10 Tips to Read More and Read Better: Number 9

Tim Chailles has written a list of 10 Tips to Read More and Read Better. His blog is one of my favorite sites. I really like his points on reading ( not to mention that I am an addicted reader and bibliophile) so I am going to quote one of his ten points each day for ten days. I encourage all my readers to put this into practice.

Number nine is:

Read Old Books - Do not read only new books. I cannot say this any better than C.S. Lewis: “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones. Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.” So be sure to read old books, whether that means classics or whether that simply means books that come from a generation or two before your own. And be sure to read history as well, since there is no better way of understanding today than by understanding yesterday.