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by First Mate Keira
Once I was in an English class where the teacher brought out a list of books – thirty some titles long – one for each class member. We were to do a 10 page report on our selected book and had a month and a half to complete it.
He went over all the books and I made a list of ones I thought I’d like to read. When he called my name (I’m in the middle of the alphabet) all my books had been taken already by other students. Total bummer.
I couldn’t remember anything about the other books on the list so when he suggested a classic “romance” and said I’d really enjoy it because I was always reading romance novels in class, I took the book.
Big mistake.
Big. Huge. Mistake.
Suffice it to say he was dead wrong. This classic romance is still in my top 3 worst books ever read. As it was for a class assignment there was no way I could get out of reading the book (and because of this book I’m a firm believer in quitting while you’re ahead if you hate a book).
The teacher set up the assignment so that we had to read most of our chosen book in class. I couldn’t fake reading the book and grab the CliffNotes. (Which really sucked, because CliffNotes would have made it so much easier.) No. I had to read it in front of him.
To get through that really bad terrible awful horrible stinky book I had to learn a few tricks. Here’s how you too can get through a really bad book:
- Force Yourself to Read a Little Every Day. I didn’t and had to cram about 400 pages (and that was less than half of the book by the way) in two days and still write the 10 page report. Yikes. Never do that. It makes the whole experience worse. Trust me.
- Learn to Skim. Best practice I ever found was to read the first sentence of every paragraph. If it looked important I would read the whole paragraph. If it didn’t I moved on to the next one.
- Keep the CliffNotes Handy. Your teacher may let you use CliffNotes and if that’s the case, do so. If not, it still doesn’t hurt to have them close by to save time. Use the CliffNotes to stop yourself from doing any cumbrous rereading. They have already figured out the book and will help explain passages to you that get tricky.
- For Reports – Take Notes. Use notecards. They make good bookmarks too.
- 1 notecard for each chapter. Try to explain what happened in a few sentences. Note any major themes, plots, events.
- 1 notecard for every major character. Write a short bio, note the strengths and weaknesses, the motivation, and mark down any development that occurs.
- 1 notecard for all minor characters. Make it easy on yourself and put them all together and explain in a sentence who they are and why they’re important.
What tips and tricks do you have for getting through a bad book?
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2 comments ↓
I had to read plenty of boring stuff when I was still in school. Along with “Keep Cliff’s Notes Handy,” I would add, “Read Classics Illustrated.” Are you old enough to remember “Classics Illustrated.” They were comic-book versions of great stories such as Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. They should have been required reading.
I guess not because I never heard of it until now, though you think I would be since I’m out of college.
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