I come limping into the third day of the Something Wicked Blog Tour…well that’s not true. I’m not even limping, I’m reclining. My back went out, so I’m staying down today, posting in a Vicodin haze.

But that’s one of the greatest thing about the Internet, you can still interact, even in your pj’s.

So here I sit, drugged and mellow, and ready to thrill you all with my philosophy on what makes for good reading.

I’ve said a lot about the content of this particular Gratz book having more teen sex in it than I like to read, but we all have different thresholds for these things. I certainly don’t think there is anything sinful about reading books written by people with nonChristian worldviews. I read such books all the time. I think there is great value in the practice, actually. We are living in the world and we aren’t called to separate ourselves from it.

We are called not to love the same things that the world loves, but reading well-written books by nonChristians doesn’t constitute loving what the world loves. The question for me is always: Did I get my time’s worth from this book? When I read or go to a movie I’m investing a block of precious time. I want to choose my books and movies carefully.

Sometimes, like when I’m on Vicodin, I like to watch movies that will just entertain me. There is some value in entertainment, I think. But with all the good books and movies out there, why not pick something that enlarges me intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually even while it entertains me?

So did Gratz’s book do any of that? He said in one interview, “I’m not writing Deep, Meaningful Books here.” But I think we can get meaning out of the books all the same. And they have value beyond his meaning, too. To me, these two Horatio Wilkes mysteries had value because I’m a wannabe writer and Alan’s a very good writer, with a cadence and wit to his prose that I’d like to learn. They also had value in that they educated me a little on Shakespeare. They had entertainment value because Horatio is a fun, likable kid. Then they made me think about teen sex, and the world we live in, and it’s always good to think about culture and how we are to interact with it.

In the end any book we read can have value if we think about what we’ve read. It’s only mindless reading that is dangerous and destructive, I think. As my friend Becky Miller likes to point out, we have to read with discernment. We have to look at what we’ve read and not allow things to slip in unnoticed. If we do that, then almost anything can be turned to profit.

But the really great thing for you is that right now you can check out Horatio yourself, free of charge. Spend a few minutes with him and see if you want to spend a few hours with him, listening to his story. You can read the entire first book, Something Rotten, online for free. Go check it out for yourself.