It's always a good idea to keep the author's personal background (or what you know of it) in the back of your mind when examining an idea you may or may not agree with, also take the location and historical time into consideration. Things that may be unexceptable now may not have been then or vice versa.

It is also nice to take the lessons learned in the book and decide if and how they are applicable to life in modern society.

Another fun thing to watch for is imagery, alot of times a colorful and seemingly fictional passage has a hidden meaning or is a small picture of the overlying theme of the work.

In His Service
Kourtney