What I'm Reading

In his book on the armor of God from Ephesians 6, Iain Duguid begins by discussing the great need we have for fighting the darkness around us in more than our own strength: we are so weak and the darkness is so great.  I loved this way of summing up the problem:

Of course, adding to the imbalance in this wrestling match is the fact that although our opponents are not flesh and blood, we are.  We are not principalities and powers or cosmic rulers but ordinary, flawed, fallen, flesh-and-blood mortals.  You might think we have no business engaging in this combat; in the language of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, it is hobbits against orcs, an unequal contest.  Yet this is exactly the battle in which we are engaged. Serving in the Lord's army is not an option reserved for those particularly devoted to God.  The choice is not whether you will be a Christian soldier or a Christian civilian but whether you will be a prepared soldier or an unprepared one.  And an unprepared soldier of flesh and blood will not be able to stand against the scale of the spiritual forces ranged against him or her.
~Iain M. Duguid, The Whole Armor of God: How Christ's Victory Strengthens Us for Spiritual Warfare, p.12

Loving someone is like...

“To love someone is like moving into a house," Sonja used to say. "At first you fall in love in everything new, you wonder every morning that this is one's own, as if you are afraid that someone will suddenly come tumbling through the door and say that there has been a serious mistake and that it simply was not meant you would live so fine. But as the years go by, the facade is worn, the wood cracks here and there, and you start to love this house not so much for all the ways it is perfect, but for all the ways it is not. You become familiar with all its nooks and crannies. How to avoid that the key gets stuck in the lock if it is cold outside. Which floorboards have some give when you step on them, and exactly how to open the doors for them not to creak. That's it, all the little secrets that make it your home. " 

- Fredrik Backman , A Man Called Ove” 

I am enjoying this quirky book.  Despite some strong language, it is full of interesting writing and often makes me laugh out loud at its often black humor.  It is one of those books that rings true.  I know Ove, and his neighbors. And the gem above is one of many insightful, even sweet passages.  I need to finish it before deciding upon my final recommendation, but it is fun reading so far...

And how I love being at the stage in my life and marriage when my creaks are all known, and I know how to mostly avoid frozen locks...

Thinking about reading

I have been thinking about my reading habits lately.  This is probably all the fault of a friend who has an interesting series on his blog about reading habits.

A few years ago I started recording books I completed (in whatever format-- traditional books, e-books, audio books) in the side-bar here just to get a sense of how much and what I read. I had a vague sense I was too scattered in my reading, left much unfinished, etc.  So recording it lets me notice things like, "Aha.  Too much children's literature lately.  Read something to stretch your vocabulary."  or, "History!  No history books lately.  That is exactly what I have been wanting!"

I am a multi-tasker, in life and in reading.  Perhaps that is my perfectionistic excuse for not focusing well enough, and when I don't remember content well, I can say, "Well, I did that on audio book while I pieced three quilts." Or, "I read it a chapter at a time over two years while I was finishing 17 other books, so I don't exactly remember how the author dealt with that theme."  Whatever the reason, this pattern of many and varied reading going all at once has stuck for all my adult life, to one extent or the other. Just as an example, here is what I'm in the middle of at the moment, placed in five categories for this Friday morning:

1. Traditional books (with paper pages):  The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers; Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl by N. D. Wilson (And a whole stack on my bedside table waiting...)
2. E-books on my kindle app: Power in Prayer by Andrew Murray; Morocco by Edith Wharton
3. Audio books: When I sew or do housework, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.  With the hubby in the car or in the evenings: The Grey King by Susan Cooper. When I am resting: Good Poems collected by Garrison Keillor.
4. Read-alouds with the hubby: Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon; Dandelion Fire by N. D. Wilson
5. Read-alouds with the eldest granddaughter: Little House in the Big Woods (for the second time).

On the face of it, that seems a bit ridiculous. Perhaps this is the fate of a TV-generation child who no longer has an attention span.  Or perhaps I was just built this way.  I guess the world and the kingdom need some of us who have noisy, cacophonous brains that go in a million directions all at once.  

How do you read, Gentle Reader?  

Stoking the moral imagination

Recently my eldest granddaughter and I have been reading chapter books together.  Since she is in southern Arizona and I am in northern New Mexico, we have breakfast dates: she eats her breakfast while I read to her via Hangouts or Skype.  We have completed The Tale of Despereaux, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Prince Caspian this way.  And now we are working on Little House in the Big Woods.

My sweet 4-year-old has never before imagined a world without refrigerators, or where you butchered pigs to get bacon, or where your only doll was a corn husk and you dreamed of a real doll.  She is learning about these things through Laura's eyes in the little log house at the edge of the Big Woods.  And today's lesson included me finding and lighting an oil lamp for her, and telling her that her own Grandma Shirley, my mom, would love a phone call to tell her about plucking chickens when she was a young girl on the farm.  What wonderful family times together!

Stories have such a broadening affect on us: we travel in our mind's eye to distant times and lands, and live in the shoes of others, facing their problems and joys. It is not only about pigs and oil lamps we learn, but about courage and failure, strength and weakness, wisdom and foolishness.  And we exercise the muscles of our moral imagination, as author Vigen Guroian says, We begin to build our copia of ideas from which other ideas, if well-watered and exposed to good light, will sprout.

What a privilege it is to read to my granddaughter, and stuff her full of new ideas, stoking the fire of her moral imagination.  I can't wait till the other grandchildren get old enough to join us!

Desperation, Meaning, and the Iliad

I am currently reading the Iliad.  I have never read through the whole thing before, I must admit, so it is about time.  And I also have to admit that I am enjoying it. My smarter and better read friend, Cindy R., wrote this of the Iliad:

"...I love it because of its desperation- Achilles' desperation, that pre-gospel longing for significance and meaning. I suppose I love it because I have found a better country and it reminds me from whence I have come..."

I still find myself at times wondering what I will be when I grow up, wondering what my life will add up to, what of any importance I have accomplished in these few years on this little planet. I forget that I am, indeed, in a better country. What a blessed thing not to have to understand everything, but to rest in the knowledge that meaning will be had in the end.

They say the grass is always greener elsewhere, but I think sometimes the grass being brown and scorched elsewhere is a good reminder to enjoy your own piece of desert. Leave desperation for meaning behind and rest in the One who both is and makes meaning.

And while all of that is true, I have to admit that I often find myself laughing at all the wrong parts of this book. It is SUCH a "boy" book, after all.  The eyeballs falling out of heads and mingling with the dust at the victim's feet, the details about entrails and noble deaths, all remind me of the days when small warriors roamed my house and were inspired to live bold lives. And those remembrances kill off any remainder of desperation.

I am reading the Iliad with a wonderful online book group called Conversatio at the Harvey Center.  If you feel inclined to come along on a journey through the classics, fill out the information form here and ask for information about Conversatio, or take a peek at what we're up to here.

Five for Friday

Today I offer five fun short stories I will soon be reading with my little composition class.  If you need something enjoyable to read in a doctor's office waiting room, or before you fall asleep, try these titles.  For those that exist online I've tried to give you links.

1.  The Dog that Bit People by James Thurber

2. A Day's Wait by Ernest Hemmingway

3. Rip van Winkle by Washington Irving

4.  Chapter 3 of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.  Strictly speaking this is not a short story, of course.  But it is a tight, beautiful piece of writing that can stand on its own, and is a rich example of how a great writer embeds a theme in a narrative.

5. "Red" by Elsa Johnson Finnegan.  This is a wonderful story, but you have to know the author to get a copy.  :-)

What short stories are your favorites, Gentle Reader?

Five for Friday

Today I'd like to share five items I have recently been enjoying listening to.  I hope you will enjoy them as well.

1. I recently completed listening to the Librivox version of Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  There are such wonderful characters and plot twists in Dickens that I am always willing to put up with his occasionally annoying wordiness and repetition.  And this is a really fun story. I enjoyed it while sewing.

2. After completing the Dickens, I began listening to The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams, also from Librivox, during my sewing time.  I love his beautiful language and fascinating history so far, though I am only several chapters in. He is the great-grandson and grandson of presidents, and knew all the political and intellectual world of the Eastern seaboard at a pivotal time in history.  He writes about the changes from the 18th to 19th centuries, and his word play often makes me smile.

3. Before bedtime, Dave usually reads to me: first from Spurgeon, then from some fun novel or other.  We just finished Orson Scott Card's Earth Afire. We had listened to the first book in this series, Earth Unaware, on a recent trip.  The third book in the series is not yet out, and we likely need to wait at least a year for the end of the story-- always a bit frustrating.  These are the prequel novels to the Ender series.  We enjoyed the stories here, but were a bit dismayed by the writing.  Mr. Card had a co-author here, and I wonder if that was partially responsible, or if there is a rush to have these books out before the Ender's Game movie arrives.  Whatever the case, these are classic Card stories that are compelling, told in less-than-perfect grammar and prose that sometimes disappoint.  They have been enjoyable stories nonetheless.

4. I have also started the new online course from Hillsdale College on Economics.  This is apologetically free-market, Austrian economics, presented by the college president, Larry Arnn, and economics professor Gary Wolfram.  I have only listened to the introductory lecture by Dr. Arnn so far, but it is interesting.  When I was teaching more, I signed up for several of these courses, but didn't have the time to complete them.  Hopefully I can do more of that in this year of rest.

5.  I have also recently found and been enjoying The Briefing, a daily podcast of news and cultural analysis from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler.  I have signed up to receive an e-mail when a new podcast comes out, and I tend to listen to this 20-minute-or-so podcast as I begin the day. I find Dr. Mohler's take on things biblical, refreshing, gracious, and balanced.

What have you been listening to or reading, Gentle Reader?  Any recommendations you want to send my way?

An inside job

I have been rereading an excellent book: The Enemy Within, Kris Lungaard's  masterful reworking of John Owens.  As it was 12 or so years ago when I first read it, it makes for excellent heart surgery.

Just this morning, I awoke after a restless night's sleep (or lack thereof.)  This is a hormonal and therapy issue, and I try to look at the non-sleep as a calling from God to pray.  But after wrestling all night towards such virtuous use of my time, I was a total grumpy-pants to my sweet husband this morning. When he gently called me on it, I was totally surprised.  That's because, as Kris puts it,

The law of sin doesn't work on us from the outside.  We carry it in us...It settles down with us and is at home...Indwelling sin doesn't observe a sabbath... Sin isn't just a permanent houseguest, it's a meddlesome wretch. It's always poking its nose in, looking over your shoulder, whispering in your ear...Sin does its dirty work with the greatest of ease...There is no spiritual duty, nothing godly you can set yourself to, in which you won't feel the wind of sin's resitance in your face...
~K. Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk about the Power and Defeat of Sin, Chapter 2.

We simply make peace with our sin, Gentle reader, until we don't even recognize it as sin anymore.

So I am praying that God would make me uncomfortable with my sin, until I have to stop cuddling it, and instead see it for what it is: cosmic betrayal.  I belong, as Kris and Dr. Owen say, in that ring of Dante's Inferno reserved for the traitors and betrayers.  But marvelous grace, instead I am raised to Paradisio, where God looks at me and sees His Son instead.  May we all live in the light of that glorious exchange, Gentle Reader. And may we wage war with that enemy within.

Wednesday without words

Lenten devotional

Looking for a way to help prepare your children to understand the meaning of Resurrection Day like you did during Advent for Christmas? Look no further.  My friend, Amy, has a lovely family devotional guide ready for use during the traditional period of Lent (starting on Wednesday.)  She gives interesting background on the various thoughts of church fathers about incorporating an idea of lent and fasting into our preparation for Easter, and then has a very accessible guide that can be used with children of all ages.  And it is just a $2.99 download from the Kindle store, making it affordable and easily accessible.  (It is also available as a paperback.) Give it a look.

And if that's not good enough, she's doing a drawing for a free download if you visit the book's blog TODAY and post a comment. What a deal!

May the Lord use Amy's words and heart for reaching children for Christ to bless many through this new endeavor!

My 2009 book report...

On my other blog, I keep a list of books I am currently reading, along with a list of books completed for the year. I began this while I was recovering from illness, and had extra reading time on my hands. Last year with less reading time, it looks like I averaged a book every couple of weeks. Not bad, for a slow, methodical reader like me.

Below is my list of completed books from 2009, just so I can remove it from the other blog. This list includes both reading books and audio books listened to on trips or while sewing or cleaning or taking walks. Let me comment on a few stand-outs, and not-so-noteworthy, titles.

The last book I finished, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, was beautifully written, if rather on the philosophical side. I found it charming and funny and sarcastic. I could imagine myself as a girl in the place of the younger protagonist, with her self-centered assuredness and sweeping moral judgments. Dh, on the other hand, was never a pre-teen girl with a dramatic flair, and he found the book irritating and annoying. This book had the most widely varied opinions in the house of the year.

My least favorite novel of the year was Henry James' Daisy Miller. If i could ask Mr. James a question, it would be, "If you had to write this story, why not make it a short story, or better yet, a haiku, and get it over with?"

Spoiled Americans
Waste their lives and die in pain.
No redemption here.

In the Willa Cather category, I found O Pioneers to be much better than My Antonia, but not nearly as good as Death comes for the Archbishop. But whatever the book, you can't bat Cather for lovely, moving description of the land the relationship of the people to it.

The most enjoyable theology book of the year was definitely Minority Report. Trueman is a savvy writer, and blends humor, truth and wit in all his essays.

Best new novel (to me) of the year: The Kite Runner. Brutal and hard to read in places, but beautiful and moving in a way I've not been moved since Cry the Beloved Country. (Both of these books were new to me in adulthood.)

And there was a liberal sprinkling of re-reads last year: Tolkien and Lewis, Sayers and Wodehouse. One can't do without one's old friends!

How about you, Gentle Readers? What books did you read last year? Or which of the following do you have opinions about? I'd love to hear from you!

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by M. Barbery (completed 12-09)
The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien (completed 12-09)
The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis (completed 11-09)
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (completed 11-09)
The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis (completed 10-09)
The Eclogues by Virgil (completed 10-09)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (completed 10-09)
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by A. M. Smith (completed 10-09)
The Confessions of St. Augustine (completed 9-09)
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (completed 9-09)
Foundation by Isaac Asimov( completed 9-09)
My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (completed 9-09)
Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon (completed 8-09)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shhaffer (completed 8-09)
The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith (completed 7-09)
Knowing God by J. I. Packer (Completed 7-09)
Death of a Maid by M. C. Beaton (completed 7-09)
Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh (completed 6-09)
Ender in Exile by orson Scott Card (completed 6-09)
Daisy Miller by Henry James (completed 6-09)
Minority Report: unpopular thoughts on Everything from Ancient Christianity to Zen Calvinism by C. Trueman (completed 6-09)
The Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card (completed 6-09)
The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini (completed 6-09)
The Lighthouse by P.D. James (completed 6-09)
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (completed 5-09)
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (completed 5-09)
Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther (completed 4-09)
Stardust by Neil Gaimon (completed 3-09)
Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists by Collin Hansen (completed 3-09)
Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card (completed 3-09)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (completed 2-09)
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (completed 2-09)
The Kalahari Typing School For Men by Alexander McCall Smith (completed 2-09)
Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (completed 2/09)
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers (completed 2/09)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (completed 1-09)
The Mortification of Sin by John Owen (completed 1-09)

Of walking and words...

This morning as I went on my morning walk, I took the path that runs along White Rock Canyon, overlooking the Rio Grande. It is a beautiful, if rocky, walk, and for the hour-plus that I trod the trail, I listened to the end of a P. G. Wodehouse book of short stories, entitled, My Man Jeeves. The thing about Wodehouse is his amazing ability to capture the exactly perfect word to paint a whole picture of a scene. He is ironic and funny and a master of the human condition. He can make the word "Chappy" replete with a thousand nuanced thoughts. I laughed aloud, and marveled at his use of the language.

My friend Cindy is marveling about words today, too. She has been imbibing Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, and says in part:

After watching Hamlet last night, I found myself wondering if Shakespeare was a mere mortal. The words, the beautiful words. How did he do that? How did he fill every single line with meaning and substance and pictures and ideas? Were the Elizabethans the final height of civilization? Why in 500 years is the closest thing to a William Shakespeare, PG Wodehouse?

Why, indeed.

Redeeming time...

Recently a friend remarked that she was amazed at the number of books I read. I was, in turn, quite shocked. I am a slow, plodding reader, and don't consider myself a very "good" reader, though I love books and reading. When I started to think about it, I realized that there are many ways I chip away at reading, and over time, the little chips add up to quite a mound.

One thing I do is download an audio book on my mP3 player to listen to while I walk each day. This means 30-50 minutes of listening most days. I can chip away at some longer books that I may not otherwise complete that way. Right now I am enjoying Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy as I walk. And sometimes when I want a little break from Hardy, I switch over to Scripture Memory Songs, or just listen to the world around me and the reflections of my heart. However, at times, I need to discipline my own thoughts, and listening to something helps with that!

I also download an audio book onto the computer in the office to listen to while I sew. Currently I am being awed by the prose of Augustine in his Confessions.

When I am doing busy-work in my room (dusting, or cleaning my bathroom or floors, or organizing closets or drawers) I often listen to sermons or lectures on the computer in there. That is how I am chipping away at Dr. David Calhoun's lectures from Covenant Seminary on the Institutes of Calvin. I'm not sure how flattered Dr. Calhoun would be to know I listen to his excellent lectures while I clean the bathroom, but I am enjoying them and finding them profitable.

I also take time each morning to read scripture and pray. I am currently going through the bible in two years, and my dil Elsa is joining me in that journey.

I set aside a little reading time most afternoons. This is rest and refreshment time, and my body and mind need it.

Dave and I read aloud together for a few minutes at the end of the day most days, as well. Currently, we are reading through Calvin's Institutes that way, though we have read a variety of things in that time, and it has been a great way to finish the day together.

I also never leave the house without a book. This is how I chip away at some of my non-fiction reading in particular. I can read a few paragraphs or a chapter while waiting in the doctor's office, and it adds up over time.

This year as I have completed my cancer treatments, I have found it a particularly necessary spiritual discipline to keep my mind fixed on good and true and beautiful things. These are some of the disciplines that have helped me to do that. I hope they will encourage you, Gentle Readers, and if you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!