A Quarterly Reading Report (Plus a Few Thoughts About Re-Reading)

Claire and I find it very helpful to do some of our planning on a quarterly system. It helps with motivation, organization, evaluation, and even the promotion of certain events and services to others. For instance, we try to schedule the Vital Signs Ministries Book Brunch and the letter-writing parties by quarters as well as the the dinner meetings of the ministry’s governing board. And, on a more personal level, we do quarterly evaluations of how we’re doing on our New Year Resolutions: taking honest stock, giving ourselves grades on our performance, making alterations when necessary, comparing our notes with one another, and making fresh prayers re-dedications regarding the quarter to come.

And this brings me to the subject of reading. Because that’s one of my areas of ongoing resolution, I take a little time at the end of every quarter (or somewhere near there) to review, remember, evaluate, and recommend my recent reading. Here is how I wrote up my “reading report card” for the 2nd quarter.

Grade -- B+. Books read -- 16. “Yes, our schedule seems to be busier than ever, but I can’t let that be the full explanation for my book numbers being a little lower than normal. I need to do better at avoiding distractions; to work on creating a comfortable atmosphere more conducive to reading; to set more time aside for living room reading with Claire; to continue encouraging others to read (including reading the same books as me); and to spend a bit more time on posts for The Book Den blog. Above all, do not let the spirit of the age (a “cancel culture” that dumbs down one’s reading skills, attention span, and appreciation of the crucial importance of reading quality books) make any more inroads into my life.

Of the 16 books read this quarter, 13 books were titles I had read before. Some of them, many times before. But I certainly don’t apologize for that. Indeed, I’m in excellent company with this practice. For example, C.S. Lewis wrote in On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature, “An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books once only…We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties. Till then, it is like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness.”

And in An Experiment in Criticism, Lewis explained his convictions this way, “The majority never read anything twice. The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers ‘I’ve read it already’ to be a conclusive argument against reading a work…Those who read great works, on the other hand, will read the same work ten, twenty or thirty times during the course of their life.”

Similar observations were made by Francois Mauriac --“Tell me what you read and I’ll tell you who you are’ is true enough, but I’d know you better if you told me what you re-read.”  And by Vladimir Nabokov, “Curiously enough, one cannot read a book; one can only re-read it. A good reader, a major reader, and active and creative reader is a re-reader.”  

With that perspective explained, here’s the reading list.

* I closed March’s reading while we were still in Branson with Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A fine story. (A re-read.)

* April’s reading (all 5 were re-reads) were all 4-star titles. Confessions of a Twentieth Century Pilgrim (Malcolm Muggeridge); The Old Curiosity Shop (Charles Dickens); The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien); The Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien); and The Two Towers (J.R.R. Tolkien).

* May was an extremely busy month and I only got in two books. I finished the series by enjoying The Return of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien and then spent a pleasant evening with a Golden Age mystery, Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin.

* June’s reading included another Edmund Crispin mystery, Swan Song (not quite as good as the earlier one of his); Edmund Crispin) and a re-read of C.S. Lewis trilogy -- Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.

* And now so far in July, there have been two “old friends,” The Seasons of Life by Paul Tournier and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. And a new read from a longtime favorite, Edward L. Beach. That book was Submarine.

* And so that makes only 15 books. What’s #16? Well, that would be one the reasons I haven’t finished more titles this quarter because, along the way, I have carefully been making my way through William L. Shirer’s classic history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. This book too is a re-read but one with so much information (startling, detailed, and spiritually challenging information) that it is taking me awhile to move through its more than 1,200 pages.

So, there you go – a quick quarterly reading review written, at least in part, as an encouragement for you to join me in beating back the lethargy and the lure of the television by reading more. Indeed, I close this post with a snappy (and very quick) video apologetic on the matter.