What’s On Your Night Table?
While I ponder which controversial subject to tackle for the new year, I thought I’d take a little literary inventory. Life in the harem means a lot of reading time (remember, ladies, this is an imaginary world), so there must be a lot of books represented among us. I asked a group of women this the other night and it’s a neat peek into each others’ minds.
So here are mine:
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I love Austen’s laser-accuracy with people’s inner motivations and idiosyncrasies. About two sisters, Elinor and Marianne: the former sensible, prudent and reserved; the latter explosively emotional and living life to the extreme. Their love interests bring their foibles to the fore. About halfway through. A nice, light read after my Jane Eyre addiction.
Sex God by Rob Bell. Interestingly, I bought this along with “The Big Night” on DVD, and got a good price on prophylactic supplies on Amazon. TMI, maybe, but I thought it was a funny, though unintended, combo. Heck, i’ve resolved not to be embarrassed about my love life. Though maybe a funnier combo was Big T’s and diapers. I guess it takes one to prevent the other. ANYWAY, the theme of this book is “This is about that”, meaning that sexuality has a deeper context in spirituality, and that the way the first plays out speaks volumes about the other. So far, so good.
Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson. The author of The Message on the whys and wherefores of actually ingesting the Word as opposed to merely reading it, and to reading it in light of the Trinity instead of the light of Self. I had been looking for more tangible direction in my Scripture reading since finishing the Gospels this fall, and this book about the practice of lectio divina is a real blessing. Here’s a quote:
“It is the very nature of language to form rather than to inform. When language is persona, which it is at its best, it reveals; and revelation is always formative — we don’t know more, we become more. Our best users of language, poets and lovers and children and saints, use words to make –make intimacies, make character, make beauty, make goodness, make truth.”
How about you? Submit your current reading list–title, author, one to three sentence synopsis and a quote, if you want–in the comments below. And if you’ve got a book in common with another person, comment on that!