Why you should stop buying "new" books.
Along with a list of where to start when approaching the "classics."
I want you to take a break from reading new books. Yes, even if that means you delay grabbing one of mine.
I can already hear my publisher and agent furiously punching into their keyboards: “Kyle, what?!??! Why?!?! Stop!”
But, yes, even as an author who is actively writing books: I want you to read fewer new books. And, if I were you, I wouldn’t trust any author out there who said otherwise.
I recently shared my summer reading list with subscribers and I was surprised at how many folks were surprised that I was simultaneously reading two different translations of The Odyssey (Homer). Some were shocked to learn that this is probably the fifth time I’ve read through the entire work. One reader messaged me and said, “Why would you re-read something that many times that isn’t the Bible?”
Well - The Odyssey is one of the most significant works ever written. It is definitively a “Great Book.” And while Christians make their home in the Greatest Book, we would do well to walk among the “Great Books.”1 I am not encouraging you to put down the Bible to read the classics, but I am encouraging you to occasionally put down the newest/hottest book in order to pick up a time tested treasure.
The Odyssey is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand the history of ideas. It’s not the only book that matters, but it is a book that matters greatly.
At the very least, take C.S. Lewis’ advice on this: “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” Lewis, in his foreword to the St. Ignatius Press edition of Athanasius’ On the Incarnation, goes on to say: “Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or the old, I would advise him to read the old.”
Amen.
In light of Lewis’ advice, I want to give some direction on digging into the classics.
If you want to read a Christian classic - I’d start with these four in this order:
Athanasius, On the Incarnation
Augustine, Confessions
Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
If you want to explore Great Book literature - these four works are essential:
Homer, The Odyssey
Dante, Divine Comedy
Shakespeare, King Lear, Macbeth, or Hamlet
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility
If you want to dig into an essential philosophic works - pick one of these:
Plato, The Republic
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics
Augustine, City of God
Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
Alright - just to prove that I think you should prioritize Bible reading above the classics here is one of the forgotten bangers of 90s CCM.
So, yeah, read your Bibles. Please. I am very much on the record that Bible reading is fundamental to the life of the mind.
But, if you are looking for a summer read in addition to the Bible, grab two books: one of the classics I mentioned above and a copy of this book, or this one, or this one.
But if you can only grab one - grab a classic.
It took everything in my will power to not link to a video of the “B.I.B.L.E - yes that’s the book for me” song here.
That essay by Lewis is a classic in itself is it not? He’s so good it’s annoying. Do you have any recommendations outside the Western tradition? I have recently been challenged after reading a book review by Redeemed Reader (if you don’t know them, I highly recommend as your kiddos get older they are the real deal) who suggest reading widely includes titles from other cultures/ethnic backgrounds.
CS Lewis’ essay On The Reading Of Old Books was such a foundational piece for me when I stumbled upon it at the end of college. I found it in God In The Dock which I discovered in the basement of a used bookstore in Harvard Square. It resonated with me even then. Perhaps because as a student at Berklee College of Music the approach to jazz, and recording engineering (my major) was to study the greats in a chronological / development of the art kind of way. It just made sense that you should be conversant in where ideas had come from and how important it was to hear other voices that would challenge your assumptions. It is a key reason I have regularly turned to older hymns and sought to introduce others - especially college students - to them. The older writers might be wrong, but it’s difficult to even consider that you might be wrong unless you bump up against some kind of foil or resistance to your presuppositions.