What books do I need to read to become a better critical reader?

>>9587425
Not OP, but bumping.

>>9587425
I'm redpilled, a white and proud masculine man, who will not accept you putting a postmodernist, a modernist degenerate, and a woman on a pedestal.

Choose proud white men of a conservative bend, or fuck off to plebbit

Read more commentaries, and essays on the books and reread them. As you read their comments see what they pick up on and start to apply the same techniques and

>>9587517
a-and?

>>9587425
You shouldn't "teach yourself" to enjoy specific literature.
It's the writer's job to express themself in such a way you both learn and appreciate their writing.

>>9587517
Anon was killed before he could finish his sentence.

The Well Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had, and How to Read Literature Like a Professor are decent books that will help build a foundation in reading. The problem is, though, that you can't really be "taught" deep reading, it's something you have to learn yourself through practice.

This post >>9587517 has good advice. I'd also have to add,

1) Slow the fuck down. It's not a race, reading too fast will just harm you if you're trying to deeply read a book. This doesn't mean you can never read quickly, but if you're struggling with reading more "difficult" works, slowing yourself down will help a lot and eventually you will learn when you actually have to go slow, and when its fine to speed up.
2) Annotate, underline, etc. Even if you end up underlining a bunch of completely pointless, irrelevant stuff, and your annotations are garbage, annotating a book at the very least has the benefit of essentially requiring you to pay attention and remain an active reader. If you have some weird issue with writing in books, get over it and do it anyway.

>>9587539
No, it is the reader's job to realize and appreciate what the writer has to offer. If the writer is shitty, that cannot be helped; but there's so much to authors akin to Joyce, and you won't understand them if you don't try to.

>>9589494
Every time I see shit like this on this board I physically cringe. Using this mode of thinking you put bad writers on a pedestal because their thoughts are more cryptically or inefficiently related. There is literally no point to adding uneccessary length or complexity to a book. Authors who do these things are literally fucking with you to a) get more money or b) Jack off their massive ego.

This shitty approach to literature is why people don't read anymore, it's portrayed as a chore or something that is beyond them. Fuck the only reason /lit/ exists is because intellectual elitism fits in really well with the whole ego-centric autistic culture of the site.

I'll never convince anyone though, this issue is too wrapped up in too many people's egos.

>>9587674
>Slow the fuck down
This honestly. I'm a relatively fast reader and used to read at max speed before, but these days I just take it easy. What's the point in going fast when reading stories? Enjoy the actual reading and the understanding.

best method by far is to read a book, then discuss it with somebody smarter than you. Even if they just tell you their interpretation, it will help allot with how you read and pick up themes and meaning in the future

>>9589567
>talks about people jerking their egos
>while stroking your own ego

i see what you did there anon

>>9587674

The Art of Fiction by David Lodge and The Essential Oxford Guide to Writing by Thomas Kane are great comprehensive entry-level texts for reading literature specifically as well.

I startd How to Read a Book and its quite insightful so far. It argues against subvocalization, which is something I have attempted to stop but find it to frustrating not to. Is there any good pieces of reading without subvocalizing at all? Is it even worth stopping if I am not worried how long I take with a book?

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>>9592371
>believing yourself to be right on a point that you argue is egotistical

I predicted this butthurt. Sorry I intruded on your self-aggrandizement. Actually have a nice day.