Read-to-Write
T.S. Eliot asserts, "Wide reading...is valuable because in the process of being affected by one powerful personality after another, we cease to be dominated by anyone, or by any small number."
In addition, theologian Michael S. Horton notes, "Those who do not care to read secular books will be impoverished and will be susceptible to subtle and indirect seduction, while those who do not carefully study Scripture will lose their only plumb line for judging truth from error, belief from unbelief, right from wrong."
Recognizing the truth inherent in Eliot's and Horton's perspectives and recognizing that great writing stems from reading great writing, the CU Writing Center encourages the CU campus to read a book of literature a month.
And it won't just be novels. We'll throw in poetry, nonfiction, and plays, too.
Books to make you think. Books that are beautifully written. Books that may, or may not, be "Christian." Books whose styles and ideas will trickle through the veins of your minds, through your fingers, and into your own words.
You must read to write (well).
2007-2008 Read-to-Write Books
| September | Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen |
| October | The Shell Collector, by Anthony Doerr |
| November | The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion |
| December | Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier |
| January | Richard III, by William Shakespeare |
| February | I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou |
| March | Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson |
| April (National Poetry Month) | Without, by Donald Hall Sailing Alone Around the Room, by Billy Collins |
