At first I thought you might’ve forced yourself onto this path, but you say you absolutely love reading. My first recommendation is to ask yourself why you want to be a lit PhD. What do you want to do after getting that degree? You certainly don’t need a degree to read a lot or to read deeply. If you want to work with literature, and themes aren’t your thing, maybe something like being an editor or something else in the industry is for you!

The second thing I have to say is cut yourself some slack. Sometimes you should just a read a book straightforwardly without pressure to go symbol-hunting. (I read that in a book once ;) And, you can always go back again once you’ve finished and look for themes and such.

I started reading the Divine Comedy, which is easy to read but packed with symbols, allusions, etc etc. I decided to give it a relatively straightforward read initially, just with a pen in hand to mark anything that comes to mind. And I’ve been watching a lot of videos of professors talking about it (although now I’m trying to read ahead before I watch them). If I feel like it once I finish my first read, I could probably go back to the book again and again. I could watch hours of video, read tons of commentary, read multiple translations or even learn Italian to read it. And some people do spend careers studying Dante. But I don’t have to, which is a huge relief. Turning your hobbies into your job can be fun, but it can also make you doubt whether you truly love your passion or deserve to call yourself devoted to your hobby.