<p>I decided to commit myself to two-hour daily reading to improve my verbal ability in general.
My first choice novel was Great Gatsby.
I set out to read for an hour, but ridiculously, I spent the whole hour reading only two pages.
The main reason of this would be that there were some weird phrases and sentences like "...the victim of not a few veteran bores", and "...it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men". Trying to figure out what they mean slows down my reading speed a lot.
I understand all the vocabularies and grammar making up the phrases and sentences, but I just can't figure out what they mean as a whole.</p>
<p>I considered just skipping those weirdos and moving on, but I got worried that if I don't get those phrases, then I'll have trouble understanding what comes later in the novel. My assumption is that every single thing, no matter how small, builds up to the overall story, and that missing any part of them will adversly affect understanding the novel. What should I do to be able to understand those kinds of weird phrases? I'm guessing the novel has more of those phrases as the novel proceeds. What should I do? I'm really frustrated. </p>
<p>ah, Fitzgerald. So much figurative language, so much. I should add that Gatsby gets more interesting/event-involved as the novel progresses. The beginning is alot of fluff. I had that problem with Tender is the Night.</p>
<p>I think one of the most important things with Fitzgerald is the general tone and setting of his novels, and if you can get the <em>tone</em> of the phrases you're having difficult with, that should be enough. Do they conjur up any images? See what those are. </p>
<p>If you really do want to get to exactly what the passages mean, you could just isolate subject, verb, and object, and get the jist of it. Like with the second, it's basically, Gatsby's dreams effect on him leads Tom to not give a darn about men's sorrows and elations. Mostly because it is exhausting.</p>
<p>Fitzgerald puts in extra words. You can basically get rid of "not a few veteran" in the first line you cited.</p>
<p>If I don't understand things then I just ignore it. :P I do that with every book and I've never had a problem. I read the Great Gatsby too. After I read the book I usually go to sparknotes to learn about motifs and symbolism and stuff. It helps with the stuff I might have overlooked, once I read it I can put it all together myself and make sense of it.</p>
<p>I don't think its a big deal if you ignore a sentence or word here or there. A line here or there shouldn't mess up the entire novel.</p>
<p>The beginning of that book was annoying. I just skimmed it, and the rest of the book was much more simple. Sometimes, you just have to get past the beginning of books. And, you really don't need to understand those phrases. The book is just a relatively chronological story. Nothing to complicated.</p>
<p>...The Great Gatsby has to be one of the most boring novels I have every read. It was mandatory summer reading for my English class last year...The story would be much better if it weren't so filled with unneccessary descriptions and ramblings. Just remember, the figurative isn't THAT difficult, and remember to read between the lines to try to see the big picture.</p>
<p>It is not boring. At the beginning, sure. But basically, it is just like one of those 1950s Film Noir movies. The story was pretty good, and the message too. Not a bad book. Plus, it's way to short to be boring.</p>
<p>Just because something is short doesn't mean it can't be boring. Do you think the passages in the reading portions of the SAT and ACT are entertaining? They're short.</p>
<p>YSK1 goal was to improve his/her reading skills, not to get through the book as quickly as possible. But it's like learning a foreign language: it can take a while to build a vocabulary of phrases, and until then you ... have ... to ... think ... about ... every ... word (phew!). That's no fun. Maybe he/she could start with something a little easier; Toni Morrison's Beloved would probably be on everyone's HS reading list. Or maybe something not necessarily for school, like Ian McEwan, or Salman Rushdie, or John Berendt. Or look at the book reviews in the WaPost or NyTimes and pick something well written that you think you'd enjoy.</p>
<p>I loved GG. We had to read it in English class this year. My second favourite required reading (which is hard, because I liked all our books) My first was The Glass Menagerie.</p>
<p>The language is rather poetic... As hemingwayisdead pointed out, it's quite figurative. Just try to understand it overall, and you should be fine :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Do you think the passages in the reading portions of the SAT and ACT are entertaining? They're short.
[/quote]
I actually find them very interesting. I always love learning new things from those passages... Then again, I read milk cartons with interest.</p>
<p>I reccomend that you read it twice. one of those phrases is a teeny bit important in contributing to a motif, but you wouldn't understand it until the end of the novel. its kind of foreshadowing. </p>
<p>but yeah. read it once, for the story, don't dwell on the deep literary stuff...but mark up the things that you don't particulary get or you think seem important. and then re-read it...i think you'll find a lot of things that you hadn't noticed before. </p>
<p>it's very well crafted. every time you read it, you'll find something new that you hadn't noticed before. </p>
<p>we read it for English. first we were supposed to read it on our own. and then we basically tore through the whole book during class for a week. I've never written so much in a book. there are markings on every page.</p>
<p>"I actually find them very interesting. I always love learning new things from those passages... Then again, I read milk cartons with interest." </p>
<p>lol...I've done the same thing, but I just wanted to point out that just because something is short does not mean it's interesting.</p>