4 Quotes on Books and Reading

John MacArthur on what reading books can do – “Unlike television, books freeze thoughts on the printed page, forcing us to argue, and judge ideas using our active, engaged minds. Books are permanent, requiring a response from the mind. They help us raise our thoughts and think outside ourselves and our everyday lives. It’s no accident God’s chosen vehicle for his special revelation was a book!”

Charles Spurgeon when speaking about Paul at the end of his life and his request to Timothy to bring him books – “He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He has had wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up in the third heaven, and had heard things unlawful for a man to utter, yet he wants books! He has written a major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!”

John Piper on finding a great book – “I [do not] want to give the impression that I think there is virtue in reading many books. In fact one of my greatest complaints in seminary was that professors trained students in bad habits of superficial reading because they assigned too many books. I agree with Spurgeon: ‘A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books which he has merely skimmed, lapping at them.’ God save us from the allurement of ‘keeping up with Pastor Jones’ by superficial skimming. Forget about ‘keeping up.’ It only feeds pride and breeds spiritual barrenness. Instead devote yourself to boring in and going deep. There is so much soul-refreshing, heart-deepening, mind-enlarging truth to be had from great books!”

C.S. Lewis on the value of reading old books – “Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if we must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advise precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It had to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often suspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light.”