How do I get better at reading books? I read a lot but I don't understand anything. I can't tell you anything about the books beside the plot, nothing about the meaning or the tone or other crap, just quoting what is written. I don't even understand how some plot points influence other points, it's just words and letters and a story that goes on. Same thing with the news, I can tell you what is written in the article but nothing about what it says or what it comments. I don't know what repercussions there is and what it means to world politics when some president meets another but I can tell you it happened without further analysis.
Start with Harry Potter or another that elementary schoolers read and go from there
I already read all of them and more
I have no idea how to read between the lines, if something is not explained clearly then I wont understand.
you have to THINK about what you read. it's not just about looking at words.
How do you do it? I don't know how to think
if i tell you the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, you should be able to conclude that this is a valid proposition by thinking about how curved lines are longer than straight lines.
so are you honestly so retarded you read something like animal farm and just think "man that is a story about mean bad pigs?"
Pretty much yes
why do you think there would be so much reverence amongst intellectuals and educators for a story about pigs that convinced farm animals to overthrow the human owners only to turn mean and bad?
I do understand that there is some meaning and some commentary on stuff in it, but I don't get it. I read the Wikipedia plot and analysis, but still I don't see it even though I now know what it's supposed to mean. To me the biggest question is how and why the animals became so smart in the first place.
>To me the biggest question is how and why the animals became so smart in the first place.
that's good! that's a good question to start from. we know it's literally impossible, that no matter how much you teach a pig or a horse in real life, it won't reason or speak, so we can safely conclude some sort of meaning or context we aren't getting yet is being communicated by having talking animals be main characters. what do you think, not looking it up, might be a reason an author wouldn't want to use human characters, or would want a certain location with a certain type of character like that? what might be a reason to initially have subhuman characters having their whole lives dictated by humans, only later to assert their independence and capability to self govern in ways the "superior" human characters thought were impossible?
I can't answer those, I don't have the brain power to think shit like that. I was thinking more basic stuff like magic or nuclear mutation. My thoughts are not philosophical, they are practical. I don't know or care what the author does but what the story's world is.
ok if you honestly can't participate in good faith and just spitball here the answer to your initial question is that you are incurious because you're self limiting. they might not have incredible insights into it but even somewhat clever 6th or 7th graders are able to ask questions and figure out the jist of simple questions like this that are initially confusing for simple didactic books like animal farm or lord of the flies. you can't get better at reading books if you're just going to declare
>I don't have the brain power to think shit like that
and not try thinking about it beyond what is obvious to you. critical thinking has a lot of the same properties as a muscle and needs to be used regularly and stressed to it's limits in order to grow more capable
I did answer it, but my question isn't about the meaning or what the author intended but what the reason is inside the book. And I need that explained in the book "a secret lab near by exploded and chemicals changed the animals" or something. I have no idea what the author meant.
Damn NTA but you really opened my eyes on that aspect. I thought they were animals cause animals were cool and so it can take place in a farm
To be fair to that anon, when I read that book in middle school I didn't get the commie reference, I thought it was just about anti-authority.
that's totally fine! i wasn't trying to say you have to instantly get every reference or you're stupid, i was saying you would ask questions. you start as a kid, noticing little things like that it is anti authority, and then as you process through life, and learn more, you keep coming back and having more thoughts about what it was. you refine your intellect over time, even if your original ideas weren't exactly right.
op refuses to do that at all and has permanently stunted himself by refusing to ever risk being wrong by arguing for ideas that might not be totally right, and removing himself from the process of being a careful reader
(i do genuinely teach language arts to middle schoolers and have no problem with people having "baby's first literature insight" type discussions because i know it means you're growing. people like the op have a ghetto "not even gonna try" mentality that honestly I've never seen get better once you make it your identity that you're just not smart enough to try)
Have you ever read a book that was different? One you really got sucked into?
I mean, you could try reading the Malazan books, the greatest fantasy novel series outside of A Song of Ice and Fire. Sadly the first Malazan book is a brutal example of exactly the kind of shit you're talking about lol. But if you can make it through the first book, you'll be in so deep you'll forget that you're reading a book at all
>One you really got sucked into?
No, there's no suckage involved. Probably because I have meme aphantasia and can't see/hear/feel shit while reading
>No, there's no suckage involved. Probably because I have meme aphantasia and can't see/hear/feel shit while reading
Probably because you haven't read any good books, imo
>I read the first two books and didn't really like them
Dunno, haven't read any of them lol. Why read when I can watch the show? There is no Malazan show, therefore I have to read
I didn't like the show either, watched the first 5 episodes and dropped.
>I didn't like the show either, watched the first 5 episodes and dropped.
If you didn't like Game of Thrones then I think your head must be broken. 5 episodes? Just force your way through 2 seasons I guess, then get back to me. If you still say the same thing, then you officially have a broken head
I don't have the energy or time to watch that crap any more than I did. It's boring shit imo. I don't even like watching tv shows in the first place, they are too long and slow.
>I don't have the energy or time to watch that crap any more than I did. It's boring shit imo. I don't even like watching tv shows in the first place, they are too long and slow.
Well then, you have no hope at all of "getting better at reading books." Books are even longer and slower than shows, you know?
To me they aren't as slow
>To me they aren't as slow
Spare me. You can watch a season of game of thrones in a day, good luck knocking a whole book out in 1 day
But you can't enjoy a movie, you can't enjoy a book, you can't enjoy a show, even if it's one of the greatest shows ever made, or one of the greatest books ever written? You must just be broken in the head then, dunno what else to say
Okay
>A Song of Ice and Fire.
I read the first two books and didn't really like them
I mean, obviously. It tales some moments of reflection. If you asked me for the themes of a book while I'm reading it I'd have no idea because aI'm just reading it. Ask me after I did some chores where O had the chance to go over it again in my mind
How do you do it, for me it's over when the book closes. There's no thinking involved.
Life is not a homework assignment.
Once you're out of school is is NOT your job to get anything out of a book, or even to finish it. It is the book's job to grab and hold your interest and inspire you to think about it afterwards. If it doesn't, it is THE BOOK that fails, not you.
- English teacher
Read different books from different styles from different periods of time, or just chill out maybe reading just isn't your strong suit, maybe try listening to books on tape? Idk
>the tone
nagger half the fun of reading books or just media in general is tone. How do you fuck that up
Just reflect on the plot while taking a shit
I don't know how to reflect, frankly I don't even really know what it means
It's practice.