Found this quote in Los Angeles Times book review of John Leonard's collection of essays called Reading for my Life. The quote is from the title essay. I like this notion of books "complicating" our lives. Maybe that's why some people don't like to read...!
Here's a partial list of what I've read in the past year. Analyzing my list, I see I tend more towards non-fiction:
Garlic & Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, by Ruth Reichl. Former New York Times food critic--fun fun funny.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua. Funny in a self-deprecating, sarcastic way, but also brutally honest and a little sad.
In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: Confessions of an Accidental Academic, by Professor X. Right up my alley! An adjunct professor of English writing anonymously because, well, figure it out. A thoughtful and honest also funny (in a self-deprecating, sarcastic way) about the state of higher education.
Save the World on Your Own Time, by Stanley Fish. Straightforward thesis here: educators do not have the right to advocate for anything in the classroom. Conservative notion coming from a liberal. Very refreshing.
I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. Not being well-versed in science, I learned a lot reading this book. I like their underlying message: it takes more "faith" to not believe in God than it does to believe in the Bible. I challenge non-believers and agnostics to give this book a glance.
God and Man at Yale, by William F. Buckley, Jr. What I love about this book (50th anniversary edition) is that it was written by Buckley when he was fresh out of college, a 20-something upstart taking on the big boys and boy did they hate him for it. Buckley was skewered mercilessly by the academic elites. I view him as a brave young man fighting a lonely battle with his wits. Very interesting to read.
Currently reading:
The Help (fiction) by Kathryn StockettWould like to read:
The Social Animal (nonfiction) by David Brooks.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Hunger Games.In my queue (i.e., beside table):
Known and Unknown: A Memoir, by Donal Rumsfeld (as I said, complicating my life)I read slowly, and reading time is often interrupted by school prep and essay grading. So I plod along. I wonder what other people are reading?
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver.
*****
Here's the entire quote by Richard Leonard, as well as a link to the book review by David Ulin in the Los Angeles Times Sunday paper.
Popular culture is … like going to the Automat to buy an emotion. The thrills are cheap and the payoffs predictable and, after a while, the repetition is a bummer. Whereas books are where we go to complicate ourselves.Reading for My Life Writings, 1958-2008
John Adams- I now admire the man. Jefferson fell a few notches.
ReplyDeleteThe Variety of American Evangelicism - Little too technical on "what is Evangelical and are these people Evangelical" but interesting to see what problem each stand was trying to solve - Pentacostals, Adventiets, Baptist, Pietists, Restorationists (Church of Christ), Black Churches, Holiness Church etc.
Saint Augustine Confessions - Every lecturer I hear says that what I believe started with him so I wanted to find out what that was.
The Help - Movie was a good try but you have to experience the book. Led to an interesting discussion with a relative who says I'm responsible even though I was only six and lived in California. I apologize for being white.
In Queue:
Something like New Strategy for Islam - written by missionary who says that the way the church is handling Islam isn't right. Sorry, I forgot the title. It is in my my wife wants me to read this pile.
Four views of Premillinienum. OK, I was a Hal Linsey fan in the 1970's but now I'm confused and want to understand a little better how to look at apocryphal books like Revelation.
I deliberately have not seen The Help (movie) yet in order to read the book first, so I'm behind two steps, not just one. Eventually I catch up with what everyone else has seen. You seem to tend towards non-fiction, like me. Wish I had more time to read! Any thoughts on the latest cultural trend (The Hunger Games trilogy-books and upcoming films)?
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, I always had a novel. I read many mysteries, Steinbeck, etc. (I'm one who actually gets the jokes in Neil Simon's Murder by Death).
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I have a harder time giving myself permission to read fiction. I think it is because I read so slow I have to make really sure that it is worth my effort so if it is fiction, it has to really grab me. I need to drop this sense of self-importance but I keep finding myself back at non-fiction.
I am a bit clueless what the Hunger Games is all about though I am aware that many people seem to like it. One conversation I had with a History Profession in my Sunday discussion over coffee group is that he knew someone who was writing a paper that saw it as a Christian allegory. Another in the group was shocked that one would see Christianity in the book at all.
One upshot of the conversation was that newer fiction seems to be more visceral - appealing to feelings and living out the violence - and adolescents tend to find "To Kill a Mockingbird" boring. That was an opinion and I don't know if that is true or not.
One thing I did notice when I watched the last Sherlock Holmes movie is that we have gone a far ways from the detective in the parlor discussing various motives to graphic-driven visual sposhes that I had to pick up and put together to sense what was going on. I'm not sure I liked that so much.
So I guess I'm always looking for that book by people who are smarter than me who can challenge me with fresh ideas that I wouldn't think of on my own (but can present it to me in simple enough language and a short enough book). That I find inspiring.
The Hunger Games... I'm the only one of my friends that did not enjoy it. It was violent and about child abuse. I was appalled that there were so many young children in the audience at the theater. Children aren't developmentally able to generalize until the age of 12. What thoughts did they go away with? What beliefs of theirs were underscored? If parents didn't have a good dialogue with thier child after the movie I believe they made a mistake allowing them to see it. Most probably did not.
DeleteI work with parents and children and know too much about violence and child abuse. The effects of this kind of experience are subtle. Suble but potentially dangerous.
Everybody I know from 10 to 50+ is reading the Hunger Games and absolutely hooked. I need to order it (in print) because my 12 year old, 10 year old and 17 year old are hogging the Kindle!
ReplyDelete