Five Reasons to Read Classics
(and How It Will Impact Your Quiet Time) + Recommendations
By: Ashley Davis
**For information about a
Little Women & The Little Women Devotional
read-along book club, scroll to the bottom of this post**
Who knew that what you read for fun can impact how you read for spiritual growth?! Trust me – there’s a connection. Here are five reasons you should be reading classic literature and how it will impact your quiet time. There are recommendations too!
1. Classics tend to have built-in morality.
Let’s be honest, a lot of fiction these days is full of smut. Whether it’s foul language, the glorification of lifestyles that are not God-honoring, or bedroom scenes, the reasons to put down the contemporary fiction abound! You can’t pick up just any classic and know for certain that morality will be built in, but you are more likely to find it in classics than in modern works. Book recommendation: The Chronicles of Narnia Series by CS Lewis (not just for kids!).
How does this impact your quiet time? Quite simply, when your reading life is filled with content that doesn’t genuinely align with your beliefs and what the Bible teaches, it’s going to be a stumbling block to you. Your quiet time will be improved by not having vulgarity coursing through your mind because of the content you consume.
2. Classics tend to have a greater appreciation for small things.
Oftentimes, classic works tend to have a greater focus on nature, small comforts, stillness, character development, and details. There are certainly modern-day authors that still embrace the classic style of savoring the small things in their writing, but oftentimes, modern fiction is simply driven by repeated intense action in the plot. There’s value in enduring the character development and little life of a protagonist that’s sometimes missed in modern fiction. Recommendation: LM Montgomery, specifically the Anne of Green Gables series is filled with beautiful descriptions of nature. Anne’s a nature junkie and her endearing descriptions of nature just don’t get old to me!
How does this impact your quiet time? When we have an appreciation for little things, including God’s creation, we tend to be more content and at peace in our own lives. We can come to God in our own personal quiet time filled with thanks and gratitude for all he’s made and done.
3. Reading classics will increase your attention span.
You were probably expecting this one, right? There’s just no way around it. Classics are usually more difficult to read. Between the language and (typically) the length of the books, they take more time to read. But the good news is the more you practice reading classics, the more you will enjoy them. Increasing your attention span takes practice, and reading classics can help flex that muscle. I find that the reading process and completion of a classic is a more satisfying experience that modern fiction. Because it’s not as consumable, it’s more enjoyable. Recommendation: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I listened to the audiobook of this one a few years ago… 50+ hours. Talk about practicing that attention span increase!
How does this impact your quiet time? Whether you’re battling the noise of children or the distraction of your cell phone, increasing your attention span happens the more you practice doing it! If you increase your focus for classic reading, you inadvertently increase your focus in other areas.
4. Reading classics will increase your vocabulary.
Classic works tend to include language that we either don’t use at all anymore or that’s leaps and bounds above the average person’s vocabulary. Our world is increasingly riddled with slang of every sort, and it can be refreshing to read books that are wholesome and challenging in their vocabulary. Doesn’t hurt to learn something new! At least now we’ve got an electronic dictionary right at our disposal! Recommendation: Take your pick! Anything from Charlotte’s Web to Tolkien to Jane Austen is guaranteed to increase your vocabulary.
How does this impact your quiet time? If you’re reading any translation of the Bible that isn’t a paraphrase, you’ll likely encounter new-to-you words daily during your time with God. Increasing your vocabulary with classic reads is bound to impact your understanding of scripture too!
5. Reading classics takes more time than contemporary fiction.
Whether it’s on account of the difficult language, the pacing, the character development, or just the length of the book, reading classics tends to take longer than reading modern fiction. This teaches us to slow down. To savor the words and the development of a story or character. Recommendation: Little Women by Louis May Alcott. I love to recommend this because it is very approachable in its language, but it’s a chunker of a book. The development of all the March sisters takes time, but it is a worthwhile journey!
How does this impact your quiet time? When we have other areas of our lives that force is to move slowly and deliberately, we can harness that practice to use during our quiet time too. If we’re constantly in a rush or constantly consuming highly stimulating, easy content, our time in the Word will feel like a labor lasting all eternity!
Tips for starting classics:
Pick a short one.
Pick one for middle-grade or lower level readers.
Don’t be afraid to check out the audiobook.
Embrace the spoilers. Sometimes you need to read a summary of a book before you begin so you’ll have a better grasp of what’s happening in the storyline.
Readalong Book Club Information
If you are interested in participating in a book club I’m hosting reading Little Women and the corresponding Little Women Devotional, complete this form (Join Readalong Book Club) by Wednesday, November 1!
Book club reading begins Saturday, November 4, and concludes Saturday, December 23 (there are a couple of catchup days in there!).
There will be four Zoom meetups on Mondays, 11/6, 11/20, 12/4, 12/18 at 7:30 PM.
PLUS an in-person tea concluding the book club on Saturday, December 23 at 3 PM at Ashley Davis's Home.
