I am not usually quick to give advice. The problem with advice is that the giver of advice does not have to live with the consequences of that advice. What works and has value for me may not work for someone else in another situation. Human beings are each unique. There is no cookie cutter approach to life.

With that disclaimer out of the way, I have some advice: read hard books.

We live in a privileged (blessed) time in history. Unlike most eras, most people today are literate. There is relatively easy access to the vast majority of books ever written. We have an endless amount of information (and, of course, misinformation) via the internet. But how do we use this blessing? We read garbage. Many only read the “news” – or their version of it. Others scroll and read snippets on social media. Some read articles on sports or some other interest. Those who read books often go for the low hanging fruit – bad thrillers, mystery, romance. Unfortunately there are many who read nothing at all.

Make no mistake: I too read news clippings, sports articles, and bad fiction. Like a bowl of ice cream or a bag of potato chips, indulgent reading can be enjoyable and (mostly) harmless. At its best, it can be a form of rest and relaxation. But an exclusive diet of this kind of reading is unhealthy. We need “green vegetable books” — books that will challenge us, stretch us, grow us. We need hard books.

Although I did not know it at the time, one of the best decisions I made in High School was to read Absalom! Absalom! by William Faulkner. Faulkner is a notoriously difficult writer to understand. He once advised a confused reader that if they did not understand a book the first time to read it a second time. If they still did not understand it, read it a third time. Then a fourth time. Repeat. Absalom! Absalom! is, by some, considered his hardest book to read. Faulkner’s modernist, stream-of-consciousness style is all but impenetrable. I finished the book but understood little and I remember even less. But I finished it. I embraced the challenge. The value I found in reading it was more than what was on the page. It was the confidence that I gained: I can read hard books.

Almost 20 years later, I still find Faulkner difficult to read – but not as difficult as when I was a teenager. The challenge stretched me. I grew. What I consider to be a “hard” book to read has changed. But I still look for a challenge. Over time, I have grown to learn to enjoy the challenge itself. Reading a tough bit of theology or philosophy or literature makes me think in ways that other kinds of books do not. I am met with ideas, concepts, and writing styles that I would not otherwise have encountered. Hard books teach me to first wrestle with whether or not I understand before I ask whether or not I agree.

One of the biggest problems with reading today is that we are too quick to decide whether or not we agree with what we are reading. Bad writing encourages this habit. Bad writing is propagandistic, encouraging our base desires and furies. Reading hard books teaches us to process material more slowly, to chew on what we have read, to consider it, pray about it, meditate on it, and only then — and only if necessary — make the cautious move to agreement or disagreement. Or perhaps, we make the move to say: I do not know.

“I do not know” may be the most underutilized phrase in the English language.

For many, hard books are tedious and intimidating. But I am of the opinion that most people can read most books, if they are patient with the book and patient with themselves. Most of us would benefit greatly and grow as people and in faith if we challenged ourselves with our reading.

Reading can be a spiritual discipline. Being a better reader will mean that we are better readers of scripture. The problem I have found with much Bible reading in our day and time is that many who read the Bible simply do not know how to read. Sure, they can identify the squiggles on the page as letters that make up words with certain meanings in which they more or less understand. But good reading requires more than understanding words and sentences on their own. Reading requires interpretation, attention to context, the ability to recognize metaphor and idiom, understanding the differences in genre and how that impacts interpretation. Many bad interpretations of scripture arise not so much because people do not know how to read the Bible but because they do not know how to read at all!

Reading hard books helps us to improve our reading skills and muscles so that we become better readers and, in turn, better readers of scripture. Think of tough reading as a kind of work out. It builds muscle and endurance. It helps us acquire patience and discipline. It makes us healthier: healthier people and healthier disciples of Jesus.

So go ahead, read the sports page, read the comics, read the cheap thrillers and romances. But also: read hard books.

“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.” – William Faulkner

Some Recommended Reading

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The Epistle to the Romans by Karl Barth

A Secular Age by Charles Taylor