I love to read. You might have already gathered that from the fact that I run a book review website as a hobby. I also like to learn from what I read. The best fiction has a way of exploring things through perspectives we might not otherwise see. While I often am limited to reading recently released books—as those are the ones that publishers want reviewed—I’ve recently taken to my library’s audiobook collection to relive some of the old classics. And it’s been an absolute blast. To augment my listening, I picked up On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books by Karen Swallow Prior. If anyone loves literature more than me, it’s Dr. Prior. And her insights into some of the greatest works in classic literature make those books come to life with importance and relevance for the modern age. 

 

If I’m to be honest, I didn’t much care for my high school literature classes. Maybe you didn’t, either. I read all the classics, learned the pertinent facts, did the exams—I don’t even think we had many writing assignments, which seems not great for a literature class—anyway, the point is I read a lot of classic literature at any early age, but it wasn’t until later that I learned to truly read literature and learn from it. I understood the power of story (life is story, hello) but I had never gone back to read the classics with that more mature understanding. I say all this because it's easy to see a book titled On Reading Well, see that it’s written by an English professor, and assume it’s going to be like high school or college lit all over again. On Reading Well is what it should be. (And yes, I would totally teach a Literature class using this book as an outline should the opportunity ever arise.) 

 

On Reading Well explores the good life—the virtuous life—through literature. Karen Swallow Prior divides the book into the cardinal virtues (prudence, temperance, justice, and courage), the theological virtues (faith, hope, and love), the heavenly virtues (chastity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility). Each virtue is represented by one book, ranging from John Bunyan to Jane Austen. Most of the books I had a passing familiarity with. A couple had passed my knowledge completely. No matter the case, Prior does a good job recounting the relevant plot without getting lost in it (tempting as that might be) and pulls out the relevant themes with adeptness and gusto. Previous knowledge certainly aids in understanding the theme in all its depth, but Prior ensures that it is not a necessity. 

 

On Reading Well is more than mere literary criticism. It is a love letter to literature that simultaneously teaches readers to read well. By example, Prior shows readers how to engage with a text on a moral level and glean from it the themes and worldview that emerge from the text. Stories are more than entertainment, they are the stuff of life. On Reading Well works on multiple levels. First, Prior invites us into a discussion of morality and virtue. Second, she invites us into a discussion of literature and story. But third, by tying those things together, she teaches us the value of story as a method of virtue-telling—one that’s often more powerful and more memorable than didactic literature. On Reading Well is destined to take after the books it discusses, rightfully becoming a timeless classic of literature itself.