On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books - Paperback

by Karen Swallow Prior (Author), Leland Ryken (Foreword by)

★ Publishers Weekly starred review
A Best Book of 2018 in Religion, Publishers Weekly

Reading great literature well has the power to cultivate virtue, says acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior. In this book, she takes readers on a guided tour through works of great literature both ancient and modern, exploring twelve virtues that philosophers and theologians throughout history have identified as most essential for good character and the good life.

Covering authors from Henry Fielding to Cormac McCarthy, Jane Austen to George Saunders, and Flannery O'Connor to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Prior explores some of the most compelling universal themes found in the pages of classic books, helping readers learn to love life, literature, and God through their encounters with great writing. The book includes end-of-chapter reflection questions geared toward book club discussions, original artwork throughout, and a foreword by Leland Ryken. The hardcover edition was named a Best Book of 2018 in Religion by Publishers Weekly.

"[A] lively treatise on building character through books.'"--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Back Jacket

Read Well. Live Well.
A Best Book of 2018 in Religion, Publishers Weekly

Acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior takes us on a guided tour through works of great literature, helping us learn to love life, literature, and God through our encounters with great writing.

"Karen Swallow Prior has written several critically acclaimed books, but in my book, her book on books is her best yet. On Reading Well is both a love letter to literature and a handbook on virtue, wisdom, and the good life. Bound to be a classic, it is an engrossing work that will appeal to book nerds and casual readers alike. Read it now, and you'll never take books for granted again."
--Jonathan Merritt, contributor to The Atlantic and author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch

"On Reading Well is an exploration of the formative power of stories and an excavation of the life well lived, and we could scarcely have a better guide than Karen Swallow Prior. She is a person who loves (and has been shaped by) great books and who loves (and has been shaped by) the richness of Scripture, a scholar whose writing exudes both warmth and conviction. This story-saturated engagement with the virtues is pragmatic enough to touch the nitty-gritty of our lives and imaginative enough to inspire."
--Tish Harrison Warren, priest in the Anglican Church of North America; author of Liturgy of the Ordinary Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

"It sure seems like virtue is needed now more than ever. And what a treasure trove we have for encountering virtue in literature! Prior is a lovely and wise guide. Take this resplendent tour--read this book! Your life will be better for it."
--Kathryn Jean Lopez, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religion, Culture, and Civil Society, National Review Institute; editor-at-large, National Review

"You might not think yourself to be the kind of person to read a book about reading books. If you are trying to love people, to work well, to find meaning in your life, this book is for you. Prior guides us through the big questions from great books with wisdom, insight, creativity, and compassion. A significant and powerful work that will refocus discussion on the meaning of reading for spiritual formation."
--Russell Moore, public theologian at Christianity Today and director of Christianity Today's Public Theology Project

"[A] lively treatise on building character through books. . . . With exquisite writing, [Prior] demonstrates how 'reading literature, more than informing us, forms us.'"--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Author Biography

Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is research professor of English and Christianity & Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. She is the author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More--Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist. Prior has written for Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, and The Gospel Coalition. She is a senior fellow with the Trinity Forum and a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States.