Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me

by Karen Swallow Prior

A life of books. A life of soul. Professor Karen Swallow Prior poignantly and humorously weaves the two, until you can't tell one life from the other. Booked draws on classics like Great Expectations, delights such as Charlotte's Web, the poetry of Hopkins and Donne, and more. This thoughtful, straight-up memoir will be pure pleasure for book-lovers, teachers, and anyone who has struggled to find a way to articulate the inexpressible through a love of story.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Books About Books, Biography, Biography Memoir, Literature, Christian

220 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2012

About the author

Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is the award-winning author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis; On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books; Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More--Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist; and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me. She is a frequent speaker, a monthly columnist at Religion News Service, and has written for Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Vox. She is a Contributing Editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a Senior Fellow at the International Alliance for Christian Education.

Reviews

[Poiema · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love to have Karen as an English teacher. I was enriched by her thoughts on selected classics, and how she wove their themes into her own life experience. Great literature can teach us, even without the help of a professor. That was true in Karen's case, and her memoir encourages me to stay on task with my classic reading goals. I would have loved for this book to be longer: it was a breath of fresh air!

[David Huff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen Prior has written a creative and wise, and very personal, account of how literature has been woven throughout the tapestry of her life. While, on the one hand, it is very much an autobiography of her own life to date, it is also a moving and relatable story, the style of which most any of us who love reading could probably write about our own lives.

The chapters of "Booked" take us through the consecutive chronology of her life, beginning with childhood, through middle and high school, college, and marriage. Each chapter takes insights from a great literary work --- Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Charlotte's Web, Gulliver's Travels, and more. Then, with often sublime insight and stark candor, Prior shares deep life lessons from her reading, including how even these "secular" novels helped to shape and inform her Christian faith.

You will laugh, nod in agreement, and not infrequently be quite enthralled by her well-written narrative. She lays bare some of the bumps in the road of her life, the kind we all have. It's also likely that you'll take a personal journey through your own memories to think about how great books have helped craft the story of your life. And, if so, she has a good supply of questions, for each chapter, in the appendix to help with that very project.

An enjoyable read that I would definitely recommend!

[Cari Nolt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love talking about books so a memoir by a literature connoisseur was a delightful conversation. This book really was like eating a juicy pear. I had started it earlier, then came back to it and devoured it in one day. The juices are still running down my chin.

[Mike Duran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never really wanted to read Jane Eyre. Until now.

Jane Eyre is just one of several pieces of classic literature that Karen Swallow Prior, Professor of English at Liberty University, uses to chronicle her own journey of self-discovery — a journey of self-discovery through literature. In Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me, Madame Bovary, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Great Expectations, Charlotte’s Web, and Gulliver’s Travels, are more than just musty old “classics” forced upon bored high-schoolers in hopes of igniting some semblance of cultural appreciation. They are signposts along the way of the author’s own pilgrimage. “Booked” is not just a celebration of great literature, but a window into how stories and the truths expressed through them, can intersect our lives and guide our growing.

“Books have formed the soul of me. I know that spiritual formation is of God, but I also know—mainly because I learned it from books—that there are other kinds of formation, too, everyday gifts, and that God uses the things of this earth to teach us and shape us, and to help us find truth.”

To Karen Swallow Prior, those “everyday gifts… that God uses… to teach us and shape us, and to help us find truth,” are books.

Using Milton’s argument for “promiscuous reading” — imbibing a wide variety of authors, genres, opinions, subject matter, and stories — Prior sets the table for her own adventure into “literary promiscuity.” Thus, Milton’s Areopagitica, a speech given to counter a movement for censorship, becomes the framework for a more libertarian approach to reading. An approach that finds root in biblical literature.

“In making his argument, as a churchman to fellow churchmen, Milton cites the biblical examples of Moses, Daniel, and Paul, who were all steeped in the writings of their pagan cultures. Milton also invokes a leader of the third-century church who asserted that God commanded him in a vision, ‘read any books whatever come into your hands, for you are sufficient both to judge aright and to examine each matter.’ Such advice mirrors the Pauline suggestion to ‘test all things and hold fast to that which is good.’”

So because “falsehood prevails through the suppression of countering ideas, but truth triumphs in a free and open exchange that allows truth to shine,” the censorship of speech and the banning of books actually becomes a hindrance to the cause of Truth. (In light of evangelical culture’s censorial tendencies and allergy to anything “objectionable,” this is a much needed word!)

As such, each chapter is an insightful sketch of some piece of classic literature, intertwined with humorous, touching, often highly personal experiences from the author’s life. For example, using Gerard Manly Hopkins’ poem “Pied Beauty,” a poem that praises God for the variety of “dappled things” in nature — “All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?), With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim” — Prior tells the story of Gracie.

“We once had a Boxer of brindle color, rich, honeyed brown streaked with black. A birth defect resulted in the eventual removal of her deformed front leg. We named this awkward, three-legged creature Gracie. She was strong and muscular and loved to drink water right out of the spigot. I would caress the dimpled place where her leg used to be and think about how beautiful she was in her bold asymmetry. I loved her more than I have loved any animal in the world, and more than most people. we used to take her everywhere, and everyone else loved her, too. Often, after seeing Gracie run and play with as much passion and agility as any four-legged pup, people would begin to tell us stories of disability, sometime their own, sometimes someone else’s. they will tell of an accident, an illness, or war scene, all the while scratching Gracie’s ears or the scruff of her neck. they would tell of victory and overcoming and joy, too. When Gracie died from a tick borne disease when she was only six, we got a new dog right away to try to fill the hole she left in our lives, but I couldn’t stop crying for her for a year.”

I’ve had my own “dappled things” that came and went. Which is probably why I resonate with the author’s conclusion: “I’ve always lamented the particular poverty of children raised without pets.”

Like the classics, I found myself savoring “Booked,” reading it devotionally. Prior’s meditations reminded me of my own pilgrimage through life, and the books and authors who have accompanied me along the way. Whether it was Ray Bradbury, igniting my imagination with The Illustrated Man and October Country, Watership Down or The Book of the Dun Cow, Till We Have Faces, Godric, or Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, books have served as signposts, if not guideposts, “everyday gifts” that God used “to teach [me] and shape [me], and to help [me] find truth.”

Thus far, “Booked” is one of the best books I’ve read this year. Highly recommended to book lovers, promiscuous readers, and celebrants of “everyday gifts.”

[Shiloah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intelligent, inspiring, deep, moving. I didn't know what to expect, but after such moving reviews I knew it would be good.
I learned much and my eyes were opened in new and unexpected ways. My favorite chapters had to include Tess of the D'Ubervilles, Madam Bovery (especially this one), and John Donne. She had such insightful truths to share, and I feel like this is one of those books that has definitely made me think differently and see more clearly.
Now I need to read Madam Bovery, John Donne, and Great Expectations. It was nice that I had actually read some of the other books mentioned.

Some great quotes from the book are:

"Blindness is particularly significant in tragedy, and Tess of the D'Ubervilles is a classic example. One of the essential ingredients of tragedy in the classical understanding that the tragic hero or heroine, along with suffering great loss, gains insight and illumination. In other words, in undergoing the tragedy, a hero comes to see the truth that has alluded him as Angel Clare does, albeit too late for Tess. Hence the tragic end is not complete loss, for in the process of loss knowledge is gained–by hero and reader. Tragedy is then more than just a sad story; it is cathartic and enabling. This is why Arthur Miller claims that tragedies are, ultimately, optimistic: "In them, and in the alone, lies the belief," Miller says, "in that perfectibility of man."


"If the right books can save your soul, then perhaps the wrong ones can damn it."

"Our prejudices, preferences, and ideals blind us from seeing others as they are. In our blindness, we re-create people-and even ourselves-in our own image, as Angel Clare realizes too late, he has done Tess."

"God spoke the universe into existence and, in giving us the gift of language He gave us a lesser, but still magnificent, creative power in the ability to name: the power to communicate, to make order out of chaos, to tell stories, and to shape our own lives and the lives of others."

"I thought my love of books was taking me away from God, but as it turns out, books were the backwoods path to God, bramble-filled and broken, yes, but full of truth and wonder."

[Jeffrey Romine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll call this Goodreads at its best. I hadn't known about this book. I wasn't looking for it. But, when it came up in my newsfeed I bought and read it. Why? Because I do have an interest in promoting reading itself. The title grabbed my attention, and reviews by my friends convinced me to get it. I'm still a sucker for Amazon 'also bought' but more and more I find myself adopting Goodreads suggestions as my main source.

The author bares her soul in this semi-autobiography and winningly shares how her reading experience shaped her life, and I identified with many of the books she chose to illustrate.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of sorts through the literature read -- oh, so many parallels here to my own reading experiences, from writing feverishly like Harriet, "the Spy" to realizing a sense of self and convictions as depicted by Jane Eyre to our first college major and the book that influenced it to caressing the "tissue thin pages" of our college lit anthologies to living as teachers of the literature we love.

These quotes resonate with me:

God who spoke the world into existence with words is, in fact, the source of meaning of all words.


Instinctively, I opened the inside back cover. By this time, computers had long since replaced the old-fashioned means of checking out books—signing the card, stamping a due date, and filing the card away until the book’s return—so I didn’t really expect to see the small sheet of lined cardstock nestled within a paper sleeve glued to the back page. Nor did I expect when I pulled the card out, after all this time, to see my own name there from so long ago. But there it was: Karen Swallow, printed in the large, round letters of my childhood self. My name had literally been carried inside the book for these many years. The greater truth is that I have carried this book and many, many others, all these years. And they have made me who I am.


The Book of Proverbs says that death and life are in the power of words. To choose a good word, to assign the right name, to arrange proper words in the best order: these are no easy tasks. Such work requires the creative power, the brooding, the birth pangs of a mother. Names, words, and language: they shape and create our souls the way a mother’s body shapes and creates our bodies. We describe the country of our origin as our fatherland, but our language we call our mother tongue. Indeed the words that often wield the greatest power in and over our lives are those spoken by our mothers, from our names, to words of encouragement, to words that define and shape our character, words of truth spoken in love. This power of words is akin to the creative, nurturing role a mother plays in our lives. The getting of meaning, like the getting of a child, is an act of nature and grace. Yet, it’s an act so every day, so commonplace that we easily overlook its magnitude.


It was the church that helped correct Hopkins’ errant view that his pursuit of poetry and a religious vocation were incompatible. After burning his poems, he didn’t write any more poetry for many years, but sometime after he had taken his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a Jesuit priest, his religious superior asked him to write a poem to commemorate the sinking of a ship which had claimed many lives, including those of several nuns. After doing so, Hopkins began writing poetry again. Yet, the world was not permitted to see these works of beauty and would not until after his death from typhoid fever at age 48. His embrace of poetry was, sadly, awkward still. He fought his poetic desires like he fought his bodily ones. But these are not battles that are always easily won. Sometimes, perhaps, they are not battles that can be won...In his effort to quell the call of all fleshly desires—and is not poetry, with its sounds, rhythms, and images a kind of fleshly desire?—Hopkins had resisted not only poetry but with it beauty, tied as it is, in most ways of thinking, to the physical world. But beauty—like truth and goodness—will out. Beauty is so powerful that it erupts even in the most unlikely of places. Awkward places, too. One of Hopkins’ loveliest poems is about this kind of beauty, “Pied Beauty.”


It’s as impossible to paraphrase a poem as it is to paraphrase a person. But like beautiful and interesting people, beautiful and interesting poems beg examination.


I had come to see that poetry was not a means of escape, but rather an art of reconciliation. For poetry is made in the discovery of resemblances. It seeks likenesses, even amidst the strangeness of differences.


When there is a tendency to compartmentalize the spiritual and make it resident in a certain type of life only, the spiritual is apt gradually to be lost.                 —Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose


Modern life is characterized by nothing if not an efficient and practical compartmentalization of its distinct spheres: public and private, sacred and secular, scientific and religious, physical and spiritual. Dickens’s caricature of such compartmentalization in the character of Wemmick is humorous to be sure, but it still reflects the truth, even if that reflection is cast by a funhouse mirror. The compartmentalization of our own lives may not be as concretely marked as Wemmick’s post office mouth that tightens and loosens as he goes from one sphere to the next, but there may be other, subtler, more serious markers. Perhaps it is not the character of Wemmick that is absurd but rather the compartmentalization of life in the modern age.


I wanted my students to see that a holistic approach to life examines all things critically, apart from whatever pre-existing compartments or labels they come with. Applying the principles underlying one’s beliefs to all things—which is neither to embrace nor reject something in and of itself—is a more holistic approach to all of life.


“We read to know we are not alone.” The greatest form of loneliness is separation from God. The Hungarian critic Georg Lukacs says that the novel is the literary genre for the soul in search of its home. Lukacs describes the human condition before the soul’s lapse from God this way:   When the soul does not yet know any abyss within itself which may tempt it to fall or encourage it to discover pathless heights, when the divinity that rules the world and distributes the unknown and unjust gifts of destiny is not yet understood by man, but is familiar and close to him as a father is to his small child, then every action is only a well-fitting garment for the world. Being and destiny, adventure and accomplishment, life and essence are then identical concepts.   According to Lukacs, in both its form and its content, novels express the soul’s attempt to transcend this “abyss.” The search for identity and meaning is one way we attempt to cross this chasm, to find our way home. “There’s no place like home” to be utterly free—home free.


reading—that is, really reading, interpreting—literature is practice for reading and interpreting life.


Despite these romantic and escapist elements, the center of Jane Eyre, the heroine of that name, is one of the most realistic characters I had yet encountered in the considerable number of novels I had read up to that time. For, unlike most literary heroines, Jane Eyre is not striking, beautiful, or even pretty...Her friend, biographer, and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, reports Brontë proclaiming of Jane, “I will show you a heroine as plain and small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours.”  But even beyond mere physical appearance Jane is a realistic, not an idealistic, figure...“I am not an angel,” Jane asserts, “and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.”


Throughout history women have embodied, more dramatically and sooner than men, changing cultural ideas and conditions. There was no more dramatic cultural change during the time in which Jane Eyre was written than that which brought about the rise of the individual. Precisely because of an inferior place in society throughout all of human history to this point, no figure better depicted the rise of the modern individual than the woman. So while in the traditional Romances such as those of the Arthurian legends it is the noblemen, the knights in shining armor, who embark on a quest, in Jane Eyre it is a poor friendless woman who is on the greatest quest of all: the quest for the self. This is what makes the novel a bildungsroman, a story of education, struggle, loss, and of finding one’s place in the world. Jane’s journey is a journey to authentic selfhood.


As a literary genre, the novel is, in fact, more than anything else about the rise of the modern individual, the creation of the self. As such, Jane Eyre is the quintessential story of the rise of the individual, the journey to create the self.


Language, throughout Jane’s life, is the tool through which she creates and defends herself. This is why it is essential to the story of Jane Eyre, even though it is a fictional work, that it takes the form of an autobiography...For the connection between the self and language is inseparable: it is through language that the self becomes. Thus it is through language that Jane’s process of becoming begins. Her first act of rebellion in the novel is to give voice to the thoughts and judgments she forms from her reading of books.


Acceptance of the nature of God, the world, and others seems integrally connected to an acceptance of the nature of one’s self, too. And this, I think, is where freedom, ultimately, is found. Freedom is not an endless sea of choices, but an acceptance, embrace even, of both the nature and the grace at the core of our being and our becoming


I kept a journal, something I’d not done since keeping a tiny lock and key diary as a little girl. I wrote in it furiously, like Harriet the Spy, scratching into the wide-ruled pages of that orange spiral bound notebook all I was thinking about those mean girls and how foolish I’d been to play their games for so long. Funny how I remember so much more vividly what that notebook looked like than the words I wrote in it. It’s like getting the words out not only erased the pain, but also the words themselves.


What I came to understand is that in ceasing the futile attempt to be something I was not able or meant to be, and in striving to discover and be the person I was created to be, I would be a better self. The real disgrace was not in being kicked out of The Group, but in failing to fully embrace the grace that had made me who I was by trying to be something I was not. A great deal of defining who we are as individuals is figuring out who we aren’t.


Azar Nafisi explains in Reading Lolita in Tehran, such blindness is “the most unforgivable crime in fiction.”  “Evil,” Nafisi writes, “in most great fiction, lies in the inability to ‘see’ others, hence to empathize with them. What is frightening is that this blindness can exist in the best of us...as well as the worst.”  Thus blindness—whether physical of metaphysical, literal or metaphorical—is a recurring theme throughout literature across the ages and genres.


“chance” is merely the name human beings assign to events whose cause is unknown to them. As an agnostic skeptic, Hardy did not believe in an unknown First Cause or Mover behind all events. In his worldview, all was merely the result of happenstance. But believers in a sovereign God know that there is no such thing as chance in the design of Providence. Human blindness to Providence does not mean there is no design. And often—not always, but more often than not—time removes man’s blinders to reveal the design behind things that appear at first to have no rhyme or reason. This redemptive element of time—the ability of time to reveal an unseen design and to achieve restoration—is part of a comic view of life. In the classical sense, comedy, tragedy’s counterpart, didn’t refer to a work that was funny or humorous, but simply one with a happy ending, usually a marriage. The loss and death of tragedy was counterbalanced by the promise of new life implicit in the idea of marriage. Yet, both tragedy and comedy result in illumination: the difference is that in tragedy, the illumination occurs too late for the course of events put in motion to be stayed; in comedy the illumination is the catalyst for a new course of action, such as the one I took long after the knock on my door that night. In tragedy, time closes in toward inevitability; in comedy, time opens up new possibilities. While tragedy and comedy offer different endings for their respective characters, they both offer lessons for their audiences.


With grace, the march of time offers redemption: lost opportunities do not mean that all is lost; grave mistakes can be transformed into blessings over time. It is never too late for God to come knocking on your door. This redemptive movement of time is part of a comic view of life, rather than a tragic view. It is a biblical view of time, one that sees time as moving in a linear progression toward an eternity that will subsume the temporary ravages of time. Time in its natural state marches steadily toward death and decay, but with the intervention of grace, time, along with human errors and lost chances, is redeemed. With grace, the tragedy of life is transformed into a comedy, a divine comedy. With grace, the pure in heart—like my mother—see God. And so do I.


A man is ever apt to contemplate himself out of all proportion to his surroundings.   —Christina Rossetti


I’d never been on this road at this time of night. At around two a.m., not a person or vehicle was in sight. I’d never seen the city look so empty. I drove down the middle of a six-lane swath of silent discount stores and fast food joints rising up from a bog of empty parking lots. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. A canopy of hazy yellow light arced overhead, enveloping me in an orb of silence. It was like being inside a snow globe: my world had been shaken, but instead of glittery snow, a sickly yellow fluorescent glow fell down around me, suffocating and choking me. Suddenly, the eerie yellow light flashed red. I’d been driving slowly, too slowly, my eyesight dimmed by tears, and weaving suspiciously, too. The officer asked how much I’d been drinking and I told him nothing. He looked at me incredulously, and I blubbered out the whole story. He let me go with a warning.


the things I had anticipated for years: the comforting weight of thick books, the rainbow colors of highlighters and pens for marking textbooks that belonged to me (unlike the loaners given out in high school), the crack of a tight textbook spine when I opened it the first time, the crispness of the college-ruled paper I’d use to take notes, and especially the literature anthology that seemed to me to be a sacred text with its tissue thin pages and tiny print in double columns.


I had declared my major as social work when I applied to college. I had even made my final choice for college based on its social work program. I had decided to pursue this field because of my interest in psychiatry which I had discovered,naturally, by reading a book, Sybil, about a woman with multiple personality disorder. Many years later, the whole story—which, like Go Ask Alice, was supposed to be true—was exposed as a sham. But I had read lots of similar books and as a result thought I wanted to help people. But a funny thing happened. I discovered the study of English literature. Of course, I had known about English before. I’d been reading my entire life. In school, English was one of those subjects required of every student every year. I had always loved it and done well in it.


Making life choices that are in line with who one is—who one was created to be—leads to a more fulfilling life. I know that “self-fulfillment” has become a dirty word for those who rightly understand that life is not “all about me,” but about a greater purpose. This is true. At the same time, each of us is created as a unique individual with unique gifts, talents, and callings that were designed for a purpose. Self-fulfillment doesn’t necessarily mean selfish fulfillment. It can mean fulfillment of all that one was created to be. The satisfaction one feels at having achieved one’s rightful desires is no more selfish or wrong a thing than the satisfaction of the apple tree in bringing forth the fruit it was designed to bear. But sometimes we mistake other people’s desires as our own. It is easy to confuse our love or admiration for another person with a desire for the things that person loves or admires.


I loved studying and writing papers. I loved class discussions. I loved English. I did not love social work or its required classes like statistics. I hated statistics so much that I had to take the slow class, held over two semesters rather than one. But I loved English. These were the things pointing me toward my true vocation. Thomas Merton says, “Vocation does not come from a voice out there calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice in here calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God."

In his book, God at Work, Gene Edward Veith discusses the idea of vocation and, in particular, the working out of that view in the Protestant tradition, beginning with Martin Luther’s teachings on the subject. As Veith points out, it is significant that God created both man and woman to work and called them to do so before the fall. It is part of God’s original design to work, not because our work saves us, but because work meets the needs of our neighbors. Through our work, we serve others. Not only did God design mankind in a general way to work, but he also designed and equipped individuals toward specific kinds of work. Veith writes, “Even your wants—your desires, your dreams, your choices—are a function of who you are … The doctrine of vocation has to do with the mystery of individuality, how God creates each human being to be different from all the rest and gives each a unique calling in every stage of life.” God calls people to fulfill the roles for which he has designed them. In other words, according to Veith, “Our vocation is not something we choose for ourselves. It is something to which we are called.” 

In a way, the classical view of tragedy (as we saw in Tess of the D’Urbervilles) parallels a Christian understanding, for in tragedy there is always an outside force—whether it is understood as fate, prophecy, or the intervention of the gods—that plays a part in the outcome of events for the hero. In a similar way, vocation is “out of our control,” Veith says. It is, at least in part, “a function of the particular gifts God has given us, but we cannot know our vocation purely by looking inside ourselves.” By beholding the world around us, our rightful place in the world is revealed. We can’t simply decide apart from an understanding of the world we find ourselves in that we want to be a brain surgeon or a concert pianist and then do it. A number of factors in the areas of both nature (our inborn abilities) and nurture (our upbringing and opportunities) must be present in order to pursue a vocation successfully.

*At this point, I am left with little room to continue adding quotes. An excellent book to inspire the rereading of many favorites, as well as prompting recollection of how God has worked in my own life and how the universal themes of literature are the truths of God's creation conveyed by those who have the ability to see people and themselves for who they truly are...and as they wish they were...and perhaps, as God intended.

[Tori Samar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memoir and literary analysis combine to tell one woman's story of how literature (novels and poetry both) has shaped her. Karen Swallow Prior is thoughtful and articulate. Though I took issue with some things in this book, I respect her skillful weaving of life and literature. This book is confirmation to me of the power of literature to shape who we are and how we live. Perhaps it's just the English teacher in me being defensive, but I've long been sensitive to and frustrated by the ways in which people sometimes devalue literature in comparison to other types of books. Thus, I'm always happy to read books that affirm its quality and power. If I were to write a memoir like this one, I could easily come up with my own list of literary works to weave in and around the story of my own life. I, too, have been formed and informed by such books.

Should you pick this book up for yourself, be aware that Prior discusses some mature topics, perhaps with more candor at times than is necessary. For that reason, in fact, I would not necessarily feel comfortable recommending this book to everyone. My best advice, as with any book, is to use wisdom and listen to your conscience.

Because this book consists of analysis and commentary, not just memoir, I do want to engage one idea in particular, something Prior presented in the first chapter. It's an important idea because it obviously impacts what she's willing to read and what she's willing to write about. Prior is broad in her reading. She says that she benefited from her parents' not restricting any of her reading. She doesn't close book covers automatically at the sight of objectionable elements. She holds the view that the more widely one reads and the more one is exposed to reality, the more truth is able to shine against myriad falsehoods.

I agree with her position to an extent. Developing discernment and learning to engage falsehoods in books is an important skill. Truth can certainly shine brightly against a backdrop of lies. Likewise, rejecting a book because of the mere presence of objectionable elements is an act lacking in wisdom. Prior argues that we must consider how the element is presented (form), not just what is presented (content). She is right. If we separate form from content, we can't even read certain portions of the Bible (I think most immediately of Judges and some uncomfortable chapters in Ezekiel). However, I got the sense that Prior was perhaps improperly projecting her experience onto all other readers. I'm glad that truth won out in the midst of all that she read (and Prior has read a lot of things I wouldn't touch). But I don't believe all readers fare so well. Some are swept away by false ideas and sin-laden presentations.

I would also challenge Prior on this: Where do you draw the line on being exposed to reality? At what point does an objectionable element, no matter what good point the author might be making, become so gratuitous as to be more harmful than helpful? C.S. Lewis, in An Experiment in Criticism, reminds us that "in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad of eyes, but it is still I who see." The moment you pick up literature, you have accepted the invitation to see through another's eyes. I have learned the hard way from certain books that some things are very hard to unsee. Some experiences should not be lived vicariously for any amount of time. The possible reward when all is said and done doesn't always outweigh the cost of getting there. As Christians called to be holy, we have a serious responsibility for what we feed into our minds. I would have liked to see Prior give this more consideration.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm... more of a 3.5 or so. As an avid consumer of classic literature and former English major, I had high expectations for BOOKED. Expectations which were met, somewhat.

The whole premise of building a personal memoir on the themes found in selected great books definitely worked. And the author's picks were worthy gems for the most part. Swallow Prior knows her lit, and capably conveys the tremendous impact of each book on her life.

I just wasn't able to connect fully as the author revealed some of the details of her years growing up. It felt uncomfortable somehow. Baring too much. I kept thinking, "TMI, TMI.". Yet nothing exactly graphic or gratuitous was shared.

Maybe looking back on times of growth in our lives brings a certain level of discomfort, when done truthfully. Still, I found myself hoping the author would put more emphasis on the overall progress or results of her spiritual growth. The journey would have been much more worthwhile for me with a bigger purpose in sight more of the time.

3.5, and a lukewarm recommendation.

[Claudia Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again my Librarian-Super Reader daughter suggested this book to me. Wow! As I read it I felt like I was having coffee and talking with my 'kindred spirit'! Ms. Prior explores the way reading a book and entering into the life of the book is used of God in our spiritual formation and in the spiritual life of our kids. So good!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second read just a few weeks after my first: Loved this just as much if not more. Such a beautifully written and wise memoir that seems to capture much of my own journey - much that I couldn’t have articulated before.

Absolutely loved this. Booked has quickly become my favorite memoir that I have read so far, and I am very much looking forward to reading more by Prior. She is truly the English professor I wish I had, as well as the teacher of literature I wish I had the capacity to be back when I was teaching high school.

I deeply relate to this memoir. I see my own story while reading through Prior's explanation of how books were instrumental in leading her through life so that she is who she is today. Each chapter focuses on a work of literature and what lessons and inspirations are drawn from it. I read one chapter a day as like a devotional and absolutely loved experiencing it that way.

One of the most important takeaways for me from Booked is a wonderful confirmation that the books I read are a significant piece of my spiritual growth. I don't mean the many nonfiction theological books I read, but I mean the fiction. The literature. The stories that continue to point me to God, even if they intended to do the exact opposite, because of the way they move me to deep reflection and to a deepening understanding of His truth and who He is and who I am. I was so thrilled and so impacted to read of Prior's exact same experience - how her reading has led her spiritual formation.

A revolutionary (truly!) takeaway for me from Booked is the focus of the first chapter. In this chapter, Prior discusses John Milton's Areopagitica, which I haven't read, and his assertion that books should be "promiscuously read." Meaning promiscuous in the sense of "indiscriminate mixing." Pious and scholarly Milton actually argues for indiscriminate, disorderly reading. And lots of it. This means that we are to read all types of things. Not only that, but we are to do so without fear of how false ideologies and wrong thinking might lead us away from the truth. Milton convincingly asserts that truth, as in capital "T" Truth, is more than able to emerge victorious against all false teaching and in fact shines brighter against the darkness of lies and untruths. Truth, by its very nature, is all powerful and even when reading things not grounded in truth, as long as we continue reading and growing and reflecting, we always eventually return to Truth. Milton shares about a leader of the third century church who asserted that God commanded him in a vision, "Read any books whatever come into your hands, for you are sufficient both to judge aright and to examine each matter." I hear the beautiful sound of God's voice in this and His suggestion that we "test all things and hold fast to that which is good." This sounds a lot like His instruction to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your MIND.

Highly, highly recommend this memoir to all lovers of literature.

I always read a work of nonfiction alongside of the current works of literature that I am reading. My next nonfiction to read is on borrow from the library so I will move to that for now. But after completing it, I plan to reread Booked even more slowly and with a pencil, sticky tabs and highlighter in hand. After that, I plan to read Prior's On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books as well as her guide to The Scarlet Letter which is the January read for my Classics Book Club.

What a treasure I have found in Prior's writing! So very grateful.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blending memoir, her journey of faith, and literary essay, Karen Swallow Prior writes honestly and poignantly about her life, her passion for books and reading. And how each informs the other. Chapters focus on a single piece of literature or poetry Prior felt important or formative in her life. Her memories and insights, and the conclusions she draws, are fascinating, deeply personal and thought-provoking.

Highly recommended. 4.5 stars

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having been in Dr. Prior's classroom, I often find myself amazed by her knowledge and unique perspective of literature, and this is no exception. Prior reminds us that literature is still relevant today in an excellent fashion, and I completely relate to how books have changed her life because they have changed mine. Prior is candid, honest, and witty, and her writing shows a wisdom that only experience can provide. Her unique style is captivating with stories that will make you smile as well as break your heart. The book is well written and well worth the time to read!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me" has been on my to-read list for a while, inspired by blogging friend Barbara. I needed a book to read recently, and the library had it available as an e-book. That's often the way I get around to a book.

"Booked" is the memoir of author Karen Swallow Prior, a literature professor. She is a lifelong reader and lover of books, and tells her story with each chapter focusing on a different book that has meant a lot to her at some point in her life. You can imagine I'd really enjoy this! Even better, despite the odds she's also a Christian and that plays a big part in the book: "For much of my life, I loved books more than God, never discovering for a long, long time that a God who spoke the world into existence with words is, in fact, the source of meaning of all words. My journey toward that discovery is the story of this book. I thought my love of books was taking me away from God, but as it turns out, books were the backwoods path back to God, bramble-filled and broken, yes, but full of truth and wonder."

She also talks about the freedom her parents gave her to choose the books she read. I agree with this way of thinking and have never been big on censoring my kids' reading. I see books as a "safe" way to explore other ways of life and thought, at least that's what they've been for me. I don't think a book has ever changed my mind on a core belief, but they do force one to think in deeper, more critical ways about things. I think that deep thinking is lacking in so many people today. She mentions Milton: "Indeed, for Milton, this necessary freedom is seen in the character of God. For God is not, Milton argues, one to 'captivate' his children 'under a perpetual childhood of prescription,' but rather, God expects us to exercise reason, wisdom, and virtue. 'What wisdom can there be to choose ... without knowledge of evil?' asks Milton. Indeed! *I feel like I should add a caveat here: I've seen some of the truly awful kids' lit coming out lately featuring LGBT and that type of thing, and I don't feel that those have any place in schools. Just wanted to clarify.

I loved chapters focusing on books familiar to me, beginning with Charlotte's Web and Prior's childhood love of animals. "Charlotte's Web is a metaphor for the power words have to shape us into how others see us as well as how we see ourselves. For it is through words that Charlotte saves Wilbur's life."

Or the chapter on Jane Eyre: "I came to realize that ... (Jane Eyre) was a lot like me and other girls, too, because 'Jane Eyre' is really about every adolescent." Prior put into words many thoughts I've had about that book but hadn't articulated: "Jane resists the tyranny of a world that tries to impose on her things that go against her true sense of self." I loved Jane for this! I also loved her description of the reasons Jane had for turning down the "decent" St. John's marriage proposal. How I remember fearing that she would accept him!

Some of the later chapters weren't as interesting to me, mostly because I hadn't read some of the featured books. And while Prior and I had a lot in common (I could even tell, from clues here and there, that we're about the same age), we had quite a few differences too. She was a daring "bad girl" through much of her adolescence, while I always toed the line. At times, too, some chapters veer into sounding like a literary analysis paper (I recognize this because I'd often ask to read the ones my daughters wrote in high school). Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it's a distinctively scholarly way of writing that takes a bit of getting used to.

If you enjoy books a lot, you may enjoy giving "Booked" a look.

[Stephen Hoogerhyde · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being a bibliophile who was an English major in college, I went into this book with high hopes. After reading it, meh.

She talked more about her life than about classic literature, although she did weave both together rather skillfully. I do like the way that she framed each chapter, ending each chapter where she began it. I enjoyed the first chapter the most, where she advocates (with Milton) reading widely, reading different genres and different worldviews. I found as the book progressed that I enjoyed each chapter less.

Being an inveterate highlighter of books, I found that I was highlighting less and less as I went along, an indicator that I was finding less that struck me as significant.

In fairness to the author, I probably expected a different book than she wrote, and my expectations were unrealistically high.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

_Booked_ is an exploration of some of the literary works that the author feels led her to a deeper understanding of and relationship with God. There is some lovely prose in here, especially about the various works of literature the author has chosen to describe. She is also startlingly open about her history and love life, to the point of almost being TMI. She's at her best when discussing the literature. It's almost as if there is a completely other "voice" she uses when describing her personal life. She advocates "promiscuous reading"--reading anything and everything, as even trash can be beneficial on some levels. In the end, the book feels like a conversation with a friend.

[Melissa Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book tremendously. Those who understand the importance of cultural apologetics will find it deeply satisfying, and it's an excellent introduction for those who are not acquainted with that dimension of "Big Questions" discussions. I don't have a lot of formal education in literary analysis, but I found this to be an easily accessible and compelling commentary on several works I've read and a couple I haven't. I'm encouraged to revisit the former and read the latter. Prior is an excellent writer who doesn't shy away from telling it like it is when it comes to the human heart, sin, doubt, and longing.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished 8/3/2018
2/5 Stars
VT 2018 Reading Challenge #29 - a book by a female author
Meh. Some of the parts where she actually talks about books were great, but a lot, if not most, of the parts where she goes on and on about herself were a real slog and I kept looking to see how many pages I had to go until the end. That is never a good sign. Maybe I expected more since so many people gave Booked really high ratings but overall it was a big disappointment.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike Prior's On Reading Well, Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me is her personal and spiritual story through literature. Although I don't agree with everything she promotes, specifically in regards to the way she talks about how certain types of literature, as long as they contain truth, should be read, the way she weaves her own autobiographical spiritual journey and the affect books had on it is seamless. Excellently and carefully written, this book is way more than just a "books that made me" list.

Prior goes through a chronological journey through her life, pausing to reflect on different works of literature in every chapter and the realizations she came to through them. From how Charlotte's Web taught her responsibility in caring for a horse her parents bought her when she was eleven to how Jane Eyre helped her develop a strong sense of self, Prior delves into not only the stories, but the themes of each work, and how they directly parallel to almost every notable moment in her own life. Her mistake of not showing responsibility for her first horse as a child, her decision to switch from a major in social work to becoming an English professor, and later not mistaking pure romance for love, all come back to story that had a significant impact on her life, gloriously interwoven into her own. Being able to see a book's direct and personal affect on someone's life as opposed to just being recommended it is so powerful. I feel more motivated to tackle large and controversial classics such as Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Great Expectations knowing their significance in her life.

We see not only Prior's life journey through books, but also her spiritual journey. She intertwines her life story, spiritual story, and her story of books. She confesses that for a long time she "...loved books more than God, never discovering for a long, long time that a God who spoke the world into existence with words is, in fact, the source of meaning of all words." She claims to have been saved since she was five years old, which I find to be contradictory with how she lived for a long time after, but I still find her gleanings, on a deep, personal level, from books to be quite helpful with my own life of reading.

Her promotion of "promiscuous reading," however, I have to say I don't entirely agree with. She's very subtle, and not at all pushy about her beliefs; in fact, she approaches topics very logically and methodically. However, I don't agree with her use of the Scripture passage of "test all things and hold fast to what is good." Her argument is that the freedom to read "promiscuous" works helped her through many situations. We're told in other portions of Scripture to think of the things that are true, yes, but also pure, excellent, and good. I don't think her use of the former verse justifies reading anything that is true. Many works of literature are true without being at all edifying. While developing personal discernment is huge factor of what a Christian should read, I think she misses the forest for the trees a bit as I believe the ultimate goal of any read should be to read about not whatever is true, but the books that focus on the great Truth, the truth of the Gospel. Given the mistakes she confesses making, I think it's evident certain works may not have helped her as much as she gives them credit for.

Though there are definitely things I do not agree with Prior with, I think this is very interesting story of how an English professor came to find herself, both personally and spiritually, through a life of books. I identify with so much of her attachment and lessons learned from literature as well as gained much insight into how to view books and the themes of books I have yet to read. While I wouldn't as readily recommend this book as On Reading Well, it is still a superbly written story of stories and how they helped Prior find real truth.

[Dianne Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

yes! yes! yes! How grand on a Monday afternoon to come across a writer who loves literature and has lived in the same context as one. She tells truth, with openness and honesty. If devotions or bible study looked like this, I might show up...She truly can find nuggets of Biblical wisdom within the best books on our bookshelves.
Her review of Areopagitica by Milton beautifully shows how truth is found-for children especially, but also as adults. Not by censorship of falsehoods, but in reading, often believing those untruths, until one comes across what is closer and closer to the truth and takes that on as part of ones belief system. (Three cheers for a Christian woman who admits to reading Go Ask Alice and Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret. How much sooner can one own their own ideas of truth than by being confronted by the realities of life? So refreshing to find a list of valuable questions and an open mind being proffered as a way for kids to explore their world, and come right at the doorstep of what God teaches, to boot! No Stepping Heavenward or Beautiful Girlhood rubbish for me, sorry. I'll take the follies of Pip leaving the love of Joe, then finding redemption there, after all, any day.)
Speaking of which, she tackles Great Expectations with glory, putting into words something I have long felt, but never understood. "I admit that my rel. w/ God has been more intellectual than emotional. I used to think this lack of emotional fervor was a mark of sin or, at the very least, some great flaw...I am.. moved more in reading literary works like G.E.s than in reading ... the bible...but I've come to realize that my emotional responses to moving works of lit....are the only way I can bear to respond emotionally to God and his love: indirectly. It's like when Moses asked God to see his glory, and God answered Yu cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live." so wonderful!
I won't go on, but recommend this, ahem, Liberty professor (I know!) Just be prepared to do some skimming through her personal life stories to get to the meat- the interpretations of the literature. (less so, 2,3.)

[Barbara Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen Swallow Prior is a professor of English at Liberty University. In Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me, she shares how books taught and influenced her throughout her life.

Books have formed the soul of me. I know that spiritual formation is of God, but I also know—mainly because I learned it from books—that there are other kinds of formation, too, everyday gifts, and that God uses the things of this earth to teach us and shape us, and to help us find truth (p. 10).

In commenting on her parents being pretty free in what they allowed her to read, Karen says:

It seems to be to be an entirely negative, not to mention ineffective, strategy to shield children from reality rather than actively expose them to the sort of truth that merges organically from the give-and-take of weighing and reckoning competing ideas against one another (p. 14).

That sounds a lot like Hebrews 5:14 (ESV): “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” Karen goes on to say:

Books meet with disapproval because of their objectionable content. Wisdom, however, considers not only what a book says (its content), but how it says it (its form). Just as important–or perhaps more important than–whether a book contains questionable themes like sex or violence or drugs or witchcraft or candy is how those topics are portrayed. Are they presented truthfully in terms of their context and their consequences? Are dangerous actions, characters, or ideas glamorized in such a way that makes them enticing? (pp. 14-15).

Karen came to these conclusions not only from her own experience, but also from John Milton’s "Areopagitica," a tract against censorship. Milton’s fellow Puritans wanted to ban books that they deemed unworthy. Milton argued instead that books should be “promiscuously read.” “Promiscuous” did not have the sexual connotations then that it does today: it just meant “indiscriminate mixing” (p. 22).

The essence of Milton’s argument is that truth is stronger than falsehood; falsehood prevails through the suppression of countering ideas, but truth triumphs in a free and open exchange that allows truth to shine (p. 10).

Milton goes on to argue that “our faith and knowledge thrives by exercise,” that “Moses, Daniel, and Paul . . . were steeped in the writings of their surrounding pagan cultures,” and even bad books “to a discreet and judicious reader serve in many respects to discover, to confute, to forewarn, to illustrate”(pp. 22-23). He asserts, “Truth is strong . . . Let her and falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?” (pp. 23-24).

I don’t think either Milton or Karen are saying that “anything goes.” But we don’t have to restrict our reading to just that with which we already agree. Karen quotes 1 Thessalonians 5:21: “Test all things and hold fast that which is good” (p. 22).

I’ve spent the most time on this first chapter because I found it so fascinating. I don’t remember exactly when I started to come to some of these same conclusions– I think maybe during or not long after college. I realized that the Bible itself contains what many would consider objectionable elements, but it handles them in a way that does not glorify sin but exposes truth.

Karen goes on to discuss several different literary works and how they influenced her thinking. Charlotte’s Web had much in common with her own childhood and her grandparents’ farm (though her pet rooster wasn’t granted the same reprieve as Wilbur). Gerald Manley Hopkins’s “Pied Beauty” revealed the unexpected beauty found in surprising places. Jane Eyre’s quest to become her own person rather than Rochester’s mistress or St. John’s missionary wife gave insight to Karen’s emerging self between eighth-grade cliques. Vocation, sexuality, faith, doubt, love, and marriage were likewise informed by Karen’s reading.

I greatly enjoyed Karen’s discussion of books I was familiar with. Her chapter on Gulliver’s Travels helped clear up aspects of the book I had been confused about. Her discussion of Tess of the D’Urbervilles and made me want to read both of those books. I knew the former was about a girl in Victorian times who got pregnant and the latter was about an adulteress, and I had figured both would be somewhat risque. But Tess has to do with purity of heart. Either due to naivete or rape, she had gotten pregnant, which at that time meant she was “ruined.” Yet Hardy presents her purer of heart than the society that so harshly judged her. And Madame Bovary shows Emma’s struggle between the idealized life she longed for that would never be true while she missed the joys of everyday reality.

Madame Bovary changed my worldview. It made me realize that happiness is in here, not out there. That the imperfect love of a real person is far greater than the perfect love that exists only in fairy tales or movies. That living happily-ever-after begins with embracing life–not fleeing to fantasies–today (pp. 176-177).

Karen mentions throughout the book that she grew up in a home with believing parents and regular church attendance. Though she “asked Jesus into her heart” at a young age, she led a double life of sex, drugs, and drinking. She realized as an adult that she had never asked Jesus into her mind, and the Bible tells us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. Furthermore, she realized that repentance involves a change of mind that results in a change of actions. While much of the book tells how God brought her to this place step by step, I wish she had included a little more about how this change came about from professing faith to really embracing it for herself.

I will warn some readers that Karen is quite frank about some of her thinking and activities in this split part of her life. But I think it’s important to realize that many young people (and even older people) are the same way, and hearing their stories will help us understand them better.

A few more quotes that stood out to me:

In focusing my attention on things much bigger than myself, ironically, I learned who I was. It’s the lesson, once again, that beholding is becoming (p. 142).

[Jonathan] Swift’s orthodox theology led him to a realistic understanding that all of man is fallen, and this includes man’s reason . . . His method was to expose the errors of rationalism by taking it to its logical extreme (p. 129).

I wanted not only to comfort the young woman, but also to get her to see that talking about such an event in a book was a safe, constructive way of dealing with these issues (pp. 101-102).

I’d love to audit Karen’s classes. I enjoyed the insights she brought out from the various works she cited and how they influenced her own growth.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever been so sad to turn to the last page of a book. Karen Swallow Prior packs a lot into every chapter as she weaves eloquent literary interpretation in with her own story of discovering herself. It was like taking your favorite English class with your favorite teacher.

Several of the chapter featured literary works that I've already found a deep kinship with- Jane Eyre and Charlotte's Web also helped me find my own way in the world, John Donne's poetry was my introduction to the mind-expanding power of metaphor, and The Death of a Salesman is one of those layered works that has grown with me. Other chapters featured books I know now that I must read-not just abandon to that vague, life-long list of "books I ought to read one day" (those books include Madame Bovary and Great Expectations. There was only one book she described that I don't care to read (Gulliver's Travels).

Now that the book is over, I feel like I've lost a friend, a fellow reader who understands how deeply books can and do resonate in my life.

Any passionate reader could write their own version of this book--the beloved stories that truly become a part of our own story, the characters and writers who gave us a vision of lives we wanted or didn't want or just a better, clearer glimpse of ourselves. I will likely never write that book, but I was glad to find a friend like Karen who understands the deep kinship with books I've always felt.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was clearly a book meant for me, as a Christian, a poet, a human being. I had read everything discussed except Madame Bovary, but all of Prior's comments about it were very accessible and it did not turn out to be a necessity. From the opening lines of Emily Dickinson to the lovely poem by William Carlos Williams to her desires in the last lines, she met my heart. I have so many portions marked. And I, too, have never doubted the existence of God.

"It is never too late for God to come knocking on your door. ...Time in its natural state marches steadily toward death and decay, but with the intervention of grace, time, along with human errors and lost chances, is redeemed."

"Marriage is more than a metaphor: it's a conceit, God's elaboration of himself by means of a human relationship that holds great difference in unified tension. God is nothing if not a poet. ...To join the unlike - a man and a woman, reason and passion, physical and spiritual - is the work of the poet and of God."

"My own faith journey has been slow at times, yet steady and straight. But it has not been a blind faith." "Certainty seems bigger than me, skepticism smaller. Wonder is just right."

[Lynn Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The first chapter on Milton's Areopagitica sets the stage, encouraging us to read widely and "let truth and falsehood grapple." She says, "...the best way to counteract falsehood is not by suppressing it, but by countering it with truth. Truth is stronger than falsehood; falsehood prevails through the suppression of countering ideas, but truth triumphs in a free and open exchange that allows truth to shine."

Then the author takes us on a journey through some of her favorite books and helps us see the universal truths they express. As she says, "reading and interpreting literature allows us to become better interpreters of human life and human nature". I enthusiastically believe in the power of stories to communicate transcendent truth. I have experienced this in my own life since childhood, beginning with the Chronicles of Narnia; so I could relate as she describes the impact different books had in her own life. When she says literature has shaped her soul, I know exactly what she means. God speaks through books. I learned so much from the author's insights and added a few titles to my to-read list!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book hoping to learn new perspectives on great literature - I was disappointed by the combination diary- journal-memoir-literary review. The chapters are written like essays on different works of literature, seen through the perspective of the author's life. But while Prior's literary analysis seemed strong, her stories about her own life seemed almost pedantic. And though she writes about the lessons she has learned about her own life, she also writes, in significant detail, about the lessons she has learned from the mistakes her friends have made. Essays 9 and 10 - on Gustave Flaubert and John Donne - were possibly the strongest in the book, yet were still a struggle to get through. Not a book that I am likely to recommend.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever abandoned a book 25 pages in. I usually give it a chance. I had an inkling that this English professor was going to be pretentious when I saw the book list on which she based her chapter themes (Great Expectations, Gulliver's Travels, Madame Bovary). But then she said (and I quote): "I do suspect that Milton's reaction to modern day anxieties over the likes of Harry Potter and Twilight might be along the lines of a deep, resigned sigh.... In my day we had Stephen King, and he has to be at least as bad as J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer." End of reading this book. Rowling is a modern genius and I have a feeling this book and I are not going to get along. So we are going to part ways.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight! Prior traces her spiritual life through some of her (and coincidentally mine) favorite literature. A true child of the 70's, she seems to find her way with God through literature. I found some parts of it maudlin as when she carries on about her love of animals, but she has a great way of teasing out deep spiritual sensibilities from some of my favorite books and authors: Jane Eyre, Tess, Milton, Hopkins, Donne, and Arnold. She spurs me to reread each of the works for all I have missed on the first reading. A must-read for female Christian English majors. It is printed only on demand, so you must order it online.

[Carmen Liffengren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love memoirs, but especially spiritual memoirs. This one seemed a perfect intersection of how her reading life of great books shaped Prior's spiritual life. However, this book, often seemed to veer into just literary analysis. I kept putting this book on the back burner until I realized that I just didn't want to finish it. I did, however, appreciate her chapter on how Jane Eyre affected her life. In fact, it made me want to revisit Jane Eyre. It's too bad. I had high hopes for this memoir.

[RAW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for book club. She is a talented writer and enjoyed her thoughts and insights on the different books she read. Very different lifestyle than the one I led and at times it feels somewhat unapologetic. You do get a sense of God's hand orchestrating her life and how her life experience of books was how he spoke to her. She wove her stories in well and chose a wide variety of books to do so, but I would have liked to see a more in depth repentance, forgiveness, turning from sin and newness of life brought into the overarching themes.