In this episode, we explore C.S. Lewis’s quietly radical vision of reading: why great books enlarge the mind, why rereading matters, why some stories change us forever, and why the deepest purpose of books is not information but transformation.
What I learned from The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes by C.S. Lewis
Most conversations about reading today are obsessed with speed, volume, and efficiency. C.S. Lewis thought this completely missed the point.
For him, reading was not about finishing books but about escaping the narrowness of a single life. It was learning to see through other eyes, feel with other hearts, and inhabit other centuries without losing yourself.
In this episode, we explore Lewis’s quietly radical vision of reading: why great books enlarge the mind, why rereading matters, why some stories change us forever, and why the deepest purpose of books is not information but transformation.
To read well, Lewis believed, is to become a thousand men, and return more fully yourself.