Current Reading List

I've always been a bookworm.  Books are easier to understand than people and sometimes more forgiving too.  So for people who have always known me it should be no surprise that I always seem to be carrying around a small library and this has only gotten worse now that I have audiobooks.  In part this is because I can carry around a large number of books on a memory card.  In part this is because my book holds on the Overdrive app have a tendency to all show up at the same time, creating boom and bust cycles in how many books I am trying to finish at the same time.  Here is my current reading/listening list:

Fiction

• The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

A fantasy classic, needs no explanation.  Listening to audio books at work makes it a lot easier to tackle a big series like this.

• Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander

The Chronicles of Prydain is one of my all time favorite childhood reads that has carried into adulthood.  I've been relistening to the series.

• Forever War by Joe Haldeman

I picked up this war in outer space audio book because it won both the Hugo and the Nebula Award.  So far it has been a fascinating and yet frustrating read.  The story seems to be a science fiction version of the horror stories I heard as a child on Christian talk radio about why women shouldn't be in the military.  At first I was wondering if this novel was the source of those imagined horrors or perhaps had been influenced by whoever invented that narrative.  Then I discovered that according to wikipedia this book is commonly interpreted as a metaphorical retelling of the author's experiences in the Vietnam War.  This would suggest that the story should be read as social and political criticism of the conditions between 1950's-1970's.  If I read the story as social and political criticism instead of as a futuristic horror story about why talk radio hosts believe women shouldn't be in the military then it is a hauntingly beautiful story about the difficulty of navigating social change and of the depressing futility of war.

• Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

I managed to get the entire Chronicles of Amber on audiobook and started the series again when I was temporarily out of books.  Unfortunately I am very full on books right now and was caught in the middle of the book.  I am very fond of this series.

Non Fiction

• A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

When I am in between books I often like to listen to a book on history.  As a result I work my way through them very slowly.  This book is at once fascinating and very frustrating.  The author proposes to write a history of the United States where the story telling emphasis of what gets included or not is based on an allegiance to the working class rather than on the rich and the powerful.  This is at once extremely enlightening and frustrating.  It exposes the ways the government of the United States has often worked against the needs and ideals of the common people in favor of the needs and ideals of the rich.  It is frustrating because for one that isn't always a pleasant part of US history to look at and also because sometimes I think it stops being a history of the common working class and almost feels like the author is instead giving a frustrated rant complaining that there hasn't been a worldwide communist revolution yet.

• Paul: A Biography by N.T. Wright

N.T. Wright is a prominent Anglican theologian who specializes on, among other things, the writings of Paul.  This book focuses on Paul from a biographical perspective and sounded like fun.  It is quite interesting so far, discussing the theological, political, and mystic influences Paul likely interacted with.  I listen to this when I'm tired of listening to fiction.

Spiritual

• The Contemplative Journey by Thomas Keating

This is a lecture series discussing the practice and theology of a Christian meditation practice as interpreted by Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk.

• The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion to a More Authentic Contemporary Faith by Marcus Borg

In this book Borg, a recently deceased prominent Episcopalian theologian, explores a theology of God based on a renewed emphasis on God's immanence and how a renewed emphasis on this concept affects religious beliefs and practices more broadly.  This has been a fascinating read, though slow since I mostly read it while I'm on break at work.  I've almost finished it.

• Too Deep for Words: Rediscovering Lectio Divina by Thelma Hall

Lectio Divina is a traditional practice of reading the bible as a form of meditative prayer.  This short book teaches the ideas and practices involved in this form of bible reading.  I mostly read this on Sunday's when the kids give me a break to do something on my own and that isn't often.  So far the ideas presented have been very similar to concepts I've encountered in Thomas Keating, probably because they are both building on the ideas of Thomas Merton.

• The Bible

I've been reading the bible in a cycle known as the Daily Office Lectionary.  It has been one of my most enjoyable times reading through since I purchased an NRSV study bible which has much better study aids than I grew up with.  For example, I think this is the first time I've ever read through the Book of Judges and actually understood the narrative themes that tie the entire book together instead of viewing it as bunch of mostly disconnected stories.