Do you live innear a major city ? If so there might be lectures and seminars available . I agree with uFragrantKnife that some concepts and perspectives are too much to tackle alone . So much of any literature is wrapped up in history , class , race , economic status of the writer , etc . Edith Wharton ' s family were supposedly responsible for the term keeping up with the Joneses . Hemingway used to go fishing with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara . A whole subplot of Absalom , Absalom ! won ' t make any sense unless someone explains what a placage is , and the word is not in the novel so you won ' t find it there . The writings are not just words on a page when the authors themselves are literally light years apart . Do you have a community college nearby ? You could sign up to audit a sophomore level lit class at one for probably less than 200 dollars , and at least get a sample of what literature education looks like in a class . The professor might be able to point you toward nonuniversity sources for similar experience elsewhere . In short , this is the study of a high art , you can only google so much . Even in reading criticism , you have to know enough to call foul . If you take undergrad lit classes you get that fairly quickly , probably from Stanley Fish ' s ruses Interpreting the Variorum and Interpreting Interpreting the Variorum . But if you don ' t know where to start you ' ll be left scratching your head wondering if Beowulf really was gay , without knowing that in a world of words there are no shortage of bullshit artists who sound awfully convincing . Is it possible to trudge through the theory on your own and get a grasp of this stuff ? Sure , but trust me that 200 dollar lit class audit will make it a LOT easier to get started and be money well spent .