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Purchase On Reading Well as a gift (or for you!) between now and Christmas and get an exclusive NEW download from artist Ned Bustard, inspired by On Reading Well.

How it Works

Purchase On Reading Well as a gift (or for you!)

Fill out the form linked below.

Complete Form

We will email you the art (available in November).

Also, post a picture of On Reading Well in a bookstore along with the hashtag #OnReadingWell and be automatically entered to win a prize pack of books from Brazos Press worth over $100!

How it Works

1. Take a picture of On Reading Well on the shelf at your favorite bookstore between now and Christmas.

2. Post it on Twitter or Facebook with the hashtag #OnReadingWell.

3. We will select one winner from Facebook and Twitter for the prize pack.

Reading great literature well has the power to cultivate virtue. Great literature increases knowledge of and desire for the good life by showing readers what virtue looks like and where vice leads. It is not just what one reads but how one reads that cultivates virtue. Reading good literature well requires one to practice numerous virtues, such as patience, diligence, and prudence. And learning to judge wisely a character in a book, in turn, forms the reader’s own character.

Acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior takes readers on a guided tour through works of great literature both ancient and modern, exploring twelve virtues that philosophers and theologians throughout history have identified as most essential for good character and the good life.

In reintroducing ancient virtues that are as relevant and essential today as ever, Prior draws on the best classical and Christian thinkers, including Aristotle, Aquinas, and Augustine. Covering authors from Henry Fielding to Cormac McCarthy, Jane Austen to George Saunders, and Flannery O’Connor to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Prior explores some of the most compelling universal themes found in the pages of classic books, helping readers learn to love life, literature, and God through their encounter with great writing. In examining works by these authors and more, Prior shows why virtues such as prudence, temperance, humility, and patience are still necessary for human flourishing and civil society.

The book includes end-of-chapter reflection questions geared toward book club discussions, features original artwork throughout, and includes a foreword from Leland Ryken.