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It is absolutely essential to take good notes when reading a novel for class. It is doubly important if you need to write an essay on the book later. You should highlight or underline important passages, and provide a brief note to the side reminding you why it is important ("symbolism," "character shift," "repeated metaphor," etc.). On paper, you should note bigger moments and shifts -- keeping track of character changes, overarching themes, and passages or moments you don't quite understand yet. Take notes during class discussion, marking important pages and quotes that you may have missed. You can go overboard with notes. You want your notes to be a guideline for your writing when you finish the book. If the whole book is underlined you won't get a lot of useful information. Knowing literary vocabulary is the best way to get your point across when writing or talking about a book. It also helps you understand the novel as you're reading, giving a name to the myriad techniques and moments that you encounter so that you can take better notes. Theme: The overarching ideas, morals, or thoughts of the novel. Can be as simple as "good beats evil" and as complex as "capitalism is destroying the modern family." Metaphor: Making two dissimilar things seem similar. "She is a rose" doesn't literally mean the woman is a flower, it means she is beautiful, delicate, and a little barbed. A "simile" is when the metaphor uses the words "like" or "as," ie. "She is like a rose / She is pretty as a rose." Motif: A repeated idea, image, or flavor in a book. If a book frequently uses sailing and ocean metaphors, for example, it could be said to have a "nautical motif." Allusion: A reference to another work, either directly or indirectly. For example, any character that dies and is raised from the dead (A Tale of Two Cities, Harry Potter,) is frequently considered a "biblical allusion" to Jesus Christ. Symbolism: When an object in the book stands for the idea of something else. Symbolism is everywhere, sometimes unintentionally, because humans think in terms of symbols. For example, in Of Mice and Men, the rabbit farm comes to symbolize Lenny's dreams of financial security and safety. A symbol comes to represent a much larger idea than it initially appears. How exactly is the story told? Is there humor, or is it mostly serious? Are the sentences long and difficult or short and speedy? You need to move past the basics of "what happened" and onto "why it happened." Do you think the author was influenced by other writers, artists, or current events? If so, how do they use fiction to really explore those influences? There are no right answers to these questions, but you need to ask them to get the most out of the novel. You cannot only worry about plot when reading, as plot is just one of the many pieces that make up a novel. Some teachers encourage reading summaries before starting the book. This helps you pay more attention to characters, themes, and structure, since you know how the plot ends up. Novels work on two levels. The first level is "function," and it concerns what the novel is trying to say (plot, theme, setting, etc.). The second part, "form," is how it is being said (perspective, structure, metaphor, etc.). While good readers will note each side, excellent readers will note how the two of them come together. How does form reinforce function? David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest is all about the nature of entertainment, debating (in part) if one must work for entertainment. Accordingly, half the novel is written in footnotes, making the reader work by flipping back and forth, even within sentences and other footnotes. Even less serious books must merge form and function to be successful. Dracula, tells its horrible story as a series of letters and first-hand documents instead of a narrator. This allows Bram Stoker to slowly ratchet up the horror and gives the reader a sense that this really happened somewhere in England. As long as you cite the findings of other authors, one of the best ways to expand your knowledge of a book is to read into the world around it. You could research historical background information, or the author's own life and inspiration. You could read critical essays, which are common for "classic" books and can help make sense of complex novels. When writing longer papers, reading the thoughts of other writers is a great way to form your arguments early on. Do you agree, and have other evidence to offer? Do you disagree, and can you use the book to prove them wrong? Always cite any outside sources you've read and expand on them with your personal opinions. Use these sources as a jumping off point, not your only argument.
Take notes, especially of passages you like or find confusing. Apply common literary terms to your analysis. Examine the style of the book, and find relationships to other books. Find the common bonds between function and form. Consult outside sources, from non-fiction research to critical essays.