rumpus, rowdy reads

At the top of my TDL was: read books. I'm a master of detail if nothing. After finishing other tasks, I settled into this one. The finishing of books I've set sail into. These books are jewels. I'm going to have to revamp my whole theology reading group idea. These puppies are fabulous. Why did no one bother to tell me how hilarious GK Chesterton. With a title "Orthodoxy", who would have guessed the jovial humor? I'm laughing out loud with the old fart. Near the end of his introduction he writes, "But there is in everything a reasonable division of labour. I have written the book, and nothing on earth would induce me to read it." I have felt that about more than one paper I've turned in. You can’t help but like the fat, silly old man. He is the odd bird who is brilliant and fails to take himself seriously. He eradicates all my normal barriers.

I also frollicked through a couple of chapters in Alan Jacobs' "The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis". It is highly entertaining and interesting. It’s the kind of biography I enjoy, weaving together the social and intellectual history that provides the person his context. Lewis’ mother had a logic degree from Trinity. As a four-year-old, he gave himself the nickname, “Jacksie”. (I’ve always wondered how Clive got translated into Jack; you can’t blame the kid.) He soon announced, “I have a prejudice against the French.” When his parents asked him why, he answered, “If I knew why, it wouldn’t be a prejudice.” These anecdotes are on the first page of the first chapter. It’s an engaging read.

I read L’Engle’s “A Circle of Quiet” last night during an spell of nocturnal wakefulness around 2a.m. It’s a satisfying, poetic, meditative read. Her writing about writing is integrated into her thoughts on life: parenting, spousing, daughtering, neighboring, churchmembering, et al. The book has integrity, which I find a lot of books on writing lack. What one writes is linked to what one lives. Her passages on the links between real and imagination are fabulous.

I’m also finishing up “Teacher Man” and Alan Jacobs’ “A Theology of Reading: The Hermeneutics of Love.” A queue is already growing of more books. Four at a time is my new limit.

I recommend all these books