The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes

Written by C. S. Lewis

Narrated by John Lee

The revered teacher and bestselling author reflects on the power, importance, and joy of a life dedicated to reading books in this delightful collection drawn from his wide body of writings.

More than fifty years after his death, revered intellectual and teacher C. S. Lewis continues to speak to readers, thanks not only to his intellectual insights on Christianity but also his wondrous creative works and deep reflections on the literature that influenced his life. Beloved for his instructive novels including The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, and The Chronicles of Narnia as well as his philosophical books that explored theology and Christian life, Lewis was a life-long writer and book lover.

Cultivated from his many essays, articles, and letters, as well as his classic works, The Reading Life provides guidance and reflections on the love and enjoyment of books. Engaging and enlightening, this well-rounded collection includes Lewis’ reflections on science fiction, why children’s literature is for readers of all ages, and why we should read two old books for every new one.

A window into the thoughts of one of the greatest public intellectuals of our time, this collection reveals not only why Lewis loved the written word, but what it means to learn through literature from one of our wisest and most enduring teachers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9780062933058

C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) war irischer Schriftsteller und Literaturwissenschaftler; er versuchte, ein allgemeines Christentum zu vermitteln. Er gilt heute als einer der bedeutendsten christlichen Autoren des 20. Jahrhunderts. Lewis lehrte in Oxford und Cambridge. Weltweit bekannt wurde er mit seiner Kinderbuchreihe "Die Chroniken von Narnia".

Reviews for The Reading Life

[GILBERT MICHELINI · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Interesting to hear his take on writing and most especially reading. I have spent most of my adult reading life in non-fiction. Dr. Lewis has encouraged me to explore more fiction.

[Lisa Preston · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved it. I’m a huge Lewis groupie. Sans the sexual stuff ?

[Caroline Erstwhile · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Reading Life by C.S. Lewis was well narrated by John Lee, but I don't think it fulfilled its promise.

[hardlyhardy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“We seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves.” — C.S. Lewis, “An Experiment in Criticism”C.S. Lewis read for his profession (he taught literature at Oxford and later Cambridge), for pleasure and also, as suggested by the above quotation, for the enlargement of his being. Then he wrote many books that enlarged the being of his many, many readers.In the books he wrote he had much to say about the books he read and about reading in general, and now much of what he said on the subject has been compiled into a single book, “The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes.”Lewis loved Jane Austen ("I've been reading “Pride and Prejudice” on and off all my life and it doesn't wear out a bit.") and “War and Peace” ("It has completely changed my view of novels."), but “The Three Musketeers” not so much ("I don't think there is a single passage to show that Dumas had even seen a cloud, a road, or a tree.") He wondered how Mark Twain could write “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” yet nothing else that was nearly as good.He has much to say about fairy tales and about children's literature in general, and of course his own Narnia stories became children's classics. He once argued: "I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story." As someone who did not read those Narnia stories until I was an adult, I am almost inclined to agree with him.For parents, teachers or others who worry about the unworthiness of the books children read, Lewis offers this sensible advice: "Those who have greatly cared for any book whatever may possibly come to care, some day, for good books." Those discouraged from reading "bad" books may stop reading altogether.And those who don't read, Lewis writes elsewhere, inhabit "a tiny world."

[bell7_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

*E-ARC received from Edelweiss/Above the Treeline in exchange for an honest review. No money or other goods were exchanged, and all views are my own.*This short book includes excerpts of C.S. Lewis's thoughts on reading from his various published works, letters, and introductions.Collections like this one, that draw on an author's writing on a subject and necessarily, in some cases, divorce a thought from its larger context can be hard to pull off well. The Reading Life by C.S. Lewis, however, does it well and in some cases brings passages that came from different published works but were about a similar topic (such as George MacDonald's Phantastes) together to even give the reader a fuller understanding of Lewis's thoughts on certain subjects or books. I spent a delightful couple of hours reading through and discovering which authors Lewis loved and which he never would, his reviews of Tolkien's books, and more. Recommended for fans of C.S. Lewis and bibliophiles alike.