How to Read Novels like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form

How to Read Novels Like a Professor is Foster’s second educational guide. His first, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, examines a range of common literary subjects—from food to vampires to religion—to show how they can be entry points for finding meaning in a text. In addition, Foster explains how literature uses its own grammar and how understanding it can help readers appreciate it critically. Foster’s third guide, How to Read Poetry Like a Professor (2018), aims to cut through the clutter that many find intimidating, examines various forms of poetry (such as the sonnet and free verse), and encourages readers to develop confidence in their own interpretation of poetry. In the fourth guide, How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor (2020), Foster focuses on skills such as critical thinking.

Foster’s guides all aim to show that anyone can approach literature as a “professor”—that is, in an informed, critical manner. He demystifies complex literary terms and the idea that writers and advanced readers are a special cohort, helping enable readers to approach books from a place of exploration and joy. Foster’s literary

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