On Reading Well, Karen Swallow Prior
On Reading Well, Karen Swallow Prior
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
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On Reading Well
Finding the Good Life through Great Books

Author: Karen Swallow Prior, Leland Ryken

Narrator: Lisa Larsen

Unabridged: 8 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/25/2018


Synopsis

Reading great literature well has the power to cultivate virtue. Great literature increases knowledge of and desire for the good life by showing readers what virtue looks like and where vice leads. It is not just what one reads but how one reads that cultivates virtue. Reading good literature well requires one to practice numerous virtues, such as patience, diligence, and prudence. And learning to judge wisely a character in a book, in turn, forms the reader's own character.

Acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior 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. In reintroducing ancient virtues that are as relevant and essential today as ever, Prior draws on the best classical and Christian thinkers, including Aristotle, Aquinas, and Augustine. 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. In examining works by these authors and more, Prior shows why virtues such as prudence, temperance, humility, and patience are still necessary for human flourishing and civil society.

About Karen Swallow Prior

Karen Swallow Prior is Research Professor of English and Christianity & Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is an award-winning author and one of today's leading evangelical writers and commentators. Her book On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books was recognized as a Publishers Weekly Book of the Year in Religion in 2018.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Cindy

I knew I would like this book but I was not prepared to truly love it as I did. It was truly a delightful stroll through many past reads. I decided after the first chapter to slow way down and not rush through this one. When I got to the next to the last chapter I realized it was about a story by Ge......more

Goodreads review by Laura

Review originally appeared at Servants of Grace. Only four pages in to Karen Swallow Prior’s masterpiece On Reading Well, I knew I was in trouble. I love reading in lots of genres, but books about the act of reading are my weakness. I love them. I’ve already read Prior’s first book, Booked: Literatur......more

Goodreads review by Bob

Summary: Makes a case that the reading of great literature may help us live well through cultivating the desire in us to live virtuously and to understand why we are doing so. Karen Swallow Prior wants us to heed John Milton's advice to "read promiscuously" great works of literature because they may......more

Goodreads review by Erik

I'm pretty sure Karen Swallow Prior has been wiretapping my wireless because this book addressed major questions I've been pondering for the past year. It's as though I've charted a new course in thinking. Dr. Prior uses each of the 12 chapters to tie a virtue to a work of literature. She also write......more