Reading With Urgency

 

In the July/August issue of  Gilbert, an article by Mark Johnson caught my attention. In "Urgent Conversations with the Dead" he discusses reading good and old books - a subject near and dear to my heart.

He notes that we used to read books with a sense of urgency, books that elicited a personal response, books that revealed truth about the world and human nature.

Johnson laments the fact that too many people no longer read books "with urgency" due to television and the internet. And he points out that even when we do read current bestsellers too many new books are tainted by "characters engaged in fruitless searches for an ever-elusive 'inner self'' and trapped in personal development purgatories." He goes on to say "If The Brothers Karamazov were written today, all the brothers would be sent off to therapy by page 80 or so and live pleasantly medicated lives ever after."

He even quotes Screwtape, and, of course, Chesterton.

As a retired middle school and high school English teacher I did indeed see such tendencies in the "young adult" and even adult novels were were supposed to teach. They were shallow, and tended to water down moral and ethical values. Thank God I ended my teaching career at a classical education  school with ties to the Chesterton Network!

One of my joys since retiring is that I have had time to read more of those books with values and depth. Oh, some are for fun - I'm currently reading a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery - but many are books and works I've wanted to read or reread. Some are old classics, some are more contemporary books with substance. Just this year I've read such books as:

Heretics by G. K. Chesterton

The Flying Inn by G.K. Chesterton

Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

By the Rivers of Babylon by Michael D. O’Brien

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift  

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor 

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Mixed in are some mysteries, theological works, papal encyclicals, and poetry collections.

All told, I've read some 35 works so far this year. I would have read even more had I not wasted so much time on social media!

Johnson points out the importance of novels in challenging the current trends: "The path back to reading for truth may also be though the novel ...."

I completely agree.  

I read novels - and other works - to find truth, beauty, and goodness.

And I read them with urgency.

But maybe I need to be more urgent about my reading, and to read more good novels.