How to Read a Book

Not long ago, I read Monica Wood’s novel How to Read a Book. “A charming, deeply-moving novel about second chances, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.” As always I underlined various sentences that spoke to me. Today, I’m posting a few on the topic of reading.

Very briefly, Harriet Larson runs a book club for inmates of a local prison for women. Violet Powell was in the book club but has served her sentence for a drunk-driving crash that killed a woman.

Just before Violet’s release, Harriet asks the book club: “Do books change depending on when and where we read them?” She also asks: “What is the purpose of an epitaph? Whom would you trust to write yours? Is it possible to sum up a human life?”

Here’s Violet reflecting on what she learned from book club: “Harriet was forever showing us how to read. How to look for shapes and layers. How to see that stories have a meanwhile — an important thing that’s happening while the rest of the story moves along.”

Here’s another reflection from Violet: “I used to race through books one after another, but in Book Club Harriet taught us that when you slow down, you notice more, and when you notice more, you feel more.” And a bit later: “The writer writes the words. The given reader reads the words. And the book, the unique and unrepeatable book, doesn’t exist until the given reader meets the writer on the page.“

To add further ideas on ‘how to read a book’, here are some tips from a post on making the most of your reading.

• Ask why you are reading a particular book. Your purpose for reading.
• Take notes.
• Ask meaningful questions while you read the novel.

And a few more suggestions for getting the most out of your reading.

• Stop while you’re reading to think and analyze.
• Reread the book – or parts of it – when needed.
• Share thoughts about what you’ve read with others.

From Ways of Reading a Novel:

• Try to find a sentence or brief passage that captures in miniature your experience of the whole work
• Pay attention to significant elements of the novel such as voice, point of view, language, characterization, setting, the novel’s structure, pacing and so on.

I confess that I tend to power through the novels I read and then jump right into the next one. Probably not the best strategy for getting the most out of my reading!

What about you? Do you have strategies or tips for reading novels?

By the way, I thoroughly enjoyed How to Read a Book. The story is charming. The three main characters give the novel depth and great perspectives on life, love, and living … and of course, reading books.

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood ~~ Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher.

Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest.

Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.

How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living. 

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M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.