The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes is a compilation of things C.S. Lewis wrote about reading and books. It was a fairly quick and enjoyable read, as I love CSL and books and reading. It made me want to read his books again. Highly recommended if you're a CSL fan and/or love books about reading. I cannot think of any trigger warnings, although he is scornful of people who only read "the right" and "modern" things (aka nonintellectuals). That does come off as a bit classist. All in all, I really enjoyed this book and am glad I asked for it for Christmas. ( )

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. (Publisher's Blurb)

Look, if it's a book even remotely about the art and life of reading, I'm going to buy it--no question. Here we have a compendium of relevant excerpts culled from the vast and diverse corpus of C. S. Lewis. Overall it has some high points and eloquent quotes, but I think I'm persuaded to read the whole of [b:An Experiment in Criticism|80007|An Experiment in Criticism|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347790855l/80007._SY75_.jpg|77261]. Also I feel somewhat compelled to take a stab at the work of Tolkien. So: A slim little volume that would make a great stocking-stuffer for your literary friends. ( )

I was hesitant at first when I started reading this book because I dreaded the heavy on religion which C.S Lewis tends to write about and/or include with his non-fiction. And while I do enjoy reading about various religions and it’s history, I did not wish to read it here—- But I was happily surprised that this little book did not discuss Christianity much or at all.

In the preface, it states that this book would not include CS Lewis opinions/comments on Christianity or devotional reading because the book is meant for “members of the reading club, broadly defined.”
Which I found wonderful!
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This book is a collection of essays/writings of CS Lewis on reading. .
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I read this little book pretty quick, it’s about 100 pages or so. It includes journal prompts at the end which I found pretty entertaining and thoughtful.
While I don’t agree with CS Lewis ( )

“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." ( )