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What made bestselling author C. S. Lewis such a great writer with so many admirers? One answer to that question is Lewis’ vast and deep reading across the entire canon of Western literature, from Homer and the Bible down to some of the most important works of the early twentieth century.Before one can become a great writer, one must be a great reader.
What has made Oxford don, Cambridge professor and bestselling author C. S. Lewis such a great writer with so large a following? One answer to that question which has yet to be fully explored is Lewis’ vast and deep reading across the entire canon of Western literature, from Homer and the Bible down to some of the most important works of the early twentieth century. It seems self-evident that before one can become a great writer one must be a great reader. Most certainly, C. S. Lewis was a voracious consumer of books.
In 1962, an interviewer asked Lewis: What books did most to shape your vocational attitude and your philosophy of life? In response, Lewis offered the following top ten list:
Phantastes by George MacDonald
The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton
The Aeneid by Virgil
The Temple by George Herbert
The Prelude by William Wordsworth
The Idea of the Holy by Rudolf Otto
The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
Decent into Hell by Charles Williams
Theism and Humanism by Arthur James Balfour
Based on his books, marginal notes, and personal letters, Lewis’ reading of books is thoroughly documented. In addition, Will Vaus offers a brief biography of each author with a helpful summary of their book. With this handy three-volume series, readers can discover new authors and learn what Lewis believed was most important in his won life and writings
Do you like C. S. Lewis? Then it makes sense to read what he wrote. But if you really want to know Lewis and really understand what made him tick, don’t neglect to read what he read. Will Vaus has done us all a great service in showing why these books are important and more: he makes them accessible to us all.
Diana Pavlac Glyer, author of Bandersnatch and The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community
This third volume of Will Vaus’s thorough examination of C.S. Lewis’s top ten book list is a superb conclusion to his multi-volume study. Every serious student of Lewis’s writing should read this book.
Lyle W. Dorsett, PhD, Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism, Beeson Divinity School
