Deepening your reading experience

Hello old friends. Thanks for the positive response to my other thread ("my first year as a bibliophile").

The discussion in that thread got me thinking about how a person can deepen their reading experiences, so I'm going to talk about what I've done and hoping others can add (hopefully a lot) to that.

Of course, it's crazy to go over every book you read with a fine toothed comb. Sometimes, as Freud says, a book is just a book. But what if you do want to go deeper, if you really connect with a book or a writer?

Let's talk about it!

1. Write. Writing fiction had a transformative effect on how I read. You begin to understand more intimately how much skill and how much research is needed to put a good story on paper. It helped me to get a better feel for structure, symbols, and how writer intent comes across on the page.

In my own case, I began to seek out resources for aspiring writers – many are useless and designed more for social media engagement farming than anything else (bleh), some are useful, and a rare few are truly insightful. The best that I found was Brandon Sanderson's YouTube channel, specifically his university lectures. They're listed as SF/F writing lectures but they're broader than that in reality. He's a charming lecturer. You can learn a lot about the art of story telling for free these days.

It's important too to note that your writing don't need to be no good or nuthin. It can be just for fun and for your eyes only. I mean, if somebody said they play basketball at the park on Saturday afternoons, your first question wouldn't be "when are you joining the NBA?" But when somebody says they write, we tend to ask them the equivalent question, "when are you 'going pro'?" That's a shame, people forget that writing can be nothing more than a (wonderful) hobby.

I'd say this enriched my reading more than any other single thing I did.

1. Learning history. Not world history, per se, but history of literature and art generally (and biographies of authors). Artistic movements often cross disciplines – painting, music, literature, and even architecture will all show evidence of similar aesthetic principles and trends at similar times, and give important context.

2. Studying literary theory: I've only just dipped my toes in these waters, and frankly, to continue the metaphor, it's given me thalassophobia. This is a bottomless well. A never ending rabbit hole. Or any similar expression. I won't be wading out too far in this ocean, but a brief introduction to the field can show you what kinds of questions this academic field tries to answer – questions which are designed to lead to a greater understanding of a given text.

3. Watching and reading analyses of the books you read. Sparknotes are thorough, but dry. Some YouTube channels make this more fun, but they're not all created equal – the best "book club with people smarter than you" channel I know of is Codex Cantina. The best "Highly accomplished academic" channel I know of is Michael Sugrue. There are assuredly others. Share them if you've got them!

4. Reading with friends. I'm reading a long novel alongside two friends right now. I'm finding myself reading in a more disciplined and analytical way so that I have something to contribute during meet ups. I have rarely taken notes on a book in the past, but I am now, and it's a really fun approach that I wish I'd tried sooner! Which leads me to my next point…

5. Taking notes. This can help you keep track of characters, themes, symbols, etc. That you might forget during a casual read.

6. Reading your favorite writer's favorite writers. Love Faulkner? Read Flaubert. Love Tolstoy? Read Victor Hugo. Love James Joyce? Memorize the entire western canon. And so on. Art is a conversation between artists.

How would you suggest a person deepen their reading experiences?