Have you ever wondered what your favorite authors, speakers, pastors, and scholars are reading? What influences them? Which books do they re-read?
What’re They Reading? will make you privy to what’s being read by those you admire.
I corresponded with Doug Wilson, pastor, blogger, author, documentary contributor, and sometimes controversial figure, about what’s on his bedside table, influential biographies, and more.
What’s on your bedside table?
They are not exactly on my bedside table, but the books I am currently working through are: James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson; Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers; H. L. Mencken’s My Life as Author and Editor; Al Mohler’s Desire and Deceit; and The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats.
What books do you regularly re-read and why?
I reread John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress because it has depths that repay rereading. I reread C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength because it is such a great novel. I also return to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings periodically.
What biographies or autobiographies have most influenced you and why?
C. S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy was very good. Arnold Dallimore’s bio of Whitefield was good too. Thomas McCrie’s on Knox was good.
What are your favorite fiction books and why?
This will be similar to What books do you regularly re-read and why? because of what C. S. Lewis argues in Experiment in Criticism. Favorite books are books you want to go back to. I would put The Lord of the Rings here, as well as That Hideous Strength, The Chronicles of Narnia, and so on.
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You can follow Doug Wilson on Twitter.
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Also in the What’re They Reading? series: Michael Bird and Trevin Wax.
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