In my forthcoming book, The Wisdom Pyramid, I suggest categories and sources of knowledge that are most conducive to a life of wisdom (see below image). I have a whole section and chapter on the wisdom we can glean from books. This may seem obvious (reading books for wisdom is sort of like saying “eat your broccoli!”), but it’s worth reiterating just how and why books uniquely contribute to our wisdom, which is what I try to do in my chapter on books in The Wisdom Pyramid.
But knowing it is important to read books is just step one. The harder step is knowing what to read, given the overwhelming options that are all just a one click purchase away.
I personally struggle with this question. There are way more “must-reads” than I could ever read. My nightstand stack is a precarious “Jenga meets Pisa” tower. Social media makes it worse because people whose taste I admire are always recommending books—and especially this time of year when “best books of the year” lists proliferate. Where do I start? What should I prioritize?
Here are a few suggestions I offer in The Wisdom Pyramid for how to choose which books to prioritize.
1. Read Old Books
This is a good place to start. In most cases, classics are classics because they contain truth that has resonated across time and space. So much of what we read on the Internet (hot takes, Twitter threads, blog rants) will be forgotten within days. Many new-release books will similarly fade quickly. But the old books, the “great books,” have lasted because their wisdom is durable in a transitory world. Given the choice between something on the current bestseller list or something on a “greatest books of all time” list, go with the latter.
In his preface to Athanasius’s On the Incarnation (a very great, old book!), C. S. Lewis wisely observes that a new book “is still on its trial” and must be “tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages.” He suggests a rule I have tried to follow: read one old book for every three new books. Lewis explains the reasoning:
Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, there- fore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.
Far from stale relics, old books are often the most relevant to our present. They have enough distance to speak boldly and clearly to our situation, without the blind spots and inflections of bias that inhibit our judgment. “A given age is likely to be infused to the core with standard prevailing opinion,” Mark Edmundson argues in his book Why Read? “One way to break through that prevailing opinion is to have recourse to the best that has been known and thought in the past.”
2. Read Books That Challenge You
Another priority for a healthy reading diet is to choose books that will challenge you. Read outside your comfort zone. Read fiction when you prefer nonfiction. Read a diverse array of genres. Read books by people whose lives and perspectives are different from yours. Christians should read books written by non-Christians. Democrats should read books written by Republicans, and vice versa. It’s tempt- ing to mostly read books by people who share your perspective. I certainly struggle with this, because it’s hard to read books that make me angry on almost every page. But I know it can reap great rewards in cultivating wisdom.
Here’s a radical thought for today’s echo chamber world: you can benefit from reading something even if you disagree with much of it! An educated mind can entertain and grapple with another’s ideas without accepting them. Christians have often been guilty of sheltering our young from books, movies, and other narratives that might propagate “dangerous” ideas. But this can backfire. Instead we should teach young people to read both humbly and critically, with open but discerning minds.
3. Read Books You Enjoy
Don’t just read old and challenging books. Read things that give you pleasure! As Alan Jacobs notes in his wonderful book, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, don’t turn reading into “the intellectual equivalent of eating organic greens.” Instead, “read what gives you delight—at least most of the time—and do so without shame.” A steady diet of only great books would be like eating at the most elegant restaurants every day, argues Jacobs. “It would be too much.”
Read things that stoke your love of reading. If you’ve been slogging through a book for eight months and can hardly muster energy to turn the page, don’t force yourself to continue! Move on to something more enjoyable. And if you love a book, revisit it! Feel no shame in re-reading your favorite books rather than reading that new buzzworthy bestseller. There are countless Pulitzer Prize-winning novels I have not yet read, but I still find time to re-read The Great Gatsby every couple of years (usually in April).
Reading what we love keeps us loving reading.
This post is an adapted excerpt from my book, The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World (Crossway, February 2021).