EusReads

Book Review: The Reading Life by C.S. Lewis

When I first saw this, I thought it was a book written by C.S. Lewis about reading and got very excited. Unfortunately, my first assumption was wrong: this is a book about quotes from C.S. Lewis about reading, which is different from what I expected but still delightful.

Divided into two main sections, The Reading Life quotes C.S. Lewis on two main topics: “The Art and Joy of Reading” and “Short Readings on Reading”. By taking quotes from his essays and letters, the editors of this book show us just how erudite and how much of a bibliophile C.S. Lewis was. Lewis talks about fairy tales, about myths, gives us his opinion on Tolstoy and Tolkien. It’s a fantastic range of quotes. If I were to show you all the quotes I like, I would have to send you a copy of The Reading Life.

Some of my favourite quotes:

From An Experiment in Criticism (Epilogue)

“Literary Experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality. […] in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself”

From “The Weight of Glory”

“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.”

From a letter to Sarah Neylan (Jan 16, 1954)

“I’ve been reading Pride and Prejudice on and off my life and it doesn’t wear out one bit.”

It looks like C.S. Lewis was quite the Austen fan because he also writes in a letter to Rhona Bodle (Sep 14, 1953)

“But our literary loves are diverse as our human! You couldn’t make me like Henry James or dislike Jane Austen whatever you did.”

Somehow, knowing the C.S. Lewis was a Janeite makes me extremely happy. I haven’t read Henry James (oops?) so I can’t comment on his opinion towards him.

From a letter to Arther Greeves (Aug 17, 1933)

“Clearly one must read every good book at least once every ten years.”

Lewis was a re-reader! So happy to hear that but how did he find the time, given that he reads so much?

As you can tell, I really enjoyed reading this and finding out more about Lewis’s reading habits and opinions towards authors. Because these are quotes and short passages, they are easy to dip in and out of. This is a great book that fans of reading and C.S. Lewis are sure to enjoy.

2 thoughts on “Book Review: The Reading Life by C.S. Lewis

  1. I am glad you ended up liking this book even though it wasn’t what you expected going in. I really like the quotes you shared! I didn’t know he was a Janeite! Or maybe I did, but forgot. That does make me happy though. 🙂 My daughter is a big re-reader. I wonder what her teacher thinks when she sees my daughter’s reading journal and the same book appears multiple times. There’s one she finished and then started again right away. She’s read the book at least six or seven times already.

    1. It’s awesome that your daughter is a re-reader! She must really love the book to have read it so many times – I remember doing something similar when I was her age (and I probably do something similar now; I’ll reread parts of a book I just finished if I particularly like them)

What do you think?