Beginning to Study a Work of Literature

“When we came back to Paris it was clear and cold and lovely.” ~ A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

It’s fall in Savannah not winter in Paris and I’m enjoying cool mornings that settle into pleasantly warm afternoons. It’s a vacation for me from the daily grind of New York City and I’m enjoying the pristine silence of the marsh punctuated by the sudden shudder of birds wings as they take off in flocks from the driftwood. I’ve only brought novels to read over coffee and mom and I picked up a haul of Lost Generation writers, on one of our trips into town, in a lovely little bookshop in the historic district.

Mom has been meaning to read Hemingway on the recommendation of a Hunter S. Thompson interview and a conversation about this led to my post topic today, which is on how to begin to study if you are joining me on the serious course of reading here in the library. About once a month I make a book recommendation for building your library thoughtfully and with an eye toward cultivating a selection of readings that can be read and reread. Often for the rest of the month I give my own reasons and musings on why I select the books I do. I try to give background and perspective in the same way I have done in the classroom to add some depth to the experience. But today is about how to read for yourself, how to begin if this form of reading is your hobby.

When you buy that first book get some paper too. I won’t tell you what kind to get except I always like to use a bound notebook in the A family for my notes because it is the only way for me to keep from loosing them or shuffling them hopelessly out of order, but you know yourself best and you should choose the note taking materials that most inspire you. The important thing is to have something to write with and something to write on.

The important thing is to have something to write with and something to write on.

Depending upon the size of the notebook set aside two to four pages to keep track of what is in the notebook, or devise some sort of method for organizing your notes. It’s possible you’ll never return to your notes and there is value in simply having taken notes but should you want to find them again why struggle?

There are many things to take notes on but I would advise when you first start just write down your favorite lines as you read. If you like you could stop in your reading and write some reflections on why you enjoyed the line. Is it the word choice? The subject? I am always writing down city and metropolis quotes for my work but I also like to write down lines about writing, libraries, and reading for no reason other than these subjects appeal to me and I like to be able to return to those passages.

Writing down lines and reflections is my favorite way to take notes but another way is to read a chapter and write bullet points or a page of reflection on the chapter before moving onto the next.Of course, you can always bullet point as you go along, but if you are struggling to find an entry point into a book simply sit down in your reading chair, lay down on the sofa, or settle in at your desk, book, pen, and notebook at your side (I like to imagine you in a large, comfortable chair in the evening, lit in the warm yellow glow of a lamp, notebook and pen on a small inlaid wood end table, a cup of herbal tea or a glass of wine at your side). Open the book, relax, enjoy flipping through those introductory pages until you read page one, and enjoy the experience of sinking into the world of someone else’s imagination until you find a line so good you simply have to write it down. Then, begin your notes.

If you need some suggestions on where to begin with these notes, check out these recommendations:

Parisian Modern Life’s Poet Par Excellence

Building Your Library: Nella Larsen’s Passing

Building Your Library: The Great Gatsby

Tell me in the comments, what will you read? And if you meet me here, in the library, next week, I’ll have another novel to add to your list.