Now that I’ve posted a number of reviews, you may be wondering about my reading choices. I suspect that like most of you, the books I read are shaped by a mix of deliberate choices and impulse. Let me share with you as best as I can figure out why I choose the books I do.
1. I work in a collegiate ministry working with graduate students and faculty. Most of the people I work with are probably far brighter than I. My role is to help them with connecting faith and their chosen discipline with its questions and challenges. For this, I read books to feed my soul, to go deeper in my own theological grasp of the faith, and also to understand their world. Most of the people I work with know a great deal about a little. I read to know a little about a great deal–not so that I can impress any of them in a conversation about their work, but simply to know something about what they are doing. So I will range widely reading about science, technology, law, the humanities and social sciences. Right now, I’m looking for some good recommendations on neuroscience.
2. I work for an organization that has a publishing house, InterVarsity Press, that sends me most of its publication at greatly reduced prices that are considered business expense. That is a nice employee benefit, and so I feel obliged to read a number of their books, which are quite useful in advancing my first aim. Many are quite well written but I won’t give a glowing review just because our organization published the book. If I have problems with the ideas or the writing, I will say so. They haven’t fired me yet!
3. Some college history professors nurtured my love for history. I read history because I believe life is understood backward. The present only makes sense in light of the past. I think that’s true personally and I also think that it is true with the wider human story. I tend to enjoy U.S. and European history but also seek to read the histories of other cultures in the world, past and present.
4. Related to history, I enjoy biographies. I have always been intrigued with the practice of leadership and love to read of those who have led well, and sometimes badly. Favorite figures of mine are Churchill, Lincoln, any of the founders of our country (I even read a biography of Aaron Burr a while back!).
5. I read all sorts of fiction. I have this crazy thing for 19th century British authors–Dickens, Disraeli, Trollope, Collins, Hardy among them. I read contemporary authors–Ann Patchett was a recent discovery. I enjoy a good mystery novel and was saddened by the recent demise of Elizabeth Peters, who wrote the delightful Amelia Peabody stories. And after many year of reading more “realistic” books, I’ve dipped my toe more into science fiction of late, reading some Orson Scott Card, Philip K Dick, and Stanislaw Lem. Fiction captures the imagination for me and is an intriguing way to explore alternate perspectives and realities.
6. It is a summer ritual every year to read a baseball book. I’ve always loved the game of baseball, whether playing it as a kid, watching a sandlot game, or spending a summer evening watching our minor league Columbus Clippers. This year I read Summer of ’49 by David Halberstam.
7. A small category that cross the line between fiction and non-fiction would be books on “place”. Wallace Stegner, Wendell Berry, John Steinbeck, and other authors appeal to me as writers on place. I believe who we are is in part shaped by where we are.
8. Finally, sometimes I read “assigned” books. These could be for book groups I’m in or for conferences or task forces. Great by Choice was one of those books. I’m currently reading John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University for our Dead Theologians Society reading group. I’m also reading a manuscript of a forthcoming book to provide an anonymous review–that is a new experience–and while I can’t comment of the book, I might comment on the process some time. That’s what I’ll be reading this weekend!
What are your book interests? And what will you be reading this weekend?