How to Read a “Challenging” Book
It’s time to show ‘War and Peace’ some love
Reading is a pleasurable and rewarding activity. Expanding your reading to include a greater variety of works is a great way to broaden your understanding of the world.
But it can be easy to put off tackling those “classics” that you feel you should read. How many people have actually made it through ‘Anna Karenina’? Or own a copy of ‘Bleak House’ that just sits collecting dust?
Undoubtedly, big “classic” books can be intimidating. But with the right mindset one might become your new favourite read!
Make Tolstoy your friend
The Oxford World’s Classics translation of ‘War and Peace’ contains 561,093 words. An average-paced reader (200 words per minute) therefore spends about 47 hours with it.
I like to think of reading a book as making a new friend. And few of us would commit to spending two full days with someone we’ve never met, no matter how many good things we may have heard about them.
This anticipated time commitment is a major obstacle to starting a long book, especially when the writing style seems dense.
Another reason people may put off reading a “classic” is that it brings back memories of a school classroom. This is completely understandable, but not a strong enough excuse to avoid reading worthwhile books.
There’s a simple solution to get over this fear: don’t read like you’re at school. You’re not going to have to sit an exam. You don’t need to memorise quotes or write an essay. You won’t have to stand up and read a chapter aloud in front of the whole class. You’re reading for yourself. And you’re reading because you want to.
Action Plan
Here are five tips to help you finally get through that “classic” you’ve been putting off (and enjoy it too!):
- Embrace the slow pace: You’re reading a big book; you know it’s a significant time commitment. Embrace that. Read regularly, but don't set arbitrary targets that make it feel like you have to race through the pages. If you try to read too quickly you will probably end up taking less in and this may slow you down later when you can’t remember who the different characters are. Take a step away from fast-paced modern life and revel in language by giving each word the attention it deserves.
- Break it up: Although arbitrary page targets aren’t a great idea, you should divide your reading into manageable chunks. Reading consistently is the key: try to set aside an hour a day to dedicate to the book.
- Look up some historical context (but not too much): Clearly, it is important to find the right balance here. Knowing some of the cultural and historical context in which the work takes place will improve your understanding and therefore enrich the reading experience. But unless you are approaching the work specifically from a historical slant, don’t obsess about this — and definitely don’t let it be a stumbling block to getting started on the reading!
- Don’t spoil the entire plot: People who talk about how to “hack” any book in order to become more intelligent advise reading a synopsis first so that you can follow what is happening. I think this is more likely to make you give up: where is the fun if you can anticipate every twist and turn? Reading a brief, spoiler-free review is sensible because this will give you an idea of the key themes to notice, but ruining the experience and surprise of a book is not helpful.
- Reach for the dictionary: This can feel counter productive and should definitely be done in moderation. If you start looking up every word or cultural reference you don’t know, you’ll never gain any momentum and become bogged down in the fine details. But reading is a learning process and you should never pass on an opportunity to expand your vocabulary and knowledge. When a word has appeared multiple times or seems to be of particular importance, look up the definition and improve your understanding of the text.
I hope you’ve found this article useful and it helps you finish that “classic” you’ve always wanted to read!
And if you need help picking your next book, here’s a four-week Reading Challenge that might give you some ideas…
