Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The book I'm not reading

(If you read my last post, let me first say that all I have been able to think of all day is "Jingle, Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle..." and so on and so on (and on and on). Is it time for the Christmas Musical yet?)

(second aside: the girls just told me that the grandfather of one of their friends died and the family is going to the funeral. "That's sad," I said. "But now he is in heaven with God and Jesus," says Kaylie. "That's good news," I said. "That's very good news," says Kaylie. I love moments like that.)

Anyway, on to books. Over the past few months I have started reading alot again. I have always loved to read, but as work and family and life have taken over, I found I was doing very little reading for pleasure. The girls, on the other hand, were always reading, and I was getting jealous. One day, when I was wishing that I could just sit around and read, I decided that I could if I just made time for it. And I did and, whaddyaknow - I do have time to read! Then came the challenge of finding something good to read. I would go to the library and stare at the books, wishing you really could judge a book by its cover.

Suddenly, thanks to the internet (oddly enough), I have now found myself with more books to read than I have time to read. My Visual Bookshelf on Facebook gives me recommendations and I can peek at my friends' shelves on Shelfari and see what they are reading that sounds good. And I get newsletters from the library with new and interesting books that are out.

What frustrates me is when I get a book from the library (especially when I have been on a long waiting list), and I get it and within the first few pages if not first few paragraphs, I know I cannot read the book. I don't want to live in a bubble, but I don't want to fill my mind with that much that is so contrary to my world view. There is only so much you can overlook without starting to feel you are making a compromise. It is just disappointing when a book sounded good and probably would be without some of the language and other references.

This has me thinking about Aaron's sermon last Sunday from Jude and an analogy he used about the ice. A very good analogy. I would like to read said book because it sounds entertaining and it is relevant to the culture, but I do not want to become so immersed in the culture that I fall through the ice. It is a delicate balance. And so very important to not go to one extreme or the other.

So maybe I am living in an isolated world, maybe I am just too weak a Christian, but I have another book for the stack of books I am not reading.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Do you like fiction? I didn't start reading fiction until my bedrest when I was pregnant with Elena (almost 3 years ago now!). I went through everything Liz Curtis Higgs and Francine Rivers wrote that first year. Then I went through several other authors- I got almost all of it from the TPCC library. Have you read the Mark of the Lion series or the Fair is the Rose series? They are both INCREDIBLE!!!!!