By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing - ... books have a place, just as the Bible has always had a place, because of the closeness of reading to prayer. Reading can foster interior life, watching videos cannot. Moreover, reading provokes deliberation and considered judgment, while videos incite to distraction. Reading is undeniably rich soil for receiving the seed: videos are shallow soil at best, usually mere rocks by the side of the path, birds hovering nearby... So then, here’s the new problem: What spiritual books do you recommend for a young person who has not read spiritual books, and maybe not even read any books at all?