How to get more out of a book

Hello all, often times I hear of ppl reading a book out of a hobby/curiosity but most of us aren’t scholars. For those of us who want to get more out of a piece of literature are their any guides to help you think critically of a piece?

To clarify with an example: I read moby dick freshman year of college, I had an AMAZING professor who told us the history of Melville, how he may have been attracted to men, and how there are undertones and subtext in his book that points to it.

I loved the book but I’m not gonna lie, if it were me reading it without my professor guiding me I’d have missed this. Not that I’m incredibly dense but I also am not the best at literary theory/criticism and a guide of some sort helps

So my main question is does this exist outside of scholarship? Just a layman’s guide? Obviously a scholar or phd is gonna have a trove of knowledge, I’m not expecting to get to that point. But just trying to get more than I would if I did it on my own. Hope that makes sense