Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me - Book 57

Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me is a gem of a book. Professor Karen Swallow Prior is the Chair of the English Department at Liberty University. This book is her memoir written in light of the books that have most influenced her. It is a beautiful book. Professor Prior is a Christian, but she's a subtle, intellectual Christian. In the first chapter she defends 'promiscuous reading,' something Puritan poet, John Milton advised. Prior believes that her own 'promiscuous reading' (in the 17th century sense of the word) of a wide and varied material helped her to come to a much more profound understanding of life and what it means to be human through authors that really taught her. She's grateful for that fact that her parents never censored her reading. Instead, they modeled a devout Christian life and were always available to answer questions.

Professor Prior did stray for a while in her high school and college years (who didn't, I'd like to know! Very, very few!) but by the time she married just before she graduated from college, she had come back around.

The books that she writes so deeply and beautifully about, the ones that taught such profound lessons to her are: Charlotte's Web, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Gerard Manly Hopkin's poetry, Gulliver's Travels, Milton, Death of a Salesman, Madame Bovary, John Donne. Some of these books I never cared for, namely Madame Bovary (I couldn't stand her!) and Gulliver's Travels (too weird and bawdy for me) but reading this book made me want to be in Professor Prior's class! Her understanding and explanations are so wonderful. Even though I've read Jane Eyre several times and appreciate greatly Charlotte Bronte's sheer talent, I've always been troubled by the book, but Professor Prior made it make more sense to me. Likewise with Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I remember reading it in high school and finding it so beautiful and yet so bleak, I couldn't shake the blues it caused for weeks. Now I have an understanding of why. It really is a book without hope.

Professor Prior is a beautiful writer. There were so many lines in the book I wanted to copy down because of their insightfulness and beauty. This books doesn't take long to read but I found myself deliberately going slowly so that I could savor all the lovely wisdom and illuminating language and analysis.

Professor Prior's openminded, intelligent, Christian approach to literature is a breath of fresh air. My advice to anyone who loves God and books: Read this book!

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