A few days ago, I posted this status on facebook:
“I have decided.
I have so many (literal) stacks of wonderful books I want to read, on so many areas in which I need to grow.
Also, I got a fishing license for my birthday, and meat at the store is expensive these days.
So I’m going to spend the summer with my nose in a book and a fishing pole in my hand, simultaneously feeding my soul and my family.
…if only life really worked that way.”
Now, I may be delusional, but not to the point that I think this is actually going to happen. Still, I hope and plan to get a lot of reading done this summer – and it just occurred to me three minutes ago to make a list of what books I’d like to transfer first from the “to read” mound to the little “have read” stack. So! Off the top of my head, here we go:
Fiction
(and explanations of why)
*Winter Garden (by Kristin Hannah) – A friend recommended this one, and I thoughtlessly checked it out from the library – at a time when there was no way in the world I was going to have time to read it; so I’ll check it out again when things slow down a bit, and try again.
*The Hunger Games (by I don’t even know who) – Yes: I, the anti-hipster (which means that I’m the opposite of hipsters, by the way, not that I hate them) would finally like to jump on the bandwagon and see what these crazy-popular books are all about … assuming it will be a relatively quick read., that is.
*Harry Potter and the… (by J.K. Rowling) – Speaking of belated bandwagon-jumping … I actually don’t remember which of these books I was up to in my noncommittal beginning perusal a year or so ago, but I’ll try to figure it out and keep plugging away; this has been a sort of sporadic culture-analysis project – trying to determine whether to join the fan club or the naysayers. Still no word from the jury.
Non-Fiction
(which is more self-explanatory)
*A Praying Life (by Paul E. Miller) – begun
*Heaven on Earth (by Thomas Brooks) – begun
*Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (by Donald S. Whitney) – begun
*When Children Love to Learn (by Elaine Cooper) – begun
*Confessions (by St. Augustine) – begun
*What He Must Be (by Voddie Baucham) – begun
*Knowing God (by J.I. Packer) – begun
*One Thousand Gifts (by Ann Voskamp)
*Joyfully at Home (by Jasmine Baucham)
*Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl (by Nathan Wilson)
*Worldly Saints (by Leland Ryken)
*Let the Nations be Glad! (by John Piper)
*The Case for Family Worship (by George Hamond)
*What I Learned in Narnia (by Douglas Wilson)
*The Paideaia of God (by Douglas Wilson)
*Deep Comedy (by Peter J. Leithart)
*Letters to a Diminished Church (by Dorothy Sayers)
*Living by God’s Promises (by Joel Beeke & James La Belle)
*Writing Begins with the Breath (by Laraine Herring)
*Growing Up Christian (by Karl Graustein)
Annnnnd……. those are just the ones I can see in my room right now. If I go downstairs and look at what’s on the shelves … no. I’m not going to go downstairs.
This may take more than one summer.
But I’ll get a start on it, anyway. I’d like to try to organize my thoughts on what I read enough to blog about each book as I finish it, too – we’ll see if I follow through on that idea or not.
Watch out, fish of the Midwest! I have my work cut out for me here, and you may have to pay for it with your lives.
free indeed 