Why is literature history or poetry easy to get started? From the perspective of literary history, such books can give you a general grasp of English literature, and often recommend some important writers for readers to study carefully. Poetry is short and beautiful (mostly).
Finally, how to "read"? The first level, of course, is to understand language. If you have the heart, your English is passable, and you can achieve this goal with a book with notes. Second, understanding things above language, such as the author's writing background and purpose, needs careful understanding; Finally, what you think after reading it must be written out. As a non-native language learner, I think it is still very important.