This book comes out later this month:

Tony Reinke. Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011. 202 pp.

You know it’s good when Leland Ryken, professor of English at Wheaton College, says this about it:

There is so much to commend about this book that it is hard to know where to start. The most obvious virtue is its scope. On the subject of reading, Reinke covers every possible topic. Each topic, in turn, is broken into all of its important subpoints. With a lesser writer, this could produce a tedious book, but the opposite is true here. Reinke says just enough, but not too much. The effect is like seeing a prism turned in the light. There is never a dull moment. Once I sensed that Reinke was going to cover all the important topics, and with unfailing good sense and Christian insight, I could hardly put it down. ‘What will Reinke say about that topic?’ I found myself asking. But to add yet another twist, he has read so widely in scholarly and religious sources that I do not hesitate to call the book a triumph of scholarship. Reinke writes with an infectious and winsome enthusiasm. It is hard to imagine a reader of this book who would not catch the spark for reading after encountering Reinke’s excitement about reading and his carefully reasoned defense of it.

Here’s the table of contents:

I read a lot of books, but I read them at different levels. I give some books mere minutes. Others get an hour or two. Some draw me in and compel me to stay. After spending some time in Tony’s book last night, it looks like it fits in the draw-me-in-and-compel-me-to-stay category.

Thank you, Tony, for putting so much thoughtful work into your book.