***This article is the second in a four-part series.

I can build a bookcase better than most (yeah, that’s me over 20 years ago!), but I hang my hat with those who identify as “slow readers.”  Often, I must read something over several times to understand it.

Nevertheless, I have come to love reading. Yes, enjoying reading more is a discipline, but one that’s well worth it.  And practice makes perfect.  For many, reading a great book is like eating their literary vegetables. For some, however, it becomes a Thanksgiving feast!

Great thoughts have the power to enrich our minds and lives.  Some writers are so gifted that they can crystalize our thoughts on a difficult topic, transport us into another world, or make us feel what a character feels and even taste delight.

Here are five simple ways to love reading more and enjoy great books:

1. Read what you want. This is especially helpful advice if you are trying to get back into reading more.  I’m not advocating throwing accountability to the wind.  We tell ourselves, however, that there are so many books we should or shouldn’t read that it keeps us from delight.  J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are a good cure for this as are many of the best works of fiction.  I have especially enjoyed select spy and mystery-thrillers. Giving my pastor-theologian self permission to read them has led to some great experiences and more reading overall.  I found this interview with Alan Jacobs, professor of English at Wheaton College, very helpful in this regard:

“’Go and read for fun,’ because that sense of reading as a duty is not going to carry you through. It’s not going to sustain you as a vibrant reader, as you will be if you read what gives you delight. You may have actually lost some of that sense of delight over the years reading primarily for school. So go out there and have fun with it.

What will happen when people do that? Will they read frivolous things? Yes—at least I certainly hope so. I quote W. H. Auden, who says that the great masterpieces should be reserved for the “high holidays of the spirit.” You’re not designed for a steady diet of literary masterpieces any more than you would eat a seven-course French meal every day. At one point, Auden says it’s not only permissible but admirable not always to be in the mood for Dante. And I think that’s right. Sometimes you just want a lighter fare.

Auden himself liked detective stories and doggerel poetry and other things that many of his peers would have looked down their noses at. I want people to recover that sense of pleasure. Of course, you’re going to want the heavier stuff. You’re going to want the stuff that’s possibly life-changing. But for heaven’s sake, don’t turn reading into a matter of eating your literary vegetables. I don’t think that’s healthy in the long run.”

2. Listen rather than read and don’t feel guilty about it: Audible claims that “listening is the new reading” and audio books have certainly been an easy way for many to increase their exposure to great books. There is no doubt that it can make better use of commute or other time when reading is not possible or appropriate. We often forget that until 500 years ago, when the printing press was invented, reading was not possible for most people on the planet. They learned by listening.  In fact, lest we judge others who don’t read the Bible as much as we think they should, Scripture promises a special blessing to those who hear the reading of God’s Word:

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” (Rev. 1:3, ESV)

Notice it says, “the one who reads” and “those who hear” because—again, for most of history—the majority (“those who hear”) were dependent on a solitary written copy read by a designated reader (“the one”).

3. Share with “reading buddies:” My sons and I send inspiring quotes, paragraphs, and links to videos or podcasts to each other via text or email. My mom and I do this as well.  Sometimes we just take a picture of a section in a book and send it.  This works well because of the high-quality cameras on most smartphones today, as well as the ability to expand the text for easy viewing. Then we give feedback or discuss it—sometimes intensely.  My pastor is part of a presbytery that is spread over several states in the northeast.  Still, they get together weekly by Zoom (like Skype) and discuss a book.  Right now, they are reading through Tim Keller’s new book on prayer.  One other thing I do to share with reading buddies is to exchange favorite novels with my son’s in-laws, as well as my best friend. It is a lot of fun to share these simple reading pleasures and talk about them.

4. Make sure your glasses are right: A few years ago, I entered the world of progressive lenses. They say the magic number age-wise is 42. This new reality was not particularly difficult, but I did begin to experience discomfort reading for longer periods of time.  Finally, I got a dedicated pair of reading glasses and it was like I was given a fresh gift of sight. During the previous year, before getting the reading glasses, I read little. After getting them, however, I began to read voraciously.  In fact, in just three months, I read four to five books related to science and Genesis, as well as many great articles at biologos.org.  Who knew that getting a pair of reading glasses could bring such delight and new learning?

5. Take C.S. Lewis’ advice from his classic article “On Reading Old Books:“

“There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books… if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about “isms” and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said… It has always therefore been one of my main endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.”

“It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.”