Most people approach a novel like they're trying to win a race or, worse, like they're back in tenth-grade English class trying to find the "symbolism" of a blue curtain that was probably just blue. It’s exhausting. If you’ve ever stared at a page for twenty minutes only to realize you have no idea what just happened, you aren’t alone. Learning how to read a book a novel isn't about speed or academic rigor; it’s about shifting your brain from "information intake" mode into "simulation" mode.
Stop treating fiction like a textbook. It’s a trick. Your brain treats a well-written story the same way it treats a real memory. When you read about a character smelling rain on hot asphalt, your olfactory cortex actually flickers.
The Big Mistake: Reading for Plot Alone
If you only care about what happens next, go read a Wikipedia summary. Honestly.
Plot is just the skeleton. If you’re rushing to see who dies or who gets married, you’re missing the connective tissue—the prose, the rhythm, the subtext. This "plot-hunger" is why people get burnt out. They’re sprinting through 400 pages of The Secret History just to get to the ending, and then they feel empty because they didn't actually live in the book.
Expert readers, like the literary critic Harold Bloom or even modern novelists like Zadie Smith, often talk about "deep reading." This is a state where the world around you disappears. You can't get there if you're constantly checking your page count.
Try this: Read for the sentence. Pick a paragraph. Read it out loud. Does it have a beat? Is it jagged? Short sentences create tension. Long, winding ones—the kind you might find in a Gabriel García Márquez book—are meant to make you feel slightly lost, like you're drifting through a dream.
Why Your Environment Is Killing Your Focus
You can't compete with a smartphone. You just can't.
Our brains are currently wired for the "F-shaped" reading pattern—a term coined by the Nielsen Norman Group to describe how we skim websites. We look at the top, then the middle, then scan down the left side. Fiction requires a linear path. If your phone is in the same room, even if it's face down, a study from the University of Texas at Austin suggests your cognitive capacity is significantly reduced. It’s called "brain drain."
Put the phone in a drawer. Literally. Lock it away.
How To Read A Book A Novel Without Getting Bored
Boredom is usually a sign of "passive reading." You’re letting the words wash over you without reacting. To fix this, you need to become an active participant in the story.
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Some people call this "interrogating the text." It sounds fancy, but it basically just means asking the book questions like it’s a person who’s lying to you.
- Wait, why did she say that? * Is this narrator actually reliable? (Hint: In books like The Girl on the Train or Lolita, they definitely aren't).
- What is the author NOT telling me right now?
The Art of the DNF (Did Not Finish)
Here is a hard truth: Life is too short for bad books.
If you’re fifty pages into a novel and you’d rather be doing dishes, stop. Seriously. The "Sunk Cost Fallacy" ruins more reading habits than Netflix ever could. If you force yourself through a book you hate, you're conditioning your brain to associate reading with boredom. You’re building a neural pathway that says "Book = Chores."
Expert readers DNF books all the time. Author Nancy Pearl famously has a "Rule of 50." If you’re under 50 years old, give a book 50 pages. If you’re over 50, subtract your age from 100—that’s how many pages you owe a book. As you get older, your time becomes more valuable. Use it wisely.
Mastering the "Second Read" Mentality
You haven't really read a great novel until you've read it twice.
Vladimir Nabokov, the guy who wrote Pale Fire, once said, "Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it." He argued that on the first pass, we’re too busy with the physical movement of our eyes and the basic mechanics of the plot. It’s only on the second pass that we can actually see the artistry.
Now, I'm not saying you have to reread every thriller you pick up at the airport. But if a book moves you? Go back.
Annotation Is Not Just For Students
Write in your books.
Unless it’s a first edition of The Great Gatsby worth ten grand, mark it up. Dog-ear the pages. Underline the sentences that make you feel like someone just punched you in the stomach. Marginalia—the act of writing notes in the margins—is a tradition that goes back centuries. Even Mark Twain was a notorious book-scrawler.
When you write in a book, you’re having a conversation with the author. You’re turning a mass-produced object into a personal artifact. Years later, when you open that book again, you’ll see who you were when you first read it. It’s a time capsule.
Dealing With "Difficult" Fiction
Sometimes you want to read something "heavy." Maybe it’s Ulysses or Infinite Jest.
The mistake most people make is trying to understand every single reference. Don't do that. You’ll drown. In the world of literary analysis, there's a concept called "negative capability." It was coined by the poet John Keats. It’s the ability to be "in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason."
Basically: It’s okay to be confused. If you hit a section of a novel that feels like word soup, keep moving. The rhythm often matters more than the literal meaning. Trust that the author will bring you back to shore eventually. Or they won't, and that’s the point too.
Practical Steps For Your Next Read
If you want to actually improve your relationship with fiction, stop looking for "hacks" and start building a practice.
- Lower the stakes. Don't start with a 900-page Russian epic if you haven't read a book in a year. Grab a novella. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes is short, punchy, and brilliant.
- Audiobooks are not cheating. The University of California, Berkeley, conducted a study showing that the same cognitive and emotional parts of the brain are activated whether you’re listening or reading. If you’re a "busy" person, use your commute.
- Read before sleep, but not on a Kindle Paperwhite if you can help it. While e-ink is better than a phone screen, nothing beats physical paper for "switching off" the brain's alertness.
- Join a community that isn't toxic. Avoid the "reading goal" culture of Goodreads if it makes you feel guilty. Instead, find a small Discord or a local book club where the goal is discussion, not just checking a box.
- Change your posture. If you're slumped over, your breathing is shallow. Sit up. Lean back. Make it an event.
How to read a book a novel is ultimately about surrender. You are letting someone else's consciousness hijack your own for a few hours. Let it happen. Don't fight the prose, don't rush the ending, and for heaven's sake, put your phone in another room. The story is waiting for you to actually show up.
Go find a book that looks slightly too smart for you. Open to page one. Read the first three sentences. If they sing, keep going. If they don't, put it back on the shelf and find one that does.