I am not only a writer (and evidenced by how long this post turned out), I am most certainly also a reader. This was made clear in several posts I shared last summer - one about the reading suggestions I requested from friends and the other about the books I actually read on my daily Metro commute.
When I left North Carolina in April, my church choir friends generously gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card. Once I arrived in Florida - and actually had a mailing address that would last longer than a week - I ordered four books:
- Soul Survivor: How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church by Philip Yancey -
- I actually read this one this spring while living in North Carolina (my grandfather has a copy signed and addressed to him by the author...) and found its perspective on life and faith so incredible that I decided I needed my own copy to highlight and take notes in to try to absorb and adopt some of the important thoughts and perspectives it contained. I would highly recommend this book to two groups of people:
- Anyone who is a writer/author would definitely benefit from this book. Of its 13 chapters (all of which are excellent), 7 of them are on people who specifically wrestled with their faith and influenced the world through their writing (G.K. Chesterton, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, John Donne, Annie Dillard, Frederick Buechner, Shusako Endo, and Henri Nouwen).
- This book is for anyone who has been hurt by or frustrated with the messiness of the Church and people who are or call themselves Christians. Yancey doesn't claim to have all the answers - he is very honest about the questions he has - but he seeks to share the stories and thoughts that have helped him to daily gain a better perspective on who he is, who the people around him are, and who God is.
- Permission Granted: And Other Thoughts on Living Graciously Among Sinners and Saints by Margot Starbuck
- I'm still working my way through this book but I would recommend it wholeheartedly. It's serving as a convicting reminder that I certainly have a LONG way to go in actually loving people - whether I categorize them as Sinners or as Saints - the way that God loves them.
- Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown, Ph.D., LMSW
- I heard about Brene Brown through a TED talk of hers on vulnerability that I watched this spring with the youth group of my North Carolina church (she also did another great one on shame). Turns out my parents were actually reading this book at that same time, so I got to read part of it out-loud with them while driving home from western New York after my college graduation in May, but I haven't had a chance yet to open my own copy and keep going.
- The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus by Brennan Manning
- I've heard about Brennan Manning for years (he also wrote The Ragamuffin Gospel), but I haven't ever read anything by him. When he died this spring, I read a Christianity Today article about him that made me decide it was about time I read one of his books.
I also visited my library at the beginning of the month (now that I have a permanent address!) to get that wonderful piece of plastic: a library card. So far I have read the following:
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4, for those of you who don't know) by J.K. Rowling
- I hadn't ever read any of the Harry Potter books until last year when I discovered that my little sister at Houghton absolutely loved them. I figured that was as good a reason as any to finally catch up on the Harry Potter-ness that so many of my peers grew up with. To be honest, my parents never said I couldn't read them, I just hadn't made the time until now.
- My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir by Dick Van Dyke (actually I listened to this while driving to and from work as a book on CD read by the author)
- I grew up on Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as well as some of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Enough said.
- Wish You Well by David Baldacci (an author suggested by a friend last summer)
- The part of me that wishes I lived and worked on a farm in the mountains surrounded by woods loved this story.
- Priceless by Tom Davis (a novel/author suggested by a friend last summer)
- I stayed up past midnight to finish reading this one. People who know me know that this is dedication because I usually turn into a pumpkin at some point around 11 pm.
Now I still have on my 'checked out library books to read' list:
- Absolute Power by David Baldacci
- This one sounds very different from my usual book choices, so I'm getting ready for a new literary adventure when I finally have the time to crack this one open.
- Childhood, Boyhood, Youth by Leo Tolstoy
- Yes, this choice as well as the following book by Dostoevsky were influenced by Philip Yancey's chapter about them in Soul Survivor.
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- I started reading The Brothers Karamazov once and got about halfway through that tome before I lost the (library) book for several years. It did show up again at some point, but I haven't had the heart to start in again. I'm just moving on to the next one for now.
And last, but not least, I am quite excited about two books I just ordered from Amazon:
- The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin
- Seth's blog is pretty awesome. I was introduced to it by my fellow marketing people at Wycliffe, but the ideas he writes about cover so much more than 'just marketing.' Oh, that reminds me, I did read another book this summer, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, also by Seth Godin, that my boss's boss lent me. I'm still working on figuring out what I want to do with my life after reading the challenges in that book.
- David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
- I just heard about this one through Seth Godin's review. That's pretty much all I know so far, but I'll give an updated report once it arrives and I've read it.
After all that reading, I have lots of new or rearranged thoughts floating in my head. Now I have to sort out how I want my life or thinking to change based on everything I've learned. That's where the rubber meets the road.
What have you been reading lately? Any good suggestions to add to this list? If you got to the end of this, you must be a reader, too.
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