1. They love to re-read books they've already read.
The traits Lewis mentions do not focus on the kinds of books one reads (he seems to assume the reading of serious literature), but I think may apply here. There are plenty of people who read constantly, a book every day or two, but who would not qualify as true readers by his definition. That's because they mostly read mysteries, thrillers, romances or adventure tales. These are books very few people would consider reading a second or third time. Once you know who the killer is, how two people find true love or how the hero or heroine survives a harrowing experience, there is little incentive to dip into the same book again, at least not for a number of years. With a book like Pride and Prejudice, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, knowing the ending is not a disincentive to reading it again. How the story is told, more than the story itself, is what makes such a book worth rereading. This is no less true with nonfiction.
I probably reread often enough to qualify as a true reader, though I certainly do not reread as much as I would like or as much as some others do. There are still so many books I have yet to read the first time. Yet I have read at least twice such books as Moby Dick, Walden, The Sun Also Rises, Henderson the Rain King, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Franny and Zooey and all of Thomas Hardy's major novels. And you could add some books by C.S. Lewis to that list.
2. They value reading as an activity, not just as a last resort.
I have already alluded to this trait. There are some people who save a book, one they say they want to read, for a weekend at the lake, a vacation at the beach or a plane ride across the country when there will be plenty of time and few other distractions. Yet there are always other distractions for those who want to find them, and such people usually do. True readers make reading a regular part of their day in the same way they set aside time for eating meals. doing necessary chores or watching favorite TV programs. For them, reading becomes a pleasant habit.
I read each afternoon with few exceptions (such as Sundays during the football season) for two or three hours. After dinner I usually return to my favorite reading chair for a shorter session. I normally read at mealtimes, as well. In this way I can usually read eight to ten books a month.
3. They think of reading certain books as a life-changing experience.
"Their whole consciousness is changed," Lewis writes. "They have become what they were not before." This probably doesn't happen by reading an Agatha Christie mystery, so again the kind of books one reads is a factor. I suspect life changes are most often experienced in one's youth. After a certain age life changes become more difficult, a wee have already become what we are, for better or worse. But young people, at least those who are already true readers, encounter The Catcher in the Rye or To Kill a Mockingbird or some other important book, and they do feel profoundly changed.
Two books that gave me a profound jolt in college were J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis himself. Paul Tournier's The Strong and the Weak also had an impact.
4. They continuously reflect on what has been read.
A book, or at least a good book, doesn't necessary end when the last page has been read. Even if a book doesn't change your life, it can at least give you something to think about for, at least, days afterward. Even a thriller might do this, but a great work of literature even more so. True readers think about the books they read.
This blog, I guess, offers evidence that I meet this criteria. I read books, I think about them, then I write about them. Then I usually think about them some more.
I suspect that when Lewis was making his list of the qualities possessed by a true reader he was thinking about himself as a model. He was one of the truest of readers.
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