Read to enrich your soul
Reading books is the secret to continuous enrichment for your soul. Be a lifelong learner. Biographies, history, science, or even wellwritten fiction. I like books that take a deep dive into an unfamiliar topic. My wife and I are fans of John Grisham and Lee Child. Grisham has perhaps the clearest thought-flow of any courtroom drama storyteller. Child’s Jack Reacher novels have relentless action scenes, tense conflict, and terse dialogue. Authors Ken Follett (Pillars of the Earth) and James Michener (Chesapeake) both make you think you were alive in that place or at that time. Historical fiction can be an exciting tool. Some movies make the past come vividly alive. I put Barabbas or The Robe in the historical fiction category, especially enjoyable to me since I studied Latin and Roman history for four years during High School.
Very rarely will I ever reread a book, but once in a while I make an exception. Like vintage movies, some books are timeless gems of prose. Movies, I may watch multiple times — if they have no flaws. I suppose I’ve watched “Sargent Alvin York” (Gary Cooper) or “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Gregory Peck) half a dozen times. The same with Robert Redford in “Three Days of the Condor” or a few flawless John Wayne westerns.
This week I found myself picking up a big, old, hardbacked horror novel written by Dean Koontz, entitled, “From the Corner of His Eye.” I had read it many years ago. After the first read, I’d written the author a letter because I noticed a theme of good versus evil (morality, spirituality). Can human goodness triumph over evil? I discovered that Koontz was a believer, a Christian in the Catholic church. He appreciated my observations and wrote me a long personal reply.
Koontz’ book has been, to this day, the only work of fiction which, while reading, I frequently paused to underline beautiful descriptive phrases. Breathtaking! Some sentences were so artistically painted that I had to reread them aloud, captured by his lyrical, poetic prose. In non-fiction books, it is not uncommon for me to underline key words or sentences that seem important or striking. I do this all the time in my Bibles. In fact, that’s why I sometimes have to finally give up and get a new Bible. It’s too marked up! Likewise, I underlined many well-crafted passages when I read William Zinsser’s nonfiction book, “On Writing Well,” the instructional self-help book for authors wanting to edit their own writings - something very difficult (almost impossible) to do. In fact, Zinsser’s book was so intelligently written that I remember laughing out loud while seated alone on a bench in the mall as I read his expert, captivating, brilliant tome on word-smithery. His most important idea for writers was, “Less is more.” I’m still working on that.
Living in Fayetteville, I can literally walk to literary heaven, the Fayetteville Public Library. Construction is underway to double its size. Never have tax dollars been put to more useful use. I just hope they remember to build adequate parking.
If I were to ask you, what’s the most interesting book you recently read, what would you answer? My wife and I had that exact conversation this past weekend. My answer was a book by a Baptist scholar about William Branham, an untaught revivalist and Pentecostal healer who died decades ago. Reading any book can open up a whole new world to you. Expand your horizon. Enlarge your capacity. Read a different author. Learn new things. Discuss unfamiliar ideas. It will impress your friends.