It has never been easier to get books but never harder to find the quiet needed to study them.

By reading older books we get a taste of the conversation of Heaven.

Past ages come to us in new ways. For instance, they bore or disturb us. The dead say things we would or could not say in ways that appall , bless, and startle us. Reading them is part of diversity. The easiest voices to ignore are those of the dead; nevertheless, they often on the ones we need most.

Being will-read is not sufficient, and it isn't the highest virtue to which we can strive, but it is both necessary and practical. We are, after all, people of the Great Book; no Christian leader ought  to choose the illiteracy or intentionally fail to develop the  intellectual skills  needed to read well.