquire from reading it (assuming they do):

- The idea that they still need to learn how to read; reading is more than phonemes and basic comprehension- they have a ways to go.
- A basic understanding of things such as symbolism, the importance of setting, thematic elements, and irony.
- That academia doesn't mean stuffy men; Foster writes with a light, personable tone that I think they will appreciate.
- The relief that the book is a quick read; I greatly appreciate the fact that it is broken up into 10 page or less chapters that give definitions, examples, and commentary.

I think this text will be extremely helpful for my students.

This is a lighthearted, fairly entertaining read on how professors and lit majors approach literature. If you're not aware of the themes, symbolism and literary devices, it's an informative read. For a scholarly subject, it's a very readable treatment of it and illustrates how deep topics can be fun. However, it reminded me why I didn't become a literature major. (Minored in it.) Am not sure we know what was in an author's subconscious when they write. For example, some English scholars claim that all of the spires in Victorian architecture were phallic symbols because of their repression. However, the Victorians were quite religious and thought spires were reaching up to God. So, some of these claims about symbolism and themes are suspect. It's great to to know about themes, symbolism and literary devices, but love to read a novel just as a good story, too.

If you're going to read a book on literature analysis, it might as fell be an insightful and enjoyable one instead of one that wants you make to gouge your eyes out. How to Read Literature Like a Professor is an insightful introduction to the secret meanings behind literature, how to uncover them, and what makes great literature, while teaching us to read between the lines--because nothing can be taken at surface value. This book may not convince you to like reading literature, but it will definitely make you aware--if not more appreciative of it.

The only major qualm I haven't read much of the examples used and it left me very much confused--although Foster often does give a story summary. I couldn't "get" the modern references either--which made me feel like I need to read a lot more. The book is also targeted towards people who are familiar with the Bible for a great chunk of it is about biblical references, communion, baptism, and Christ figures. I would rather touch upon universal themes that will assist in read literature with a different religious backgrounds--although arguably, English literature is riddled with biblical references.

From other "reviews" I've read, some see Foster's conversational tone and as "unprofessional," "condescending," "trying too hard." While I didn't get the notion of unprofessionalism, if you are looking for a serious, extremely detailed textbook--this isn't your book. I can see Foster trying to appeal to the younger generation, the students who are only beginning to grasp the literature, which explains why he may come off as "condescending." I found the humor refreshing, and I admit to smiling a few times, but may come off as "unprofessional." And as for the "Trying too hard" part, this guy is a middle-age dude trying to speak to the younger generation here, it's like me trying to see why kids like Justin Bieber--I just can't "get" it, but you should still give me kudos for trying.

Even though I've had quite a few English classes and I've grudgingly written quite a few essays (and I only foresee more in the future)--even if I was convinced I couldn't find anything profound to say. Then, like many others, I wonder if we're all taking just making stuff up to sound intelligent (and to meet page counts), and if the author did intend for his work to make taken this way or he just had a great publicist. And Foster makes a convincing argument that it is all intentional: writers don't slave over manuscripts for years for nothing; literature isn't simply about unraveling the writer's hidden agenda, as much as it is to fuel our own interpretations.

Now I wish I'd read this before my American Literature exam--I would've had a whole lot more to say (especially since I was asked to write about religion--after reading this I am convinced I can tie anything with the Bible.)

I enjoyed this book as it brought me back to my literature classes in colleges, especially those covering Shakespeare and Greek literature. I am looking at the poems and plays I read with new eyes now. The book was also very entertaining and gave me the names of titles and authors I should read next. But I think sometimes I just want to read a good story with an interesting plot and developed characters just for enjoyment, instead of looking for symbols and hidden meanings.

Useful, especially since I am trying to teach English this year. Even though this book is aimed at college students, it is helpful for me when figuring out what my high school students should be able to do.

The book talked about imagery and symbolism a lot. Foster was good about warning us that much of a story is up to a reader's interpretation and could mean things the author didn't originally intend.

I had to read this book as a freshman in high school. Before this book everything was just a story. After reading it my eyes opened to all the encrypted meanings and metaphors that literature has to offer. Each chapter tackles a different aspect of literature. It gives clear explanations to what exactly you are reading. From the true meaning of rain, to identifying Jesus figures, to sex. This book is an excellent introduction to find out that everything you have been reading isn't what you thought. For advanced readers that understand many of these concepts already I would not recommend as it won't tell you anything you don't already know. This book is meant for high school level reading. However if you need a refresher on your literature go ahead and get it!

What I Thought:
Most of the book seemed unnecessary, and somewhat obvious. Having said that it was somewhat helpful, and should help me in my future studies.

The Good:

Will help me with school.
Some new things that I haven't been taught before.
Short

The Bad:

He would go on long tangents about specific books that I haven't ever heard of or ever plan to read and that just seemed unnecessary.
Overall just boring.
Recommend?:
I would recommend reading this if you're having trouble subtextually analyzing books, or if you have to read it for school, but if you don't fall into either category I would say it is not needed.

At times How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines is like being in my favorite English class, however the remainder of the time it was filler. There were a few instances where I felt like I am getting something from this that I never learned or realized, but for the majority of the book I felt like I was reading a set of definitions expanded with irrelevant views into the authors life.
It became annoying about a third of the way through when the author kept bringing up the same books or authors over and over again. Sure by having a limited number of books or authors mentioned in the book you make it easier for the reader and the author by being more concise, but it felt like everything he mentioned was off his syllabus. I realize that many reviewers may claim that this gave them some epiphany or insight into all future reading, but the book offers nothing of the sort besides somewhat obvious suggestion which is what this book is to me a book of suggestions rather than a guide. Almost everything in this book is something a teacher or professor would offer a student to help them develop their ideas.
I think the reason why I am so turned off by this book and others like it is that it is essentially a how to guide of suggestions, but it wasn't that helpful to me (I am sure it is to some). Also the reading between the lines subtitle seems a little inappropriate since many of the observations the author comes up with are the obvious first time ideas you have, not the ideas that you mull about and weigh the reasons why. Perhaps that is why I don't care for this, that I expected something like a graduate's student thesis analysis, but instead got the general suggestions that all teachers and professors give out regardless of merit.
I will give it to the author that he tried to teach the reader how to identify symbols (etc) and how to interpret them which many never receive as students which is why I am giving the book three stars. I do have some doubts as if inexperienced readers (or whatever) after reading this will have improved much after reading this besides noticing the key points that the author gives out (Seasons, Food, Sex, Mythology, etc).

How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster is a very informational book on the use of symbols, settings, and situations. It is organized in chapters, each chapter talking about a certain type of symbol, i.e. "It's Never Just Heart Disease...And Rarely Just Illness" (chapter 23). That chapter talks about how illnesses are symbols, dwelling on one example where two people having an affair say they have a heart problem. I have never been any good at symbols, but I managed to pick up on some in the "test" at the back of the book, unlike before I read the book. I didn't do very well, but I also didn't bother to formally write out my interpretation, possibly contributing to that.

The book is also entertaining, even down to the chapter titles, which make sense and are funny at the same time. Foster is a very talkative person, exactly the sort one might want to read a history book from (since we all know those books need a little sugar to help the medicine go down). I do disagree that lots of things are symbols, and that writers will think of symbols while "sideways thinking" as he puts it, during the process of writing the story. I have written stories before, and while I do have a "Christ Figure", it wasn't a symbol, just a plot point. Of course, based on what people incorporate into their subconscious may make for unintentional symbols. I agreed with his point that symbols could mean many things. That's one of the nice things about literature-the interpretation you think of first may not be wrong.

I can't remember everything he wrote, but I can recognize symbols better than I used to, as long as I hold them in conscious thought rather than letting myself read a book without thinking of them.

"How to Read Literature Like a Professor" is the kind of book that has a bulls-eye affixed to it from the second it hits the shelf. "Who does this guy think he is? Suggesting that I don't know how to READ?" some might protest. "The ins and outs of literary analysis and criticism in just 300-some pages? PLEASE" complain others. Perhaps anticipating this, Foster writes in a conversational, pointedly "non-professorial" style. He readily admits that there is no simple recipe for reading literature "like a professor". Nor does he claim to do more than scratch the surface with this book.

Indeed, for anyone who reads regularly, and had a decent high school and/or college English teacher or two, this book shouldn't be terribly earth-shattering. Foster deserves high marks not necessarily for his insights, but his ability to articulate them. Discussing the meaning of several common symbols, highlighting the importance of allusions to other literary work, pointing out the ability of irony to trump all, reminding the reader of the blood, sweat, and tears writers expend on a sentence that only took the reader a second to read, and then emphasizing what all of this means for the reading experience ... the whole is worth even more than the (already valuable) sum of its individual parts. Above all, this book left me excited and enthusiastic about picking up my next work of literature to read.

At its most basic level, reading is about the affective response a writer can inspire in her reader. But where a writer truly succeeds is when he can get his reader to ask the important questions: "What does this mean?" "Why does this feel familiar?" "What is the author trying to say?" "Why did the author do this or have his characters say that?" Keeping an open mind and open eyes, asking questions and making conjectures, having fun and staying inquisitive: these are Foster's keys to reading literature. This book is one big reminder to scratch beneath the surface, which is in and of itself a valuable service. Add to that Foster's wit and useful examples, and you have a fine book. This is a good addition to the bookshelf of anyone looking to squeeze even just a little bit more enjoyment out of reading a good book.

A book of "writing about writing," except all that you are doing is allowing Foster to spew out everything he knows about his four favorite books over the length of 300 pages. Foster may have stated that this is "lively and entertaining," but I did not find it so. He has an utterly boring and prideful tone. He makes a series of baseless assertions in each chapter, stating that "meals shared together are communion" and "when a man displeases a woman, he is a vampire." His writing style is pretentious, as he consistently talks "down" to you like he is some all-knowledgeable god of wisdom. In addition, to support his arguments, he uses the same evidence over and over, which include these four repeatedly-used sources: James Joyce, Toni Morrison, Tim O'Brien, and Sophocles. If you want to hear Foster talk about writing, and his favorite books in particular, instead of actually reading books and gaining more knowledge and satisfaction from that experience, buy this book. I would not recommend this.

I think that it is true that there are no new stories. While there may be some value in studying the context, geography, etc. of a story, I am not convinced that if you asked authors about their works if they would tell you that what English professors tell you about their works is what they were trying to communicate. I think that most people are interested in story and how well it is told. After all as Foster quoted Freud, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

I haven't actually finished the book. I've only read the intro. I already want to die. This is probably the worst summer assignment I have ever done. So far, I have only read the introduction but have been bored out of my mind so bad that I resorted to reading the reviews trashing the book, and I am finding myself 10000 times more entertained. If you have to read this atrocity for school, I am so so so sorry for your loss and wish you luck.

Professors' analyses of books often confound me. Some of the things that they find are far removed from the things that I usually notice. In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster provides an overview of how scholars analyze "serious" literature.

Foster explains some of the key texts that influence the characters and the plots in literature. He focuses on the influence of Greek myths, the Bible, and Shakespeare, among others. The book includes great discussions of the "true" meanings of things such as weather, politics, illness, and food.

Predictably, Foster cites many examples from classic and contemporary literature. He admires Toni Morrison and often uses her novels to illustrate his points. Foster's dry sense of humor also livens up the book.

In the end, Foster writes, there is no definitive interpretation of any work. Readers who want easy answers might be a bit disappointed. Foster also admits that not all books contain deep meaning; sometimes, a "cigar is just a cigar."

For those who want to read deeply and get more out of their books, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is a great book.

My son was assigned this book for 10th grade honors lit. Getting him to continue reading and finish this book has been like pulling teeth! This is for a kid that normally absolutely loves to read! I took a quick look through to see why he was hating it and I can see the point. The author sounds like a hippie college professor. I only hope that there is some small reason somewhere in his high school career that some little tidbit will be useful. It saddens me when kids that love to read get these kind of assignments to make them turn away from reading all together.

How is it that I took honors English all through high school and a fair number of lit classes in college, yet I never heard of the concept of the Wasteland? Seriously. I learned a bunch of other literary themes: fall from innocence, cycle of seasons, hero's quest, all that rot...but it wasn't until I read this book (in my mid-thirties! Jeezus) that Prof. Foster laid it out for me. Now check this out: it so happens that the very next book I read after this one was The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan. Before reading Foster's book, I would have understood the text in a muddled, intuitive sense, but I would not have GOT IT. But holy heck, from the very first chapter the theme and symbol LEAPT off the page, becoming so crystal clear that I knew with absolute certainty how it was going to end. Why? Because it HAD to end that way, unless it were an exercise in irony (or futility).

Rarely have I had the experience of knowing so utterly exactly what the author was getting at, and I owe it to Prof. Foster's explanation of the common thematic package known as The Wasteland. Thanks to the Prof., I was able to LEARN and APPLY new information to enhance my reading experience. That alone made this book a worthwhile read for me. I recommend it to anyone who wants a clear, friendly, and largely un-academic explanation of literary themes that can illuminate YOUR next read.

Wow, so I guess all those years I spent getting degrees in English literature were just wasted time. How wonderful it would have been (not to mention CHEAPER) if I'd only had this book ...
Kudos to the author for coming up with a great way to cash in on HIS degree LOL

This book is a wonderful resource for those of us non-lit majors who love great literature anyway. Professor Foster does not write like so many professors. (Even English professors often prove incapable of stringing a viable sentence together!) Foster's style is easy and disarming as he takes the reader on a whirlwind trip through classic literature, pointing out the depth and richness available to anyone willing to put a little more effort into reading. His short chapters focus on some of the most significant symbols that pop up in great literature, from Homer's Illiad to Rowling's Harry Potter series. As a reader, I deeply appreciate this guidance. As a writer, I'm inspired!

Back in the day when I was in high school and college, Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren's classic tome HOW TO READ A BOOK was suggested reading for anyone who was studying literature, philosophy, or any of the other subjects of a traditional classical education. I recall one professor suggesting someone write a book called HOW TO READ MORTIMER ADLER AND CHARLES VAN DOREN'S HOW TO READ A BOOK. As I recall the book was helpful but I'm wondering if a book such as Thomas Foster's HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR would have a bit more helpful and perhaps would have given Adler and Van Doren a bit of competition.

I first saw the title a few months back when bookstores began displaying books that were required summer reading in area high schools. The selections amazed me. Staples such as HUCKLEBERRY FINN, THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV and A TALE OF TWO CITIES were still included in the stacks along with authors such as Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, John Updike, and Marilynne Robinson. Summer reading lists have expanded and in many cases are more challenging. I also saw HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR in the same displays. I'm not sure if teachers are requiring this book as a companion or whether the booksellers are hoping that students will buy this guide that's bound to be useful in reading and writing about literature.

The book is set up into a number of small chapters that deals with understanding literature. Each chapter has illustrations from the wide worlds of literature and Foster makes sure he includes everything from antiquity to the present day. It also includes a good bibliography as well as film suggestions (much of what Foster says can be applied to film studies as well).

Students are the obvious target audience for this book with English teachers not that far behind. My guess is that this book will be a godsend in the classroom. It will enable actual discussions about literature to start. I purchased it as a guide for a book club I belong to, and since I love to write, I've been using it to help me shape portions of my novel in progress. People who are involve din Bible Study may also find this book helpful. The Bible does contain so many universal themes in literature and like good literature, shows humanity at its bets and worst. I'm also thinking another audience will enjoy it. I know a number of people who are rereading classics or picking up books that were supposed to be read in high school and college but instead got the "Cliffs Notes" treatment. People are also reading more challenging books for personal pleasure. This book is like having an answer machine nearby and is bound to make reading more meaningful.

I wish I had had access to HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR for my Freshman English classes. Thomas C. Foster provides the reader with insights into those amazing points college professors and advanced placement English teachers make concerning classical texts such as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, THE SUN ALSO RISES, BELOVED, and the other standard works assigned to young students. The older reader will also appreciate his insights. You may even finally discover why certain works appeal to you while others don't, or why trashy novels don't fill the gap in your soul "good" books do.
"It was a dark and stormy night..." So begins the never finished novel Snoopy has been developing on the top of his dog house for years. And so began (or similarly began) one of the great classics...WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Foster explains why the weather in a novel is a very important clue. Sunshine and clouds affect mood and the classical writers are adept at using atmospheric pressure to evoke mood.
Foster explains that other literary devices have been used to effect mood, attitude, and feelings of commiseration ever since our forebears sat around the campfires and told each other entertaining tales. Shakespeare may have been original, but he was also a master of understanding what worked for other authors from whom he borrowed much. A number of great works written since Shakespeare use his devices including subtle references to the Bible and the Greek Classics.
One wonders in an age not prone to studying the Bible as literature or Latin in high school, how much is lost. On the other hand, the study of Spanish (a Romance language) could prove quite important to speakers of English deprived of Latin classes. Don Quixote understood the importance of "the quest."

"And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. Then Abimelech asked Abraham, "What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves?" -- Genesis 21:28-29 (NKJV)

Literature professors have a reputation second only to French professors for being rather snooty about those who don't share their expertise and devotion to the Holy Grail of their specialties. Professor Thomas C. Foster is the happy exception, taking great glee in revealing the secrets (it's all connected to everything else) and showing simple ways to grasp more of the intended (and unintended) meanings of literary prose. He makes the subject fun, something I remember very little of from my college classes . . . which were usually pompous, dull, and discouraging.

If you can read at the eighth grade level, you can get quite a lot of benefit from this book. You also don't have to have read very much. Professor Foster provides the information you need to grasp more of the references and to look for more.

I was particularly grateful for his list of rewarding literary books to read. The ones I have read were all superb, and I assume the ones I have still to read will be, too. I was also encouraged to realize that my love of Greek myths would be helpful if I take the time to refresh my memory about those lovely tales that I enjoyed so much as a youngster.

As a writer, I'm grateful to his suggestion that drawing from kiddie lit is the best way to knit together references that will be relatively universal.

The book culminates in a case study where you have a chance to try your wings and compare answers.

Someone who has studied literature will find this book too elementary to be very useful, but if someone teaches literature I think this book can be a great blessing for showing how to make literature much more accessible.

Bravo, Professor Foster!

I saw the title of this book and thought, "Now why

would I want to read literature like a professor?"

which was probably a reflection of my professors

who sucked the passion for reading literature right

out of my veins. Too bad I didn't havev a

professor like the author if this book!

(I do have to mention the one section that upset

me, though - where he supposes that 45 year olds

are somehow to old to increase their self-knowledge

as a "Quester"...this was in his summary of

"Every trip is a quest." I beg to differ on this

one... and in fact, I wonder how many of this

books readers are over 45 years old and are

actually questing through reading this book

and applying the principles found therein?)

So now that this one opinion of "The Professiorial

Doubting Thomas C. Foster" set aside.... I will also

say that this book was eye-opening and evocative and

nearly each page had something wise that I could

immediately use and apply to my own learning

process and discovery as both a reader and a writer.

Writers would find a lot of gold here, too - so

I strongly suggest it be added to any writer's

library as well.

Thomas C. Foster's "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" is a joyful romp for those of us who love pondering and discussing well-written poems, stories, and novels. The author's delightful sense of humor and refreshing lack of pomposity make this an entertaining "guide to reading between the lines." In his introduction, Foster immediately grabs our attention by discussing Mr. Lindner, a "milquetoast" sent to tempt the Younger family in Hanberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." The Youngers have made a down-payment on a home in an all-white neighborhood, but Lindner tries to buy out their claim in order to prevent the neighborhood from becoming integrated. For all of his apparent meekness, Foster insists, Lindner is actually the devil in disguise. His offer is a Faustian bargain, a literary concept that goes all the way back to the Elizabethan era and has recurred many times since in many forms.

Lest we laugh at this interpretation as being too far-fetched, Foster backs up his contention, explaining that a professor reads literature within a certain frame of reference. As he explains: "What I'm talking about is a grammar of literature, a set of conventions and patterns, codes and rules, that we learn to employ in dealing with a piece of writing." Although some readers pick up a book for a few hours of pleasure without wanting to delve into its many nuances, "How to Read Literature" is geared to those of us who are interested in symbols, motifs, and the underlying significance of literary works.

Foster's style is amusing, instructive, and always lively. He focuses on such diverse writers as William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Robert Frost, James Joyce, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, and D. H. Lawrence, among others. Using detailed examples, the author illustrates the far-reaching implications of such elements as setting, illness, eroticism, politics, violence, and irony. He urges us to read, not just from the perspective of our day and age, but also from the point of view of the writer. He concludes with Katherine Mansfield's brilliant short story, "The Garden Party," followed by a discussion of its many facets, some of which may surprise you. There is an appendix that includes a suggested reading list of primary and secondary sources. Even if you don't agree with everything Foster says and even if you don't particularly enjoy the writers whom he praises so effusively, you will come away from "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" with a renewed appreciation for the richness and endless depth of thought-provoking literature.

I've read this charming, helpful and humorous book twice. Each time author Foster has refreshed my memory of literary symbols and conventions, as well as inspired me to try some re-reading of books that have more to offer than the surface story.

While highbrows will no doubt find this humdrum, those of us who read voraciously for pleasure will find many helpful hints to understand the "story undern eath the story" of both classic and modern works.

Highly recommended.

How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster was an enjoyable book and is an easy read due to the author's lightheartedness. Before reading this book, I often read many books and saw many movies without the full understanding of what the writer was truly trying to say. Take the chapter about water being a way of cleansing. As soon as that idea clicked for me, I suddenly thought of the movie that Hilary Duff is in, A Cinderella Story, when the rain came down after the drought everything seemed to fix itself - Austin and Sam kissed and the mean Step-Mother was officially out of Sam's life. Because of this simple explanation in the book everything made sense now, the rain cleansed Sam of her problems so she was able to make up with Austin and things were right again. This is just one the ways reading this book has opened my eyes to the many different types of symbolism, which has helped me a lot in my understandings of stories.

Another plus for this book would be the interesting discussions that were held in my English class due to the sometimes questionable ideas Thomas C. Foster brought up. The main idea that kept coming up in our discussions would be the idea of no wholly original stories. At first this idea seemed easily answered, but upon further discovery, our class found the answer to be somewhat inconclusive due to opposing reasons. With the talk that Thomas C. Foster had aroused, it had our entire class really thinking, which is hard to do at eight o'clock in the morning.

Even though I found the book to be very insightful, there are some things that could have been better. Seeing as I am only a sophomore in High School, I am not a super experienced reader, and the amount of examples from real life texts that Thomas C. Foster gives us in the story is overwhelming. While the examples from real texts of what Foster was talking about in the chapter were helpful, I could not relate to them seeing as I had not read any of the books he continually talked about. He also gave too many examples, to the point where he was just rambling on and on. Foster even rambled on and on about simple topics that shouldn't have been given so much thought. Foster simply needs to work on being more concise.

Overall, I thought that the book was worth reading. At first glance of the book I thought it was going to be a waste of my time, but it turned out to help me more than I can explain. I have found myself being more involved with stories and actually understanding them, instead of going to my teacher or Spark notes for help. How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster is an informative and very helpful book that I would recommend to any reader.

I have been teaching English Literature at the secondary level for many years, and this is one of the texts that, since the first time I read it, has become a "must read" for my students. While the broad scope of the author's literary allusion may escape many students (and teachers,) his concise explanations and easy to understand analysis make it easy for those who DON'T read literature often (read: most teenagers)to see the web of similarities that connects story to story, symbol to symbol. I have used Foster's text with great results in my AP classes, and with no small measure of success in my college prep. classes as well. I strongly recommend this book to anyone that wants to see text the way those of us in front of the classroom do.Why Are All the Good Teachers Crazy?

Dr. Thomas C. Foster is a Michigan Professor of English who has written this bestseller and its sequel "How To Read Novels Like a Professor". This is the initial volume published in paperback by Quill in 2003.
Foster is well versed in all aspects of the literary field from ancient works to fiction by living writers. In his lively little book he introduces us to such terms as the following:
Seasons; Food; the Bible, Greek and Latin classical allusions and the world of fairy tales. He discusses irony, plote, motif and theme. All of this can be found elsewhere and in greater depth but Foster does an adequate job by using cogent illustrations from outstanding works such as "The Alexandrine Quartet" of Lawrence Durrell;
"A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess; "Grendel" by John Gardner as well as classics penned by such notables as Dickens, Henry James, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence and the ancient Greek dramatists. He also uses examples from African-American, Latin American and Native American works which is commendable. I especially enjoyed his contention that the chief character in Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is a Christ figure.
The best part of the book was the chapter in which we are asked to peruse Katherine Mansfield's "The Garden Party" short story and then analyze it using the tools of the literary critic which we have acquired1 This was great fun! Valid interpretations of a literary work are myriad making it fun to become engrossed in literature!
Foster alludes to the sonnet and Shakespeare but otherwise has little to say about legitimate drama. The book is a beginner's guide not for the advanced literary scholar. It will keep your interest for several hours; you will learn new ways of looking at old books and you will become a better reader. Recommended!

A better subtitle to this book might be "Understanding Symbology," but then you would miss the "lively" and "entertaining" part of the current subtitle, and that shouldn't be thrown away. This is probably the best book I've ever read about the ugly task of decoding literature, and I would highly recommend it as a graduation present for any high school student who plans to attend college. It's that good. Foster is no dry academic, although his taste still runs to the rather mundane type of literature that doesn't do anything for me personally. What Foster is good about, though, is explaining exactly why he finds that type of literature exciting and how one can decipher it to understand what those darn professors find interesting about it, too.

This is a nice companion piece to Jane Smiley's Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, especially her chapter on how novelists play games when writing. Smiley comes to the novel as a practioner; Foster looks at the novel as a cartographer. Smiley explains how to play the game, while Foster shows how to understand what the game was that the novelist was playing. Do all novelists play games? No, only the better ones. It's not that novels that have nothing going for them beyond the plot are bad per se, but like a movie that goes from one chase sequence to showdown, a plot-only novel is one-dimensional.

The only thing missing in Foster's explication here is an understanding for novels of ideas, which often get short shrift from the academy, sometimes rightly (when the novel has no plot or characters and only presents the ideas) but often overlooked because the novelist eschews symbology for prognostication. It's only a slight misstep, and one easily forgiven for most college classes where this book will come in handy won't be covering those kinds of books anyway.

How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster is one of the most accessible guides to literature on the market today. With a clear, familiar voice; numerous and well articulated examples and a structure that reads like you're in a lecture hall hearing him explain it to you personally all make it a literary guide that is well worth picking up.

Being the son of an English major, I am familiar with quite a few English professors; and Foster is reminiscent of many of my favorites. His writing is friendly and engaging, drawing in those who may struggle with the typical high-minded, intimidating language used by many professors. Your mileage may vary on how effective this is, of course: it may be off-putting how casual he is, and he does have a tendency to go on tangents. For myself, however, the writing style was deeply engaging.

As all good English professors should be, he is well read, far beyond my level. However, while he often quoted from books and stories I was completely unfamiliar with, he managed to frame it with just enough story summary to make his examples relevant to the chapter, and in fact made the back-of-the-book recommended reading list that much more enticing: hearing these stories praised and connected to so many symbols makes us want to pick up copies for ourselves and see if we can find what he was talking about. Once again, your mileage may vary.

Lastly, his structure. The book reads like a good lecture, which I deeply enjoy. However, he is very idiosyncratic with his choices for topics. He willingly admits that this is a primer, an introduction to some major symbolic groupings, and that the only way to really pick up on symbolic meaning is practice. Furthermore, he has a tendency to slightly contradict himself, saying that "something always means this except when it doesn't." While I do agree with his explanation (he says "'always' and 'never' are not words that apply much to literature because as soon as you establish a rule some wise guy will come along and break it") I think it would have been simpler to merely state that one thing suggest another rather than state something to be total truth and then deny that total truth exists later.

Overall, Foster's book resonated well with me. It reads easy and manages to impart what it intends to impart: a deeper knowledge of the meaning behind literature and how to get the most out of your own readings. I highly recommend it.

At last, you can become a literary expert right in your home..without taking classes in cramped classroom chairs and having to listen to other students drone on about lost loves, death, violence and the internet. The central thesis of Professor Foster's book is that to succeed at the art of close reading one has to search for the symbolism, invariably underlying, in the literary text. The principal benefit of this book is that Foster provides an array of examples demonstrating that a richer appreciation of the art is available to readers who are willing to work for it. Foster has a light touch, a welcome contrast to the ponderous, inscrutable tomes of many of his colleagues. He keeps the pace moving and his attempts to inject humor in the process are successful more often than not. I have to admit that, although I have long admired her work, what Foster says about Iris Murdoch is true: her characters drown at every opportunity; given have a chance, she'd drown the Pacific fleet!

This is the kind of book one picks up at the airport for a long flight -- easy to read, not particularly deep, somewhat whimsical. Easy to read through in one or two sittings. Not great literature (ironically). Nowhere near what Harold Bloom would have written, but on the other hand, one doesn't need to be a literary scholar to enjoy Thomas Foster. Five stars for a book of this genre (recreation reading on a long flight), but compared to a Harold Bloom book on similar subject, this book would probably rate a 1 or 2.

Now that I've read this book, you may as well not bother trying to read my book reviews; yes, that's right, I will now be examining themes and motifs and character motivation and other things like that and I'll probably be writing such amazing stuff that no one else will be able to understand me. Like a professor, right? No, my days of "Uh, I liked it" or "Well, I don't know" are over; I'll be finding things like water imagery and mother archetypes and references to obscure lines from Ulysses. So if you want to try to understand even a glimmer of what I'm writing about, you may need to read this book, too. ;->

The book could rate lower or higher, depending on how it is received by its intended audience--the avid but neophyte reader whose interest extends beyond the currently popular. Unlike similar discussions, Foster focuses not only on "how" literature means but "what" it means, which for the author has more to do with Jung, Joseph Campbell and Northrop Frye than Freud, Marx, or Roland Barthes. In other words, he's big on archetypal patterns, and he supplies them in accessible and economical terms that should encourage his readers to find out more on their own.
The book seems quite loosely organized, a chatty collection of brief post-class meditations that must have numerous teachers wondering why they didn't come up with the same title and premise themselves. If there's a critical omission, it's the inadequate attention to the role of language. A central problem for many, if not most, beginning readers of literature is the assumption that words are of value only insofar as they refer to meanings "out there." Consequently, they read literary texts in "chunks," looking for broad paraphrases that will be sufficient to point to a connection between the literary work and its underlying archetype, or to a link between the "symbolic" text and "real" life. But an experienced reader of literature finds the "primary" pleasures and meanings of a text to lie in the individual word choices of the author as well as the syntactic structures that engage the reader's consciousness in the dynamic life of the text. Not to attend to these matters first is not merely to invite irresponsible readings but to imply that literature is somehow separate and secondary from its "meanings."
"How to Read Literature Like a Professor" addresses some of the major responses of the literature teacher (one can only hope readers would ever want to read like him). But it never quite locates where, for the professorial reader, the real action takes place. Reaching that place, or nexus between the life in the text and the reader's consciousness, can be a highly demanding task, but for those who profess the rewards of literature there can be no short cuts or substitutes.

I thought this book was true to its' subtitle: "lively and entertaining", and I learned a great deal, too. I have always loved to read, but have not spent a lot of time deconstructing books below their obvious surface. To use a food analogy, I am more of a book gourmand than a gourmet. After reading this thoroughly enjoyable book, I believe I can appreciate the finer and deeper points of books better than I did before. I'm not a writer or a literature student or English teacher - I'm just a lover of books, and I loved this one.

If you're a voracious reader of novels or stories, but not an English Literature Major, and often find yourself thinking "there's more going on in this story, but I can't figure out what" then this book will provide a great starting point for expanding your reading. Foster takes the uninitiated on an easy to follow quest through literary symbology, allusion, and theory. It focuses almost exclusively on reading, not on writing (though one can vastly improve one's writing by becoming a better reader). And the intended audience is the beginner (though someone who has never read a novel might not fare too well).

Foster's ideas may strike some as "out there". He reads stories and symbols on a very mythological level. And this leads to his easy to misunderstand notion of "there's only one story". By this he doesn't mean "there's only one plot" or "all stories are the same story" but something more philosophical such as "all stories belong to and feed off of the one big story" (something ineffably akin to existence and history). Thus stories and symbols take on recognizable meanings over time. They get embedded in culture and interact with other stories. The best examples he discusses involve the Bible ("Christ figures", floods, etc), Shakespeare, Fairy Tales, and Greek Mythology. Stories have the ability to tap into these culturally embedded notions and heighten the meaning of a plot or a character. This only works because "we're all part of the same story" and, subsequently, because "there's only one story". Originality, then, becomes a measure of how well a story taps into this wellspring of meaning and exploits it for purposes of its own meaning.

Foster presents this idea of one story as the source of literary allusion. He gives numerous examples to support this theory with various symbols, including: quests, vampirism, eating, rain and snow, violence, flight, disease, the seasons, and geography. His approach isn't a tyrannical one, either. He doesn't, for instance, say "rain is ALWAYS cleansing!!" Foster accepts the notion that symbols only suggest meaning, they don't dictate it. Symbols have fluidity. Different people may interpret "snow" in different ways (though bad interpretations do exist, as Foster also recognizes). And irony also throws a wrench into the narrative machine.

Other topics that receive mention include politics and sex. Foster points out that many covert political stories exist (in defiance of the "don't put politics into your fiction!" dictum). He uses Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" to eludcidate this. As for sex, Foster finds symbolic literary sex far more satsifying than outright portrayals of intimacy in stories. Why? Because sexual intimacy typically carries symbolic meaning for a story. It carries the plot forward.

Foster's book most of all encourages the questioning of a story. Why is the main character short or tall? Why is the story set in winter rather than spring or summer? Why do references to birds keep appearing in a story? Such questions lead a reader down the path of reading a story in a more broad way. Which should heighten the experience of reading.

The book's final chapter presents a "test case" in the form of Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Garden Party". After reading the story (included as a whole), Foster asks the reader to consider some questions and return to the text. He then gives interpretations of some of his students and finally his own reading of the story. For those that have never taken a literature course, this chapter probably provides the most benefit, especially regarding the "tools" introduced in the preceding chapters. Here he puts theory to practice.

In the end, Foster claims that this book doesn't represent the only, or even necessarily the best, way to read and analyze a story. So those who already have a literary background may take issue with his approach. But for the beginner this book presents a possible new dimension for reading, understanding, and judging stories. It should help to dispell the notion that literary teachers and professors just "make it all up." Most of all, it should provide a good launching pad, not a landing pad, for further reading.

I absolutely loved this book. I disagree with the professor on some minor points, but overall I thought his work was brilliant.

First he covers the sources of traditional story patterns. The bible, myth, Shakespeare, folk tales, and more. Then he shows how they are played out in more modern works. Third he works through symbols, like water (though he missed that water is a fertility symbol), caves, sharing a meal, and going on a journey. Finally, he pulls it all together with a great short story and shows how it all works together. I'm eager to start reading his next book, How to Read Novels Like a Professor. Sadly, not yet available for the Kindle.

Reading for hidden meaning in terms of symbolism, etc., has never been my strong point, which is why this book interested me. And I am certainly glad I read it. I did pick up a few ideas on how to look and what to look for in literature. I'm afraid that I did not delve so deeply or see everything there was in the test case at the end, so I probably will never be cut out to be a professor of literature. But this book definitely brought some things to the front of my mind. I imagine it will pay off in terms of deepened appreciation some day.

The author mentions in the last chapter that he realizes that his book might be a bit rambly and idiosyncratic. I'm glad he and I were on the same page! The chapters had a tendency to wander, and they were, on the whole, a little longer than they needed to be.

I had mixed feelings about his habit of pointing to specific examples. I realize that there was really no other way to go about illustrating his points. And sometimes it worked well, but other times I felt very annoyed and frustrated that I had not read the book and didn't always understand exactly what he was talking about. I couldn't really predict which way my feelings would go about the example texts, so I don't know if it was him or me. But it did seem sort of hit or miss.

I do appreciate the author's effort to keep his guide 'lively and entertaining'. He did a good job, in my opinion. It was a fun book to read. Lively, entertaining, and quite educational. He provided quite a bit of food for thought. My favorite tidbit? Both A Raisin in the Sun and Damn Yankees contain Faustian plot elements. Cool!

How to Read Literature like a Professor is meant for anyone and is an absolute joy to read. Author Thomas C. Foster has created a comedic yet informative journey through hundreds of classics, highlighting themes, uncovering hidden symbols, and shedding light on things within literature that tend to come across as dark or nonexistent to the novice reader.
It's such an entertaining read, you don't realize it's essentially a lecture on the classics. Foster has a great sense of humor which he displays to the fullest while discussing Freudian influences, the meanings of disease, the roles of snows, etc.. His humor was a big incentive for me to continue reading and made me more comfortable with some of the ideas he presented.
Foster doesn't just throw titles and references at you either, although it may seem that way at first. He delves into many different books to illustrate one point at a time so the reader can adequately understand the principle of the current chapter and even added a complete booklist at the end for any who want to find the evidence on their own.
Overall How to Read Literature like a Professor was very enlightening and left me anxious to read nearly every book it referenced. Foster's personable wording and hilarious jokes left a smile on my face every time I had to set it down. This is a must read even if you don't necessarily need the skills it promises to hone for you!

Warning: This book is full of "spoilers" for many books. It's also a tedious bore by a pompous know-it-all, but some people may like that sort of thing.

To the point of the numerous spoilers though, suppose you had every intention of reading Anna Karenina (as well as numerous other books and poems), but hadn't done so yet? You won't want to, after reading this chore of a book, because it spoils the ending for them.

I had to buy this book for a summer assignment for AP Lit and it absolutely hate it. It claims to be "a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics" when its the complete opposite. This book is so dry and boring I just gave up on reading it and found summaries of the chapters on GradeSaver (something I rarely do and don't like to do). My suggestion is don't buy it and if you have to for a summer reading assignment, use the GradeSaver summaries for it. I looked at the summaries of the chapters that I did read and they were pretty much on point, don't waste your money on a book that will bore you do death with useless information.

"How to read literature like a professor" is an easy-to-comprehend book, lucidly written with a dash of humour, that is meant for amateurs of literature. Using a conversational tone throughout the book, Thomas Foster chose to emphasize on symbolism and patterns used in literature. Incorporating examples from a wide selection of books (mainly classics or renowned novels), he explains the way symbols are inherent in novels and imparts techniques to the readers on how better to fathom the deeper significance of the contents. According to Thomas, meals, diseases, blindness, weather and seasons, roads present in novels are all written for a purpose. For example, meals signify communions whereas roads represent quests.

There is much to be learned from this book, but I doubt it will be of much use to serious students of literature. I would have preferred if the author also touched on other aspects of literature, such as themes and characterization. Using an entire book to explain symbolism seemed a tad too long-winded.

As a life-longer learner and literature major, I have spent years laboring over difficult, verbose, dry and authoritative texts that define and discuss literary symbolism. Reading too much deconstruction theory and word-specific analysis feels like getting so close to the words with a magnifying glass that the meaning of the words and sometimes the words themselves can no longer be deciphered. These tomes take seriousness to an exaggerated level, speaking down to the reader from great heights, perhaps the same heights Thomas Foster uses as an example from The Garden Party in How To Read Literature Like a Professor.

Suggestive of the second half of his title, A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines, Foster comes down from the heights of academia by speaking, not to his readers, but with them. And while this book is most suited to high school seniors or college freshmen as a friendly introductory text, it was delightfully refreshing to read. It felt good to put down the magnifying glass and see literature once again as basic and whole as it was meant to be. I felt as though I had pulled up a chair in Professor Foster's classroom and had been part of a conversation, albeit a directed conversation.

Is Foster's tone a bit arrogant? Sure it is - he is a college English professor and what's a good English professor without a little arrogance? Isn't that what we expect, after all? Are the concepts basic and used? Yes they are - there is nothing here that is new or revolutionary - but what a comforting feeling it was to walk again on a worn path.

Any non-student with the inclination to pick up this book on their own undoubtedly has a list of favorite authors and stories, and certainly will feel as though something is missing. But Foster repeatedly reminds his readers that a lot is missing from this book. As he explains, no book can encompass all of literary symbolism, or mention every story, novel, movie or poem worthy of mention. So although some readers might find his list of recommended readings somehow incomplete, it is nonetheless his list. As Foster points out very honestly, "I'm pretty sure I could have made this book, with not too much effort, twice as long. I'm also pretty sure neither of us wants that."

Fosters concept of literature as play and his own word-play are as refreshing as the cleansing rains he outlines in his chapter on weather. Two of the best lines are from the end of his book, his "Envoi":

"... don't wait for writers to be dead to be read; the living ones can use the money. Your reading should be fun. We only call them literary works. Really, though, it's all a form of play."

As students of literature one tends to forget this, trudging through tedious and unpleasant pages because we are told that we must master certain classics; a list of some English professor's doing. Foster further explains that, "... in fact literature is chiefly play. If you read novels and plays and stories and poems and you're not having fun, somebody is doing something wrong. If a novel seems like an ordeal, quit; you're not getting paid to read it are you? And you surely won't get fired if you don't read it. So enjoy."

Which is his whole point, if you don't like his style, his ideas or his words, don't read his book. Otherwise - enjoy.

One thing's for certain: after finishing HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR, you will either praise the author for opening your eyes to the pleasures of literary analysis, or curse him for making you think too much. That's because Thomas C. Foster, a professor of English at the University of Michigan at Flint, gives his readers a lot to consider.
The short answer one comes away with is that nothing is as it appears to be. Symbolism is key. Weather, for example, is not just weather. Rain can be cleansing, cold is harsh but clean, wet is earthy and animal.
In case the reader doesn't quite get what Foster is saying, he succinctly states his meaning in a single, boldface sentence. "Myth is a body of the story that matters" reads one. "The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge" is another.
My favorite is, "There's no such thing as a wholly original work of literature," a theme that is repeated on several occasions. According to Foster, everything any author has ever read influences what he writes. Using the western film as an example, he suggests, "What's it about? A big showdown? High Noon. A gunslinger who retires? Shane. A lonely outpost during an uprising? Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - the woods are full of them . . ." Not that he blames writers for lack of originality: "You can't avoid [repetition], since even avoidance is a form of interaction. It's simply impossible to write . . . in a vacuum."
As previously mentioned, some chapters get slightly repetitive. "It's More Than Just Rain or Snow" has many features similar to "...And So Does Season," while "One Story" mirrors many aspects of "Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before." That's okay, though; some things bear repeating.
There's also a great deal of religious symbolism in literature. "Whenever people eat or drink together, it's Communion," Foster declares (again ensuring the reader gets the point). There are also plenty of male and female "Christ figures" and chapters like "If She Comes Up, Its Baptism" (i.e., emerging from the water equals rebirth).
"Don't Read With Your Eyes," a telling chapter in an age where certain people still seek to ban books, reminds us that present sensibilities might not always apply to the realities in which the story was written. Just look at all the uproar over THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN because some consider it politically incorrect. In Mark Twain's time, however, that was how people lived, spoke and felt.
With the first novel I tackled after HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR, I found myself looking under the rug and in the corners for meanings that may or may not exist. As the saying goes, "Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke." One of the problems college students encounter is the spiel their professors weave. "A moment occurs in this exchange between professor and student when each of us adopts a look," Foster explains. "My look says, 'What, you don't get it?' Theirs says, 'We don't get it. And we think you're making it up.'" But the author maintains that writers do consciously render these symbols when plying their craft. "Memory. Symbol. Pattern. These are the three items that, more than any other, separate the professorial reader from the rest of the crowd," he offers. Just how can us regular-Joe readers recognize all these possibilities? "Same way you get to Carnegie Hall," Foster cracks. "Practice."
--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan

An excellent book for high school or middle school students who are just beginning to study symbolism in literature. I deeply enjoyed this book when I was an AP Lit student in high school.

Not so a good a book, however, for true college students. I study English at UC Berkeley and I can guarantee you that any English college professor or English major at my university can provide much more insight than this book ever could. If you want to learn some close-reading techniques, or would like to hone your college reading skills, visit your professor during office hours. This book won't suffice for college-level readers.

Not that content is a bad thing but while using this as a school assignment it took some rereads to make sure I got every detail I needed. Not something I would normally read for pleasure but if you like perspective this would be up your ally.

In what twisted world do people consider picking apart all the details in any medium enjoyable? If it's a Stanley Kubrick film or Issac Asimov novel then sure, it's begging to be deeply analyzed. For most anything else, it will suck any enjoyment clean from said content. Thomas C. Foster sees fit to criticize the average Joe's "shallow" reading habbits. I will be an honest reviewer, I'm an AP literature and composition student starting his senior year. I've never had the biggest respect for Liberal Arts Proffesors, isn't engineering of higher value for modern society? When it comes to this book its all about symbols. Didn't George Carlin once say that "I leave the symbols to the symbol minded." The chapter progression is painfully obvious, this material is readily taught by 8th grade. Students know about Weather, Fertility, Quests, Diseases, Sex, etc.. Sure it might be a new light on old concept, however it didn't have to come off so pretentious. Foster drags on chapters by playing unnecessary word games with the reader. The cultural references are inappropriate in light of the audience he is trying to address. Litteraly thought for a couple chapters in that this book was published in the late eighties. There are students that have these skills, they just actively choose not to apply them. If you do get something out of this read, consider yourself lucky. Just don't take Foster too seriously, because your not doing it wrong.

This is good reference book with some insight into the analytical aspects of literature. I found the tone of the author to be a bit on the arrogant side. On a positive note, there were many and varied examples of literature and analysis to ponder. This would be a great supplemental text for a freshman high school english class or a good read for anyone who loves literature.

Thomas C. Foster, author of How To Read Literature Like a Professor, writes 280-plus pages on--what else?--how to read literature "like a professor." Foster teaches his readers about analyzing and breaking down the many layers of literature to its core through the identification of archetypal elements. It is a guidebook for high school and college students to recognize the most basic literary themes in works of literature such as weather, violence, politics, illness, flying, sex, and Jesus. Is the book informative? Yes. Insightful? Slightly.

So he tries to get clever. Foster enunciates the word archetype on a very broad scale, explaining how every work of literature can tie to many others. To be even more vague, he bravely states in the first few chapters of his book: there is only one story. This "one story" concept of Foster's reverberates throughout all works of literature in such an indefinite way that almost every story can have the same archetypal themes. So can Harry Potter symbolize politics? Sex? Jesus? If it's Jesus, then that means Jesus can equal hero, can equal soldier, can equal violence, can equal death, can equal innocence, can equal Little Red Riding Hood, can equal savior, and can equal, once again, Jesus. And it all works...if you think about it in that particular Foster way.

From this point on in Foster's book, he brings a multitude of written works together, collecting bits and pieces of literary themes that might associate with an archetype and then vomits them into chapters. Not only does this book prick its readers here and there about symbolism and pattern in the most general and irritating manner, it also shoves literary examples down their throats. Each chapter consists of numerous paragraphs of analyses from a variety of stories in order to exemplify archetypal themes. His evaluations (which are mostly summaries) and examples consume a good three quarters of his novel, the rest being Foster's scant "how to" part of the book. Enlightening, yes, but is it absolutely necessary? Perhaps he goes through this extraneous book-interpretation process just to get his ten pages into every chapter. It's excessive writing that requires extensive reading. The reader can easily grasp the idea that Foster wants to convey the very first time he says it, there's no need for such vigorous detail. Besides, it's all one story anyway.

A ten-paged instruction manual on how to identify archetypes would have had a more beneficial effect. Dissecting a novel piece by piece in order to identify every can-be archetypal detail will not bring you into any more literary depth than by subconsciously recognizing one. If archetypes are something so universal that a reader can immediately relate to, then what is the point of purchasing a copy of How to Read Literature Like a Professor when Foster is only resounding our preexisting knowledge about literature? Am I already reading literature "like a professor?" As a writer and a reader, the information that Foster displays in his book should not be new to us. The basic principles that he stresses are nothing more than logic.

In all fairness, Foster has brought new dishes to my literary table. I can say that some of his teachings have contributed to my reading competency; however, I do not recommend this book to those who truly wish to enhance theirs. If you want to read about archetypes, try Google. An in-depth study from a 280-plus-paged book is nonessential when all that is required to understand archetypes and literature in general is common sense. And if you're interested in that, try Thomas Paine. (It's a political archetype.)

This readable and sometimes even entertaining series of essays is a good help for the one who must give a program for her book club and explain the author's use of symbols. It is especially helpful for the avid reader who has not taken many college courses in contemporary or classical literature and needs help in showing the similarities between the great works of fiction. I'm not sure it would be useful for anyone who doesn't feel compelled to draw mythic significance for every book he reads and who can appreciate without the constant search for archetypes.

On the positive side, the explanation of literary terms in the context of the works cited is a handy guide.

I'm in Honor's English 2 and an avid reader. I rarely find a book that I can't finish but this book is awful. It's just a man bragging about how smart he is and all the literary knowledge that he's been able to retain over the years. It'll bore you to tears.

I like this book. Written in a humorous, informative and engaging manner, it is clearly intended for layperson. Literature need no other elementary book than this! But beware, some parts of the book are quite boring and long-winded. Maybe you can skip that parts and re-read those interesting portions instead. This introduction is mainly for western literature where most if not all of the author's reasonings are right-on. Literature from other cultures (e.g. Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Indian) are based on different premises.

For those of us who want to know how to take a book apart and make sense of it, this does the job. Foster obviously has much experience in dealing with students and puts that background to good use for the average reader who wants to know what D.H. Lawrence really meant in "Women in Love" with that terrific bunch of British actors. Bite-sized pieces, straightforward, buy it and use to enjoy fiction better.

After reading a certain review here I felt I must post. This book is not for English majors only. This book will open a reader's eyes to what is hidden within leterature. It gave me fresh insight into the background and symbols I had not even thought of before and allowed my reading to be what it was meant to be. Yes, Mr. Foster does enjoy refering to his favorite authors for clarity on a theme or idea he has presented, however, this is not a flaw but a preperation to lay a solid foundation in what the reader will need for their goal. The beauty of this book is in its goal. This book was written so that we can learn with our eyes open and our minds ready to recieve whatever an author might throw at us. I had my "ticket punched" in a lit. class but I got more from this book. Thanks Professor Foster.

I have loved reading since I was 5. Many genres my least favorite, being of course, required reading. I read this book, under duress, with my son for a class he was taking. He had a hard time getting into it and making heads or tails of it. Once I started reading it was like opening a Christmas package. How I have learned to understood literature all right there on paper. We would read a part and then I could explain it or refer to something he knew of. This is a wonderful book for lovers of literature and/or students.

I don't remember on which best books list I found How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster but I am so happy for this personal discovery.
I read that the book was intended for middle schoolers, originally, but is extremely entertaining for fortysomethings like me.
I read it in a week and found great explanations about how a book works and a list o great titles. Buy it, don't hesitate!

This is a pretty decent introduction to literature. As he states in the book, it's watered down Northrop Frye, which he recommends you read. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. It's a primer, not a real study, and I think his flip tone is an attempt to ease non-readers into the mix. This is not a book for people who are already reading or have taken any of the basic lit classes. THIS IS NOT A CRITICISM. I believe this is the book he intended to write, and I think he did a decent job.

My only complaint after reading it once is his troubling mistake when recommending How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry. He says it is by Robert Pinsky, former poet laureate. It isn't. It's by Edward Hirsch.

A minor thing, but I'm shocked it wasn't corrected for the later editions.

I recommend: The Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.)

This was an impulse purchase that I made just before a business trip. The author keeps the chapters, and his points about reading literature, concise. There are plenty of examples used. And the author absolutely has a sense of humor. I wish I had read this in junior high and then had a refresher each year at the beginning of English class.

Who in their right mind wants to read a book like a professor? It is said that a bumblebee only flies because he doesn't know that he can't (aerodynamically speaking). Likewise, professors are notorious for destroying good reads in what I would call a paralysis by analysis. That said, this book plays a role in educating those who choose to analyze literature, but spare me the superlatives. The book is not "engaging" or overtly "humorous," as the publishers would have you believe.

I must admit however, that the book did open my eyes to some fairly obvious elements of literature that I knew intuitively, but had never consciously applied or analyzed. For example, literature is full of symbolism, motifs, archetypes, heroism, etc. Most avid readers are aware of this, but reading about it and learning how to recognize it in some of its more subtle forms was enlightening. Foster also postulates that a writer is impacted by everything he/she reads or learns, as it is "impossible to write in a vacuum." I thought that was fairly obvious, but I suppose it was good to hear.

On the more negative side of things, I disliked Foster's attempts to be conversational. For some reason it just didn't come off. This book is about learning how to analyze and interpret literature, not trying to become my friend, or convince me that the author is a nice guy. I was also bothered by some of the repetition of examples. In a world replete with outstanding literature, Foster seems to be fixated on Toni Morrison. Call it personal, but I can't stand her writing. Also, if one more jokester tells me to practice to get to Carnegie Hall, I think I'll puke.

This book is like a deeper, more sophisticated version of browsing TV Tropes. It uncovers the hidden meanings in story elements, things that we intuitively feel but haven't consciously noticed. Fascinating reading.

An accessible, engaging and easy to read instructional book on how to read. It's pretty much my four years of literature degree compressed into a quick reference, discussing everything from intextuality/allusions (Shakespearean, Biblical, mythological, etc.) to symbolism (death, illness, weather, setting), and why authors do what they do and why real reading is a deeply intellectual and active process. Unfortunately, the book is redundant and dry for those of us already with degrees in literature. But I sure wish I had it in high school! A great beginners/amateur's guide to reading. Grade: B+

This really is a lively and entertaining guide to reading between the lines! I am reading this for AP Lit and I seriously have NEVER read a summer reading book EVER. I can't put this book down! I'm definitely happy that I decided to actually read a book, considering it is the start of my senior year!

How to Read Literature like a Professor, or lovingly nicknamed by our class HTRLLP, by Thomas E. Foster sounds like every teenage high-schooler's dream. A book that teaches one how to read to the standards and efficiency as a collegate professor? Great! But as a high school student myself, I was slightly let down when in fact the book was more of a "How to Make Literature Ten Times Longer Than it Needs to Be." While I commend Foster's efforts on challenging a reader to analyze and connect to personal experiences, I feel that instead of making reading easier on us, he was focusing more on symbolism that we may or may not already be aware of. Sure it's great to find overarching themes and the true meaning of a person's dramatic death by stabbing, but at the end of the day, we just want the book done.
Looking for symbolism and such in a book is something I think we do naturally. As humans, we are naturally curious and seek answers to everything. To be completely honest, just about everything in his book is something that we as educated individuals already know. And not to mention how long it takes to get his idea on paper. Taking an entire chapter to explain the significance of seasons, or the flight of a character is ridiculous. What if an author just wanted his book set in winter, not trying to give it an ominous and cold feeling to it. What then? Well, if we had to analyze that seasonal choice, us students would be sitting at home writing a paper on the significance of a snowfall while the author only used winter in his story to show that its cold.
On the other hand, some points in this book bring up excellent discussion points and topics. One topic of much debate was the idea that every book has one story. Foster provides substantial evidence on this theory and I must say, it is well supported. All of Foster's original thought was masterfully supported with much textual evidence. Here's the problem; most of the examples were derived from literature beyond the years of the average high school student. I'm not saying Foster should have analyzed the symbolism in Twilight, no matter how entertaining that might have been, but when writing a book, it's important to consider the audience. I'm sure Foster did not anticipate for his book to be read by high school sophomores, but there is the chance that even some adults have not been introduced to these texts.
If your looking for a "how to" book on finding the architypal significance of a shoelace or the true and proper meaning of an old man coughing then be sure to pick up a copy of Foster's How to Read Literature like a Professor. Personally it is one of those books that once completed, will stay on my shelf gathering dust. Im not commenting on Foster's writing directly, I just disagree with his points. Although I could have gone without the jokes and such, it was a well written book, just not one I would recommend.

I am appalled that this book is required reading at my school. The author delivers his opinions as if he were God and had the ability to flunk anyone that thinks otherwise. His disgust for the "evil white male" is evident, even though he has no qualms about Disney being the unifying literary force in the world. Foster's composition can be summarized as the following:
Sentence: "The curtains were blue."

What Thomas C. Foster thinks: "The curtains represent his immense depression and his lack of will to carry on."

What the Author meant: "The curtains were f***ing blue."

Don't buy it unless you have to...

Most people I encounter, after reading this book, complain that it is pushing a single opinion about the meaning of a story. That's not the case. While it does convey the language that people use to communicate, since that is what literature is supposed to do, it still does recognize that everyone will hear a story differently, due to the intertextuality it even mentions. This is an excellent book to have people "join the conversation" instead of being trapped in their own interpretation which may not be shared with anyone.

If you liked junior-high and maybe high-school English classes, you might find this book a pleasant reminder of that kind of basic approach to literary analysis. If you're looking for anything deeper, though, you won't find it here. You also won't find any kind of modern approach to reading literature; this book could have been written in the 60s for all the account it takes of modern literary criticism. Foster also demonstrates the arrogance of a certain type of English teacher, namely that they are in a position to comment upon something written in any language and any time period. As usually happens in such cases, he makes egregious errors when moving beyond his area of expertise (in this case, just about everything he says about the Greeks and Greek literature is terribly wrong).

This book has helped my Senior High School student improve reading literature (and writing essays about literature)! A great deal of helpful information. Book came as described and in the time frame promised.

This book is fun! I had to read it for my college lit class and thought it would be dry, but it was anything but dry! The author is very witty and conversational. A great read for anyone wanting to understand the symbolism in literature just a little better and be pleasantly entertained while doing so...

There's much to like in this book, but I stopped reading after having several plots spoiled for books I have yet to read. How could this writer think it appropriate to give away key plot information for literary classics in a book about reading and enjoying literature?

Every high school student aiming for college should read this book. It is the surest way to deepen your reading comprehension while increasing the pleasure you get from reading. It may be a bit of a stretch for high school freshmen, but juniors and seniors should have no problem grasping Foster's main points. And yes, it is both engaging and lively. The author strikes just the right tone to keep the reading entertaining.

This is a lively, friendly, entertaining book that is great for students. It discusses how to read, to to really read literature. But as a practiced reader I found that it didn't teach me much, though it would be great for a freshman or sophmore.

This is a super introduction to reading literature critically. Foster writes in a relaxed, conversational manner so the reader feels like a participant in the classroom. His book is geared for beginners, so don't look for a huge vocabulary or philosophical overtones. A fun and quick read even for literary masters, because we sometimes lose sight of the basics. Highly recommended.

Customers are encouraged to write reviews and of course it's wonderful that they take time out of their day to do so. However, I see that a lot of times they will rate their purchase on the physical quality of the book and not the quality of the book in itself. This book was lighthearted and enlightening, and it really teaches the readers how to effectively utilize their preexisting knowledge.

This guide is the perfect supplement to ANY book. I assign chapters to my AP literature students, as well as my 9th and 10th graders. Students really enjoy the reading. I have also noticed that after reading from this guide, my students have become better critical and interpretive readers.

The English department chair at the school I taught at bought a copy of this book for each teacher in the department, to rekindle our love of literature. What an investment! We were all inspired to dig deeper into literature and bring some of Foster's insights into our classrooms.
This book was one of the reasons I decided to pursue a Master's degree in English; I wanted more from the books I was reading, and this book opened my eyes to a deeper level of reading.

I highly recommend this book--and Foster's follow-up _How to Read Novels Like a Professor_--to anyone who wants the keys to unlock literature for themselves.

This is indeed a fantastic aid when analyzing literature. In AP literature, one must definitely know how to analyze different works. This work gives simple ways to explain difficult concepts or difficult to find ideas. Sometimes the book does over-state key ideas, this reiteration could be quite bothersome when reading the entire book at once. i would advise that you only look up things as you need them, but the writing is fascinating and can be quite colorful and even enjoyable. This was a great purchase for me!

If only I had had access to HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR for my Freshman English classes!! Foster provides great insights into those specific points college professors and advanced placement English teachers make concerning classical texts. You may even discover why certain works appeal to you while others don't. Foster clearly explains the literary devices are used to effect mood, attitude, and feelingsto create entertaining tales. Shakespeare may have been original, but he was also a master of understanding what worked for other authors from whom he borrowed much. A number of great works written since Shakespeare use his devices including subtle references to the Bible and the Greek Classics.

I read this book as an assignment for AP English summer reading, and I am SO glad. It is written with such great humor and style that you can almost picture the author sitting in front of you, telling you about reading, instead of looking at his words on the page. Not only are the ideas insightful and easy to understand, but they are presented in such a way that it is enjoyable to read about them. Foster also makes his points memorable, so that the tips just stick in your head to be used while reading anything else, instead of needing to use the book as a reference.

I was assigned to read this book by my AP Lang. teacher as summer reading. I don't wish to advertise falsely; I am in high school not college, but my class is "college-level" and if I pass the AP exam, I will get college credits, so I feel as if I can review this book properly. I cannot truthfully say I can "read literature like a professor" after reading this book, in fact I learned very little. My teacher has asked the class if they thought it a good idea for her to use the same reading assignment for her students next year and no one in my class thought it would be a successful venture. Also if you're a teacher thinking similarly to mine that this would be a good summer reading project, there were answers to her essay questions all over the internet. If you do create an assignment implementing this book, you should come up with your own, original questions. This book is very dry and I loathe it.

I wish I had this book in high school.
I think it'd be a great aid to people learning how to dissect and write essays about books, especially classic ones. I'm reading it to further understand an author's thinking process, totally leisure, as nerdy as that make me seem.

I am a Highschool student who was assigned this book as a summer reading assignment. I dreaded the thought of reading it at first, expecting it to be a boring, textbook read. However, I was pleasantly surprised that it was funny, sarcastic but still informational. Foster makes the book enjoyable by adding humor, irony and known citations to other books.

Wow, Thomas C. Foster was able to completely alter the way I read forever. The writing was down-to-earth and Foster uses great novels to demonstrate how to effectively "own" a book. Although I have always been a lover of literature, Foster manages to heighten it to the point that I deeply admire Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett for writing the way they do. The chapters are succint but still thorough. I would recommend this book to everyone because even though it reads like a instructive book, it maintained my interest. Who knows? It may change the way you read as well. Plus, in the Appendix, Foster offers a plethora of great literature to practice the new techniques. With every recommendation, there is an explanation why it is good.

You will read smarter and write smarter after reading this book. A must for understanding the underpinnings of good literature. Foster's presents the material in a friendly, breezy, easy to understand and compelling way. I couldn't put it down, didn't want it to end.

I read this as a required summer reading--which means I hated it before I even read it. But, I was dead wrong! If you have an AP Lit exam or any kind of test requiring literature analysis, I highly recommend reading it. It is a smooth read and fairly funny.

The book was ok, another one of the endless facilitatory reads we Americans need because we are too lazy (which we call, "too busy", i.e. too busy watching TV) to actually spend real time learning.

But what gets me is that the store charges more for the Kindle version than they do for the paperback. Absurd. It costs probably as close to 0 extra dollars as possible in this day for the store to make the Kindle format version, delivery via "whispernet", in other words, "Internet", costs as little as it does for each on line order probably, and there are 0 output charges, storage, delivery, materials to make the books. Be real the store, you were the only reader out there, now you are not and if your prices don't go down you are colluding with the other manufacturers to rip off the reading public.

Foster tackles Literature from a symbolic metaphorical side, delving into Myths, symbols, and the connectedness of all Literature etc.
In a lively and entertaining manner he shows the reader how to draw parallels between texts and explores poetic metaphors effectively.
The weakness of the book is that the author doesn't really delve deeply enough into other important aspects such as Character development, Plot devices, structure of the novel among other things. He's thematic discussions, too, are at times somewhat shallow,
Nonetheless, it is a worthwhile book that certainly deserves to read.

This book was on my sons reading list for the summer. I don't think he has ever hated a book as much as he hated this one. He told me it was terrible, so I tried to read it. All I can say is "no"....just "no". The teacher took it off the list and said it was dreadful as well.

When I was assigned this book to read I was terrified. But this is nothing like what I expected. Not only did it help with my reading and writing skills, but it was interesting. Five stars for this outstanding piece of work!

How to Read Literature Like a Professor was an exceptional book. It was so instructive and was very helpful in learning how to identify certain symbols in literature. This book helps you be aware of all the ancient literature and myths that are subconsciously intertwined within a novel; it's truly an eye opener and will make you a much better reader and interpreter of literature.

This book is like a key that helps you unlock the mysteries contained in literary works. It's easy to read and full of insights and helps you dissect the many meanings in literature. My only criticism is that the book is too short. I hope Dr Foster is working on volume two.