I had read the first few pages of this book many years ago, but it was too difficult for me to wrap my head around then. Now, after having taken a Dostoyevsky class in college and having graduated, I came back to it to find it much easier, almost /too/ easy, to read. Of course, through the years I have read many, many quotes from this book posted on social media, so that may also have made it easier for me to follow the book as a whole. Being able to read the quotes in context has been very interesting and enrichening, too, because a quote by itself may be profound, and still even more profound when reading it in context of the paragraph and page it showed up on.

The first third of the book is a good introduction to Christian apologetics, though after reading some of Dostoyevsky’s works, I felt Lewis had passed up some great opportunities to delve more deeply into some of his arguments for Christianity than he did, and it left me feeling a little disappointed. As an aside, if you like Lewis, I highly recommend reading at least Crime and Punishment and the Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky sometime before you die because both of them explore several arguments of Lewis’s for Christianity far more in-depth than in this book. According to my Dostoyevsky professor, C S Lewis was highly inspired by Dostoyevsky, and now every time I read one of Lewis’ works, I recognize Dostoyevsky’s influence. If you are already familiar with/have already read Lewis’ works and want more, Dostoyevsky is the next step up in terms of reading level.
Okay back to the book review:
The middle of Mere Christianity I found a bit more tedious, and I found a couple points I disagreed with, or the argument seemed underdeveloped to me or not thoroughly enough explored, almost too simple in black and white. I felt as though if Lewis had written this book later in his life, he might have had even more wisdom and the ability to better articulate and explore some of his points. These were only one or two points on one or two pages. After I got past that, the book got better again for me.
I found the last several chapters of the book the most rewarding and helpful to me personally, as they are focused on what it means to be a Christian and how to live life as a Christian.
God’s main desire is for us to know Him personally and become like Christ. God wants to make us perfect. Lewis’ chapters on this really helped me grasp the Christian life and the Christian aim better. Some may find these last chapters hard to understand, especially anyone who is not already familiar with Christianity. It is definitely a book to revisit to better understand it, because every page is rich with different ideas. Just about every sentence makes a striking point.

After thinking this was The book to recommend to non-believers, but then actually reading it for myself, I feel like this book is better suited for people who are already Christians who want to deepen their faith journey, though if you came across a curious, intellectual atheist or agnostic person who would be open to Lewis’s writing style and worldview, this would be a good recommendation for them too.
Mainstream though, I feel like there may be more accessible books on Christianity now that could be recommended to and more easily understood by non-believers, though I’m not sure of any specific ones off the top of my head. *edit from 2023* Lee Strobel’s Case for Christ book and Timothy Keller’s Reason for God come to mind now.