How to read literature like a professor - part 1

What sets How to read literature like a professor aside from other books?

Some students think there must be some well-kept secret to understanding literature. Either that, or teachers must be making up all this stuff about theme and symbol. There couldn't be that much to a book after all: symbols, important images, connections between this book and others. Of course, literature professors don't make this stuff up. Professors and other readers only see symbols and archetypes because they are there. They are not hidden, not really. You just have to have eyes to see, and those literature goggles are developed through years of reading. And, it's not just any reading. We must read Shakespeare, Homer, Aristotle, Twain, Chekhov, Milton, and all of the other literary greats. We grow in our literary skills as we use them.