When asked what I do for a living I will sometimes answer, “I read.” Then when asked what I do for fun I smile and say, “I read.” That is one of the joys of being a literary agent, the privilege of reading…a lot.
As such, the quantity of material that must be consumed just to keep up can be overwhelming. An ability to read quickly helps but also the ability to “graze” through material to capture its essence is a learned necessity.
For “fun” I like to read novels that are fast-paced science-fiction, thrillers, or suspense. They can be read extremely fast since it is the action that pushes the story. But they are usually disposable after I’m done. Fun, but not necessarily with substance…sort of like mind-candy.
I also scan dozens of nonfiction books every month. To see what a new writer is saying. To figure out why this particular one is a best-seller. To get a sense of trends in the marketplace. To find a book I want to really read some day. But as mentioned above, this is a form of “grazing.” Every once in a while a book will sieze my attention but more often they are simply “scanned and filed away” for later.
I’m not saying there isn’t value to this practice but it isn’t always the best thing.
What We Can Lose When Reading Fast
Unfortunately, it feels like the consumption of massive amounts of material loses something. We can lose:
1. A sense of wonder at astounding literary quality
2. A deeper understanding of the themes in the book
3. Miss an important step in logic in a non-fiction book so that the presentation feels lacking (the fault of the reader, not the writer)
4. An opportunity to let the words grip and mold the soul
Years ago I came across a fascinating study of this topic. In the book Slow Reading in a Hurried Age by David Mikics (Harvard University Press) the author presents 14 guidelines (or rules) for “slow reading” and then shows how to apply them in various genres. If you, ironically, do not have the time to read his book, at least read his Huffington Post article where he writes a synopsis of each of the rules.
Francis Bacon said it even better in one of his Essays:
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”
What to Read?
If I’m going to invest a month or more in a book, I want it to be worth the time. Don’t you agree?
Here are a few suggestions that may not be easy to read but should ultimately be worth that effort:
Non-fiction Suggestions
Teaching a Stone to Talk – Annie Dillard
A Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
Man’s Search for Meaning – Victor Frankl
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry – John Mark Comer
Fiction Suggestions
Barrabas – Par Lagerkvist (won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1951)
A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
The Power and the Glory – Graham Greene
Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Chosen – Chaim Potok (No. This is not the TV show. See the book description.)
The key to this exercise is to read them slowly. If it takes twelve years to read these twelve books, that is okay! The plan is to take a little piece at a time and savor each bite. Let the ideas presented shake you a little. Let the craft of the writing astound you. This list isn’t comprehensive, simply illustrative. The list isn’t meant to be exclusively orthodox but is meant to make you think about your theology in a healthy way.
Pick one. And then post your thoughts on your reading…at least a month from now. Any sooner and you’ve read the book too fast.
Fun Fridays – June 7, 2024
I’m in. I just ordered Man’s Search of Meaning by Victor Frankl, and I promise to read it slowly (which, because I am a slow reader anyway, is a promise I won’t have trouble keeping).
I’ll check back in the requisite month to share my thoughts.
Nothing beats savoring a well constructed book in the same way we take our time over a magnificent feast. I have read most of the books listed and would add a few more: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett; Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr, Swamplandia by Karen Russell, and The Dead Don’t Dance and Maggie (or combined in Down Where My Love Lives) by Charles Martin. Revival by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and The Knowledge of the Holy by Tozer. And while I like your selection of Annie Dillard’s book, I prefer Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek. The manner in which the words had been arranged provoked something beyond the book, its author, and myself. And that is the definition of something worth a slow, deliberate, thoughtful read.
I have noticed that there are certainly books that I can read faster than others, but I’ve never sat down to analyze it like this. I have been meaning to read A Prayer for Owen Meany (I have a sample in my Kindle), but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Thank you for the recommendation.
“I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.” – Woody Allen
Couldn’t agree more! I’m in two book clubs and often sweep through the required readings. This same thought occurred to me just last night when I finished a kindle read in record time and loved it, but knew I missed a good portion. I cheated myself and the author who worked so diligently to create sentences and paragraphs that I skimmed over. There is something to be said for reading without a deadline, no in-depth analysis, no required feedback. Hmmm, could this be why we love books so much? And how did we ever forget?
One of the blessings and the curses of being in a world of words for a living! LOL. As much as I read professionally, I’m still reading for pleasure in my leisure time.
Love your list, Steve! And Joe Plemon, Man’s Search for Meaning is a life changer 🙂
Great postings, all. My slow exposure is listening. Primarily, an iPod with Eugene Peterson’s Message Bible… perhaps when going to sleep, sleeping and waking up.
Next, is having my iMac read out loud the brilliant “Tragic View” opinion pieces of Victor Davis Hanson and Bruce Thornton.
Third, listening to Mark Levin talk radio, yes he’s passionate, but absolutely correct about the Progressive rebellion against the Constitution that began 115 years ago…
Fourth, you ask: What does this have to do with Christian writing? Everything! The great Christian preachers that created an environment for our Founding Fathers to create the second-most important docs in the world (after the O.T. and N.T.)…. is long gone due to changes in American education 115 years ago.
Hence, the publishing industry in Christendom is unable to break out unto ameliorating thinking processes…. because what preachers gave our Founding Fathers…. is gone… until “Tragic View” Weltanschauung holders… give back to the preaching establishment/publishing establishment… what is lost so long ago… which is, the Mind of Christ… which redounds unto Christ-in-You… and Living Masters in God.
Thanks for the tip on David Mikics Slow Reading book. That looks well worth exploring. As a literature professor, I applaud everything you say about savoring the great books. One privilege I have is that I get to teach some of them year after year, meaning that I get to read them over and over. The really great books never get old. The more times I teach and read them, the more I enjoy them. One of the joys of teaching these books is that I get to see some of the students get hooked on great literature too.
Wonderful suggestions. You offer here two important ways to not be “conformed to this world”: slow down; read deeply.
I loved “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and “Gilead.” And just about anything by Annie Dillard is well worth your time.
I have written a novel entitled, The Lost Dutchman. It is compelling story that bridges the after world and the world we are after. Would you be interested in looking at it? Everyone who has read it loves the book.
Rev. Lessard,
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Great suggestions. I’d add one to the list: Island of the World by Michael D O’Brien. Brilliant book meant to be savored.
I took a speed reading course. I also read that if you focus on two spots per line. You can get the gist of it, and that’s true, moreso on short lines on a phone.
But just yesterday, reading a book by Max Lucado, I realized speed-reading wasn’t appropriate for his book. The writing is so conversational, informal, and often witty, that I had to slow down and savor it all. The book is _Help is Here_.
“ Any sooner and you’ve read the book too fast.” Or you’ve read them in the past. GILEAD and THE CHOSEN left me thinking for months. Perhaps a revisit would be good since I see them on the shelf.
I loved One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It still haunts me. I also really liked The Chosen, but I loved Potok’s duology The Gift of Asher Lev and My Name is Asher Lev even more. I read and re-read passages in My Name is Asher Lev to try to understand what Potok was doing that made the scenes so gripping and beautiful to read.
This was an awesome article, Steve! I’ll have to check out those books.
I’m a fast reader by habit XD It’s why I’ve indulged more in audiobooks– the narrators force me to slow down, listen, which is especially important for fast-paced novels. I doubt I would have been able to read slowly with Nova McBee’s Calculated, Simulated, or Activated if I had physical copies, but using audiobooks gave me an amazing experience (is it wrong to covet audiobook narrators? Because Laura Knight Keating *chef’s kiss). Needless to say, it’s the first time I’ve ever screamed at characters.
But sometimes, due to the poor quality/lack of an audiobook narrator (unfortunately, most Enclave books fall into this category. Sorry Steve! I love the stories dearly, but the narrators, save for The Fireborn Epic and The Chaos Grid, make me cringe), I’m forced to read myself, which usually results in blazing through the books. But I also like rereading, so I’m not bothered by my fast reading because I’ll catch everything I missed the first go around.
And sometimes I’ll just reread certain books because they’re my potato chip books. Extension Squad, by R.M. Scheller– I’ve reread those books probably twenty times now.
I think the only book I’ve ever read slowly on purpose is the Bible– mainly because if I read fast, I don’t understand anything I’ve read XD.
Read without haste;
let your thoughts be like Sakura
falling in the spring.
Thank you for these words and for the recommendations I am adding to my list! I enjoy books that make me think and must be read slowly. I can absolutely romanticize the days before television when people actually spend time reading things that required time to ponder. I just purchased a book I plan to start next week—Deep Reading by Griffis, Oops, and Roberts. Has anyone here read it? What were your thoughts?
You get an A+ for this post.
In the non-fiction list the only ones I haven’t read are the Pearsey and Dillard books. When I taught AP English, I used the Frankl, Solzhenitsyn, and Potok books. I would highly recommend that every Christian should read Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. I also taught that book. I never tired of teaching a book I loved. Every year I would savor them once again.
Thank you for this!
You’ve helped me overcome some self-consciousness as I have always been a slow reader. I had a rough childhood and discovered a nook in the library where I could escape and hide in the stacks for hours. I read slowly, savoring every word as if the book was an anchor to another world holding me steady. Later in college as an English major, I still read slowly, sometimes reading over parts several times for meaning or in appreciation of great prose.
As a homeschool mom, I learned from Charlotte Mason to read quality literature aloud to children all through middle school and high school. I loved how it compelled me to read slowly and share the discovery with my children. ❤️📖📕
Excellent article and suggestions.
This post led me back to my bookcase to scan the treasures God has given me. “The Shack” may be controversial but it can help those (many) dealing with some kind of embittering loss. I experienced a gut-wrenching but healing encounter with God’s Truth. Many wounds were healed. It is well written.
I’m re-reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society right now. It’s delightful. And I so admire how the author wrote it … it’s all letters. I know each character through the letters they’ve written. It’s crafted so well (to me, anyway) that even though I’m reading letters, it reads like fiction.
Yeah, I read it like the wind the first time. Now, I’m taking my time to soak in the unique beauty of this differently crafted fiction novel.