Lit! A Christian guide to reading books

Only the Bible can give us a correct worldview to read all other books by. We should read EVERYTHING in the light of scripture

Alison Bolton | October 2016 - Highfields Book of the Month

By Tony Reinke - (2011) Wheaton : Crossway

This is easily one of the most fascinating and stimulating books I have read for a long time. It might just be me, but I think there is something rather pleasing about the idea of reading a book about the reading of books (I think it really might just be me!!)

The title, ‘Lit!’, though short, is packed with meaning. According to Reinke in the introduction, it represents three things: a) Literature, b) The glow of God’s creative power all around us, and c) the illumination that has saved us (2 Corinthians 4:4) and by which we now see the world.

Admittedly, as a bit of a book-worm, this book is right up my street, but it's not just for people who love reading. Reinke claims this book is for everyone - those who don’t like reading (‘why should I read?’), those who enjoy reading but don’t know where to start (‘what should I read?’) and those who just want to make the most of the reading they already do (‘how should I read?’).

He answers all three of those questions over the course of the book, and I'd like to just give you a quick taster of some of the things that come up in each of those categories, to hopefully inspire you to pick up your own copy of the book! 

1). Why should I read?

'Scripture is the ultimate grid by which we read every book'

The whole first section of this book is basically a 'theology of reading'. A framework to help us understand how reading fits into God's world and why it is important. What is the importance of words as opposed to images alone? We should read because words tell us what God is like and how we can know him in a way that pictures never can. We live in a world dominated by images, but if we lose words we’re on very dangerous ground indeed.  “Images do capture stunning scenes and events, but words take you by the hand down the depths to the human soul and up to the heights of an unseen eternity. This is why what we can learn about God by looking at his visible creation (general revelation) is limited. We need his word (special revelation) to help 'see' what is invisible.” (p45).

The most important point from this section is probably Reinke's division of all literature into two categories: 1) the Bible and 2) All other books. “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.” (p26)

 

Only the Bible can give us a correct worldview to read all other books by. We should read EVERYTHING in the light of scripture. And why do we read? For the aim of communing with God, of knowing and loving Him more. “As Christians we read all our books illuminated by God and in communion with him. Gleaning facts and information is not the highest purpose of reading.” (p37)

2). What should I read?

The key to deciding what to read amongst so many millions of books is to choose your priorities.

If you read a book a week for the next 50 years, Reinke says, you will get through around 2,600 books – that’s a lot of books! But not compared to how many books there are in the world! Reinke estimates that for the English speaker (or rather, reader) there are probably around 28 million book options out there, so that every time we choose to read a book, we must ignore ten thousand other books! The point being that we need some way to choose which books to read when there are so many choices.

Reinke dedicates a chapter to talking about choosing reading priorities, he gives an example of six priorities which help him to decide which books to read, and which books to ignore. People may choose different priorities, but his are definitely a good starting point. He’s already given us his two genres of literature – Scripture and everything else, so number 1 is the Bible and priorities 2-6 deal with the ‘everything else’ (Reading Scripture, Reading to know and delight in Christ, Reading to kindle spiritual reflection, Reading to initiate personal change, Reading to pursue vocational excellence and Reading to enjoy a good story).

The key to deciding what to read amongst so many millions of books is to choose your priorities. These will shape your reading diet.

3). How should I read?

not all books deserve equal attention, some can just be sampled, others need to be chewed over slowly

Once you have decided on your reading priorities, Reinke gives tips for how to read books more effectively. This includes advice on how and why to mark books (with a pen!!! - not convinced about this, there's nothing wrong with a good, old fashioned pencil in my opinion, but he makes some good points), developing a reading strategy (not all books deserve equal attention, some can just be sampled, others need to be chewed over slowly) and finding the right times of day for reading different types of books.

Interestingly, Reinke thinks that if you struggle to finish books, it might be that you need to try having more than one book on the go at any one time! There are so many more helpful suggestions and strategies in this section than I can even begin to touch on with this review, so do pick up a copy and dig in for yourselves.

This is a gem of a book, one that you'll want to return to again and again. Read it to help you to love reading more, choose what to read, and make the most of what you do read. And all of this for the purpose of knowing and loving Jesus more.

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