ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Literary Topics Videos 221 videos
Dr. Seuss was a failure to start, but he soon learned to follow his heart. He wrote books about things that he knew, and soon enough, his book sale...
Sure, Edgar Allan Poe was dark and moody and filled with teenage angst, but what else does he have in common with the Twilight series?
Emily Dickinson was a New England poet/hermit with a fascination with death and immortality. She wrote over 1000 poems in her lifetime, most of the...
How to Read Bestsellers 560 Views
Share It!
Description:
You should enjoy a bestseller as you would a delicious slice of pepperoni pizza: slowly, savoring each bite, sharing happily with your friends. Okay, maybe you would keep that cheesy goodness all to yourself, but books don't taste good. They're easier to share.
Transcript
- 00:04
How to Read Bestsellers a la Shmoop. You might have already developed your own
- 00:08
bag of tricks when it comes to reading literature for school… sticky notes, highlighters,
- 00:13
bookmarks, and, not to toot our own horn, our awesome literature guides.
- 00:19
But what about the books you see on the bookstore displays? The ones detailing the lives of
- 00:24
busy businesswomen, shambling zombies, or studly pirates and their snarky parrots?
Full Transcript
- 00:31
How should you read bestsellers? The short answer is that you read them just
- 00:35
like any other book. Read one page, turn it, read a couple of more…
- 00:39
But if you breeze through a bestseller, you might miss something. Bestsellers might have
- 00:43
fast-moving plots, but you don’t want the high-speed plot train to blow by so fast that
- 00:48
you miss all the details. Just because a book is on the bestseller shelves…
- 00:51
and you’re not reading it to cram for a test…
- 00:54
…doesn’t mean it’s lacking in literary value.
- 01:00
So try approaching a bestseller as you do any other book you read in school…
- 01:03
We don’t mean slowly, from behind, poking it with a stick…
- 01:07
…but by keeping an eye out for all the tricks you’re familiar with.
- 01:11
Bestselling authors use the same techniques that their literary cousins use: symbolism,
- 01:16
imagery, themes, and so on. Bestsellers can have characters just as complex
- 01:22
as Hamlet… and usually they’re a lot less moodier.
- 01:25
Well, except for Bella Swan, a Hamlet for the new millennium.
- 01:28
Bestsellers also have rich symbolism. Cheetos could symbolize universal human pleasures.
- 01:32
Video games aren’t just awesome fun, they also represent the competitive and manipulative
- 01:37
nature of children. And the main character’s scars might be
- 01:41
more than just an exciting backstory. So once you know how to read bestsellers,
- 01:42
and where to find our bestseller summaries, when do you read them?
- 01:42
Well, whenever you want. But the best time to read bestsellers is, obviously, before
- 01:42
the movie or TV show comes out.
- 01:43
That way you won’t be surprised by a Game of Thrones spoiler that people who read the
- 01:44
book knew about, oh, ten years ago. After you read a bestseller, go online and
- 01:46
find out what other people think about it. We’ve got summaries to tell you what you’ve
- 01:50
missed. And there are lively online communities to
- 01:53
discuss books you’ve just read. You might even meet a new friend. Someone who isn’t
- 01:57
fictional. By visiting one of these communities before
- 02:00
you pick up a bestseller… …you might also get a little insight as
- 02:03
to which ones you’d most enjoy. So you can save yourself some time slogging
- 02:06
through Nicholas Sparks’ oeuvre if romance doesn’t really… do it for you.
- 02:07
So what’s the best way to read bestsellers? Be on the lookout for literary tricks.
- 02:13
Find out more about your favorite movies and TV shows.
- 02:16
And find new friends who like the same books you do.
Related Videos
Dr. Seuss was a failure to start, but he soon learned to follow his heart. He wrote books about things that he knew, and soon enough, his book sale...
Sure, Edgar Allan Poe was dark and moody and filled with teenage angst, but what else does he have in common with the Twilight series?
Emily Dickinson was a New England poet/hermit with a fascination with death and immortality. She wrote over 1000 poems in her lifetime, most of the...
