At the beginning of the year, Crossway published an article titled “how to prioritize reading,” which was an excerpt from Lit! A Christian guide to reading books by Tony Reinke.
The book immediately piqued my interest because first, one of my goals this year and beyond is to read more non-fiction books. And secondly, I had previously read and enjoyed 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You also by Reinke. And as with the other book Lit! quickly pulled me in and held my interest to the last page.
About the book
Lit! is a Christian guide on how to read books well. It features practical pieces of advice to help readers, know what books to read, how, when, and why read them.
Reinke learned that literature is life and wants others also to realize this truth. Therefore, his primary goal in Lit! is helping Christians develop good reading habits. He used his own experience of someone who hated reading and now delights in it to encourage those who apprehend books.
He does it by addressing a list of questions that surfaced during his reading quest. For instance, why should I prioritize book reading in the first place? What books should I read? Where do I find all the time, I need to read books, etc.
Lit! is structured in two main parts.
The first part deals with the theology of reading books. In this section, Reinke explains why reading is essential for a Christian, why the Bible is supreme, how other books measure up to it, etc.
And the second part is a collection of practical suggestions for reading books such as choosing which books to read, finding time to read, how to read, etc.
My thoughts
Since I already love reading, I partly fit the targeted audience of this book. However, I still picked it up because I wanted to learn how to read non-fiction books, widen my reading list, and make reading as much discipline as delight.
Lit delivered on all counts. Two things particularly helped me.
The first one was the guide on choosing books. As illustrated in Lit, there are many more books than we could ever read. Therefore, we need to be extremely selective in choosing books. Reinke’s system for selecting and prioritizing books helped me make my priority list. This list also helps ensure I do not read too much of the same genres while neglecting others.
The second one was the guide on reading non-fiction books in which Reinke provided some excellent and constructive pieces of advice. However, I thought some of it was a bit too much. For example, he suggested we should write down our expectations from a book before reading it. At some point, while reading, I missed the time when I thought reading was just a matter of picking a book and diving in it.
I also liked that Reinke dedicated a whole chapter to fiction books and encouraged Christians to read them. Fiction is my favorite genre of books, and many people often look down on it. I was glad to see Reinke wasn’t cut off the same cloth.
My main drawback with Lit is that it fails to entice people to begin reading. If I didn’t already love reading, this book wouldn’t have encouraged me to start. The author made reading sound extraordinarily tedious and challenging. For example, he said, “Reading a book is like trying to drink down a huge vitamin- you’ll be healthier for it-but everything within you refuse to swallow…reading books is hard work…” Not exactly a pep talk.
And throughout the book, Reinke painted reading only as a tool to receive information. He did encourage reading for pleasure but said, “good literature instructs the readers as it delights the reader.” His reasons for reading fiction were mostly academic, which is evidenced by his reading examples, which consisted mainly of historical novels, classics, Pulitzer winners, etc.
I prize learning, and I agree that learning while reading is good. However, I think we can and should often read books just for fun.
Also, I didn’t care much for the first part about the theology of books. I understand the need for it, but I thought it was too long. But perhaps I was just too impatient to get to the practical section since that was why I bought the book.
My recommendation
Lit helped me establish a discipline for reading well. I have already implemented a few changes, and so far, it has been excellent. For example, I followed his advice on reading three books at the same time, and it has helped reading more books thus far.
Therefore, I recommend Lit! to any Christian who wants to read more books, read better, and make it a discipline. It will motivate you to change your reading habits for the better.
My favorite quotes
Commit yourself to the serious reading of books, and your life will be enlightened
page 22
Scripture is the ultimate grid by which we read every book. Scripture is perfect, sufficient, and eternal. All other books, to some degree, are imperfect, deficient, and temporary. That means that when we pick books from the bookstore shelves, we read those imperfect books in light of the perfect Book, the deficient books in light of the sufficient Book, and the temporary books in light of the eternal Book.
Page 28
As Christians living in an image-saturated world, we must guard our conviction about the vital importance of words and language. For it is words and language that best communicate meaning.
Page 58
If we neglect Scripture in order to read only other books, we not only cut ourselves from the divine umbilical cord that feeds our souls, we also cut ourselves from the truth that makes it possible for us to benefit from the truth, goodness, and beauty in the books that we read.
Page 108
