As it tells the story of our time, the Century makes readers and writers of us all.
reading
People fear the impact of difficult books. They aren’t entirely wrong.
My students and I are finding our way into the world again with Evagrius, Teresa of Ávila, and Howard Thurman.
That’s one good thing about sheltering in place.
We asked 11 writers to tell us about a book that opens up space for adults and children to discuss important questions.
We read, forget, and are formed anyway.
I read a book of poems straight through without stopping. I couldn't help it.
When Jane Tompkins couldn’t move, she read
Confined by illness, the feminist literary scholar dove into the complete works of V.S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux.
Good reading and the good life
Reading books is a virtuous act.
A tall stack of books on the floor of my bedroom greets me each morning. Its very presence is exhausting.
One pastor in New Orleans would end every examination by asking, “What is your favorite work of fiction?” The other ministers collectively groaned. But I applauded the question. To be in South Louisiana meant being in a land of stories. As this NYT article observed, South Louisiana is “a place that produces writers the way that France produces cheese—prodigiously, and with world-class excellence.”
Recently my wife and I moved, and the time came to decide which books I could live without. I dreaded it.
My student hasn’t allegorized Jane Eyre as Origen did the Bible. But she wrestles with passages until the text gives her a blessing.
The Century asked Thomas G. Long, Barbara Brown Taylor, Scott Cairns and Kathleen Norris to describe their daily routines with the written word.