On Reading Well

This book describes exactly how I read books. I had so much fun seeing someone be able to clearly explain how we can read fiction and experience, practice and grow!

Seeing and recognizing virtues and morals as we read, helps to prepare us to handle situations of life better.

I will admit that it felt like it was written for NONFICTION readers, to help them understand the way fiction readers read and understand / learn, with lots of examples. So in that way, it was a slow read for me,

With that in mind, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has a fiction lover in their life, and wants to understand them a little bit better. If you are a fiction lover yourself, this is great for "comparing notes" on some popular fiction.

For many people, reading can be a great pastime. Students read for learning, but more often than not, do so in order to pass their courses. Professors read in order to teach. Researchers read in order to build their reserviour of knowledge and bibliographical resources. Many teachers also encourage their students not just to read but to read widely. What about reading slowly and intently? What does it mean to read well? What if reading could change our lives? What if reading well means living well, or vice versa? These questions help us address the fundamental purposes of reading and living. According to author Karen Swallow Prior, "reading well is, in itself, an act of virtue, or excellence, and it is also a habit that cultivates more virtue in return." That is more than a mouthful. It is specifically reading with a virtuous purpose in mind and a holistic relevance to life. Prior shows us how through the categories of the cardinal, theological, and heavenly virtues. We learn many different insights about reading well:
Reading well is about learning how to think
Reading slowly leads to deep and meaningful reading
Speed reading leads to "superficial knowledge and overconfidence."
Read virtuously by being faithful to both text and context
Read and enjoy
Read and be formed in our thinking
Read toward human flourishing
Reading fosters virtues and vision
Reading offers greater perspectives
... and so on

Just reading the introduction is enough to make readers want to plunge into the book to be literarily soaked. The caution here is not to read just about any book, but to discern the great books. It is learning to battle our modern world's tendency toward distracted short bursts of attention reading. It is against the tendency to equate browsing to reading. Prior gives us twelve selections based on the themes of:

Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Courage)
Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, Love)
Heavenly Virtues (Chastity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, Humility)
Using one word to describe the theme of each book, Like a skillful narrator guiding readers through the storyline, Prior shows us what to observe, especially the virtues dissolved in the dense texts. Without giving the whole story away, Prior provides snippets of the general storyline. Like an expert examining a gem, she probes the theme in multidimensional ways. What is most powerful is the way she makes the book converse with biblical principles. In many cases, the characters presented in the story personify the application of each virtue. Reading virtuously means learning to read with an understanding of the nuances associated with it. Prior brings in perspectives from saints of old, such as Thomas Aquinas and Richard Baxter. She includes great thinkers and philosophers like Aristotle, CS Lewis, GK Chesterton, Charles Taylor, and more. We also have thoughts from renowned theologians like Tom Wright, James KA Smith, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Most intriguing is how Prior manages to tell a story within a story and highlights a core message from among many messages to give us a laser focus on the central virtue.

My Thoughts
First, I learn that reading well does not mean letting our heads swell up with the entire book. It is about letting the book change us, especially on how we think. Going back to the beginning where Prior says: "Great books teach us how to think," Prior shows us not to be distressed by the dense material and to simply soak in the narrative, and to pay particular attention when the virtues come up from time to time. It may take a couple of readings or re-readings in order to understand more fully about what the author was trying to say. Prior reminds me that reading a book well does not mean reading the book from cover to cover. It simply means learning to slow down or speed up when appropriate, and to pause and reflect when necessary.

Second, Prior brings a unique perspective to the art of virtuous reading. It is learning to read books toward human flourishing. Some people read books leisurely. Many read for facts and for information. Prior shows us the way to read for personal formation. That is why the word "virtue" is such a powerful motif. Using the three categories of cardinal, theological, and heavenly virtues, Prior ensures that we do not jump into virtues we are not ready for. The first part about cardinal virtues is most easily identifiable for most readers. For instance, who wouldn't know the importance of justice? Our daily news abounds with lots of stories about justice and injustice. We see prudence readily applied each time we make a decision. We see courage played out everyday in ordinary lives. Even a person standing up for the rights of others is an act of courage. The second part about theological virtues would require more intentional reflection. I applaud Prior for selecting Shusaku Endo's book, "Silence" to focus on the virtue of faith. It is not self-confidence but trust in someone greater than ourselves. It is only in the bleakest, darkest, and gloomiest contexts that we find the brightest glimpses and opportunities to exercise faith. Prior writes something very perceptive: "We can grow in faith only when we recognize that our faith is imperfect." That is most profound indeed. We then associate virtuous reading with personal growth which sets us on the path of human flourishing. This prepares us well to receive the third part about heavenly virtues.

Third, Prior shows us the power of discernment through reading with new eyes. Stories may be old but when given fresh eyes and perspectives, they become new or renewed with fresh understanding. I must applaud Prior for the fantastic literary skill she has in teasing out virtuous themes so easily and artfully. She connects the stories to faith, which is something I appreciate. In fact, even for readers who had read one or more of the books reviewed, there is always something to learn. My past professor did tell me that as long as I could learn at least one thing from the book, it would have been money well spent. In this book, there are more than one thing that I have benefitted from.

Amazing!

Karen Swallow Prior is professor of English at Liberty University, research fellow with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States.
Rating: 5 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Brazos Press and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

I primarily choose to read nonfiction, but either through my education or my own choices I have read several great works of literary fiction in my life and I have enjoyed most of them immensely. Still, however, I commonly feel self-conscious when talking about the “great books” of literature (as opposed to non-fiction) for two reasons: 1) I feel that I haven’t read enough of them and that fact will become clear, and 2) I feel that in most of the “great books” I have read I need someone well-educated in literature to help me understand it as deeply as it deserves. This is true of my favorites (like A Tale of Two Cities) and the ones I hated but feel like I missed something (sorry, Joseph Conrad, but I still don’t like Heart of Darkness after being assigned to read it twice!). Karen Swallow Prior, in her newly-released book On Reading Well, is here to partially alleviate my literary inferiority complex by attacking both of those sources.

On Reading Well is a book about great books. Each of the twelves chapters is focused around a work of literature that has achieved enormous popularity among both the general public and those educated in these sorts of things. I would give you the full list, but I feel that some amount of surprise is an important factor in enjoying the book. It is important to note, however, that the point of On Reading Well is not just to summarize a list of “great books”, and Prior did not simply choose her favorite works of literature. Instead, the fuel of the book is in uncovering virtue.

Prior chose twelve virtues commonly agreed upon either by classic Western thought, the Bible, or a combination of the two. She then selected a book that explores the meaning of that virtue either by example or non-example. Instead of the chapters only interacting with the selected texts, they delve into the virtues themselves. This means that On Reading Well is useful not only to those like me who have a literary inferiority complex, which I suspect describes a lot of people, but also to a more general audience of those interested in cultivating virtues.
It seemed to me an odd choice, at first, to structure a book about the “great books” around virtues. I wondered if one of the chief reasons to read an old, time-tested book is for its moral reasoning. But it became clear to me, through the arguments the book made for itself and through personal reflection, that cultivating virtue really should be a major motivation for reading literature. It is a useful medium for the task, and it begins to make sense when you see how many of these great books are oriented toward exploring these virtues themselves. One of the hallmarks of “literature”, as opposed to fiction, is that it makes some difference to the world, that it holds some importance within it. How can a story truly be great if it makes no difference to our lives? And how can it make a difference to our lives if it has no moral claim, no example to follow nor sin to avoid?

As I mentioned earlier, I have always loved A Tale of Two Cities (to the endless amazement of my friends and colleagues), but in reading it there are always large chunks of the story where I feel like I am missing quite a lot. In uncovering the major theme of justice in the story and diving deep within that theme, On Reading Well prepared me for my next re-reading with new tools to use on Charles Dickens. It also added tremendously to my reading list, which grows almost exponentially at this point. I would love to read The Road (the only 21st-century book on the list), I am already listening to an audiobook of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, and I also added Shusaku Endo’s Silence to both my Goodreads list and my Amazon Prime Instant Video list.

Silence was an inclusion I was especially glad to see not because I knew anything about the book but because it is arguably not a work of Western literature. On Reading Well, like others of its kind I have seen and heard about, is focused on the great books of Western literature specifically. That is why a novel by a Japanese writer about the the persecution of Jesuit missionaries in Japan is breath of fresh air from the broader world. Prior’s book would have been worse off if she would have included more non-Western works, but I would love to see a book of “great books” that includes some from cultures around the world and provide some diversity in both time period and geography.

If you like reading, On Reading Well is for you. It will change the way you look at literature and motivate you to dive into some great books. And your life might be greater for it as well.

On Reading Well releases today, September 4th, and it is available from Amazon and many Christian bookstores.
I received this book as an eARC courtesy of Brazos Press and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own.

Karen Swallow Prior, professor of English at Liberty University, wants her students--and the rest of us--to read well. In On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books, Prior reflects on the classical and Christian virtues as they are demonstrated in several literary works. For each of the Cardinal Virtues (prudence, temperance, justice, and courage), the Theological Virtues (faith, hope, and love) and the Heavenly Virtues (chastity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility), she has chosen a novel or story to illustrate the virtue. In doing so, she models a habit of reading in which the reader practices "discerning which visions of life are false and which are good and true--as well as recognizing how deeply rooted these visions are in language."


Her selections are probably familiar to most readers. She covers a wide range of eras and styles: Henry Fielding, Dickens, Mark Twain, Tolstoy, and modern authors like Shusaku Endo, Cormac McCarthy, and Flannery O'Connor, among others. Some I've read, some I've only seen movie adaptations, but even if I was completely unfamiliar with the featured work, Prior engages each in such a way that ignorance of the work doesn't prevent the reader from appreciating her analysis.


If you have an interest in the works included, you will certainly want to take time to read those chapters. But I found Prior's overall emphasis to be most helpful in encouraging the reader to read anything he or she reads with a new set of filters. Consider some of her advice for readers:


"Practice makes perfect, but pleasure makes practice more likely, so read something enjoyable."
"Read books you enjoy, develop your ability to enjoy challenging reading, read deeply and slowly, and increase your enjoyment of a book by writing words of your own in it."
"Reading virtuously requires us to pay attention to both form and content. . . . We have to attend to form as least as much as to content, if not more. Form matters."
"Reading well entails discerning which visions of life are false and which are good and true--as well as recognizing how deeply rooted these visions are in language."
Literary reading is "reading that makes on the reader more demands of time, attention, and thought than casual reading."


Prior doesn't directly address the question of literary fiction versus popular fiction. I didn't sense a tone of snobbery toward non-literary fiction, but I wonder what she might say about popular modern authors. Authors like Twain, Austen, Dickens, and Bunyan were hugely popular in their own day. Their work has stood the test of time and remains popular today. Today's popular authors like John Grisham, Stephen King, or Nora Roberts are not typically considered literary authors, but they are as popular today as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens were in their day. So is the issue more how we read than what we read? Too bad we can't fast forward two or thee hundred years to see which 21st century novelists are on the syllabus. (My personal feeling is that many "literary" authors are over-valued, and that the world of popular fiction is full of overlooked and undervalued work.)


Whether I'm reading a centuries-old classic or a contemporary sci-fi novel (and I really need to read both), I can pay attention to the moral lessons and multi-layered messages implicit in any story. Prior has helped me think about reading more slowly and deeply than I otherwise would.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Prior's elegant writing and insightful analysis make this book a perennial winner. Good writing like this is hard to find. I suspect she will be quoted liberally by future book lovers, many of whom will find old-but-new-to-them books to discover and enjoy. When an author can inspire readers to go buy other writers' works, you know you have something special. That she centers her text around the 7 virtues makes it even more brilliant.

Professor Prior recommends books should be read slowly. In fact, she quotes the 17th century writer Richard Baxter, "It is not the reading of many books which is necessary to make a man wise or good; but the well reading of a few, could he be sure to have the best." (p.17) Prior believes that when reading owned books should be marked in, or the readers should take notes on paper when reading.

Prior's book is arranged by virtues and a classic book recommendation for each virtue. The virtues include: prudence, temperance, justice, courage, faith, hope, love, chastity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility.

Thanks to Professor Prior, the ever-growing "Want to Read" list is even longer.

Recommended for public libraries and academic libraries, especially those who have literature and religion collections.

On Reading Well is an insightful, interesting, and edifying book. Through the lens of a dozen different works of literature, Prior examines twelve classical virtues. The works span the last four centuries and come from the canons of American, British, and Russian literature. The virtues are the four cardinal virtues: prudence, temperance, justice, and courage; the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and love; and the five heavenly virtues: chastity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. By looking at the way each of the virtues is depicted in a different work, Prior is able to demonstrate to the reader the vital importance of each.