Let's face it, there are a lot of bad books out there. So many books vie for our attention, and so many books are written in so many fields of human knowledge. How is one to decide what kind of books he or she should read? I have a few thoughts.
Does it add to the field of human knowledge? Far too many books are recapitulations or hack reproductions of better works. If it doesn't enlarge the field of human knowledge, then it probably isn't worth reading. Generally, if an older book is still around, then it's probably worth reading because time is a good judge. It isn't a perfect judge, though.
Does some other writer say it better or represent a certain viewpoint better? While this is related to the last one, it is slightly different in it's application. To read Nietzche is a better pursuit than a current postmodernist. To read C.S. Lewis is better than reading almost all current books on Christian living (I'm looking at you, Brian McLaren and Donald Miller).
Does a book represent its worldview well? A book might proffer a worldview with which I disagree, but I won't waste my time on any book that doesn't represent some of the best that worldview has to offer.
Is the writing beautiful? Beauty is always a standard. Don't let postmodernism fool you into thinking that all art or writing is equally beautiful. The Brothers Karamazov is still considered one of the best novels ever. Go into Barnes and Noble today and you won't find any Dostoyevskys. I'm reminded of the scene from the first National Treasure when Nicolas Cage's character reads the Declaration of Independence in the National Archives. He reads an elegant section (but isn't all of it elegant?) and proclaims, "Nobody talks like that anymore."
Is it trite, meaningless, or reduced to pop psychology? If it is, don't read it. I'd put most political tomes in this category. In general, stay away from Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Al Franken, or most modern political tomes. They are narcissistic and not serious. Want to deal with serious political philosophy? Read John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Rawls, Alexis De Toqueville, William F. Buckley, and many others. Also, most leadership and self-help books fall into the category of pop psychology. Avoid these at all costs.
Is it narcissistic and overly (auto)-biographical? If it is, don't read it. This category relates to my last question as well as to the question on a book's worldview. Too much focus on the self is more a matter of pride than worldview. Biography is important, but it does not have to be narcissistic.
So, would you add anything else to this list? Would you disagree with anything I wrote? I'm curious to hear from you.
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4 comments:
Hi, Dave.
Good post. I agree with most everything here. (On a small note, I think you may mean "autobiographical" in your last point. A good biography can be very worthwhile. But it's pretty clear what you mean. And I agree--while some autobiographies, when done in humility, can be powerful vehicles of truth, too many modern books rely on autobiographical anecdotes that tend toward narcissism).
I don't know that I have anything to add or take away from your list, but I had a few thoughts nonetheless....I know you're a bit of a literature buff, so I'm wondering what the list would be for discerning worthwhile fiction? It seems like your list aims mostly at non-fiction works, though some of your points, like the importance of beauty, would overlap. But fiction seems like a tougher one to nail down, and it's often not until we reach the end of a book that we can truly judge its worth. For some of these reasons, I've taken to reading "classic" fiction almost exclusively over modern offerings. (It's ironic, I know, considering my hobby...). Anyway, I'd be interested to know if you have any thoughts on how to pick/discern good fiction.
I was also musing as to why there are so many bad books out there. Thanks to the free market, it must mean that someone out there buys them and likes them. It's a phenomenon I can't quite imagine, considering that it's actually hard for me to stomach bad books now. But it's a fact of life that reading, like anything else, requires discipline. And to be able to enjoy really worthwhile books, we need to be well practiced in the art of reading. Too many people in our culture, thanks mostly to TV, aren't well practiced. So they have an awfully difficult time reading really good books. I'm reading and enjoying books now--great books--that I wouldn't have had the intellectual discipline to be able to read a few years ago. But in the absence of that discipline, the flash and sparkle of cheap emotion and surface thinking is what most people enjoy reading. What we need, then, are more writers like C. S. Lewis, who had that rare gift of combining incredible depth with marvelous simplicity and explanatory powers. We need writers who are able to convey great, compelling truths in ways that will lead people deeper into the enjoyment of even richer truths. (And you, my friend, for all your self-deprecation of your writing powers, may come to be just one of those writers.)
Thanks, Dave, for your good thoughts, and for sparking my thoughts too this evening.
Matt,
Thanks for your thoughts? Please send me an email giving the play-by-play of your first week. I guess you start work tomorrow.......
Fiction is harder to set good guidelines for, and my approach tends towards classic literature. I realized in college that I like Sherlock Holmes and Charles Dickens after reading a few things. Then, I decided I'd read as much of those things I could get my hands on. I then figured I probably liked 19th and early 20th century British literature, though I have never read Ulysses. I don't understand much T.S. Eliot either.
The only reason I mention that is that you're right, I don't have good guidelines for fiction. I'm not much of a "buff" but a mere enjoyer of classic literature. I have barely scratched the surface.
New standard? Perhaps go to the classic lit. section of the bookstore instead of the first couple of tables where "pop" books are. Hah!
Thank you for your compliments, by the way. I just took a personality profile test with the highest predictive rating of all current profile and aptitude tests, and the highest match of job profession in ministry was "Christian writer." I thought that was unusual.
And I do still love C.S. Lewis so much. He's so much clearer than Chesterton, though I love the G.K. in his own way. Sometimes I just go back and re-read Lewis' stuff when I am bored and it still puts me to tears the 5th and 6th time I've read certain books.
Grace and peace my friend. I know you are where you are supposed to be.
Please check out this most extraordinary book--the most extraordinary book ever written.
www.adidam.org/teaching/aletheon
Plus this beautiful prose re the all important topic of death.
All religion, indeed all of human culture, is an attempt to come to terms with death.
www.easydeathbook.com/purpose.asp
Plus the authors relation to both modernism and postmodernism
www.adidaupclose.org/FAQs/postmodernism2.html
Anonymous,
"All religion, indeed all of human culture, is an attempt to come to terms with death."
Quite a broad-brushing statement, isn't it?
Care to actually prove it? I'm sure you'd just direct me to the book, though.
Even though I'm a Christian, I'm sure a thorough atheist would even take issue with this dubious claim that all human culture attempts to come to terms with death. You are glossing over some of the best arguments in history for the existence of God and for the non-existence of God, neither of which deal with your claim at all.
People, in those instances, are or were on a search for truth.
Kudos to people, atheists or Christians, who actually believe something and search for truth so strongly that they don't rely on pithy and cliche lack-of-arguments such as yours.
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